CHAPTER ONE

1. DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

1.2 DEFINITION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Public administration is a part of the wider term “Administration”. To understand the meaning of
public administration we must, therefore, firstly try to understand what administration means.

Administration as an activity is as old as society itself. But as an area of study it originated, with
the publication of Wilson’s essay on study of Administration in 1887. As a process,
administration occurs in both public and private organizations. It occurs in such diverse
institution as settings as a business firm, labor unions, religious or charitable organizations,
educational institutions, etc. Its nature is affected by the sphere with which it is concerned.
Public Administration is an aspect of a more generic concept of administration. Public
Administration houses the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that
studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. Some of the various
definitions which have been offered for them are: the management of public programs; and the
study of government decision making, the analysis of the policies themselves, the various inputs
that have produced them, and the inputs necessary to produce alternative policies.

Every increase in the complexity of society correspondingly enhances the importance of the
administrative process. Like other organisms, society also grows to varying degrees of
complexity and with each new function, new ganglia of direction and coordination being
provided –many of the major difficulties of our contemporary conditions stem from this basic
growth factor. In this setting, the problem is how to secure enough efficiency in order to hold our
own against totalitarian competitors –who choose to secure compliance by iron discipline rather
than individualism and voluntarism. But this doesn't actually mean that administration is merely
or principally overwhelmed with problems. On the contrary, administration is a creative factor in
modern life, the means to accomplishment and to a better life for peoples everywhere.
The study of Public Administration is strictly related with the very existence and changing
functions of the government. Therefore, public administration must always be seen in the context
of the problems confronting the government. Such problems, inter alia, may include:

1
  The conflict between sovereignty and responsibility, or the reconciliation of liberty with
the duty to govern. The government must be strong enough to command obedience and
ensure compliance to its rules as well as to administer effectively, whilst at the same time
being controlled in order to establish responsibility to certain standards.
 The need to balance achievement of the common good and with the demands of vested
interests.
 The need to balance present necessities with future desirability
 The need to balance traditional attitudes with scientific curiosity.
These being some of the challenging problems of the government, its role have developed far
beyond the basic and conventional activities of external defense, internal law and order, and tax
collection, to an interventionist and active planning role. The government's traditional and
changing (modern) roles could be contrasted as having the nature of "prohibition and
permission", or "dos and don'ts" respectively.

The original role can be seen as "negative" in that it was primarily concerned with stopping other
people from doing something wrong, things that were inconvenient to the society. In contrast, the
modern role is more positive in that it focuses in providing for the society large scale and variety
of goods and services. The consequence of the changed role of the state is the growth of large
hierarchical professional bureaucracies, which is the major area of concern of public
administration.

What were the fundamental causes or factors behind the changes in the functions of the
government? A complex of combination of factors led to the expansion of the role of the state,
and thus of public administration, namely;
1. Industrialization: the development of industry and the associated growth of towns
(urbanization) led to various socio-economic problems such as those related to housing,
health, unemployment and so on. These problems were not satisfactorily resolved
through the market system, and thus political demands eventually led to state action.
2. Social cost: as the scale of commercialization increased, it became apparent that the
activities of one organization or individual could impose extra costs upon the society in
general; for example environmental damage from pollution. Thus, pressure upon the state
both to regulate and to take certain responsibilities upon it became necessary.

2
 3. Market inadequacies: certain basic facilities that would bring successful economic growth
were not being effectively provided by the private sector. Hence, the state, for example,
took an interest in communications: roads, posts, etc. quite on early stage.
Political demands: as a result of many factors like those mentioned above, various groups
organized themselves in order to present their views politically. Those groups requested an
integral and active intervention of the state in their interest and affairs.

Administration

Administer is an English word, which is originated from the word ‘administer’ is derived from
the combination of the Latin ad + ministrare, meaning “to serve”, to care for or to look after
people, to manage affairs. Hence Administration means management of affairs, public or private.
According to this wide definition almost every human activity involves some kind of
administration. Even in primitive societies, simple activities like hunting, food, gathering, etc.,
could not be carried on without some form of organization. Somebody had to determine as to
who will do what. Certain norms of behavior had to be laid down to decide the distribution of
work among the members of the primitive groups. Of course, the administration at that time was
rather simple because the tasks to be carried out were also simple. With the growing complexity
of modern life the administration of private as well as public affairs has become more and more
complex. We would now consider some of the definitions of administration given by prominent
scholars.

Luther Gulick has said, “Administration has to do with getting things done; with the
accomplishment of defined objectives”.

James L. McCanny defined Administration in these words, “Administration is the organization

and use of men and materials to accomplish a purpose. It is the specialized vocation of managers
who have skills of organizing and directing men and materials just as definitely as the engineer
has the skill of building structure or a doctor has the skill of understanding human ailments”.

Pfiffner (1960:3) also defined administration as "…the organization and direction of human and
material resources to achieve desired ends…getting the work of government done by
coordinating the efforts of the people so that they can work together to accomplish their set
(predetermined) tasks".

3
 L. D. White (1955:1) explained, "Administration is a process common to all group effort, public
or private, civil or military, large-scale or small scale..."
From the above definitions, it becomes clear that administration is essentially a group activity
which involves co-operation and co-ordination to achieve desired goals or objectives. This also
means that administration has an element of rationality. According to these definitions,
administration is the activities of ordering, directing, coordinating, organizing and using
resources available to accomplish desired goals. In broadest sense, it is a planned approach to the
solving of all kinds of problems in almost every individual or group activity, both public and
private. The important elements of administration, according to these definitions, are cooperative
effort, systematic application, and purposefulness.

Administration is thus a rational action, an endeavor to maximize the achievement of goals or

objectives, by a group of human beings. For example, for rolling off a stone to a fix place,
persons are put to the stone in such a relationship as to maximize their efforts in a certain given
direction. This arrangement of persons in relation to the stone i.e., the job is called the
“Management”. These two factors, namely, Organization and Management are special features
of administrative activity. It must, however, be remembered that while administration is basically
a collective activity, every collective action is not administration.

