This article introduces a unified theory of administration and politics called Political Elasticity (PE) Theory, thereby linking political science (PS) to public administration (PA). The history of PE theory, which emerged from Dwight Waldo's graduate seminar in 1960-61 at the University of California, Berkeley, is presented and is shown as being able to unravel “the mysteries of development,” especially the relationship of bureaucracy and democracy. PE Theory includes a distinction between primary (liberal) democracy and secondary (classical) democracy. The implications of this theory are here briefly presented, concentrating on questions in administrative theory raised by Waldo during his six decades of studying and teaching public administration.
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