ABSTRACT
With all the vaunted occupational mobility in the United States, the popular image of the successful man still seems to favor the freely roaming jack-of-all-trades. Although increasingly common in most walks of life, the career man holds a particularly important place in the management of public affairs. The management of public affairs is characterized by some functional structures. Its conduct is the joint yet divided responsibility of chosen representatives of the people, on the one hand, and of appointed administrative officials, on the other. Under democratic auspices, the most important standard of government is that the affairs of the people be administered in accordance with the people's preference. Policy-makers come and go, usually taking but negligible interest in the state of the machinery as it is passed on to their successors. Yet government itself is weakened when its administrative capability is impaired.
