Research Paper on:
History, Recreation, and Public Administration

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
need for a distinction between politics and administration, which would allow public administration its own distinctive sphere within which it could cultivate businesslike methods (Maletz, 1991). In this famous essay,  Wilson did not merely call attention to an existing distinction that have been previously overlooked, but rather, the purpose of the essay was to create such a distinction within an  American governmental perspective that Wilson considered to be overly democratic or populist in tone (Maletz, 1991). Wilson suggests that fundamental issues concerning authority can be resolved and that then  a more technical era of governmental issues would then dawn in the form of administrative problems that could be addressed with the "methods of the counting house" (Maletz, 1991, p.  375). Raadschelders (2000) comments that it is "almost astonishing" to see how much Wilsons 1887 article dominates how Wilson is perceived. Wilsons approach and interest in public administration designates him  as one of the leading early scholars of the administrative history of the US (Raadschelders, 2000). Wilsons perspective on administrative history in the 1880s and 1890s reflects two different  strands of thought within the overall movement known as Progressivism (Raadschelders, 2000). The Progressive era was fundamental to the development of the US government in the twentieth century. The  major thrust of this movement was to formulate a less corrupt and more responsive government -- one that could cope with the pressures and social problems created by urbanization, industrialization,  and population growth (Raadschelders, 2000). There was a general consensus about the sort of reform that was needed, but little agreement as to such a reform should be organized. Two  camps emerged, which are generally labeled old and new Progressivism. Traditional practice of local American democracy, that is, the town meeting and local political party organizations, functioned in a