Most people are often used administration, organization and management as interchangeably and
as synonymously; it is pertinent to know the differences and distinctions between these three
terms.

According to William Schulze Administration is the force, which lays down the object for
which an organization and its management are to strive and the broad policies under which they
are to operate.

An Organization is a combination of the necessary human beings, materials, tools, equipment

and working space, appurtenances brought together in systematic and effective co-relation to
accomplish some desired object.

Management is that which leads guides and directs an organization for the accomplishment of
pre-determined object.

4
 Public Administration

Having understood the concept of administration and its characteristics, it can be noted that
when the concept of administration is qualified with the word ‘public’ it simply means the
practice of administration in a particular segment of the society, that of the public sector. Public
administration is the management of governmental affairs or issues at all levels or tiers, national,
regional (state), and local. It is the branch of the wider field of administration. There are slight
differences between "administration" and "public administration". There are also differing views
regarding the scope and range of activities to be included in public administration. Some thinkers
view it broadly to include all governmental activities, while others see it narrowly to consider
only those activities concerned with the executive branch of the government.

To be seen along with it is the ‘Public’ aspect of Public administration, which attributes a special
character and focus to it. Public can be looked at formally to mean ‘government’. So, public
administration is government administration, government in action, or a socio-economic and
politico-administrative confluence, the focus being especially on public bureaucracy.
Encyclopedia Britannica defines public administration as ‘the application of a policy of a state
through its government. Public administration is therefore governmental administration and
operates in the particular sphere of government. It is the machinery for implementing
government policy. Public administration is concerned with the study of how a country’s
administration is organized and how it functions. Since it is the machinery for implementing
government policy, it follows that its study must lead to the study of the most efficient ways of
organizing the executive branch of government, its institutions and its procedures. Public
administration is the machinery, as well as the integral processes through which the government
performs its functions.

In a broad sense, therefore, Administration is common to both public and private affairs. Public
Administration would then refer to that part of administration which pertains to the
administrative activities of the government.

Public Administration, therefore, refers to that part of administration, which pertains to the
administrative activities of the government.

5
 Here again, it would be worthwhile to turn to the definitions of public administration given by
some well-known scholars.

Prof. Woodrow Wilson, the pioneer of the social science of Public Administration says in his
book ‘The study of Public Administration’, published in 1887 “Public Administration is a
detailed and systematic application of law.”

According to Gullick- “Public Administration is that part of the science of administration which
has to do with government and thus, concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where
the work of the government is done.”

Percy McQueen “Public Administration is administration related to the operations of

government whether local or central”.

Luther Gulick defined public administration in these words, “Administration has to do with
getting things done … Public Administration is that part of science of administration which has
to do with the government and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the
work of the government is done, though there are obviously problems also in connecting with the
legislative and judicial branches”.

L.D. White – According to him, public administration “consists of all those operations having
for their purpose the fulfillment of enforcement of public policies as declared by the competent
authority.”

Pfiffner – thought that public administration “consists of getting the work of government done
by coordinating the efforts of the people so that they can work together to accomplish their set
tasks. Administration embraces the activities which may be highly technical or specialized such
as public health and building of bridges… It also involves managing, directing and supervising
the activities of thousands, even millions of workers so that some order and efficiency may result
from their efforts…..”

6
 Nicholas Henry

“Public Administration is a broad-ranging and amorphous combination of theory and practice;

its purpose is to promote a superior understanding of government and its relationship with the
society, it governs, as well as to encourage public policies more responsive to social needs and
to institute managerial practices attuned to effectiveness, efficiency and the deeper human
requisites of the citizenry”.

The traditional definitions of Public Administration, which are given above reflect the view that
the Public Administration is only involved in carrying out the policies and programs of the
government. It reflect that it has no role in policy making and also locates the administration in
the executive branch but today the term public administration is used in a broader sense that it is
not only involved in carrying out the programs of the government, but it also plays an important
role in policy formulation and covers the three branches of the government.

In this context, we may reflect on the definition offered by F.A. Nigro and L.G. Nigro.
According to them Public Administration:

Nigro (1965) defined public administration in a more comprehensive way to include, besides the
above-mentioned aspects, the relationship between public administration and the political and
social systems as well. For him public administration:
 Is cooperative effort in a public setting
 Covers all the three branches of the government; i.e. executive, legislative, and judiciary
and their interrelationships
 Has an important role in the formulation of public policy and is thus part of the political
process
 Is more important than, and also differs significantly from private administration
 Has been much influenced in recent years by the "human relations approach" both as a
field of study and practice
 Is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services
to the community
 Public Administration is politically neutral.

7
 Generally, Public Administration refers to any kind of administration in the public interest. This
simply means governmental administration. Therefore, the difference between "administration"
and "public administration" are essentially revealed in their scope, the former being much
broader than the later.

There have been also attempt to define public administration with respect to its internal and
external dimensions. Internal administration is defined to mean the management of an
organization or agency that involves systems, processes and methods through which needed
resources of personnel, material and technology are used to perform certain prescribed functions.
External administration on the other hand refers to activities and processes of administration,
which are needed to establish and to activate relationships with agencies and groups outside the
administrative control of an organization to achieve its objectives. Public administration is a
means by which the policy decisions made by the political decision-makers are carried out.

The following is an all-encompassing definition of public administration that consist a list of

functions of public administration.
Public administration is decision-making, planning the work to be done,
formulating objectives and goals, working with the legislative and citizen
organizations to gain public support for government programs, establishing and
revisiting organizations, directing and supervising employees, providing
leadership, providing and receiving communications, determining work methods
and procedures, appraising performance, exercising controls and other functions
performed by government executives and supervisors. It is the action part of the
government, the means by which the purposes and goals of government are
realized" (Michael P. Barber, 1983:1; RumkiBasu, 1994:)
This comprehensive definition and all points raised under this sub-topic could enable us to
understand not only the meaning of public administration, but also its major concerns, aspects,
purposes and scope. It is to mean that public administration is concerned with action in particular
or concrete situation, but in accordance with long-range objectives.
All the above modern definitions of Public Administration emphasize the value based character
of Public Administration and Public Administration as a science and art of administration.

