Public Administration Is Constitutional and Legitimate

In the final analysis, the constitutional legitimacy of public administration is not to be found in a claimed 'logic' of constitutionalism. As Stillman has discussed, issues surrounding the legitimacy of public bureaucracies are not so much issues of logic but issues of values and tradeoffs among competing values (Stillman, 1987). The constitutional design was created to establish a continuing framework for making those value tradeoffs. It requires that tradeoffs be constantly made between popular demands filtered through representative processes, effective executive power, and the protection of civil rights. Public administration is actively engaged in fulfilling its purpose through partcipating in the making of these tradeoffs.