The Statesman: by Sir Henry Taylor, 2nd Edition

Sir Henry Taylor’s classic treatise The Statesman , originally published in 1836, was the first modern book to be devoted to the subject of public administration. It has been read and studied by generations for its keen insights into the relationship between public administrators and elected officials in a democracy. It has also been appreciated for its wit. The present fully annotated edition is based on the revised and expanded text that Taylor published in 1878 as part of his Collected Works . The editors’ introduction to this volume emphasises the relevance of Taylor’s thought to the fundamental issues of public administration in the contemporary United States. The editors aim to demonstrate the superiority of Taylor’s understanding of the relationship between politics and administration to the widely accepted model of that relation that derives from the thought of Woodrow Wilson. Above all, they argue, Taylor’s insights merit our attention because they indicate how a properly organised civil service can be a locus of statesmanship in a democracy, fulfilling the intentions of the authors of the American Constitution in a contemporary context that differs significantly from what the Founders themselves anticipated.