As Waldo was careful to point out, the founders of public administration were not ideologically opposed to democracy. They were progressive reformers who embraced the romantic ideal of democracy as the “best” or “proper” form of government. The reality they faced at the time, however, was a public administration characterized by disorganization, amateurism, and dishonesty. Nineteenth-century reforms springing from the presidency of Andrew Jackson had dispersed and factionalized the power of government. Elected officials multiplied, the legislature took precedence over the executive, and government agencies were staffed through the spoils system. If administration were the core of government, the net result of these reforms created a serious problem for democracy in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century: a public administration shot through with incompetence, ripe for corruption. For public administration to gain competency and efficiency, it would have to cleanse itself of politics and learn the lessons of science and business. Good administration (and thus good government) could best be promoted by centralizing and concentrating power; by running agencies according to sound, scientific management principles; by making technical competence the criterion for civil service employment; and by shielding these technical experts from whatever winds happened to be stirring the dust in the political arena.