DANKWA KOFI ASARE

DANKWA KOFI ASARE WISHES YOU WELL

INTRO. TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: (UGBS 105)

DR. THOMAS BUABENG; UGBS OFFICE F3

T BUABENG@UG.EDU.GH;
Course Description: Introduction
❑This course seeks to introduce students to the very basic concepts and theories
underlying administration in the public sector, with a particular focus on Ghana.
❑ The course is also designed to help students offering the BSc. Business
Administration programme to make a decision on whether or not to choose
public administration as a specialized field of study.
Expected Outcomes
❑At the end of the course, students should have basic understanding of:
❑The nature, importance and values of public administration,
❑Historical evolution of Ghana’s public administration system,
❑Interaction between elected government and career civil servants,
❑Public policy making in Ghana,
❑Decentralization of public administration to local communities through local
government,
❑Nature of ethics and accountability of public administrators to citizens, and
❑The emergence of public-private partnership.
Suggested topics
❑The Nature and Importance of Public Administration
❑The Scope of Public Administration; Public vs. Private Administration
❑The Politics and Administration Dichotomy Debate
❑Bureaucracy and Public Administration
❑Public Administration in Ghana: An Overview
❑Decentralization and Local Government in Ghana
❑Introduction to Public Policy-Making in Ghana
❑Accountability, Administrative Responsibility and Ethics of Public Service
 Method of Course Delivery
❑The course seeks to achieve its goals through lectures, and general discussions
of topical issues in class.
❑Students are encouraged to listen to the lectures, reflect on the issues, ask
questions, make contributions, be tolerant of the contributions of colleagues to
discussions, and engage in general civil discussions about their convictions.
❑Students should read the recommended materials prior to attending lectures.
 Assessment Plan (3 methods)
❑Attendance and participation (Weekly) 10%
❑Interim Assessment (As advertised) 20%
❑Final Exam (As advertised) 70%
❑TOTAL 100%
 Career opportunities
❑Public Administration does not only teach you about a specific field of study but
also provides you with general life skills that can be successfully utilized in all fields
of human activity, whether it be in the public or private sectors.
❑Although the subject is especially beneficial for those who want to follow a career
in the public sector, it is important to note that the subject is also beneficial for
those who want to follow a career in the private sector.
❑Also, no matter what you do in the private sector, you will have contact with
government and government institutions - therefore if you understand Public
Administration) it will give you a considerable advantage to compete.
 Specific career opportunities
❑After studying Public Administration, careers in administration and
management can be pursued in the following, among others, fields of
human activity:
❑ Public sector (International, National, Regional & Local levels)
❑International affairs(UN, AU, ECOWAS)
❑National affairs (Education, Health, Commerce, Finance, Transport, etc)
❑Local Government
 Cont.
❑Quasi-autonomous government institutions
❑Careers can also be followed in quasi-autonomous government
institutions namely: research institutions, universities, development
agencies, state parastatals (e.g.. CSIR, SSNIT, Energy, water, etc)
❑NGOs & Private sector
❑Careers can be followed in all areas of the private sector.
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

❑ THE MEANING, NATURE & SCOPE OF PA

❑ STRUCTURE OF GHANAIAN PA
❑ COMPARING BUSINESS & PUBLIC ADMIN
 Definition, nature and scope of PA
❑Public Administration covers a very wide range of issues which
makes it difficult to find a single worldwide accepted, definition
for it.
❑Dwight Waldo “no single, and authoritative definition of public
administration is possible”.
❑This is due to its eclectic nature –
❑It has a broad scope and so debatable
❑The definitions are often skewed depending on who does it –
sociologist, economist, psychologist, and political scientist.
❑To properly understand it therefore implies that one has to
view it from different dimensions.
What is public?
❑Something that is open
❑Communal
❑Unrestricted
❑Easy access
❑Berkley and Rouse in their book “The Craft of Public
Administration” see public simply as the citizens of a given
area i.e., the people of a town or country.
❑Public in general terms refer to something that belongs to
the people as a whole.
What is administration?
❑Administer originated from Latin word – ministiare meaning to
serve
❑Administer means to look after or manage the affairs of people
❑‘The organization and direction of human and material
resources to achieved desire ends.’ (Pfifner and Prethus – Public
Administration)
❑‘Consist of systematic ordering of affair and the calculated use
of resources aimed at making those things happen which we
want to happen and simultaneously preventing developments
that fail to square with our intentions.’ (Fritz Morstein Marx 1946)
 Cont.
❑There is technology of social relationship without which technology of
physical sciences could not function. And that is administration.
❑The technology of ensuring harmonious combination of men and
material resources to produce expected results is what we call
administration.
❑ It is therefore a collective activity towards the realization of defined
goal.
❑ A collective activity involving rational organization & mgmt of men &
material.
❑This may occur at all levels ranging from social clubs, individual
businesses levels, corporations, institutions like the university, the state
etc.
❑Administration may therefore be private – club, companies, or public –
state, regional, local government levels
 Cont.
❑Administration generally refers to the day-to-day
management of activities to achieve a goal.
❑Administration is to care for or to look after
people, to manage affairs (E.N. Gladden).
❑Herbert Simeon et al, define administration in an
opening sentence as ‘When two men cooperate to
roll a stone that neither could have moved alone,
the rudiments of administration have appeared’.
❑Thus administration was born when two people
decided to take an action from one place to
another.
Cont.
❑This means that for any two people to take action for
a fruitful aim, the following ingredient of
administration must be in place.
❑ -People - must be present and agree to take the
action
❑-Action - A step must be taken regarding what to do.
❑-Interaction - The two must agree to relate and
combine their efforts to take action.
❑Administration also refers to the activities of group of
persons cooperating among goals.
 Contd.
❑The administrator is therefore concerned with a cooperative
activity. They interact with others to accomplish tasks.
❑This is not to say that every activity that involves the
interaction of people is administration.
❑Administration in itself is a process which involves human
beings jointly engaged in working toward common goals.
❑Administration therefore takes place in human society.
❑When ever an activity involves more than two people it
becomes complex.
❑ To be an expert in administration one should know the
principles.
❑This principles work in any form of administration.
What is Public Administration?
❑It is the action part of government, the means by which the purposes
and goals of governments are achieved.
❑May be described as representing the executive arm of government
❑It is centrally concerned with the organization of government policies
and programs as well as the behavior of officials (usually non-elected)
formally responsible for their conduct
❑It houses the implementation of government policy and an academic
discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil
servants for this work
❑As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal... is
to advance management and policies so that government can function.“
❑"the management of public programs”
❑the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day"
 Selected definitions of PA
❑Grover (1998: 10) stated that public administration is the process by
which resources are marshaled and then used to cope with the problems
facing a political community;
❑David (1986: 6) sees it as “the use of managerial, political and legal
theories and processes to fulfill legislative, executive and judicial
governmental mandates for the provision of regulatory and service
functions for the society as a whole or for some segments of it”.
❑Leonard (1955: 3), broadly defines it as “consisting of all those
operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement of
public policy”.
Cont.
❑"Public Administration is detailed and systematic execution of
public law. Every particular application of law is an act of
administration" - L.D. White.
❑Public Administration is "the art and science of management
applied to the affairs of the State" - D. Waldo.
❑"By Public Administration is meant in common usage the
activities of the executive branches of the National, State and
Local Governments'' - H. Simon.
❑It is a means by which the policy decisions made by the
political decision makers are carried out.
❑It is the action part of the government, the means by which
the purposes and goals of the government are realized.
Cont.
❑Public Administration is decision making, planning the work to be
done, formulating objectives and goals, working with the legislature
and citizen organizations to gain public support and funds for
governmental programmes, establishing and revising organization,
directing and supervising employees, providing leadership,
communicating and receiving communications, determining work
methods and procedures, appraising performance, exercising controls
and other functions performed by government executives and
supervisors.
 Cont.
❑Public administration may be defined as the action part of
government the means by which the purposes and the goals of
government are realized.
❑Inferring from the above definition several others, Ghana's public
administration system is therefore the part of government through
which the government of Ghana actualizes whatever vision, goals,
objectives it sets for itself.
❑Public administration is therefore the management of the scarce
resources, that is, financial, human and material of a community by
elected and unelected public officials to benefit the community in
question.
❑Public administration is an art, which strategically combines these
resources to maximize their utilization in the interest of the citizens
within a governed jurisdiction.
Characteristics of PA
❑The 'Public' aspect of Public Administration gives the discipline a
special character. It may be viewed to formally mean government. So
❑Public Administration is government administration, the focus being
specifically on public bureaucracy.
❑It is a cooperative group effort in a public setting.
❑It covers all three branches –legislative, executive and judicial - and
their interrelationships.
❑It has an important role in the formulation of public policy, and is
thus a part of the political process.
❑It is different in significant ways from private administration.
❑It is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals
in providing services to the community.
 Domain and scope of PA
❑Public Administration is the complex of governmental
activities that are undertaken in public interest at different
levels such as the central, regional/state /provincial and
local.
❑The discipline of PA aims at a systematic study of these
activities.
❑It is widely acknowledged that the scope of the discipline
of PA has to be wide enough to respond to the complex
social realities of today.
PA has 5 major concerns namely:
❑Promoting Publicness
❑Policy Sensitivity
❑Implementation Capability
❑Shared understanding of social reality
❑Administration as a learning experience
Promoting Publicness
❑In a democratic society, PA has to be explicitly 'public' in
terms of democratic values, power-sharing and openness.
❑This calls for a new climate in the bureaucracy.
❑PA in practice has to absorb the principles of democracy as
an overarching form of the government.
Policy Sensitivity
❑As governments are called upon to play increasingly active
roles in times of rapid changes and social crisis, innovative
and timely policy formulation becomes a prime necessity in
the government.
❑This would necessitate a new preparedness within the
administrative set-up that had hardly any precedence in the
past.
Implementation Capability
❑Effective policy implementation is a test kit for the coping
capacity of the governments in today's complex situations.
❑Goals have to be clearly set; planning, programming and
projections have to be followed step by step; and project
management in all its ramifications has to have top priority
in government.
❑The strength of administration and the legitimacy of the
government itself depend more and more on the
administration's capacity to deliver the goods in time and in
response to the demands of the citizens.
Shared understanding of social reality
❑The capacity to cope with social and administrative
complexity can be enhanced by a deliberate policy of
organizational openness.
❑The underlying assumption here is that the administration
needs to understand the diverse interests and influences.
❑In today's complex administrative world, construction of
administrative reality has to be based on the shared
understanding of its actors such as the top and middle
managers, the employees, and the citizens.
❑The centralized bureaucracy does not fit in with the
contemporaneous socio-administrative reality.
 Administration as a learning experience
❑Shifting social reality and complex environmental
conditions impose certain rigors on PA today.
❑Rusted 'principles' of the past or the administrative recipes
of bureaucratic routine are no longer appropriate tools for
analysis and problem solving.
❑Public Administration in modern time has to be proactive,
innovative, risk-taking, and often adventurous.
❑This new, entrepreneurial zeal is expected to transform
'bureaucracy' into a new kind of learning organization, more
adaptable to changes, more open to new insights and
innovations, and more accessible to the clientele.
Cont.
❑These are the major concerns of government in all democratic
countries.
❑In the developing countries like Ghana, these have added
significance, as PA has a pivotal role to play in the socio-economic
reconstruction of post-colonial societies and post military regimes.
❑The discipline cannot live in isolation but has to develop in close
association with the dynamic social changes.
❑As a body of knowledge, it must develop explanatory strength to
analyze socio-economic complexity and assist in the ushering in of a
new society free of exploitation and corruption, human misery,
poverty and deprivation as well as discrimination on basis of gender,
ethnicity, religion and other demographic factors of the past era.
Comparing Public and Private Admin
- similarities
❑Set up by people
❑Some element of profit making
❑Government intrusion (of late, investment by the state)
❑Policy implementation
❑Established to achieve goals
❑Hire people
❑Fire People
 Differences
❑Different purposes. Private administration is for profit making
whereas public administration is to serve the interest of the of the
public
❑Different structures. In private administration decision making group
is very small usually limited to the board of directors but in public
administration decision making group is larger and decision making is
complex
❑Hiring and firing. The hiring and firing of workers in private
administration is swift and merciless. In public administration it is slow
and humane.
❑Accountability. Unlike business administration, the public
administrator is accountable to the public for every aspect of his or her
official activity
 Cont.
❑Security of tenure. officials are employed till death or
retirement
❑Political Direction: Public administration is political and
takes place in a political context, while private administration
is non-political.
❑Public Gaze: All the actions of public administration are
exposed to wide public gaze because the public closely
watches it. This does not happen in private administration.
❑Large-scale administration: Public administration is large-
scale administration than any big private concern in terms of
size, complexity and diversity of activities.
Cont.
❑Monopolistic and Essential Services: In the field of public
administration, there is generally a monopoly of the
government and does not allow private parties to compete
with it. E.g. national security, foreign relations, law and
order, mint and currency.
❑Officials remain Anonymous: In public administration,
even the most senior officials remain anonymous and their
identity is not disclosed. This is so because whatever they
do, they do in the name of the government and not in their
own name.
 Public Vs. Private Sector
Point of Public Sector Private Sector
Difference
Goals/ Seeking general welfare of all citizens Provide goods for those who can afford.
Objectives To increase the wealth of capital providers
Types of orgs MDAs, MMDAs, Board & Sole trading, partnership, limited liability
commissions and other parastatal org companies
Ownership Government on behalf of the citizens Private individuals, capital providers

