Excerpt from The Research Function of University Bureaus and Institutes for Government-Related Research: Report of the Conference Held August 17-28, 1959

As has been indicated, the Bureau Movement in the universities was part of a much broader environment of government reform, marked most dramatically by the establishment in 1906 of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research. Though not Officially connected with a univer sity, the New York Bureau had a close link with the academic world. One of its early participants was Charles A. Beard, for many years a professor at Columbia University. According to the formula of the day, the Bureau was ideologically committed to the separation of politics and administration. Politics might be irrational and emotional; but administration need not be. Administration was potentially a science, rooted in the efficiency value. It is quite apparent that this belief system provided great motivation for research. It suggested the presence of truths, patterns Of conduct, and almost automatic decision-making in a broad arena of government. Tenable or not, it was a vision that many people at that time undoubtedly needed in order to inspire them to move local governments out of the depths of corruption.

The New York Bureau gave much of its early attention to budgeting, where reform was badly needed in almost all governmental jurisdictions. AS a result of the Bureau's recommendations, the City of New York in 1907 adopted a segregated, functionalized budgeting system. In those early honeymoon years, the Bureau also made recommendations on purchasing, procedures, and organization. Quite a number of these proposals were adopted, and these successes were enough to arouse the hopes of reformers across the country. Less work came to be done in New York and more in other jurisdictions. Perhaps more importantly.

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