In sum, public administration:

8
 • It is the non-political public bureaucracy operating in a political system

• Deals with the ends of the State, the sovereign will, the public interests and laws;

• Is the business side of government and as such concerned with policy execution, but it is also
concerned with policy-making;

• Covers all three branches of government, although it tends to be concentrated in the executive
branch;

• Provides regulatory and service functions to the people in order to attain good life;

• Differs significantly from private administration, especially in its emphasis on the public; and

• Is interdisciplinary in nature as it draws upon other social sciences like political science,
economics and sociology.

1.2 SCOPE AND NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

The scope of Public Administration varies with people’s expectations of what they should get
from the government. It is obvious however; that though public administration studies the
administrative branch of the executive organ only yet its scope is a very wide one as it varies
with the people’s conception of a good life. Moreover, the scope of the executive branch of
government has varied over times, shifting from the core roles of the government towards
developmental and economic growth at times.

As is well known, the activities of the government are commonly divided into three major
branches, namely, Legislative, Executive and Judicial. The question naturally arises as to which
of the activities of the government are included in the study of public administration. There are
two views on this subject.

According to one point of view, public administration is conceived in a comprehensive sense to

include all the activities of the government, whether falling in the sphere of legislative, executive
or judicial branches of the government and their interrelationship. Prof. Woodrow Wilson and L
D While are among the main exponent of this perspective. They have taken a very broad
approach about the scope of Public Administration. According to them

9
 1. Public Administration covers all three branches of the government; Legislative, Executive
and Judicial and their interrelationship. Legislative organ makes the laws, Executive organ of the
government implements the laws. And judicial organ of the government interprets the laws.
There is interrelationship between these three organs.

2. Scope of Public Administration is like a cooperative group. It consists of all from class one
officer to class four employees.

3. Public Administration is a part of the political process. It has an important role in the
formulation of public policy at all levels, from national to grassroots. It is closely associated
with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community. It has
been influenced in recent years by the human relations approach.

However, according to the other point of view; narrow perspective `public administration’ is
concerned only with such activities of the government which pertain to the executive branch.
Luther Gullick is the main exponent of this perspective. According to him the scope of public
administration is narrow or limited. It is also regarded as posdcordview. It insists that the Public
Administration is concerned only with those aspects of administration which are related with the
executive branch and its seven types of administrative functions. These seven types of functions
which shows the scope of Public Adminstration are as follows -

1. ‘P’ stands for planning; Planning is the first step of Public Adminstration. i.e. working out
the broad outline of the things that need to be done.

2.‘O’ stands for organization; it means establishment of the formal structure of authority
through which the work is sub-divided, arranged and co-ordinated for the defined objective.

3. ‘S’ stands for staffing; it means the recruitment and training of the staff and maintenance of
favorable conditions of work for the staff.

4. ‘D’ stands for Directing;It means the continuous task of making decisions and embodying
them in specific and general orders and instructions, and thus guiding the enterprise.

5. ‘Co.’ stands for Co-ordination;It means interrelating the various parts of organization such
as branches, divisions, sections of the work and elimination of overlapping.

10
 6. ‘R’ stands for Reporting; it means informing the authority to whom the executive is
responsible as to what is going on.

7. ‘B’ stands for Budgeting; it means accounting, fiscal planning and control.

POSDCORB Perspective about the Scope of Public Administration is limited and narrow. It
stressed on the tools of Public Administration. It does not show the substance of administration.
It is a technique oriented perspective, not a subject oriented. There is a further narrowing down
of the scope of public administration by restricting it to these activities of the executive branch
which are connected with the execution of the policies. It means that the policy formulation has
to be separated from the execution of the policy. It is only the execution which is supposed to
form part of public administration according to this narrow view.

Another complication in the scope of the study of public administration is introduced by the two
views of administration, namely, integral and managerial views.

Public administration, being a part of the more general term administration, is subject to these
two views of administration also. The differences of opinion about the scope of study of public
administration thus centers around the crucial points whether public administration is only the
managerial part of the government work or the entire complex of the activities or only the
executive branch of the government or of all branches and finally whether administration is
mere execution or application of policy or is a factor in the formulation of policy also.

According to the integral view, ‘administration’ is the sum total of all the activities – manual,
clerical, managerial, etc., which are undertaken to realize the objectives of the organization. In
this view all the acts of officials of the government from the Attendant to the Secretaries to the
government and Head of the State constitute Public Administration. Henri Fayol and L.D.
White are the supporters of this view. There is a difference of opinion about the question as to
what activity or activities are included in “Administration.” According to integral view,
`Administration’ is the sum total or the whole complex of activities, manual, clerical, technical
and managerial which are undertaken to realize the objective in view, i.e., the implementation
of the policy or policies in a given field.

11
 According to the managerial view, `Administration’ is not the sum total of the activities
undertaken in pursuance of a purpose but pertains to only some of the activities concerned with
management which unite and control the rest of them as part of co-coordinated endeavor. Hence,
Managerial views of administration, the managerial activities of people who are involved in
planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and controlling constitute Public
Administration. This view regards administration as getting things done and not doing things.
Luther Gullick, Herbert Simon, Smithburg and Thompson are the supporters of this view. The
managerial view excludes Public Administration from non-managerial activities such as manual,
clerical and technical activities.

The two views differ from each other in many ways. According to Prof. M.P. Sharma the
difference between the two views is fundamental. The integral view includes the activities of all
the persons engaged in administration whereas the managerial view restricts itself only to the
activities of the few persons at the top. The integral view depicts all types of activities from
manual to managerial, from non-technical to technical whereas the managerial view takes into
account only the managerial activities in an organization. Furthermore, administration,
according to the integral view would differ from one sphere to another depending upon the
subject matter, but whereas that will not be the case according to the managerial point of view
because the managerial view is identified with the managerial techniques common to all the
fields of administration.

