The dominant hierarchical and pluralist views of the proper role for an active, policy-making bureaucracy in a liberal democracy, which are grounded in concepts of representation, do not adequately justify rule by bureaucrats. Moreover, the idea of representative bureaucracy does not compensate for the deficiencies in hierarchical and pluralist arguments. An alternative defense of the legitimacy of the administrative state must draw on a constitutive rather than an instrumental conception of public administration. An active, policy-making bureaucracy can best be justified by understanding administrative agencies as helping to fulfill the representation and separation-of-powers doctrines of the Constitution, and as representing ideas and values that form a critical part of what constitutes the American regime.
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