Intergovernmental Relations as Seen by Public Officials

Abstract

Public officials reflect almost as wide a divergence of attitudes toward intergovernmental relations as would be found among the whole population. It is not possible to at- attribute a single pattern of attitudes to all public officials. It may be possible to identify a pattern of attitudes which char acterizes a group or subgroup of public officials. Professor Weidner found the most favorable attitude toward intergovern mental relations of any subgroup to be among welfare officials. Some information about the attitudes of officials was revealed by the 1955 questionnaire of the House Committee on Govern ment Operations. In 1957-1958, Congressman L. H. Fountain, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations of the House Committee on Government Operations, conducted extensive hearings producing a mass of data about the attitudes of public officials. Then in 1962, the Senate Committee on Government Operations, through its staff, conducted an exten sive survey by questionnaire of the attitudes of all levels of public officials. An analysis of the data secured by a ques tionnaire submitted to national, state, and local officials in Minnesota was published in 1960. The study sets a pattern which could be followed in other states to determine the extent to which its findings are typical of all states in the context of examining intergovernmental relations as human relations.