The distinction between the two views of `Administration’ is related to the difference between
the management and operation, or in ordinary words between getting things done and doing
things. According to the managerial view, only managerial or supervisory activities constitute
administration. The operational activities are not included. We may also say that according to the
managerial view, `Administration’ is not doing things, but getting them done. An administrator is
a functionary who gets things done by others by directing and supervising their work.

As a study public administration examines every aspect of government’s efforts to discharge the
laws and to give effect to public policy; as a process, it is all the steps taken between the time an
enforcement agency assumes jurisdiction and the last break is placed (but includes also that
agency’s participation, if any, in the formulation of the program in the first place); and as a
vocation, it is organizing and directing the activities of others in a public agency.

12
 Main Characteristics of public administration

There are various aspects of and steps in public administration which taken together gives
impetus to its field. In the main, these are derived from two sources –governmental process and
techniques of executive leadership. The features of public administration include:
 A program must have its mandate based on an analysis of what the problem is and what
the sources of legal authority are.
 The administrator must sharpen its objectives by means of programming and planning.
 There must be an organizational structure through which the work may be accomplished.
 Administrative programs must have intensive capital and materials which involves
budgeting, accounting purchasing and supply.
 It must be staffed
 It requires leadership and direction
 Techniques of supervision
 There must be internal control to determine whether the program is attaining its objective
according to predetermined time schedule and with maximum economy and efficiency.
 Dynamic administration requires delegation and coordination in order that all parts of the
program may be coalesced in a progressive –going unity
 Cooperation must be secured between line staff and those involved in the organization.
 It must emphasize public relations to keep its clientele and public inform as to the aims
and progress of the undertaking.
 It must stress accountability for its actions in order to satisfy the public and to safeguard
democratic government.
Note: that all of these characteristics are related and failure at a point may jeopardize the success
of the whole organization.
1.3 The Art and Science Expositions of Public Administration

There has been a controversy over the status of Public Administration. Some scholars consider it
as a science while most of the practitioners of management theory stress that it is an art. There
have been many people writing or arguing public administration as possessing an element
of science since the 1880s. Woodrow Wilson, who was known as the pioneer of public

13
 administration as a subject of study, called it the "science of public administration" as
early as 1887.
Willoughby (1927), who was one of the early writers of the field, also declared that the subject
matter possessed uniformities analogous to the laws of physical sciences. He wrote that there are
certain fundamental principles of general application in public administration analogous to those
characterizing any science. However, the essential characteristics of science are absence of
normative (or ethical) values, predictability of behavior, and universal application. Hence,
public administration can obviously be rated as a science if it proves that it has developed a set of
principles and acquires all the above three features. The question again is that does public
administration have a set of such principles and features?
Many writers agree in that counter arguments in public administration to deserve a science
position are weak and insufficient. Rather, the last hundred years have seen remarkable
development of the science of public administration. Evidences of which are:
 The transformation of the laissez-faire (liberal, nonjudgmental) state into the modern
welfare state has enlarged its sphere, added to the functions of government and aroused
interest in the problems of efficiency in government, which remained to be an art for long
proceeding by way of trial and error.
 The works of industrial engineers, like Taylor, pioneered the scientific methods with
emphasis on experimentation, observation, collection of data, classification and analysis,
and the formulation of laws and principles. The development of other administration
components such as organizing, planning, personnel administration, and budgetary
control as a result of the progress of the scientific method. The genuine contributions of
writers from different disciplines (backgrounds) to administration and management such
as Fayol, Drucker, and others show that it is derived from a body of cross-cultural
studies.

Let us now consider and then try to establish whether Public Administration is a Science or an
Art.
Considering Pubic Administration as Science has two implications i.e. it could be a Science or it
could be a Social Science. Public Administration holds two meanings; firstly it stands for the
activity of administering governmental affairs, secondly it is also an academic discipline. The

14
 first is definitely an art. What needs analytical explanation is the science aspect of public
administration; i.e. is it, as a subject of study of governmental affairs, a science?
Let us first examine as to how Public Administration can be considered as a science. “Science”
has 2 branches i.e. ‘Pure Science” and “Social Science”. The ‘Pure Science’ has the following
characteristics:
I .Universality of laws
II .Exactness of the results based on these laws
III. Predictability of events.
In Public Administration there has been a quest to find out universal laws. But such universal
laws have so far not been established. Similarly the results are in excess to some degree and the
events, since they involve human behavior, are also not totally predictable. Hence Public
Administration cannot be considered to be a ‘Pure Science’ in its present status of understanding.
Now we may consider as to how Public Administration is considered as a Social Science. Social
Science is defined as a systematic body of knowledge derived from day-to-day experience,
observations and practice. A social science contains concepts, hypothesis, theories,
experimentation, principles, etc. and to develop these principles either inductive approach or
deductive approach is used. Hence based on above definition, Public Administration can be
considered to be Social Science because –
 It contains a body of exact knowledge derived from experiences and observations which
are applicable in practical situations. Hence in this respect it is as much a general
science as economics or psychology or biology.
 Through continued efforts, a body of principles which is applicable in any
administrative set up has been developed. These principles are required to be applied in
order to secure efficiency in administration.
 It employs scientific methods of investigations in its study e.g, research and analysis is
an indispensable part of any public policy.
 It uses scientific process i.e. facts and data are collected and analyzed and based on this
analyze generalizations are arrived at. Hence an administrator applies science in much
the same manner as an Engineer or a Doctor.
 It has also developed its own body of subject matter as distinct from other social
science disciplines, though it is inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary.

