EXPERTISE, POLITICS, AND TECHNOLOGICAL-CHANGE - THE SEARCH FOR MISSION AT THE PORT OF NEW-YORK AUTHORITY

In the past sixty years, the independent public authority has become a significant but controversial device for planning and implementing government programs in a wide variety of fields. This article briefly identifies the major tensions that have shaped the public authority movement during these decades, and it then discusses the early years of the Port of New York Authority, where many of these patterns were first seen- The essay also describes the influence of the Port Authority's early experience on the spread of this institution in the Depression years and beyond, and it concludes with reflections on the continuing debate regarding the role of public authorities in a democratic society.