Legal Basis Act of parliament/ L.I Relevant laws such as Companies

Code, IPPA etc

Funding Tax revenue/non-tax revenue Share capital contributions and other

private funding

Expenditure No distinction between revenue Clear distinction between revenue exp

exp & capital exp. & capital exp
 Cont.
Point of diff Public Private

Delivered to citizens through Delivered to private contributors

parliament of capital through their Boards.
Accountability

Financial Statement Appropriation alc, Rev & Exp Prepares no appropriation alc,
a/c and others similar to private prepares T,P& L alc instead

Output Public goods & services Highly excludable goods

&services

Product pricing Marginal pricing/subvention Full cost plus margin

The past era?
❑Ghana, a country of 59 years of political freedom, gaining
political independence from the British colonial rule.
❑We have experimented with 4 different constitutions;
❑However, 21 out of the 59 years of the country was ruled
under military dictatorship and decrees leaving only 38
years of constitutional administration.
❑24 years of 38 occurring after 1992
The PA System in Ghana
❑The Constitution of the Fourth Republic (1992) defines the
overall structure of the public administration system in
Ghana as possessing the ff features:
❑An elected President for a maximum tenure of 2 terms of
4 years per term.
❑A 4-year term national Parliament/Legislature
❑A local government system with elected Assemblies
spread across all the 10 geographic regions.
 Cont.
❑10 Regional Coordinating Councils to represent the interests
of the central government in the regions.
❑216 Local government units
❑An independent Judiciary.
❑A professional and impartial Civil Service.
❑A National Electoral Commission
❑A Media Commission which upholds the freedom of the press
and maintains standards of objectivity in reporting.
❑A Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice
which protects citizens from “maladministration” and/or
injustices.
Cont.
❑In sum Ghana’s governance system is made up broadly by
four main branches:
❑the executive branch,
❑the legislature,
❑the judiciary and
❑the independent commissions.
 What is public service in Ghana?
❑We may defined the public service in Ghana to comprise the
totality of organizational processes and human resources
employed by the state to transact the business of governance.
❑In this sense, we are avoiding the often confusing equation
of the public service with only the civil service.

❑The service may be categorized as:

❑Civil service and other services
❑State-owned-enterprise (SOE) sector
❑Hybrid sector
category (a); 15 different public organizations
❑the Civil Service,
❑the Judicial Service,
❑the Audit Service,
❑the Education Service,
❑the Prisons Service,
❑the Parliamentary Service,
❑the Health Service,
❑the Statistical Service,
❑the National Fire Service,
❑the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service,
❑the Internal Revenue Service,
❑the Police Service,
❑the Immigration Service;
❑the Legal Service; and recently
❑****the Local Government Service
 The Civil Service in Ghana
❑This is one of the most visible parts of the Ghanaian PA system which
fits into the classical definition of the Weberian bureaucratic
construct.
❑A major feature of the civil service is its almost direct day-to-day
relationship with the government of the day.
❑It is the closest public institution to the elected officials and may be
described as the secretariat of the executive arm of government.
Chapter 14, Article 190,
❑The 1992 constitution lists the civil service as one of the 14 public-
service institutions of Ghana.
❑It comprises service in the Civil Offices of Government in both central
and local governments (PNDCL 327).
❑It is made up of ministries, departments and agencies, regional
coordinating councils and district assemblies.
State-owned-enterprise (SOE)
❑This sector of the public service evolved when past
governments decided to engage the service in essentially
direct economic activities.
❑Institutions here took the character of the private
business corporation, in which, unlike the civil service, a
considerable amount of autonomy and flexibility in action
is required.
Hybrid sector:
❑Institutions in this sector combine some of the
characteristics of the Civil Service and SOEs.
❑They are mostly public organizations but possess a large
measure of autonomy in several areas of their operations.
examples include the public universities, which possess a
large measure of autonomy in significant areas of their
operations.
Public Administration vs.
Business Administration
❑The distinction between the public and the private sector is greatly
influenced by the political philosophy of each nation.
❑In the USA, for instance, the private sector plays a very important
role in the American economy and society and the public sector is in
many ways dependent on the private sector for the supply of goods
and services. Hence, the tendency in that country is toward a blurring
of lines rather than a distinct divergence of responsibilities.
❑In India, by contrast, the public sector is slowly emerging as the
dominant sector in the context of mixed economy. The steady
expansion of the public sector in India is systematically drawing a
sharper distinction between the public and private management.
 Similarities
❑Traditionally, considerations of general welfare has been
the common concern of both public and business
administration. This is because;
❑Private management can ignore the larger public interest
only at its peril.
❑At the other end, Public Administration can hardly ignore the
needs of efficient management as illustrated by private
management.
Differences : business focus
❑The major purpose of PA is to serve the public hence
beneficial welfare and, in specific cases public satisfaction
are the ends that PA must serve
❑In contrast, BA is basically oriented toward earning profit
for the business proprietors because inability to earn profit
drive a private enterprise out of business.
Legal framework
❑PA has to operate strictly according to law, rules and regulations.
❑Adherence to law brings in a degree of rigidity & operation in the
public sector.
❑There is always the fear of audit or accountability that acts as a
constraint on performance.
❑On the contrary BA is relatively free from such constraints of law
and regulations.
❑There are of course general laws regulating business, but individual
business firms have considerable flexibility to adapt their operations
to changing situations.
 Public scrutiny
❑The actions of PA are much more exposed to the public gaze.
❑An achievement rarely gets publicity, but a little fault
becomes widely publicized.
❑Organizations like the police, tax agencies etc are always on
their toes to make sure that their operations do not incur the
public wrath.
❑But this wide publicity is not to be found in business a
administration, nor is it so very closely watched by the public
and the media.
Treatment of beneficiaries
❑In PA, any show of discrimination or partiality is
prohibited and abhorred by the public.
❑PAs are therefore required to be very consistent and
impartial in their dealings with the public.
❑In BA, discrimination is freely practiced due to
competitive demands.
❑In choosing of products and in fixing prices, BA visibly
practices discrimination which is almost a part of business
culture.
Complexity of operations
❑PA, especially at higher levels of government, is exceedingly complex.
❑There are many pulls and pressures, many minds have to meet and
discuss, consultations go on in several rounds of meetings before
decisions are taken.
❑Activities in a given department have ramifications that spread over
several other departments.
❑By contrast, BA is much more well-knit and single-minded in
operation. There is much less complexity in organization & operations
& pressures are certainly almost non-existent.
❑Any unit of PA is tied up with network of allied public organizations
and has to work in close interaction with them.
❑BA by contrast, has more compactness, insularity and autonomy.
National responsibility
❑Finally, PA has overarching responsibilities in terms of nation-
building, and shaping the future society.
❑It is therefore, much more value oriented.
❑But Business organizations have to follow the guidelines laid down
by the public authorities.
End of part 1 of our introduction.

