ABSTRACT
The past three decades in the United States have seen especially virulent debates over how societies can deal best with the public problems they face. Through the mid-1970s in the United States, what has been called the “positive state” philosophy had triumphed since the Progressive Era of the early 20th century. This is the idea that government is—and ought to be—the ultimate promoter, provider, and guarantor of essential goods, services, and opportunities to its citizenry. Government was the solution to market failures and a countervailing force against large-scale socioeconomic forces that were beyond their control or ability to deal with alone. Proponents of this interventionist philosophy favored (1) centralization and planning of policy in Washington; (2) creation of agencies organized on the basis of function, staffed with public interest–oriented experts in problem areas, and man-aged on the basis of the principles of administration; (3) use of largely regulatory (command-and-control) policy tools to make things happen; and (4) taking politics out of administration (de-politicization) by means of civil service reform. Nor was it a coincidence that this growth of federal-centric government arose in an era of two major world wars, followed by a nearly half-century-long Cold War that saw the United States on a permanent war footing. Historically, the power and prowess of the federal government has evolved with the ebb and flow of national military challenges (Arnold 1998).
