Since its founding in the Progressive Era, public administration has focused most of its energy on the problem of executive agency administration. The study of the administration of the legislature as a distinct category of administration organization is a long-overdue step. Public administration has had “blinders” concerning the legislature. Thus even while it invokes “politics in bureaucracy,” it fails to give full breadth to the concept it has created.

The task set forth for this study is to examine the distinctive administrative and management character of the legislature as a first step toward integrating its activities into a broader understanding of the inter-relationships among government institutions. Part I of this study provides a historical perspective by which to understand the legislative institution. Part I is divided into three chapters. The first analyzes the theoretical and political concepts which underlie the American legislature at the time of the founding of the nation. The second chapter examines the decline from prominence of the American legislature during the nineteenth century with particular attention given to the changing orientation that emerged during the Progressive Era. The final chapter of Part I explores the consequences of the decline of the legislature and the anti-politics and anti-legislative bias of public administration.

Part II (Chapters Four through Seven) re-examines the organizational and political roles of the legislature. The first step is to create a confederated model of organization within which to study legislatures. The focus of Chapter Four is the presentation of the confederated model. Chapter Five examines the administrative and management consequences of such an organization. Chapter Six examines the political functions of the legislature with emphasis on how the model explicates those political functions. Chapter Seven examines the legislative function in the administrative processes of executive agencies.

Part III represents a series of suggestions for future study that encompass four areas: theories of organization, theories of representation, legislative practice, and legislative-executive inter-relationships.