Suchergebnisse

Problems of rural local government received considerable attention during 1945 from state legislators, constitution-makers, and the public in general. There were numerous statutory enactments relating to counties and townships, and a new constitution adopted in Georgia contained significant provisions concerning local government. Regular legislative sessions in the states convened, and indeed in a majority of the states adjourned, prior to V-E Day, and in only a few instances did they extend beyond the cessation of hostilities in the Pacific. Essentially, therefore, the 1945 legislative meetings constituted another series of wartime sessions, devoting much of their attention to problems related to winning the war and those of postwar reconstruction. This fact was clearly reflected in the year's enactments concerning local government, as in other fields of legislation.

Time was, perhaps before the New Deal, when the limitations upon executive reorganization were largely self-limitations, which arose from a conception of administrative reform as primarily a technical problem. That is to say, students of administration assumed that their work had nothing to do with politics. The basic political decisions were to be acknowledged, and if changes were necessary they would be made by legislative enactment. Administrative analysis consisted in determining, according to criteria of efficiency and economy, the proper distribution and relationships of governmental functions. The responsibilities of the technician ended with the submission of a factual report and plans for reorganization, except that if the politicians insisted upon a different set of organizational objectives, he might give advice on the best arrangements for meeting those objectives. He might accept the responsibility of a consultant or adviser on organizational policy; but in so doing he was acting in a professional capacity, contributing the results of his experience in investigating methods of policy execution.