The Federal Bureaucracy and the Change of Administration

The period starting November 5, 1952 has been called “The Time of the Jitters” for the middle and upper levels of the federal bureaucracy. Political change is usually disruptive and always accompanied by uncertainty and insecurity. Intellectual acceptance of this truism does not insulate one from the effects any more than death and taxes, for all their recognized inevitability, cease to be sources of distress. There were many reasons to anticipate that the 1952 election might result in a greater than usual degree of change, or at least of uncertainty. In many ways there were no real American precedents for the situation. The period of executive control by the outgoing party had been characterized by the unusual duration of 20 years, by highly controversial political policy, and by profound social change. This was the first change of administration under conditions of modern Big Government—the first since the American government found itself with accepted broad welfare and economic responsibility on the domestic scene and with major power responsibilities in a divided and warring world. Since the last full change, the size of the federal civil service had increased over 400 per cent, governmental expenditures over 16 fold. This was also to be the first full change of administration to show the effects of the 20th Amendment.