Woodrow Wilson, Progressive Reform, and Public Administration

It is fast becoming fashionable today to bad-mouth contributions of scholar-president Woodrow Wilson to American public administration. To be sure, everyone acknowledges that his 1887 essay, The Study of Administration, published in Political Science Quarterly, was a significant starting point of some kind. 1 For example, Leonard D. White, preeminent public-administration scholar of pre-World War II era, wrote that the study of administration . . . dates from brilliant essay by Woodrow Wilson.2 Dwight Waldo, arguably most important public-administration scholar of pre-World War II era, has referred to Wilson's essay as the most important document in development of field.3 As Robert T. Golembiewski has put it, Virtually everyone agrees that Woodrow Wilson's 'The Study of Administration' constitutes birth certificate of modern study of public administration.4 One could offer a long list of such accolades. Nevertheless, Wilson's standing