@kojo_baron
 UGBS 105

SOME BASIC CONCEPTS IN PUBLIC ADMIN.

 Local government:
❑Smaller decentralized political and administrative unit within a well-defined
geographical area that exercises transferred powers and functions from the central
government.
❑They are administrative offices that are smaller than a state, province or central
government.
❑They are semi-autonomous bodies:
❑The exercise legal powers by making bye laws
❑They make their decisions and implement them
❑ They are established by law [in Ghana PNDC Law 207 of 1988 and Local
Government Act (ACT 462) established the local government units].
❑There currently 2016 local government units in Ghana.
 Bureaucracy
❑The concept refers how administrative execution of legal rules in
an organization are organized especially in the public sector.

It is characterized with:
➢Standard procedure

➢Formal division of responsibility

➢Hierarchical and impersonal relationships

➢Organized to ensure the enforcement of universal rules

 Institutions:
❑Institutions according to Ostrom (1990) are sets of rules which are used
to determine who is eligible to make certain decisions in a particular
arena.
❑They determine what;
❑Actions are allowed or constrained

❑Procedures are must be followed

❑Information must be provided

❑Pay-offs must be assigned to individuals etc

 Governance:
❑Can refer to the way society sets, organizes and manages the rules that guide
policy-making and implementation.
❑It may also be viewed as the traditions and the institutions by which authority in
a country is exercised for the common good.
❑It is a very broad concept that operates at all levels
❑It covers:
❑How society selects its leaders
❑How the leaders are monitored and replaced
❑the capacity of the government to effectively manage its resources and
implement sound policies
❑the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic
and social interactions among them etc.
 Good Governance
❑Governance is said to be “good” when it allocates and manages resources to
respond to collective problems.

❑Governance is also said to be “good” when it efficiently provides public goods of

necessary quality to its citizens.

❑Good governance is thus assessed based on the quantity and quality of the goods
and services provided by the state to citizens
 Civil Society
It refers to a population organized in associations voluntarily and independent
from the state.
It consists of organizations that citizens create and join on their own, without any
prompting or interference by government.
It main feature is that it is marked off from the state.
It includes interest based groups
➢democratic political parties; unions; business associations
➢charitable organizations
➢ social clubs
➢religious and
➢ ethnic based groups.
 Forms of Government
Authoritarianism
❑Refers to the system of governance where the form of social control is
characterized by strict adherence to the authority of the state or organization.

❑It normally uses oppression to maintain and enforce control

❑Fundamental human rights are sometimes abused by the state

Democracy:
A form of government where supreme power is vested in the people
and exercise directly or indirectly by representation

It involves:
➢Periodic free and fair elections
➢The rule of law
➢Separation of powers
➢Checks and balances
➢Guarantee of fundamental human rights etc.
 Autocracy
❑Refers to the rule by one person

❑One person exercises supreme governing authority

❑Such leaders may rely on institutions like the army, bureaucracy and loyal
individuals for advice but still has considerable latitude to make final decisions.

❑typical examples are Adolf Hitler

 Oligarchy
❑Refers to the rule by the few

❑Small number of individuals usually not more than 20 at the top of the ruling
elite share power among themselves through understanding and compromises

❑Contemporary China can be described as been ruled by a Communist Party

Oligarchies
 Totalitarianism
❑A form of authoritarianism in which the governments’ domination of politics,
the economy, and the society is virtually total.

❑The government controls and regulates almost every aspect of citizens’ life in
the state (the economy, religion, education, the media, culture, leisure activities).

❑The USSR under Stalin, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein are examples.
 Monarchy
❑A regime in which the crown exercises powerful and actual political power as
the head of state and government.
❑A constitutional monarchy is a regime in which the monarch is a head of state
but real decision making power is in the hands of other institutional authorities
such as legislators, the prime Minister, and other officials.
❑It is common in countries that once had powerful monarchies as a way of
preserving their historical traditions while radically diminishing the crown’s
actual power.
❑Contemporary monarchies include Belgium, Britain, Japan, Netherlands,
Norway, Denmark, Sweden.
 Communism
❑It is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization
based on common ownership of the means of production
❑Communist state is a state characterized by one party rule or one dominant party
the soviet union
❑The doctrine of the liberation of the proletariat
❑Proletariat- is that class in society which lives entirely on the sale of its labour
and does not make any profit from any kind of capital.
❑Their survival depends on the demand of labour (Frederick Engel)
END OF SLIDES
 Politics-Administration Dichotomy
❑Scope and Nature of Politics
❑ It has been difficult for scholars to find a universal definition for what politics is.
❑ However political scientists have found various ways to define the concept to highlight
its nature and what it involves.
❑ Politics as the art of possible
❑ Politics as the governing of men
❑ Politics as the struggle for power
❑ Politics as who gets what, when and how?
❑ Politics as the authoritative allocation of values
❑ Politics as State power
Politics as the Art of Possible
❑This definition was first attributed to Otto Von Bismarck of 1867
❑Politicians must possess some level of skills to enable them perform their responsibilities to the satisfaction of
their citizens.
❑The study of powers that shape, maintain and alter the direction of the state.
❑The law of powers govern the world of states as the law of gravity governs the physical world.
❑Improper application of powers is likely to result in failure to satisfy the needs of citizens
❑The definition of politics in terms of the need to have some level of skills and power to be able to succeed is not
peculiar to government.
❑ some level of power is required in the almost in all spheres for the pursuit of the achievement of goals eg.
Homes, churches, the market places schools etc.
 Politics as the Governing of Men
❑This definition in focused on the relation between the govern (rule) and the governed (ruled).
❑The complex nature of society contemporary had made it impossible to practice the Athenian system of
government.
❑Society involves two categories of people –one group assigned the responsibility to rule and the other submits to
be ruled
❑While one group rules, the other group must be satisfied to be ruled
❑The definition however did not distinguish between to who are engaged in governing the state and others who
govern other sectors like companies, churches, schools etc.
❑It did not explain what is meant by governing or to be governed.
 Politics as the Struggle for Power
❑Robert Dahl is associated with this.
❑All political activities involve power.
❑Power is the necessary tool required to exert influence and control
❑Even though politics invariably involves the use of power and influence, it does not necessarily mean that all
power and influence relationships could be described as political.
❑The relationship between husband and wife, parents and children, teachers and students etc. involves power but
are obvious not political.
 Politics as who gets what, when and how
❑Harold Lasswell defines politics as who gets what, when and how
❑Resources are own by the state
❑Politics involves the distribution of resources of a state to its citizens
❑Politicians determine how the resources are distributed, when they are distributed and who what a particular
resource is given to
❑But according to critics like Nnoli, there is nothing political about the distribution of resources
❑Whenever two or more people gather, the question of who gets what is likely to come up especially when the
gathering is of the same purpose.
 Politics as the Authoritative Allocation of Values
❑Politics as the Authoritative Allocation of Values (David Easton).

❑Politicians have power, control and influence based on their office

❑The office gives them the mandate to allocate (distribute) values (resources) for the citizens of the state

