ABSTRACT
From: Administration and Society 37 (November 2006): 523-555. Abridged. In January 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt submitted to Congress a
study entitled Administrative Management in the Government of the United States, produced by the President’s Committee on Administrative Management.1 This 53-page document, commonly referred to as the Brownlow Report-named in honor of the Committee’s Chair, Louis Brownlow-has been widely cited in both the public administration and political science literature as a landmark study specifically designed to improve executivebranch management. President Roosevelt appointed Charles E. Merriam and Luther Gulick as members of the Committee. In addition, the Committee appointed Joseph P. Harris as Director of Research. Although Harris did not serve as a Committee member, he was an integral figure who helped to shape the operational structure of the Brownlow Committee’s findings and, according to James Fesler, played a significant role in organizing the Brownlow Project.2