15
 Therefore, it can be said that Public Administration is a corpus of demonstrated truths and hence
a social science. However, as a social science, Pubic Administration has deficiencies, which
present impediments in the path of it being considered as a social science. These are
1. Public Administration involves dealing with Human Behavior in organization which is
not amendable to experimentation in laboratory conditions. Besides, most part of the
subject matter of Public Administration is not amendable to experiments.
2. Simon in “Administrative Behavior” has criticized that the principles propounded in the
discipline of Public Administration are mutually contradictory and he has said that they
are nothing but homely proverbs.
3. The subject matter of Public Administration is not free from values and hence its study
can’t be completely objective, while objectivity is the prime criterion for a discipline to
be considered as a science.
4. Public Administration is also culture-bound i.e. Public Administration in one country is
quite different from Public Administration in another country.
However, one can still regard Pubic Administration as a social science with following
characters:
A. It is a new undeveloped science where conscious theorizing has gone on for only in the
past 100 years.
B. It is primarily a science of observation than experiment while other social sciences are
amendable to experiments. In case of public administration every new policy which is
implemented in itself becomes a social experiment.
C. It is both a positive and a normative science i.e. it is concerned with what “is” in the
administration and also what “should be” in the administration. In other words it takes
account of existing facts and tendencies and hence it is more than a mere wishful
thinking.
D. It is a progressive science meaning thereby that its “generalizations” and “principles”
are bound to be constantly revised and restated.
However, there exists a rival group of practitioners who claim that Public Administration is an
Art. The arguments behind their belief are as follows:

16
  Administration, as has been established over the years, requires specialized skills and
specialized knowledge and it is not possible for everyone to carry out administration just
as it is not possible for everyone to perform a drama or a dance.
 Administration requires leadership and conviction, which cannot be taught in a class.
 It requires a body of special talents in the field of administration to become a
manager/administrator. For example, tactfulness, conflict management etc. are such
special talents.
 Success in administration is directly proportional to the extent of skills applied. This is
supported by the fact that in a group of 15-20 people only one person turns out to be a
good manager who leads the others.
In the light of the above discussions, the following two conclusions may be arrive at:
First, there are strong reasons to believe that Pubic Administration is both – a ‘Science” and an
“Art” i.e. though it can make predictions, the predictions are not absolutely correct. It also mean
that a contingency approach is required in the practice of administration i.e. there is a need to
modify the science of administration to suit the situation and then apply it. The ability to modify
it and to apply it is an art.
Secondly,the word “Science” could be used here in the connotation of a ‘social Science’. It has
the traits of a science since predictability is there though limited only up to some degree.
Hence one can say that the methodology applied in Public Administration is scientific while its
application is an art.
Public Administration holds two meanings; firstly it stands for the activity of administering
governmental affairs, secondly it is also an academic discipline. The first is definitely an art.
What needs analytical explanation is the science aspect of public administration; i.e. is it, as a
subject of study of governmental affairs, a science?

1.4 The Environment( Ecology) Of Public Administration

Environment in the context of this topic refers to actors and forces that affect or determine public
administration. The environment under which public administration operates, that would have
major implications on its success or failure as well as in shaping its basic features, can generally
be classified as internal and external.

17
 Internal environment refers to those conditions, which are in most cases within the control of the
administration, yet having their own challenges and/or advantages. This may include the
organization itself and groups and individuals within the organization, the material, financial,
and other resources available for the organization and so on.

The organizational structure and the pattern of authority in the formal hierarchy, the purpose and
tradition of the organization, historical legacies or traditional practices of the administrative
systems, the internal network and working procedures, etc have influences on the administrative
efficiency and effectiveness of a given organization or country. The behavior and structure of
formal and informal groups like peer groups, labor unions, and advisory council have also strong
influence on the style of administration. The type and sufficiency of materials, skill, knowledge,
and finance are considered as environmental factors internal to the organization that highly
determines the administrative style and the accompanying success or failure of administration.

External environment on the other hand is that, which is outside the control of the administration
but having major impact in shaping the features and determining the success or failures of the
overall objectives that public administration wants to achieve. The external environment can be
generalized as political, economic/ecological, social, and technological (PEST) each of which
reflected in many ways. For example we can consider:
A. Political environment. It includes the type of government and the resultant constitution,
policies, laws and directives; national and international political trends and changes; bilateral and
multilateral agreements and policies;
B. Economical environment. Concerned with issues like national economic trends and level of
growth and development; the global market and economic situation as well as the extent of
mutual economic assistance and cooperation;
C. Social environment. . It includes variables population/demographic trends and changes;
societal beliefs, values, attitudes, cultures, and lifestyles; public expectations and demands;
D. Technological environment. It is concerned with ability or access to use the type of
technology being used elsewhere in the world, such as in communication and production.
All these have their own effects on the administrative system of a given country or organization.
Thus, public administration has always to keep on with close scrutiny and be aware of what is
going on or what exists in both the internal and external environment.

18
 As the internal and external environments do have influences on the features, structures and
goals of public administration, there are apparent differences in developed and developing
countries in these regards.
1.5. Public Administration in Developed (Industrial) Countries
In the context of this note, the term "developed" or "industrial" societies refer to those countries
of Western Europe and USA where industrialization has brought about major changes in
economic structure and growth accompanied by political and administrative modernization.

Nevertheless, it should be noted that administrative modernization is a typical or exclusive

feature of developed countries. Because some developed countries might not have modern
administrative system, while we could find a developing country that employs modern
administration.

Despite individual differences, the following are some of the important features of administrative
systems of developed countries as a group that differentiates them from the developing ones:
Government organization is highly distinguished and functionally specific and the roles are
based on achievement criteria than on attribute or assumed power. The bureaucracy is marked by
a high degree of specialization. Recruitment of personnel is generally based on merits.
Laws and political decisions are largely rational. Public policy making is effectively made by
professional public administrators. Administration has become to take all-encompassing
functions that affect major spheres of the lives of citizens. There is high correlation (association)
between political power and legitimacy (legality) and there is an extensive popular interest and
involvement in public affairs.

Incumbents of political or governmental offices are generally considered as lawful or reasonable

holders of those positions, and transfer of power and positions tend to occur in accordance with
prescribed rules and procedures.