❑However distribution of values and resources alone can not be enough to paint the true picture of politics
 Politics as State Power
❑All leaders exercise certain powers as a result of their position or office
❑The difference between a religious leader and the president is the kind of power they have and can exercise
❑The president has state power
❑It is only politicians(the president) that have state power
❑Politics however is concern with the possession and exercise of state power
❑Politics can therefore be properly defined as All those activities directly or indirectly associated with the
seizure of state power, the consolidation of state power and the use of state power
 Administration
❑Administration generally refers to the day-to-day management of activities to achieve a goal.
❑Administration is to care for or to look after people, to manage affairs
❑Therefore administration simply means management of affairs.
❑ It involves such functions as planning, organizing, directing, staffing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting
(PODSCORB), in organizations.
 Politics-administration dichotomy
❑An organization can be referred to as a system of roles graded by authority.
❑Organization is a social unit of people that is structured and managed to meet a need or to pursue a collective goal
❑All organizations need policy makers(politicians) and implementers (administrators)
❑Policy is the political determinant of what government decides to do or not to do
❑Administration is the implementation of the policies decided on by government (politicians)
❑Administration is the channel through which public policy is realized
❑Should policy-making be seen as a separate activity from administration?
 similarities between politics and administration
❑In functional systems, both parties (politicians and administrators) interact at a point, which is normally at the
top where
❑Administrators also get involved in politics as drafters of legislation, co-workers of the minister, etc.
❑Both politicians and administrators seek to serve the public interest.
❑Both politicians and administrators depend on each other. Politicians use administrators to further their plans or
policies whilst administrators look up to politicians for brilliant careers.
❑Both try to find a balance between political accountability and administrative discretion.
Differences between politics and administration:
❑Politics is about the use of state power or the science of governing whereas administration is the science and art
of actualizing what government wants to do.
❑Politicians determine the ends (what ought to be done) whilst administrators devise the means (how to do it).
❑Hierarchically, politicians occupy the realm of authority and are constitutionally responsible for decision making
whilst the administrator serves only in an advisory capacity.
❑Politics is about the actions of elected representatives and their electorates whereas administration is about the
activities of professionals
❑Administration stresses technical factors but politics stresses values.
 Cont.
❑Politics is an area of change and unpredictability but administration is an area of stability and routine.
❑In dealing with clientele, politics seeks the interests of supporters whilst administration thrives on impartiality
of rule and processes
❑Administrators are appointed on the basis of qualification and examination whilst political influence goes into
the appointment of politicians.
❑Administrators are protected and restricted by a code of conventions, unlike politicians.
❑Administrators do not go to parliament for their stewardship but politicians do.
 Cont.
❑The big debate is between the orthodox view of politics-administration dichotomy and the modified view of
politics-administration dichotomy
❑To the orthodox scholars, policy-making and administration should remain two separate activities independent of
each other
❑Politicians decide what should be done through public-policy making while bureaucrats carry out the decisions of
the politicians
❑The model represents a superior-subordinate relationship
❑Politicians wield more powers than the administrator
❑Politics determine goals while administration ensures that those goals are met
❑Administration is to remain neutral politically therefore they cannot engage in public policy-making
 Cont.
❑Administrators rely on technical competence execute the decisions of politicians
❑They are protected against political pressures as the ac discretionary based on their
technical competence
❑Two main scholars are known to the ‘engineers’ behind the orthodox school of politics and
administration dichotomy.
❑They are Woodrow Wilson and Frank Goodnow
❑Woodrow Wilson in one of his books for instance, wrote “The field of administration is a
field of business. It is removed from the hurry and strife of politics”
❑Administration lies outside the spheres of politics
❑Administrative questions are not political questions
❑Even though politicians wield more powers than administrators, the should be allowed to
manipulate administrators
❑This can be done by strictly separating the two activities.
 The
Orthodox
view
❑The big debate is between the orthodox view of politics-administration
dichotomy and the modified view of politics-administration dichotomy
❑To the orthodox scholars, policy-making and administration should remain two
separate activities independent of each other
❑Politicians decide what should be done through public-policy making while
bureaucrats carry out the decisions of the politicians
❑The model represents a superior-subordinate relationship
❑Politicians wield more powers than the administrator
❑Politics determine goals while administration ensures that those goals are met
❑Administration is to remain neutral politically therefore they cannot engage in
public policy-making
 Co
nt.
❑Administrators rely on technical competence execute the decisions of politicians
❑They are protected against political pressures as the ac discretionary based on their
technical competence
❑Two main scholars are known to the ‘engineers’ behind the orthodox school of politics
and administration dichotomy.
❑They are Woodrow Wilson and Frank Goodnow
❑Woodrow Wilson in one of his books for instance, wrote “The field of administration is a
field of business. It is removed from the hurry and strife of politics”
❑Administration lies outside the spheres of politics
❑Administrative questions are not political questions
❑Even though politicians wield more powers than administrators, the should be allowed to
manipulate administrators
❑This can be done by strictly separating the two activities.
 The Modified Politics-Administration Dichotomy
❑ It is becoming increasing difficult to draw a line between policy making and
administration.
❑ It would therefore be folly to say that administrative officers should have
absolutely no hand in the formulation of policy(john Pfiffer).
❑ The orthodox view prohibits for instance local government officials from policy
side of government even though they always do(Montjoy & Watson).
❑ In practice administrators can participate in the policy process, exercise as
much discretion as will be allowed and still hold a clear line against
particularistic requests directed to them or to members of their staff.
 CONT.
❑In general, it is fair to conclude that the modified dichotomy model
permits public administrators to provide policy leadership to elected
officials
❑But elected officials should leave implementation and general
management questions to professional administrators
❑They constructed a version of the dichotomy that endorsed the
involvement of administrators in policy making but prohibited
council members from interfering in the management of the
government.
❑They did this by developing a distinction between politics and
administration on the one hand, and between policy and
administration on the other.
 The Partnership Model of the Dichotomy
❑This model focuses on the interconnectedness between politics (however defined) and administration.
❑It holds that administrators can and often do have great impact on policy making and that elected officials can
and often do have great impact on administration.
❑While the modified dichotomy model sanctions administrators venturing into policy making, the partnership
model not only sanctions that as well but also sanctions elected officials venturing into administration by being
involved in implementing and executing laws and policy.
 Cont.
❑Goodnow, perhaps moving from what he believed should ideally occur, noted that in practice actual political
necessity requires that there shall be harmony between the expression and execution of the state will.
❑To him this harmony can be obtained by sacrificing the independence of either politics or administration. Later
he indicated that while the function of politics has to do primarily with the expression of the state will, it has to
do secondarily with the execution of that will.
❑This indicates that the separation between the two must somehow be bridged, even if the independence of one
or the other is sacrificed.
❑e later concluded that the executive function must of necessity be subordinated to the function of politics.
Goodnow stopped short of arguing for a full partnership, because he believed that political control of
administration must be mediated.
❑For example, the general conduct, but not concrete actions of those who exercise administrative functions
should be subject to control.
Complementarity of Politics & Administration
❑Svara is one of the scholars who emphasize the complementarity of politics and administration.
❑This complementarity stresses interdependency, reciprocal influence, extensive interaction between elected
officials and administrators, along with recognition of the need for distinct roles and political supremacy.
❑A basic principle of this model stresses that elected officials and public administrators join together in pursuit of
sound governance.
❑Although other parts of Svara's definition also emphasize components of the modified dichotomy model, his
complementarity model most heavily emphasizes the partnership between politics and administration.
❑He argues that those who study the relationship of elected and appointed officials in a democracy should
examine the impact each has on the other.
❑This notion of complementarity is in line with the systems model, which holds that politics and administration
are seen as individual subsystems within the larger political system.
❑ Implying both have roles to play in the political system, which are complementary.
Conclusion
❑Orthodoxy
❑Modified
❑Partnership
❑Complementarity
INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

