In the literature of the last decade, the New Public Management (NPM) movement argues that government should be run like a More money was appropriated in 1936, a presidential election year. © 2019 Encyclopedia.com | All rights reserved. This required a staff with expertise in a number of fields, including accounting, engineering, urban planning, and the law. The first-generation era highlights the work of Lorenz von Stein, an 1855 German professor, as one of the founders of the science of Public Administration. PWA offices were set up in all forty-eight states, and in ten regional offices created for the express purpose of reviewing projects on a regional basis. In time, however, the program pushed farm prices up 50 percent to the benefit of many farmers. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932–1940. The PWA originated in one of the most important statutes ever passed by Congress, the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) of June 16, 1933. The WPA developed relief programs to preserve peoples skills and self-respect by providing useful work during a period of massive unemployment. The Works Progress Administra-tion (later called the Work Projects Administration) got the most attention and the most criticism at the time. UNESCO – EOLSS SAMPLE CHAPTERS PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC POLICY – Vol. Authorized by the National Industrial Recovery Act (June 1933), the Public Works Administration (PWA) was set up by Pres. The president was idealistic yet pragmatic; the projects he cared most about were those that improved the lives of Americans in observable, day-to-day ways: better housing and schools, improved roads and public transit, airports for the new mode of transportation, more parks and forests for recreation, rural electrification, and sanitation systems for the nation's cities. 1973. "Public Works Administration (PWA) Conflicts over who was doing what, and how appropriations were divided, became a routine and sometimes humorous feature of the New Deal. Much of the criticism of the distribution of projects and funding allotment is a result of the view that the decisions were politically motivated. Title I of the Act created a National Recovery Administration (NRA), often referred to as the Blue Eagle Program; Title II authorized the president to expend $3.3 billion on a nationwide program of public works. Did not help produce housing as it claimed it would—only built 25,000 units in a span of 4 ½ years 2. Ickes was especially enthusiastic about this aspect of his agency, for he had a life-long commitment to racial equality. In 1935 Ickes published a book titled Back to Work: The Story of PWA. All totaled, the agency processed some 7,853 projects under the 1938 Extension Act, with the full economic effects felt in 1939 and 1940. During its six years in existence, from June 1933 until 1939, public works projects of all shapes, purposes, and sizes were undertaken in virtually every part of the United States and its territories. It did fund 34,000 projects including airports, schools, hospitals, and electricity generating dams. The governor of Massachusetts, Joseph Ely, for example, called attention to this fact in communications with the PWA staff as early as August of 1933. As President Roosevelt himself said, "That is some record." When Harold took hold of public works, he had to start cold. There have been a good many complaints about the slowness of the works program and Harold's caution. With this accomplished, in 1939 Congress passed an important piece of legislation giving the president authority to reorganize the executive branch. It was a public philosophy shared by most of those who worked in the Public Works Administration, including Harold Ickes. Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography. History was made in October 1934, when the PWA embarked on its first slum clearance project. … Just as the Roosevelt administration contemplated phasing out many of the emergency recovery programs, a severe economic downturn beginning in the fall of 1937 put that idea on hold. The criticism from taxpayers ultimately lead to President Roosevelt ending the CWA and replacing it with the WPA. In addition to the construction of dams previously mentioned, the first 19,000 PWA-funded projects included 522 public schools, 87 hospitals, nearly 600 municipal water systems, 433 sewer lines and sewage disposal plants, and 360 street and highway improvements. public administration relates to the political process is of pivotal importance to scholars and ... “politics and administration work best as independent variables, capable of being improved in isolation without endangering or interfering with the other side” (Martin, 1988, p. 632). 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