Understanding the past is a good way to help successfully navigate the present. George Washington’s farewell address emphasizes key points that he, and other founding fathers, felt were important to the livelihood of the nation. The preservation of federalism, warning against political parties, reaffirming the necessity of taxes, and the careful navigation of foreign affairs are all prevalent factors in American government today. Moreover, this address and its key speaking points look to show how an effective government should work and thus can connect public administrators to their purpose and mission as public servants.
In his farewell address, George Washington implored the American people to remain joined under a single union. Washington’s point with this warning was to deter regional loyalty and cement the concept of federalism. In the United States, federalism is the system of dividing power between federal and regional governments (Føllesdal, 2014). Today, the…show more content… Washington’s concern with political factions was the possibility of an individual amassing a following and gaining absolute power. Today, polarization is the issue that stems from political parties and affects the efficiency of agencies and policy implementation. According to the Pew Research Center, political polarization refers to the ideological differences that divide a group and, “Republicans and democrats are more divided presently than at any point in the last two decades” (“Political Polarization”, 2014). With such a separation it makes compromise difficult and thus long term policy challenges that require bipartisan compromise such as social security, healthcare reform, and federal civil service reform do not get the evaluation that need (Epstein & Graham, 2007). This partisanship and division between parties makes effectively developing and implementing policies a challenge for public