The Public Servant and the Study of Public Administration
| Author | Sir Maurice Dean |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1962.tb01108.x |
| Date | 01 March 1962 |
| Published date | 01 March 1962 |
The Public Servant and
the
Study
of
Public Administration
SIR
MAURICE
DEAN,K.c.B.,K.c.M.G.
This
pafier
by
the
Permanent Under-Secretary
of
State
for
Air
was
given
to
the
Conferme
on
‘
The
Study
and Teaching of Public Administration’
at the University
of
Reading
on
18th December,
1961
The title of this paper covers a wide field. Considerations of space make
it
impossible
for
me to deal with the subject comprehensively.
I
propose
therefore to select the aspect which
I
know best, namely the Home Civil
Service, and within this sub-division to concentrate on the Administrative
Class. Although my remarks are as a result somewhat circumscribed,
I
hope they may prove
of
interest in other branches of the public service.
Many senior civil servants believe that the best way to study public
administration is to train on the
job.
For example, Sir Stanley Leathes,
a
former First Civil Service Commissioner, in an article published in the
first volume of the Royal Institute’s journal, said with some pride:
‘
.
.
.
I
was never trained myself
as
a public servant, except
for
a
brief
period of six weeks.
I
dropped my pilot as soon as
I
was allowed to do
so,
and learned my job doing
it.’l
The ‘Do-it-Yourself’ code, or more elegantly perhaps the Leathes
principle,
is
still widely held and strongly influential. Since there is a
strong national conviction that British institutions are the best ia the world,
it
might seem presumptuous to re-assess the wisdom of a principle
so
widely
respected. There are, however, some awkward points which suggest that
a review may be desirable. The position is not dissimilar to that which
obtained in regard to the Newtonian mechanics shortly before the advent
of
Einstein. They explained a vast range
of
physical phenomena but
failed to deal with one
or
two awkward points, including
for
example the
anomalous movement of the perihelion of Mercury. The Leathes principle
seems to me in much the same case. There are some awkward facts which
do not
fit
in with it.
I
hasten to add that
I
am not about to propound some
administrative equivalent of the General Theory
of
Relativity. All the
same, the difficult points must be faced.
To start with, many people simply do not accept the Leathes principle.
The French,
for
example, send their equivalent
of
the Assistant Principal
to
the gcole Nationale d’Administration
for
no
less
than three years
&‘The
Qualifications,
Recruitment
and
Training
of
Public
Servants’,
Public
Administration,
Volume
I
(ryq),
p.
343.
17
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