In summary, we can generally say that the nature of public administration of these industrialized
countries can be differentiated from those of the developing ones in structure and function.
Structurally and functionally they tend to resemble to the Weberian model of bureaucracy. The
fact that bureaucracy in these countries exhibits (demonstrate) high degree of professionalism in

19
 turn is the result of various factors like educational background, career orientation and standards
of competence applied in recruitment to the public service. Due to a relative stability of political
systems in these societies, bureaucracy is fully developed with fairly clear roles and practical
acceptance as an autonomous institution. In terms of function, bureaucracy is primarily involved
in rule application, but performing secondary functions of rule making.

Public administration in these countries is more responsive and responsible to the public;
provides efficient and effective public services; performs both routine and welfare tasks. For
such and many other reasons, citizens of the industrial societies often view public administration
as an impartial and expert body of professionals intellectually equipped to cope with their
administrative needs.

In theory, the tasks of public administration in industrial societies do not differ from the
developing ones where the primary task of public administration is to implement public laws and
policies. However, empirical studies proved that features of an administrative system highly
relates to the environment they exist. Therefore, the roles and challenges of public administration
in developed countries have to be viewed in their particular socio-economic and cultural context.

For example, public administration in developed societies is extremely affected by the

development of modern science and technology, and communication networks. Relative
autonomy of institutions in developed countries has also its own (special) administrative
problems, reflected in terms of lack of coherence among numerous service and regulatory
organizations or agencies.

Generally, according to RumkiBasu (1994:43), developed countries (especially in Europe) are

typical examples of what is known as the "administrative state"; and the bureaucracy in these
states mainly perform three types of functions:
 Regulatory and preventive functions, enforcing laws, collecting revenue, and protecting
the state against external aggression.
 Service functions, providing services like education, health, culture and recreation, social
insurance, unemployment relief, housing, transportation, and communication.

20
  Entrepreneurial (commercial) functions, operating industrial enterprises, loaning funds
and so forth in order to maintain or increase economic growth and development of their
respective societies.
1.6. Public Administration in Developing Countries
Many of the developing countries have got their independency from colonialists immediately
after the Second World War. Despite a wide range of differences in terms of the location,
resources, history, culture, political systems, and development patterns of these countries, they as
a group can be called (characterized) as "developing".

Most of these new self-governing states have been in the process of transitions, facing serious
problems of social turmoil and disturbances, economic depression (downturn) and administrative
chaos (confusions). Yet, a great degree of reliance has been made on the staggering state and
bureaucracy for achieving developmental goals and solving all sorts of social dilemmas and
problems.

These realities have been seriously challenging public administration of developing countries.
The following points are indicative of general administrative patterns currently found in
developing (third world) countries. The basic pattern of public administration is imitative
(copied) rather than indigenous (original). All developing (third world) counties, including those
that were not colonized have deliberately tried to introduce some version or style of the
bureaucratic model of administration from developed countries, most notably from colonial
masters. Hence, it would be predictable for ex-colonies to resemble in terms of their
administrative pattern.

The bureaucracies are deficient (lacking) in the requisite skills necessary for development
programs. In spit of abundance (plenty) of labor (employable manpower) in relation to other
resources in most of the developing countries, trained administrators with management capacity,
developmental skills, and technical proficiency are extremely in shortfall.

Emphasis to non-productive orientations is another tendency (trend) of the bureaucracies of these

countries. Much bureaucratic activity is channeled towards the realization of non-developmental

21
 goals. According to Riggs, bureaucrats prefer to personal expediency or convenience as against
principled public interest. This in turn may include practices like:
 Non-merit considerations influence greatly assignments, promotions, dismissals, and
other personnel practices,
 Widespread corruptions,
 Using the public service as a substitute for a social security program, or to relieve the
problem of unemployment. Thus, there is always a surplus of employees in the public
services,
Extensive (huge) discrepancy or disagreement between form and reality, which Riggs has called
it "formalism", is another distinguishing characteristic of administrative trends of developing
countries. In other words, bureaucrats pretend as if they make things they ought to be done while
the reality tells different from what they say.

They try to fill partially the gap between expectation and reality by:
 Enacting laws that cannot be enforced,
 Adopting personnel regulations that are peacefully by-passed,
 Announcing programs for delegation of administrative authority while keeping tight
control over decision-making at the center,
 Reporting as is production targets are met, which in fact remain only partially fulfilled,
The bureaucracy in developing countries is likely to have high degree of operational autonomy
as a result of several operating forces in newly independent states. These operating forces could
be factions created by colonialists within a given country, national and international
organizations etc. Political role of the bureaucracy in these countries vary significantly.

Regardless of the aforementioned limitations of the current administrative patterns of developing

countries, the immensity of the developmental problems and the urgency to look for solutions
have thrust upon (or forced) the state to bear or shoulder the principal responsibility of achieving
developmental goals. In other words, despite sever handicaps like shortage of capital, skilled
manpower, and lack of developmental infrastructure that they inherited from colonialists, the
Third World governments are confronted with rising expectations of the people they have to
administer. Besides, Third World governments have been expected to deal with curtailing social

22
 dislocations such as mass rural-urban migration, sever unemployment, riots (social unrest) and
community clashes.

With such challenges and confrontations, public administration still becomes the main agency of
socio-economic changes; changes not only in terms of formulating and implementing long-term
plans, but also in the context of establishing modern institutions or organizations equipped with
the necessary skills.
1.7 IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Public administration has a very important place not only as an instrument of governance but
also as an important mechanism for preserving and promoting the welfare of community in the
era of welfare states. It has a great impact upon the life of the people as well. It is a vital process
charged with the implementation of great objective.

Dear students here we will be discussing the importance of public administration as a specialized
subject of study and later the role and importance of public administration in the modern society.

A. Importance of Public Administration as Specialized Subject of Study

The study of administration assumed significance, according to Woodrow Wilson, as a

consequence to the increasing complexities of society, growing functions of state and growth of
governments on democratic lines. This exhaustive list of functions made to think as to how and
in what directions these functions should be effectively performed. To this Wilson suggested
that there was a need to reform the government in the administrative field. As per Wilson, the
object of administrative study is to discover what government can properly and successfully does
and how it can do these things with utmost efficiency and the least possible cost either of money
or of energy.