BUREAUCRACY
Max Weber 1864 - 1920
 The Theory of Bureaucracy
❑Max Weber (1864–1920) wrote at the turn of the twentieth century, when
Germany was undergoing its industrial revolution.
❑To help Germany manage its growing industrial enterprises at a time when it
was striving to become a world power, Weber developed the principles of
bureaucracy
❑Bureaucracy may be defined as a formal system of organization and
administration designed to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
❑A bureaucratic system of administration is based on five principles
 Bureaucracy: Max Weber
❑He was Sociologist and Political Economist
❑It was untapped relevant theory except in Germany
❑It was not translated until 1922 and was still done in a fragmented and
disjointed manner
❑It was initially used out of context and misinterpreted.
 Bureaucracy abused?
❑The terms bureaucrat, bureaucratic, and bureaucracy are clearly invectives.
❑Officials rarely address themselves as bureaucrats or their methods of
management bureaucratic.
❑These words are mostly applied with a negative connotation.
❑They always imply a reproachful criticism of persons, institutions, or
procedures.
❑The abusive implication of the terms in question is not limited to Ghana an
other African countries. It is a universal phenomenon
 The concept of Domination
❑Probability that certain specific commands will be obeyed by a group of persons.
❑The claims to legitimacy.
❑Does not always imply any form of obedience of exercising influence and
authority.
❑But there must be a minimum of voluntary compliance.
❑There must be an interest to obey -
 Types of Authority
❑There are three pure types of legitimate domination which is based on three
distinct grounds namely:
❑Rational ground – rest on a belief in the legality of enacted rules and the right
of those elevated to authority under such rules to issue commands
❑Traditional grounds – rest on an established belief in the sanctity of
immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of those exercising authority under
them, or
❑Charismatic grounds – rest on devotion to the exceptional sanctity, heroism or
exemplary character of an individual person, and of the normative the
normative patterns or ordeal revealed or ordained by him.
Three types of Authority
❑The above grounds translate into three types of authority. These are:
❑Traditional authority –
❑Rational-legal authority –
❑Charismatic authority –
Cont.
❑Each authority has its own administrative structure
❑But only the traditional and legal rational are stable enough to
provide a firm foundation for a permanent administrative structure
❑ And the traditional structures are gradually given way to rational-
legal structures
❑Charismatic authority arise in periods of instability and crises when
individuals believed to possess special gift of mind and spirit emerge
to offer extra-ordinary measures.
 Routinization of charisma
❑For charismatic authority to persist, it must move towards one of the other two
stable forms.
❑To means more participants are included in the leadership and
❑Voluntary support gives way to systematic one
❑Relationships move from personal to a more formal and impersonal relations
 Principles of bureaucracy
❑In a bureaucracy, a manager’s formal authority derives from the position he
or she holds in the organization.
❑Authority is the power to hold people accountable for their actions and to
make decisions concerning the use of organizational resources.
❑Authority gives managers the right to direct and control their subordinates’
behavior to achieve organizational goals.
❑In a bureaucratic system of administration, obedience is owed to a manager,
not because of any personal qualities that he or she might possess— such as
personality, wealth, or social status—but because the manager occupies a
position that is associated with a certain level of authority and responsibility
 Principle 2:
❑In a bureaucracy, people should occupy positions because of their
performance, not because of their social standing or personal contacts.
❑This principle was not always followed in Weber’s time and is often
ignored today.
❑Some organizations and industries are still affected by social networks in
which personal contacts and relations, not job-related skills, influence
hiring and promotional decisions.
 Principle 3:
❑The extent of each position’s formal authority and task responsibilities, and its
relationship to other positions in an organization, should be clearly specified.
❑When the tasks and authority associated with various positions in the
organization are clearly specified, managers and workers know what is expected
of them and what to expect from each other.
❑Moreover, an organization can hold all its employees strictly accountable for
their actions when each person is completely familiar with his or her
responsibilities.
 Principle 4:
❑So that authority can be exercised effectively in an organization, positions
should be arranged hierarchically, so employees know whom to report to and
who reports to them.
❑Managers must create an organizational hierarchy of authority that makes it
clear who reports to whom and to whom managers and workers should go if
conflicts or problems arise.
❑This principle is especially important in the armed forces, and other
organizations that deal with sensitive issues involving possible major
repercussions.
❑It is vital that managers at high levels of the hierarchy be able to hold
subordinates accountable for their actions.
Principle 5:
❑Managers must create a well-defined system of rules, standard operating
procedures, and norms so that they can effectively control behavior within an
organization.
❑Rules are formal written instructions that specify actions to be taken under
different circumstances to achieve specific goals.
❑ Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are specific sets of written
instructions about how to perform a certain aspect of a task.
❑A rule might state that at the end of the workday employees are to leave their
machines in good order, and a set of SOPs then specifies exactly how they
should do so, itemizing which machine parts must be oiled or replaced.
 Cont.
❑Norms are unwritten, informal codes of conduct that prescribe how people
should act in particular situations.
❑For example, an organizational norm in a restaurant might be that waiters
should help each other if time permits.
❑Rules, SOPs, and norms provide behavioral guidelines that improve the
performance of a bureaucratic system because they specify the best ways to
accomplish organizational tasks.
 Cont.
❑Companies such as customer oriented businesses have developed extensive
rules and procedures to specify the types of behaviors that are required of their
employees, such as, “Always greet the customer with a smile.”
❑Weber believed that organizations that implement all five principles will
establish a bureaucratic system that will improve organizational performance.
 Cont.
❑The specification of positions and the use of rules and SOPs to regulate
how tasks are performed make it easier for managers to organize and
control the work of subordinates.
❑Similarly, fair and equitable selection and promotion systems improve
managers’ feelings of security, reduce stress, and encourage organizational
members to act ethically and further promote the interests of the
organization.
Features of ideal type of bureaucracy
❑A formal hierarchical structure: Each level controls the level below and is controlled by the
level above. A formal hierarchy is the basis of central planning and centralized decision making
❑Organization by functional specialty: Work is to be done by specialists, and people are
organized into units based on the type of work they do or skills they have
❑Rules governing performance
❑Separation of personal from official property and rights
❑Recruitment is based on technical competence
❑Security of tenure
❑Promotion by merit and/or seniority
Advantages of Bureaucracy
❑Order
❑Predictability
❑Stability
❑Professionalism
❑Standardization and
❑Consistency
 Bureaucratic Dysfunctions
❑According to R. Merton Bureaucracies have inherent dysfunction and
pathological elements that make them inefficient in operations.
❑Bureaucracies encourage blind conformity – exert constant pressure on people
to be methodical and disciplined to conform to patterns of obligation.
❑The double bind of bureaucracy – one cannot get a job without experience but
there cannot be experience without having a job.
 Cont.
❑The structure stresses depersonalized relations, and power and authority gained by virtue of
organizational position rather than by thought or action.
❑Implies that ideas and opinions are valued not according to their intrinsic merit but according
to one’s rank/title/grade/status.
❑But is it a fact that bosses are smatter than their subordinates?
❑Sometimes, managers allow rules and SOPs—“bureaucratic red tape”—to become so
cumbersome that decision making becomes slow and inefficient and organizations are unable to
change.
❑When managers rely too much on rules to solve problems and not enough on their own skills
and judgment, their behavior becomes inflexible.
❑Slow decision making due to strict application of rules
❑Administrators become so powerful and can obstruct administrative processes to achieve their
personal interest
conclusion
❑Definition
❑Domination
❑Authority
❑Principles
❑Features
❑Advantages
❑Limitation
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ADMININISTRATION

DEFINITIONS, CONCEPTS, SCOPE, IMPORTANCE OF

LOCAL GOVERNMENT, STRUCTURE
 Definition
❑It refers to specific institutions or entities created by national constitutions (Brazil,
Denmark, France, India, Italy, Japan, Sweden), by state constitutions (Australia, the
United States), by ordinary legislation of a higher level of central government (New
Zealand, the United Kingdom, most countries), by provincial or state legislation
(Canada, Pakistan), or by executive order (China) to deliver a range of specified services
to a relatively small geographically delineated area. Shah & Shah (2006)
❑In other words, it refers to institutions or entities created by the constitution,
ordinary legislation or by executive order to deliver specific services to a smaller
geographical delineation.
❑To Adeyemo (2005), local government “is an administrative agency through which
control and authority relates to the people at the grassroots or periphery”.
 What is local governance?
❑Local governance comprises a set of institutions, mechanisms and processes through
which citizens and their groups can articulate their interests and needs, mediate their
differences, and exercise their rights and obligations at the local level.
❑Local governance emphasizes the need to look beyond the narrow perspective of
legal frameworks and local government entities.
❑It seeks to include the multiplicity of formal and informal relationships between
different actors in development (e.g. local government, the private sector, associations,
de‐concentrated agencies, CSOs) that shape and influence the output and effectiveness
of political and administrative systems at a sub‐national level.
 Cont.
❑Local governance is a broader concept and is defined as the formulation and
execution of collective action at the local level.
❑Local governance comprises a set of institutions, mechanisms and processes
through which citizens and their groups can articulate their interests and needs,
mediate their differences, and exercise their rights and obligations at the local
level. UNDP (2004)
 building blocks of good local governance
❑The building blocks of good local governance are many:

❑citizen participation,
❑partnerships among key actors at the local level,
❑capacity of local actors across all sectors,
❑multiple flows of information,
❑institutions of accountability, and
❑a pro‐poor orientation
 Introduction
❑Local governments in Ghana play very important roles in administration and development at the
local areas.
❑The 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana provides for “Decentralization and Local
Government” that creates a framework for citizens’ participation in decision-making and local
governance.
❑The Decentralization Policy of Ghana devolves power, functions and responsibility as well as
human and financial resources from the Central Government to the district level.
❑It also establishes major areas of relationship between the Local and Central Government.
❑The Local Government in Ghana has a long history, which predates colonialism.
❑During the colonial era, the native authorities were used to facilitate communication and
decision-making in their areas of jurisdiction.
Cont.
❑After independence, successive governments implemented various forms of
Decentralization and Local Government policies but the current Decentralization Policy was
initiated in 1988.
❑Ghana’s decentralization process as enshrined in the Constitution designates District
Assemblies as the highest political, legislating, budgeting and planning authority at the local
level.
❑The Local Government Act (Act 462) of 1993 reinforces the constitutional provisions.
❑To facilitate a holistic approach to the decentralization process, various structures were
created at the sub-national level with the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) as a
coordinating body.
❑Below the RCC are the Metropolitan or Municipal or District Assemblies (MMDAs) and the
Sub-district structures .
 Structure of the Local Government System
❑Conventionally, Ghana’s sub-national governance structures are characterized as a
three-tier structure created initially by PNDC Law 207 and subsequently refined by the
1992 Constitution and Local Government Act, 462 of 1993.
❑These structures operate at the regional, district and sub-district levels (NDPC, 2000)
and consist of Regional Coordinating Councils on the first tier, Metropolitan or Municipal
or District Assemblies on the second tier, and Urban or Town or Zonal or Area Councils in
addition to Unit Committees on the third tier.
❑However, in practice, Unit Committees represent the lowest and basic unit in the
subsidiarity chain upon which all the other structures including the Urban or Town or
Area Councils are built, thus making the local governance arrangement a four-tier
structure instead of the three.
Cont.
❑The Local Government system in Ghana therefore has the following
❑structure:
❑Regional Coordinating Council
❑Four-tier Metropolitan Assembly
❑Three-tier Municipal or District Assembly
❑Urban or Town or Area or Zonal Council
❑Unit Committee
❑In all, 10 Regional Coordinating Councils
 Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs)
❑The Regional Coordinating Councils represent the highest level of Local Government in
Ghana and are established in each of the 10 regions of the country.
❑The RCC consists of the Regional Minister (the chairperson), his deputies, the Presiding
Member of each District Assembly (DA2) and the Chief Executive of each district in the
region, as well as two chiefs from the regional house of chiefs and the regional heads of
decentralized departments, who have no voting rights (LG Act 462 of 1993).
❑According to Act 462, the RCC is an administrative and coordinating rather than
political or policy-making body.
❑As stated in the Act, its functions are to:
❑Monitor, coordinate and evaluate the performance of the DAs in the region,
❑Monitor the use of all monies allocated to the DAs by any agency of the Central Government,
❑Review and coordinate public service generally in the region,
❑Resolve any conflict between a District Assembly and an agency of Central Government,
public corporation, statutory body, Non-governmental Organizations and individuals,
 Cont.
❑Provide security, including managing conflicts within the region, settling chieftaincy, tribal,
land and religious disputes, Coordinate district development plans and programmes
❑and ensure that these plans and programmes are compatible with national development
objectives, Integrate economic, spatial and sectoral plans of ministries and sector agencies
and ensure that these plans are compatible with national development objectives.
❑The last stipulation creates opportunity for the RCC to exercise power, albeit implicitly, over
the assemblies in the formulation of plans for the provision of basic infrastructure, under the
remit of integrating sectoral and spatial plans.
Metropolitan/Municipal/District Assemblies (MMDAs)
❑Below the Regional Coordinating Council is the Assembly, variously called the Metropolitan or
Municipal or District Assemblies.
❑The Local Government Act of 1993, Act 462 empowers district assemblies in Ghana as the
fulcrum of local governance.
❑On the basis of demographic conditions and settlement characteristics, local authorities are
distinguished between Metropolitan or Municipal or District Assemblies.
❑The Act stipulates the classification on population and constitutive settlement characteristics
as follows:
❑A Metropolitan Assembly is a LG. unit or areas with population over 250,000,
❑A Municipal Assembly is a one town assembly with population over 95,000,
❑A District Assembly is a group settlement with a minimum population of 75,000 and a
maximum of 95,000.
Cont.
❑As these demographic and settlement characteristics change, the President is empowered by
Act 462 to make appropriate changes.
❑As a result, since the inception of this decentralization concept in 1988, the numbers of
districts and their characterizations have changed.
❑At the start, there were a total of 110 local authorities comprising 3 Metropolitan, 4
Municipal and 103 DAs.
❑It increased to 148 and then to 170 in 2007 LG comprising 6 Metros, 38 Muns and 126 DAs .
❑We currently have 216 LG
❑A Metropolitan or Municipal or District Assembly is: Created as the pivot of administrative
and developmental decision-making in the district and is the basic unit of government
administration
Cont.
❑It performs deliberative, legislative as well as executive functions, established as
a monolithic structure to which is assigned the responsibility of bringing about
integration of political, administrative and development support needed to
achieve a more equitable allocation of power, wealth and geographically-
dispersed development in Ghana,
❑Constituted as the planning authority for the district.
The structure
RCC
1.1 Metropolitan Municipal District
Assembly Assembly
Assembly

