WHY THE BROWNLOW-COMMITTEE FAILED - NEUTRALITY AND PARTISANSHIP IN THE EARLY YEARS OF PUBLIC-ADMINISTRATION

In 1938, Congress rejected a package of administrative reforms that ha d been developed by a committee of academics headed by Louis Brownlow. The defeat was the worst that President Roosevelt would suffer in thr ee terms as President This article suggests that the Brownlow Committe e contributed to the debacle in Congress by ignoring evidence that its recommendations would prove contentious. If ir argued that the commit tee members were caught in a dilemma: On the one hand they wanted to o btain immediate reforms for a president to whom they felt a personal l oyalty; on the other; they needed to maintain a demonstration of neutr ality which made it difficult to undertake the tasks of political mana gement that were essential to craft a viable reform program The demons tration of neutrality was a combination of arguments and routines that the academic community had invented to allay public skepticism about its members' trustworthiness as advisers on contentious issues.