"Increasingly, I hear local government managers talk disparagingly and with frustration about the councilmembers they work for. I also observe elected officials thrusting managers into the policy limelight—either in response to council ineptness or through a conscious choice. 

These trends challenge the viability of democracy in a professionally administered local government—a form of government whose rationale is deeply embedded in a healthy respect for politics and in the believe that in some increasingly indistinct yet fundamental way there is a difference between politics and administration."

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