Sub-Metro

Council
Council Council

Unit Committees
 In sum
❑The Local Government system in Ghana therefore has the following structure:
❑Regional Coordinating Council
❑Four-tier Metropolitan Assembly
❑Three-tier Municipal or District Assembly
❑Urban or Town or Area or Zonal Council
❑Unit Committee
 The structure of the Assembly
❑According to the Local Government Act 462 of 1993, a District Assembly consists of
the following members:
❑The District Chief Executive,
❑Two-third of the members directly (70%) elected by universal adult suffrage,
❑The Members of Parliament (MPs) representing constituencies within the district,
❑Not less than 30% of the members appointed by the President in consultation with
traditional authorities and interest groups in the district.
❑Section 10(3) of the Local Government Act of 1993, Act 462 summarizes the functions
of a District Assembly as administrative, legislative, executive, planning and rating
authority.
The Sub-metropolitan Councils
❑The Sub-metropolitan Councils, which are divided into electoral areas, consist
of not less than 25 and not more than 30 members, made up of all elected
members of the Assembly in that Sub-metropolitan Assembly and as such other
persons resident in the Sub-metropolitan Assembly appointed by the President.
Sub-district Political and Administrative
Structures
❑ Ideally, the Sub-district structures constitute the last tier of Ghana’s Local
Government system. describes these structures as subordinate bodies of the District
Assemblies.
❑They are constituted by the Sub-metropolitan DCs, Urban or Town or Zonal or Area
Councils, and Unit Committees.
❑The components of the Sub-district structures as discussed by Act 462 are as follows:
❑Sub-metropolitan District Councils The Sub-metropolitan District Councils are structures
immediately below the Metropolitan Assemblies.
❑Their conception is based on the principle of subsidiarity and in recognition of the large size
of the metropolitan local authorities. It enables the city administrators to become more
effective.
 Urban Councils
❑Urban Councils are created for settlements with populations above 15,000.
❑They consist of not less than 25 and not more than 30 members made up of not more
than 8 persons elected from among the members of the relevant DA, not more than 12
representatives from the Unit Committee in the area of authority of the Urban Council
and not more than 10 persons ordinarily resident in the urban area.

❑The settlements are usually cosmopolitan in character, with urbanization and

management problems, though not of the same scale associated with the metropolis.
❑The problem with this nomenclature is that it blurs the lines in defining what is urban
and what is not.
Zonal Councils
❑Zonal Councils are established for settlements with population of 3,000.
❑This is based on the Electoral Commission’s criteria of commonality of interest
which include population of 3,000 and identifiable streets, landmarks, as
boundaries.
❑It consists of not less than 15 and not more than 20 members made up of not
more than 5 persons elected from among the members of the relevant
Municipal Assembly, not more than 10 representatives from the Unit
Committees and not more than 5 persons ordinarily resident in the zone.
Town and Area Councils
❑These are found in the Metropolitan Assemblies and District Assemblies.
❑In the District Assemblies, Town Councils are established for settlements with
populations between 5,000 and 15,000.
❑Area Councils exist for a number of settlements or villages which are grouped
together but whose individual settlements have populations of less than 5,000.
❑They cover areas with predominantly rural populations and in some cases can
be identified with spheres of influence of a particular traditional authority.
❑They are essentially rallying points of local enthusiasm in support of a new Local
 Unit Committees
❑The Unit Committees are at the lowest level and form the basic unit of the
Local Government structure.
❑A unit is normally a settlement or a group of settlements with a population of
between 500–1,000 in the rural areas, and a higher population (1,500) for the
urban areas.
❑Unit Committees are expected to play the important roles for enforcement and
mobilization matters since they are closer to the people.
❑In theory, the Unit Committees provide structured mechanisms of
representation, participation and accountability from
 Functions of the Urban/Town/Zonal/Area Councils
❑The functions of the Urban or Town or Zonal or Area Councils include the following:
❑To enumerate and keep records of all rateable persons and properties in the urban area,
zone or town,
❑To assist any person authorized by the District Assembly to collect revenues due to the
Assembly,
❑To recommend to the Assembly, the naming of all streets in its area of authority and all
buildings to be numbered,
❑ To plant trees and to erect tree guards to protect them so that streets are not unduly
obstructed,
❑To prevent and control fire outbreaks including bushfires,
❑ To prepare annual budgets of revenue and recurrent, as well as, prepare development
budget of the Urban or Town Council for the approval by the assemblies.
Decentralized Departments of the Assembly

❑The Local Government Act 462 of 1993 establishes 16 departments of

Metropolitan Assemblies, 13 departments of Municipal Assemblies and 11
departments of District Assembly.
❑The decentralized departments perform the technical function and
therefore provide the technical expertise for local level development
❑the view is that decentralized structures offer greater opportunities for
participation and subject public officials to popular control.
 Qualification
❑For an ordinary citizen to be elected, he or she must be a citizen of Ghana, 18
years old, ordinarily a resident in the district and paid up on the taxes and rates.
❑By law, individuals must also stand without association to any political party.
❑Elections to the District Assemblies are conducted by secret ballot using the
first-past-the-post system.
❑Special in the Ghanaian system, is the way in which the Intermediate Tier
Councils and the Unit Committees have been designed to enhance and extend
citizens’ participation in the local political processes.
 Disqualification

❑Members of the District Electorate can make a complaint about the conduct of
a DA member or official, which is then considered by the Public Relations and
Complaints Committee, chaired by the Presiding Member.
❑If upheld, such complaints can lead to a district referendum, organized by the
Electoral Commission to decide whether the DA member should be stripped off
his or her position.
 Committees of District Assemblies
❑In the performance of its functions, the DA works through
❑the Executive Committee and its subsidiary committees of
❑development planning,
❑social services,
❑works,
❑finance and administration,
❑justice and security and others.
Types of Meetings: Inaugural Meetings
❑An Inaugural Meeting is the first meeting of an Assembly following every local
level election to inaugurate members of the Assembly.
❑This kind of meeting is held every 4 years after an Assembly successfully
completes its tenure and fresh elections conducted.
❑An Inaugural Meeting is the only meeting that must be convened by only the
Secretary to the Assembly (District Coordinating Director (DCD),
❑all other meetings must be signed by the Presiding Member (PM)
 Ordinary Meetings
❑Ordinary Meetings are just the normal meetings that Assemblies often hold to
debate on issues affecting the district and suggest solutions.
❑Decisions are made through voting.
❑The number of ordinary meetings that an Assembly can hold is inelastic, but
must not be less than 3 times in a year.
❑Ordinary meetings require at least 14 days notice to members.
❑Ordinary Meetings must be held at the headquarters of the Assembly but
❑ All other meetings can be held anywhere within the administrative region of the
Assembly
 Others:
❑Requested Meetings: A Requested Meeting is usually convened when not less
than one-third of the entire membership of the Assembly request for a meeting.
❑Requested Meetings, unlike ordinary meetings, require at least 7 days notice to
the members.

