Revista de AdministraçãoRevista de Administração. Vol. 1, no. 1 and Vol. 1, no. 2 by Jose Ferreira CarratoReview by: Henry Reining, Jr.Public Administration Review, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Spring, 1948), pp. 146-147Published by: Wiley on behalf of the American Society for Public AdministrationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/972388 .

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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW

New Deal legislation was good, and the pity is that Congress was derelict in not having had the

requisite organization so that it could have thought of the necessary reforms first. It is un- fortunate, the authors state, that Congress can- not "take much glory even in the great achieve- ments of the Roosevelt administration"; there was, however, "a galaxy of brilliant minds" in the executive department who "had the skill to turn out in quick succession many great pieces of legislation to accomplish, in many cases, long-overdue reforms." (p. 28.) This, I submit, is a type of argument which only a

congressman could make. One must say in all

honesty that during this period Congress was far from being a rubber stamp even though there was a popular mandate for legislation which found more response in presidential than in con-

gressional leadership. In short, Congress dur-

ing the New Deal years was not synonymous with a New Deal Congress.

In evaluating this book, one may say, in caucus as it were, that its best and most reveal-

ing parts are those where Congressman Kefauver

New Deal legislation was good, and the pity is that Congress was derelict in not having had the

requisite organization so that it could have thought of the necessary reforms first. It is un- fortunate, the authors state, that Congress can- not "take much glory even in the great achieve- ments of the Roosevelt administration"; there was, however, "a galaxy of brilliant minds" in the executive department who "had the skill to turn out in quick succession many great pieces of legislation to accomplish, in many cases, long-overdue reforms." (p. 28.) This, I submit, is a type of argument which only a

congressman could make. One must say in all

honesty that during this period Congress was far from being a rubber stamp even though there was a popular mandate for legislation which found more response in presidential than in con-

gressional leadership. In short, Congress dur-

ing the New Deal years was not synonymous with a New Deal Congress.

In evaluating this book, one may say, in caucus as it were, that its best and most reveal-

ing parts are those where Congressman Kefauver

tells about his own experiences and that the book would be measurably stronger had the authors bolstered their recommendations with more case examples from their storehouse of

knowledge. The chapters devoted more ex-

clusively to reorganization, while good, seem remote from the hurly-burly of politics. In the whole problem of organizing political institu-

tions, we are as yet seeing through a glass darkly. There is no easy answer to these

problems, but a considerable part of the solu-

tion, certainly, is the determination of represen- tatives to think and to tell more about the in- stitutions of which they are a part. The haz- ards of a politician writing a book have become one of the undesirable folklores of our times, the idea being that somehow one is more vulner-

able, more radical, more incautious, even more

thinking, if he writes a book than if he merely makes lengthy remarks in such public docu- ments as the Congressional Record. May Con-

gressman Kefauver, and other practicing poli- ticians also, write more books.

tells about his own experiences and that the book would be measurably stronger had the authors bolstered their recommendations with more case examples from their storehouse of

knowledge. The chapters devoted more ex-

clusively to reorganization, while good, seem remote from the hurly-burly of politics. In the whole problem of organizing political institu-

tions, we are as yet seeing through a glass darkly. There is no easy answer to these

problems, but a considerable part of the solu-

tion, certainly, is the determination of represen- tatives to think and to tell more about the in- stitutions of which they are a part. The haz- ards of a politician writing a book have become one of the undesirable folklores of our times, the idea being that somehow one is more vulner-

able, more radical, more incautious, even more

thinking, if he writes a book than if he merely makes lengthy remarks in such public docu- ments as the Congressional Record. May Con-

gressman Kefauver, and other practicing poli- ticians also, write more books.

Revista de Administracao By Henry Reining, Jr., University of Southern California

Revista de Administracao By Henry Reining, Jr., University of Southern California

REVISTA DE ADMINISTRACAO, a review pub- lished quarterly by the Institute of Adminis- tration, Faculty of Economic and Administra- tive Sciences, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Edited by Dr. Jose Ferreira Carrato. Address: 228 Rua Dr. Vila Nova, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

THIS new-titled public administration quar- terly is the first in Brazil, and probably in

South America, to appear under other than direct governmental auspices. Volume I, No. 1

(March, 1947) and No. 2 (June, 1947) are reviewed here.

The Revista is the successor to Administracao Publico which from 1942 until its terminal issue of March, 1946, served as the organ of the De-

partment of Administration of the state of Sao Paulo, Departamento do Servico Publico, Con- selho Administrativo do Estado.1 However,

1 Administracao Publico, in turn, was patterned after the first public administration publication in Brazil, namely, the Revista do Servico Publico, started in November, 1937,

REVISTA DE ADMINISTRACAO, a review pub- lished quarterly by the Institute of Adminis- tration, Faculty of Economic and Administra- tive Sciences, University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Edited by Dr. Jose Ferreira Carrato. Address: 228 Rua Dr. Vila Nova, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

THIS new-titled public administration quar- terly is the first in Brazil, and probably in

South America, to appear under other than direct governmental auspices. Volume I, No. 1

(March, 1947) and No. 2 (June, 1947) are reviewed here.

