ABSTRACT
This chapter explains public administrators must understand constitutional values and discusses the nature of those values. Although many criticize bureaucratic organization for its slow and lumbering qualities, historically, public administration has been viewed as more flexible than government strictly according to the constitutional separation of powers as originally designed. The separation of powers complicates public administration by frequently making it responsible to more than one branch of government and by pulling it in different directions at once, as in Phillips. An irony of constitutional structure is that by placing several masters over public administration, in practice it may sometimes provide public administrators with none. The conflict between constitutional values and principles on the one side and public administration on the other, therefore, is typically over means, such as procedural due process, ends. Gain a general understanding of “state action” doctrine and why it is important in contemporary public administration.