The importance of public administration as a specialized subject can be attributed to the

following reasons:

I. One of the important reasons is the practical concern that the government today has to
work towards the public interest. The first and foremost objective of public
administration is to efficiently deliver public services. In this context, Wilsonian

23
 definition of the subject as efficiency promoting and pragmatic field was the first
explicitly articulated statement on the importance of a separate discipline of public
administration. During the first half of the preceding century, a numbers of countries
have appointed committees to look into the problems of administration and recommended
suitable administrative machinery to respond to diverse public needs. During the last four
decades also, a number of reports, produced by committees/commissions appointed by
governments in various countries or multilateral agencies, and books published by
scholars have enriched the discipline and provided new perspectives to public
administration to tune it to the changing needs of the times.
II. Administration is looked at, in the social science perspective, as a cooperative and social
activity. Hence the concern of academic inquiry would be to understand the impact of
government policies and operations on society. What kind of society do the policies
envisage? To what extent administrative action is non-discriminatory? How is public
administration functioning and what are the immediate and long term effects of
governmental action on the social structure, the economy and polity?; etc. are questions
requiring careful analysis. From the social science perspective, public administration, as
a discipline, has to draw on a variety of sister disciplines such as History, Sociology,
Economics, Geography, Philosophy, Psychology, etc. with the objective to explain and
not just to prescribe.
III. Public administration has a special status in the developing countries. Many of these
countries, after independence from the colonial rule have stressed upon speedy socio –
economic development. Obviously, these countries have to rely on government for
speedy development. The latter requires a public administration to be organized and
effectively operated for increasing productivity quickly. Likewise, social welfare
activities have to be effectively executed. These aspects have given birth to the new sub-
discipline of development administration. The emergence of development administration
is indicative of a felt need for a body of knowledge about how to study the third world
administration and at the same time to bring about speedy socio-economic development
with government’s intervention. Development administration has therefore, emerged as a
sub-discipline to serve the cause of development.
B. Importance of Public Administration as an Activity

24
 The contemporary age, which has witnessed the emergence of ‘Administrative State’, public
administration has become an essential part of society and a dominant factor. The functions it is
called upon to perform, have expanded in scope and nature, and what is more, are continually
increasing. Many of them are more positive in nature because they care for the essential
requirements of human life, be it health, education, recreation, sanitation, social security or
others. It is, therefore, a creative factor, with its motto being ‘human welfare’. These functions
are over and above its regulatory functions.

Woodrow Wilson describes Administration as it is the most obvious part of government; it is

government in action, it is the executive, the operative and the most visible side of the
government. Paul H. Appleby on the other hand reflects the significance of public administration
as the basis of government; No government can exist without administration. Without
administration government would be a discussion club, if indeed, it could exist at all.

Shortly, public administration has assumed the following crucial roles in contemporary modern
society:

Basis of the Government: A Government can exist without a legislature or an independent

judiciary. But no Government can exist without administration.

An instrument for providing services: Public administration is mainly concerned with the
performance of various activities performed by government in the public interest. Felix A. Nigro
aptly remarks, “The real core of administration is the basic service which is performed for the
public”.

An instrument for implementing policies: Modern governments go a long way in formulating

and adopting sound policies laws and regulations. It should not be forgotten that such policies,
laws, etc. are not merely printed papers. Such paper declarations of intent are translated into
reality by public administration thus converting words into action and form into substance.

A stabilizing force in society: Public administration is a major force for bringing stability in
society. It has been observed that though government often changes, but violent change is
seldom experienced by administration. An element of continuity between the old and the new
orders is provided by public administration. It does not hold true only of constitutional changes

25
 of government in democratic countries, but is also reflected when there are revolutionary
changes in the form and character of government.

An instrument of social change and economic development: Public administration’s role as a

change agent is particularly crucial in developing nations. It is expected of the state at present to
work for accelerating socio-economic change and not to be a passive agency to maintain the
status quo.

Technical Character: The present day government is expected to provide various services to its
population. The increase in the number of functions undertaken by the government requires
highly specialized, professional and technical, services. Modern public administration usually
represents a galaxy of all of a nation’s occupations.

The points mentioned below summarize the reasons for the growing importance of public
administration:

Industrial revolution and technological developments have contributed the importance of public
administration. The ordinary person can feel secure only if large-scale organization based on
sound principles of administration caters his interests. The rapid means of transport and
communication have made the existence of large scale administration possible. Emergence of
concept of planning for the socio- economic amelioration of the common man has led to the
development public administration. Formulation and execution of these plans widens the sphere
of public administration.

Apart from the reasons cited the rapid growth of population, modern warfare, increase in natural
and manmade disasters, decline in social harmony, increase in violence due to conflicts,
communal riots, ethnic wars, terrorism, etc. have increased the importance of public
administration.

Hence, public administration is not only the operative but also the most obvious part of the
government. It is government in action and occupies a significant place not merely as an
instrument of governance but also as an important mechanism for preserving and promoting the
welfare of community.

26
 1.8 Approaches, School of Thoughts and Theories in Public Administration

There are three disparate approaches to deal with the basic question of what public
administration is. These approaches are traditionally labeled as managerial, political and legal
and they are often overlapped. Their primary influence has been to pull public administration in
three separate directions. These approaches are orientated to follow the pattern of the separation
of powers of a state established by the constitution. Thus, each of these approaches has their own
intellectual tradition, emphasizes different values, promotes different types of organizational
structures and views individuals in distinct terms.

1.8.1 The Managerial Approaches to Public Administration

Origin/tradition: The managerial approach to public administration seems to have emerged as a

result of the civil service reform movement of the late nineteenth century in the USA. Civil
service reforms promoted this approach as a means of organizing public service. It was
emphasized that the business part of the government should be carried out in a sound
businesslike manner. Wilson himself considered public administration as 'a field of business as
well as a managerial endeavor'. This approach was further strengthened by Frederick W. Taylor
(he focused on protecting the values of efficiency and economy), LD White, (the study of
administration should be started from the base of management rather than from the foundation of
law) and Luther Gulick and LyndallUrlick (POSDCORB). This approach was very influential in
the 1930s.

