The Place of Constitutionalism in the Education of Public Administrators

The American Society for Public Administration's code of professional ethics culminates in an admonition to respect, supports and even study constitutions, both state and federal. However, an understanding of constitutionalism is an often neglected or perfunctory element in the educational program for public administrators. In his influential l887 essay on public administration, Woodrow Wilson reasoned that because there is near universal agreement about constitutional principles in modern society, concentration should be chiefly on problems of effective management. The recent rebirth of concern for education in professional ethics generally and ethics in public administration in particular also reveals a tendency to approach the issues in a way that is still insufficiently connected to constitutional norms. The remedy for such difficulties is a critique of the ideological temper on the basis of what might be called an ethic of constitutional government, which to the extent that it can be elaborated satisfactorily should be an important component of the education offered to future public administrators.