Messages for contemporary governance from the administrative history of the Confederate States of America

Abstract

The dissertation examines administrative institutions and practices established to support the civil government of the Confederate States of America (1861-1865). Public administration at the national level in the Confederacy was characterized by administrative dualism (deference to state administrative norms and policy imperatives), restrained national level policy prerogatives, a normative orientation which emphasized responsiveness to public interest, and an overriding goal of achieving legitimacy in the eyes of the public.

Confederate administrative invention and experimentation developed into a responsive mechanism for governance; many of the Confederate innovations served as precursors to new administrative practices in the government of the United States. Thus, the study of modern public administrative history begins not at the civil service reforms of 1883, or the Progressive era, but more properly, can be seen as including the norms of government administration debated during the founding period of the United States and which appeared subsequently in the Confederacy.