Value: this approach focuses on the three core values of public administration: maximization of
effectiveness, efficiency and economy. Thus, this approach is oriented to minimize the
distinctions between public administration and private administration. Organizational structure:
the managerial approach to public administration focuses on the organization based on Max
Weber's ideal type bureaucracy (bureaucratic organization). It stresses the importance of
functional specialization (division of work on the basis of functions), merit based and politically
neutral competence employees for promoting efficiency and effectiveness.

27
 View of the individual:this approach tends to promote an impersonal view of individuals
whether individual may be an employee or a client or a victim of a public agency.
(Dehumanization i.e. lack of pity, sympathy, kindness, nepotism, and other type of favor towards
people).

1.8.2 The Political approach to public administration

Origin/tradition: The political approach to public administration appeared during the 'New Deal'
era (1933-1938 and the Second World War period in the USA. Democracy -1945) viewed public
administration as a 'political process' and public accountability and political character as the
aspects of governmental functions. Similarly, Wallace Sayre (Classic of Public Administration-
1978) stresses that public administration is ultimately a problem in political theory. The
fundamental problem in democracy is the responsibility and responsiveness of the administrative
agencies and the bureaucracies to the elected officials. Thus, political approach considers public
administration to be an integral part of the political process, political nature of public
administration and the role of bureaucracy in making public policies. More precisely, it views
public administration as a political endeavor.

Value: the political approach advocates a different set of values than that of managerial
approach. It stresses the political values of representativeness, political responsiveness and
political accountability through elected officials to the people. I.e. public administration should
be organized around these political values

Organizational structure: Instead of emphasizing functional specialization and hierarchical

structure, it stresses political pluralism within public administration. The structure of public
administration should be a microcosm of society (PA should has all features of society). More
precisely, public administration should reflect the values, interests and competing forces/diverse
groups to be found in a plural society. The basic concept/argument behind pluralism within
public administration is that since public administration is a policy making center of government,
it must be structured by providing political representation to a comprehensive variety of the
organized political, economic and social interests that are found in the society at large.

28
 View of the individual: the political approach to public administration views individuals as part
of an aggregate/organized group. It tends to identify an individual's interest which is similar and
identical to those of others within the same group.

1.8.3 Legal approach to public administration

It views public administration as applying and enforcing law.

Origin/tradition: The legal approach to public administration has historically been eclipsed by
managerial approach. However, it has its own rich tradition and has emerged as a fully-fledged
vehicle/ way for defining public administration. It has three interrelated sources: Administrative
law, movement towards the Judicializaiton of public administration and the constitutional law.
Administrative law: it determines/describes the position and liabilities of state officials including
official procedures to be adopted; civil rights and liabilities of private individuals in dealing with
public officials and official procedures. (It is the law relating to administration) Frank Goodnow
(The Principles of the Administrative Law of the united States-1905), Kenneth Davis
(Administrative Law and Government -1975) and Marshall Dimock (Law and Dynamic
Administration -1980) have contributed to administrative law and stressed legal approach to
public administration.
Judicializaiton of public administration: (judiciary role of public administration) If public
Officials/administrators engage in adjudication, they must exercise their discretions. It may
become legal matter.

Constitutional law: governs the legitimacy of government action and the action of government is
the function of public administration. It defines the role of public administration. Its concerns
are: legal authority of government, abuse of power, individuals' fundamental rights, etc. It tends
to check unconstitutional practices from the part of government and public administration.
Value: the legal approach to public administration embodies/represents three values: Procedural
due process (can't be confined to any single set of requirements), individual substantive rights
(real or fundamental rights of individuals) and equity/fairness. Public
administration/administrator shouldadopt due process while discharging or performing its

29
 tasks; protect/respect the individual rights be fair while solving conflict between government and
individual.

Due process: it is viewed as requiring procedures designed to protect individuals/citizens from

malicious, arbitrary, cruel or unconstitutional harm at the hands of government. Individual
rights: protection of constitutional and legal rights of individual people. Equity and fairness: it
prevents arbitrary or invidious (unpleasant) treatment of individuals

Organizational Structure: The precise structure may vary from context to context,
The legal approach advocates Adjudicatory structure formal legal structure) since it tends to
maximize the use of adversary procedure; this structure that help to oppose an argument or
competing with an argument. Administrative agencies exercising adjudicatory functions may
enjoy a greater degree of independence from the rest of government since they are concerned
with application of law where they should be free from political interference. It stresses on the
formal official duties of agencies and administrators; limitations of discretionary authority of
public organizations and administration; disciplinary actions against employees, equal
employment opportunities, employee/labor relations and presence of regulatory commissions in
public administration.
This approach seems quite odd /unusual since its values are embodied in the managerial and
political approach

View of the individual: it considers the individual as a unique person in a unique set of
circumstances. The procedure (adversary procedure) enables an individual to explain his/her own
unique and particular circumstances, his/her thinking, and motivation to the governmental
decision makers or administrators. More precisely, public administration may treat different
individuals in different ways. Decisions may depend on the circumstances. One decision may
not apply others.

To sum up, the traditional separation of legislative, executive and judicial functions are:
- The primary task of the legislative branch is to make policy.
- The primary task of the executive branch is the execution or implementation of policy.

30
 - The primary task of the judicial branch is the interpretation of the law.
These three functions of government are related to three views of the role of public
administration.

The managerial approach to public administration is related to executive functions in the

government which emphasizes the management and organization of public organizations. (It is
emphasized that management in the public sector is very much similar to that in the private
sector).

The political approach to public administration is related to legislative functions in government

and is more concerned with the formulation of policy decisions.
The legal approach to public administration is related to the judicial functions in government
which emphasizes the administrators' role in applying and enforcing the law. It is also concerned
with the adjudicatory role of public organizations.

31