❑ Special Meetings: They are convened to consider and approve or otherwise, of

annual budgets for the Assembly and the President’s Nominee for the position of
District Chief Executive (DCE).
❑This is a discretionary meeting because the period of notice that should be given
to members before the meeting is left to the discretion of the PM.
 Others
❑Emergency Meetings: An Emergency Meeting is a meeting convened to consider issues
or matters that need urgent attention and cannot be postponed to form part of the
agenda for Ordinary Meetings.
❑Examples include meetings to discuss a looming disaster or catastrophe, conflict, or
other national issues that have been referred to the Assembly.
❑Notice of Meetings : The Secretary to the Assembly shall issue summons to each
member, stating clearly the date, venue and time for a meeting.
❑Notice of Meetings of the Assembly shall contain the date of the notice and:
❑Kind of meeting,
❑Place of meeting,
❑Date, day and time of meeting,
❑Agenda for the meeting.
❑The Notice of an Assembly Meeting shall be announced or publicized through any medium in
the district including radio and other sources that have wider listenership in the districts.
 IMPORTANCE: Political
❑Increase political stability and national unity by giving groups in different parts
of the country the ability to participate more directly in decision making.
❑Increases their local commitment to maintaining the political system
❑National government policies can be effectively brought down to the local level,
especially the rural areas through which they will understand government plans
and support it
❑It ensures greater representation of various political, religious, ethnic and tribal
groups in development decision-making that will lead to greater equity in the
allocation of government resources
❑It serves as training ground for political applicants (MPs)
Economic
❑The planning of development taking into cognisance local needs
❑Mobilization of local resources for development programmes, especially labor
therefore reduces cost
❑The people are motivated to work harder
❑Development of local capabilities to take over functions initially performed by
central government
❑It reduces cost and ensures efficiency as the economy and government grows,
this leads to increases in the number of public goods and services that can be
produced at lower cost.
Social
❑It brings the local people together as they plan and implement programmes for
their development
❑The opportunity of taking part in national decision-making process offers them
recognition
❑Pride in steering their interest in the work which encourages them to put in
their best
 Administrative
❑Officials are able to aggregate and tailor development plans to the needs of the
people on local basis throughout the country.
❑The reassignment of government officials to local levels, increases their
sensitivity to local needs.
❑Development of greater administrative capability among local governments
officers who have the opportunity to develop their managerial and technical skills.
❑It provides a structure through which the activities of training central government
ministries, departments or agencies involved in development could be co-
coordinated more effectively.
❑It ensures that flexible and creative administrative innovations can easily be
tested and new policies experienced.
Challenges: Centralizing elements
❑All by-laws are approved by the Minister of LGRD.
❑The President has the power to dissolve defaulting or non-performing DAs
without consulting the electorate.
❑The minister of LGRD has power to issue guidelines, in respect of fees to be
charged by the DAs for the service and facilities provided, licenses and permits
issued/rates levied.
❑According to Section 88 of the Local Government Act, Act 462, the DAs require
central government guarantee to raise loans in excess of 25,000 cedis.
❑As a result the effectiveness of the DAs in discharging their functions as the
highest political authority in the district are undermined, and their
responsibilities have been restricted to local issues only.
 Other challenging issues to the DAs
❑De-concentration of resources: Finance - The main sources of revenue of DAs are
❑Rates, fees, and levies.
❑DACF,
❑Grants-in aid under Article 252 of the Constitution.
❑And 55% of the Stool Land revenue.
❑However, it appears that the grant in aid segment is never paid by government.
❑This is because there is no documentary evidence to confirm such disbursements.
Personnel:
❑DAs are confronted with lack of technical and competent personnel.
❑While devolution of authority imposes increasing demands for services at the
local level and requires well-trained local functionaries, the economic conditions
of Ghana, administrative and structural reforms suggest less government
spending on human resources and fewer government agents.
❑Lack of autonomy to recruit and fire personnel without the interference of the
ministry is not only frustrating but an impediment to effective decentralized local
governance.
Other challenges to the implementation of
decentralization policy
❑Inadequacy of fiscal, and human resources over interference of central
government
❑lack of a political process that promotes accountability, responsiveness and
representation at the local government level
❑Unwillingness of the leadership of decentralized departments and agencies to
cede power to the local government leadership and refusing full integration.
❑Weak ability of local authority to initiate and implement policies and programs.
IN SUM
❑WHAT DO YOU THINK
 UGBS 105

DECENTRALIZATION

1
Decentraliz
ation
❑ What is decentralization?
❑ Types of decentralization
❑ Forms of decentralization
❑ Overview of Ghana’s decentralizationpolicy
❑ Relevance of decentralization
❑ Problems or challenges ofdecentralization
DecentralizationConcept
❑The term "decentralization" embraces a varietyof concepts which must
be carefully analyzed in any particular country before determining if
projects or programs should support reorganization of financial,
administrative, or service deliverysystems.
❑Differenttypes of decentralization should be distinguished because they
have different characteristics, policy implications, and conditions for
success.
 Definiti
on
❑Decentralization is the assignment of fiscal,political,and administrative responsibilities to
lower levels of government (Litvack et al. 1991) in a prevalent but controversial institutional
reform.

❑According to L.C. Smith (1997) it refers to delegation or devolution of centralstate powers of

policy making and decision taking to lower levels of government.

❑Smith (1985) sees it as reversing the concentration of administration at the single center and
conferring powers on localgovernment.
❑ It is the transfer of authority and responsibility for public functions from the central
government to subordinate or quasi‐independent government organizations and/or the private
sector – It is a complex multifacetedconcept.

❑Process by which a centralgovernment formally transfers powers to actors and institutions at

lower levels in a political‐ administrative hierarchy.

❑It therefore involves the transfer of power, functions, means and competencies from central
government to the sub‐nationalstructures.
WhatisthePurposeofDecentralization?

❑Failure of centralized systems to deliverefficiently

❑Decentralization has the potential toensure a more equitable distribution of

resources

❑It is part of the good governance/democratisationagenda

❑ It is supposed to engender popular participation in decision‐making

5
Various Types of
Decentralization?
❑Various forms of decentralization have implications for delivery of water and
sanitation services, as our experiences have indicated:
❑ De‐concentration
❑ Delegation
❑ Privatization
❑ Devolution

❑Administrative Decentralisation
❑Transfer of public service delivery functions from central government to local
governments, field offices of MDAs, etc
❑ Two main types:
❑ Delegation
❑ Deconcentration
Deconcentration
❑It refers to situations where the national government shifts
some administrative power to its own ministry offices at the
local level.
Delegation
❑is when the national government delegates administrative authority to
‘parastatal’ organizations at the local or regionallevel.
Privatization
❑Transfer of economic planning, production, distribution or other economic
functions from government to voluntary, private or non‐governmental
institutions
Devolution
❑Transfer of politicalpower from central government to lower‐tierauthorities.
It is the ultimateform of political decentralization
❑Full transfer of resource mobilization and allocation responsibilities from central
government to an quasi‐autonomous, sub‐national public authority that is fully
independent of the devolvingauthority
❑Usually culminates in the establishment and empowerment of local governments
that is accountable to the localpopulation.
❑ Usually involves the establishment of a legal and regulatory framework
❑Devolution refers to national governments handing over administrative
authority to legally recognized, geographically identifiable units of local
government with their own elections.
TYPES: Fiscal
Decentralisation:
❑Financial responsibility is a core component of decentralization.
❑If local governments and private organizations are to carry out decentralized
functions effectively, they must have an adequate level of revenues –either raised
locally or transferred from the centralgovernment– as well as the authority to make
decisions about expenditures.
❑The restructuring of existing systems of resource mobilization and allocation with the
aim of empowering local government authorities to perform their decentralized
functions
❑ Fiscal Decentralisation may include:
❑ Formulas for transferringrevenue to local govts;
❑ Legallyempowering local govts to collectand retain some taxes,fees,etc;
❑ Legallyempowering local govts to prepare their own budgets and disburse funds

❑ It is a key ingredientfor successful devolution.

 Cont.
❑Fiscal decentralization can take many forms,including:
❑self‐financing or cost recovery through user charges,
❑Co‐financing or co‐production arrangements through which the users participate in
providing services and infrastructure through monetary or labor contributions;
❑ expansion of local revenues through property or sales taxes,or indirectcharges;
❑intergovernmental transfers that shift general revenues from taxes collectedby the
centralgovernment to local governments for generalor specific uses; and
❑Authorization of municipal borrowing and the mobilization of either national or local
government resources through loan guarantees.
❑In many developing countries local governments or administrative units
possess the legal authorityto impose taxes, but the tax base is so weak and the
dependence on central government subsidies so ingrained that no attempt is
made to exercise thatauthority.
Political
Decentralization
❑Political decentralization aims to give citizens or their elected representatives more
power in publicdecision‐making.
❑ It is often associated with pluralistic politics and representativegovernment, but it can
also support democratization by giving citizens, or their representatives, more influence
in the formulation and implementation of policies.
❑ Advocates of political decentralizationassume that decisions made with greater
participation will be better informed and more relevantto diverse interests in society
than those made only by national political authorities.
❑The concept implies that the selection of representatives from local electoral
jurisdictions allows citizens to know better their political representatives and allows
elected officials to know better the needs and desires of their constituents.
❑ Political decentralization often requires constitutional or statutory reforms, the
development of pluralisticpolitical parties, the strengthening of legislatures, creation of
local political units, and the encouragement of effective public interest groups.
Administrative
Decentralisation
❑Transfer of public service delivery functions from central government to
local governments, field offices of MDAs,etc
 Overview of Ghana’s
Decentralization Policy
❑Re‐demarcation of administrative jurisdictions (metropolitan areas, municipalitiesand
districts)

❑ Establishment of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies

❑ Establishment of sub‐district structures: Town/Area Councils, Unit Committees,

❑ Restructuring of resource allocation & resource sharing b/n central & local govts
❑E.g. District Assemblies Common Fund, land rates and minerals royalties, grants, transfers, and
external credits to localgovernments

