Slomski Benjamin
Baylor University,
Politics Life Sci. 2023 Mar;41(1):105-113. doi: 10.1017/pls.2021.24.
This research note addresses a gap in the public administration literature by arguing that a political Darwinism was present in the intellectual origins of American administrative theory. By examining the arguments of Woodrow Wilson, this article demonstrates that Darwinism complemented the German political thought that contributed to the establishment of America's administrative state. The application of Darwinian evolutionary biology to politics was a vital element of Wilson's reconceptualization of the state as a living organism. Darwinism was a key rhetorical tool employed by Wilson in his argument against the Constitution's separation of powers. This note finds that Darwinism was present in the early stages of public administration theory in Wilson's argumentation and persists today in the public administration literature. It concludes by sketching out an agenda for further research on Darwinism's influence on public administration.
本研究笔记指出公共行政文献中的一个空白，认为政治达尔文主义存在于美国行政理论的思想起源中。通过审视伍德罗·威尔逊的论点，本文表明达尔文主义补充了有助于美国行政国家建立的德国政治思想。将达尔文进化论生物学应用于政治是威尔逊将国家重新概念化为一个有机体的关键要素。达尔文主义是威尔逊在反对宪法权力分立论点中使用的关键修辞工具。本笔记发现，达尔文主义存在于威尔逊论证中的公共行政理论早期阶段，并且至今仍存在于公共行政文献中。它通过勾勒出关于达尔文主义对公共行政影响的进一步研究议程来得出结论。
