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Mary E. Switzer: The Entrepreneur Within the Federal Bureaucracy
Author(s) -
Berkowitz Edward
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
american journal of economics and sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.199
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1536-7150
pISSN - 0002-9246
DOI - 10.1111/j.1536-7150.1980.tb01260.x
Subject(s) - bureaucracy , public administration , cornerstone , poverty , power (physics) , government (linguistics) , social welfare , unemployment , political science , new deal , management , sociology , law , economic growth , economics , politics , art , linguistics , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , visual arts
A bstract . Mary E. Switzer (1901‐1972), a federal civil servant from 1921 to 1970, had a career which provides a case study of entrepreneurship within a bureaucracy. At first a staffer in progressive era social agencies, she became an assistant to Josephine Roche, well known advocate of government social programs. At first Switzer opposed federal health programs, believing that centralization of control would harm them. Then she became an advocate of federal aid to the local communities and health enterprises, with decentralized control over research and health services. Taking over vocational rehabilitation, she harmonized private and public power and at least managed to make a rehabilitation approach to social problems the cornerstone of President Eisenhower's domestic social welfare program. But the rehabilitation approach failed when applied to unemployment and poverty in general.