The Revista is the successor to Administracao Publico which from 1942 until its terminal issue of March, 1946, served as the organ of the De-

partment of Administration of the state of Sao Paulo, Departamento do Servico Publico, Con- selho Administrativo do Estado.1 However,

1 Administracao Publico, in turn, was patterned after the first public administration publication in Brazil, namely, the Revista do Servico Publico, started in November, 1937,

as the editorial in the initial issue explains, the Revista adds new and broader objectives to those of its predecessor and as a result is new in more ways than in title alone. The transfer of the periodical together with the publications service of the DSP and its library was sanctioned

by state law No. 15,668, of February 11, 1946. This shift is doubly interesting. It not only

created the first nongovernmental publication of this sort in Brazil; it also marked the first en- trance by any Brazilian institution of higher learning into the applied fields of administra- tion. As a matter of fact, the Instituto de

Administraqao and its scholastic parent, the Faculdade de Ciencias Economias e Adminis- trativas are both so new as not to have been

fully staffed and organized at the time the first

issue of the Revista appeared.

and still published by the National Department of Ad-

ministration, the DASP, Departamento Administrativo do Servico Publico in Rio de Taneiro.

as the editorial in the initial issue explains, the Revista adds new and broader objectives to those of its predecessor and as a result is new in more ways than in title alone. The transfer of the periodical together with the publications service of the DSP and its library was sanctioned

by state law No. 15,668, of February 11, 1946. This shift is doubly interesting. It not only

created the first nongovernmental publication of this sort in Brazil; it also marked the first en- trance by any Brazilian institution of higher learning into the applied fields of administra- tion. As a matter of fact, the Instituto de

Administraqao and its scholastic parent, the Faculdade de Ciencias Economias e Adminis- trativas are both so new as not to have been

fully staffed and organized at the time the first

issue of the Revista appeared.

and still published by the National Department of Ad-

ministration, the DASP, Departamento Administrativo do Servico Publico in Rio de Taneiro.

146 146

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BOOK REVIEWS

As a research organization, the Instituto is divided into six parts: (1) organization and ad- ministration of personnel, (2) budgeting, (3) applied psychology, (4) administrative law, (5) social research and planning, and (6) admini- strative history. The director of the Instituto is Professor Mario W. Vieira da Cunha who received an M.A. in anthropology at the Uni- versity of Chicago in 1944.

An editorial in the first issue of the Revista states that the journal will carry a number of signed articles; a section of "note and com- ments," to be the house organ of the Instituto; book reviews; digests of pertinent articles in other periodicals; and a news section on activi- ties of the members of the faculty and the uni-

versity and on matters of interest to them. The first issue followed this outline fairly faith-

fully. It contains eleven articles totaling about 150 large pages, all written by members of the Instituto and the Faculdade, on a variety of subjects falling generally within the range of interests of the Instituto as described above. Subjects vary from an almost poetical rehearsal of Roman antecedents of modern democracy to the more usual topics of budget analysis, the standardization of accounts, the use of ob- jective-type tests for personnel selection, and a highly mathematical-statistical discussion of the normal curve. There is an interesting reflec- tion of states' rights, as one might expect from Sao Paulo, in three articles on state and munici- pal government problems.

The June number omits articles in order to publish a single work which the editor considers to be "a most timely and important contribu- tion to the discussion of one of Brazil's gravest current problems," namely, Professor Dorival Teizeira Vieira's 380-page paper on the evolu- tion of Brazil's monetary system.

The book reviews of the first two issues are much briefer and less evaluative than those to which the readers of the Public Administration Review are accustomed; they are, rather, book notes. Of the eight books reviewed in these issues, three are Brazilian publications and five are from the United States of America. The forum section, as it is called, offers condensa- tions of six articles in the first issue and of three in the second. Of these nine, three are from British journals and six from United States journals.

A comparison of this new publication and the older Revista do Servico Publico, published by the DASP in Rio, is inevitable; the similarity is considerable, especially as to the signed articles in the two journals and the book reviews. Since it is a government publication the older periodical has much more of a "public informa- tion and bulletin board" aspect. It has sec- tions devoted to reporting important statutes, decrees, and rules, to giving official interpreta- tions of administrative law, and so on.

It may indeed be that with time the younger of these two Brazilian journals may hold the greater interest for North American readers, precisely because of its more academic outlook. This seems likely to happen particularly if the DASP continues in the decline into which it seems to have fallen with the departure of Getulio Vargas from the Presidency, the sub- sequent resignation as director of the DASP of Luiz Simoes Lopes, its founder and long-time leader, and the departure of some of its most able staff during. the intervening years. Be that as it may, the new Revista de Administracao is a valuable addition to the still comparatively short list of worth while public administration periodicals.

147

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