Models of Administrative Action

Various models of administrative action, concentrating particularly on the standard bipolar model, are examined. Analysis shows that most of the models, which employ a single axis between 2 extremes, are difficult to apply to real-world decisions. Critics of the bipolar model imply that its 2 different axes of concern are not perfectly congruent, but they have not identified the 2 distinct axes of concern that animate the model, and an improved model should encompass both. A simple 2-axis approach may be a helpful starting point. It reduces each set of concerns to a binary proposition and, unlike the bipolar model, separates the 2 binary propositions, political-apolitical and incremental-comprehensive, to create a 4-box matrix with 4 possible processes. This approach makes the remaining steps to a better model easier. These steps include: 1. elaborating the normative propositions that should govern selection among the 4 paradigm processes in any given instance, and 2. explicating the procedural mechanisms that should be associated with each paradigm.