❑Designating MLGRD as the agency responsible for implementation of the

decentralisation policy
❑ Establishment of NDPC to co‐ordinate decentralised development planning

❑Establishment of structures and mechanisms to enhance probity, accountability and

transparency in public administration at all levels of government
15
 Overview of Ghana’s DecentralizationPolicy:
MainComponents of Ghana’s Decentralization Policy
❑ Political decentralisation
❑ Administrative Decentralisation
❑ Decentralized Development Planning
❑ Fiscal decentralization

16
Politicaldecentralisation
❑ Re‐demarcation of the country intodistricts
❑ EstablishmentandempowermentoftheRCCs, MMDAs & theSub‐District Structures to
perform variousfunctions
❑ EstablishmentoftheMMDAs as legislative, administrative,planning, service delivery,
budgeting and ratingauthorities
❑ Sub‐district structures to facilitate resource mobilization andpopular participation

17
Administrative
Decentralisation
❑Restructuring of ministerial institutions and transferring definedfunctions,
powers and resources to localgovts
❑Integration of sectoral programmes, resources and assets into the Assembly
system
❑Restructuring of 22 depts into 16, 13 and 11 depts under the Metropolitan,
Municipal and District Assembliesrespectively
❑Passage of a Local Govt ServiceAct to bring all employees of the MMDAs into
the publicservice.
Decentralised
DevelopmentPlanning
❑ A bottom‐up, integratedand participatory development planning system.
❑ Planning at districtlevel, sub‐district and sectoral levels coordinated by the
DPCU
❑ RPCUs responsible for harmonising and synchronising district devt plans
based on national development policy framework and guidelines issued by
NDPC
❑ Development of service centres as well as rational, efficient and
sustainable settlement and land usepatterns
Fiscal Decentralisation
❑Meant to enhance theAssemblies’ access to resources

❑Creation of the DACF , allocated based on a formula prepared by theAdministrator of

DACF and approved byParliament

❑ Establishment of ‘MPs Common Fund’

❑Ceding of income tax payable by informal sector operators, vehicle operators, and
betting, entertainment and advertising companies to the MMDAs.

❑IGF sources of the MMDAs: user fees, rates (basic and property), licenses, investment
incomes, loans/overdrafts,etc

❑Submission of MMDA budget to the RCCs for harmonisation, co‐ordination and

collation and approval of by Min. of Finance.
 Benefits of
Decentralization
❑Improved delivery of basic services for citizensat the locallevel
❑Through engagement of user groups more citizens’ participation in
delivery and quality of service; Better administrators suited to the locality;
users’ monitoring of services
❑Contribution todevelopingthe localeconomy Engagement of local
people as service‐providers; opportunities to raise revenues to delivery
high quality services; contribution to theeconomy;
❑Framework for effective locallevel democracy local leaders engage
with marginalized groups and promote accountability, inclusion and
participation,the representation of citizens.
❑A robust localgovernance strengthening linkages between local
stakeholders in pursuit of the common services and priorities with sharing
of roles, responsibilities and risks.
 Advantages/Importance of Decentralization:Political
❑Increase political stability and national unity by giving groups in different parts
of the country the ability to participate more directly in decision making.
❑ Increases their local commitment to maintaining the political system
❑National government policies can be effectively brought down to the local
level, especially the rural areas through which they will understand
government plans and support it
❑It ensures greater representation of various political, religious, ethnic and
tribal groups in development decision‐making that will lead to greater equity in
the allocation of governmentresources
❑ It serves as trainingground for political applicants (MPs)
Economic
❑The planning of development taking intocognizance local needs
❑Mobilization of local resources for development programmes, especiallylabor
therefore reducescost
❑ The people are motivated to workharder
❑Development of local capabilities totake over functions initially performed by
centralgovernment
❑It reduces cost and ensures efficiency as the economy and government grows,
this leads to increases in the number of public goods and services that can be
produced at lower cost.
Social
❑It brings the local people together as they plan and implement programmes
for theirdevelopment
❑The opportunity of taking part in national decision‐making process offers them
recognition
❑Pride in steering theirinterest in the work which encourages them to put in
their best
Administrative
❑Officials are able to aggregate and tailor development plans to the needs of the
people on local basis throughout the country.

❑The reassignment of government officials to local levels, increases their sensitivityto

local needs.

❑Development of greater administrative capability among local governments officers

who have the opportunity to develop their managerial and technicalskills.

❑It provides a structure through which the activities of training central government
ministries, departments or agencies involved in development could be co‐
coordinated more effectively.

❑It ensures that flexible and creative administrativeinnovations can easily be tested
and new policies experienced.
Challenges: Centralizing elements
❑All by‐laws are approved by the Minister of LGRD.
❑The President has the power to dissolve defaulting or non‐performing DAs
without consulting the electorate.
❑The minister of LGRD has power to issue guidelines, in respect of fees to be
charged by the DAs for the service and facilities provided, licenses and permits
issued/rates levied.
❑According to Section 88 of the Local Government Act, Act 462, the DAs require
centralgovernment guarantee to raise loans in excess of 25,000 cedis.
❑As a result the effectiveness of the DAs in discharging their functions as the
highest political authority in the district are undermined, and their
responsibilities have been restrictedto local issues only.
 CONT.
❑Instead of minimizing central government control over the local governments, DACF
has been used as a tool to increased the control of centre over DAs' functions.
❑The decisions of the DACF have been usurped by the central government so that the
DAs remain talking shops without finance to implement their decisions.
❑For instance, deductions at source without the knowledge of the Das
❑Continued central control has prevented the DACF being an effective instrument of
decentralization and democratization.
❑The introduction of the DACF meant to serve as an incentive to mobilize resources
locally has rather become as source for relegating on its local resource mobilization
efforts.
❑DACF is also suffering from irregularity in disbursement of funds, lack of transparency
and lack of discretion afforded to district authority over the allocation of funds.
 Fiscal Decentralization
❑Composite budgeting has not been implemented because of the unwillingness
of the Ministry ofFinance.
❑In addition, centralized laws on fiscal policies of Ghana such as the Financial
Administration Decree (FAD), 1979 and Financial Administration Regulation
(FAR) Financial Memorandum of Local and Urban Councils, 1961 and even the
Local Government Act do not promote a segregation of DA budget from that of
the centralgovernment.
Personnel:
❑DAs are confronted with lack of technicaland competent personnel.

❑While devolution of authority imposes increasing demands for services at the

local level and requires well‐trained local functionaries, the economic
conditions of Ghana, administrative and structural reforms suggest less
government spending on human resources and fewer government agents.

❑Lack of autonomy to recruit and fire personnel without the interferenceof the
ministry is not only frustrating but an impediment to effective decentralized
local governance.
Other challenges
❑Inadequacy of fiscal, and human resources over interferenceof central
government
❑lack of a political process that promotes accountability, responsiveness and
representation at the local governmentlevel
❑Unwillingness of the leadership of decentralized departments and agencies to
cede power to the local government leadership and refusing full integration.
❑ Weak ability of local authority to initiate and implement policies and programs.
Summing‐up
❑ What is decentralization?
❑ Types of decentralization
❑ Forms of decentralization
❑ Overview of Ghana’s decentralizationpolicy
❑ Relevance of decentralization
❑ Problems or challenges ofdecentralization
 UGBS 105

Public policy making process

The Public PolicyProcess
 What is public policy?
 Public in generic sense denotes humancommunity or
collectivity.
 May refer to an entire community; plurality – people; people
as a whole; Common - open - national - general – communal
 Policy - decision statement; statement of intent, general strategic
action plan and purposive authorization statements
 Public policy - what governments choose to do or not to do;
 A purposive course of action followed by an actor or sets of
actors in dealing with a problem or matter of concern.
 Cont.
 Thisdefinition focuseson goal, presence of authorized
actors, and the presence of a problem.
 Theyare designed to solve social problems or exploit
opportunities that can avail themselvesfor the improvement
of social welfare.
 Laws, rules and regulations, acts of parliament, programs
and projects may all be classified as public policies.
 It is therefore purposeful, goal-oriented action that is
taken by government to deal with societal problems.
 Types of public policy

 classifying according to the impact on society – regulatory,

distributive or re-distributive.

 Material vs. symbolic policies – when a policy provides tangible

resources or substantive power to its beneficiaries one hand and
impose cost on others it is labeled as material. Symbolic policies
provide little material impact on individuals with no real tangible
advantages and disadvantages.

 Policies may also be classified ascollectiveor private

depending on the target of the goods and services it provide –
indivisible commodities and divisible commodities
Approaches to studying public policy
 Some of the most commonly used approaches in the
study of public policies:
 Models of who makes public policy
 Cycle-process approaches
 Models of who makes publicpolicy
6

 These models look at how the policy process operates

particularly who dominates the process and who
benefits most from it.
 There are several main versions:
Elite theory
Group theory
Corporatism
Elite theory

 It argues that policies are made by a small group of

influential leaders who share common goals and
outcomes.
 Public policy is determined by a minority who have
political and economic power.
 Group theory

 Public policy is the product of groups struggle

 Society is made up of well organized large number of
social, ethnic and economic groups.
 These groups compete to put pressure on the
government to make policies to favor them.
 It is out of the struggle and competition that the public
interest emerges.
 There are multiple centers of powers and optimum
policy development is achieved through competing
interest.
Corporatism
➢ It argues that contrary to the argument by group theory
that interest groups merely influence the policy process,
they themselves become part of the policy-making and
implementation system.
➢ In return to this participation, the groups through the
control of their members make society more
manageable and governable.
 ThePolicy-making Process
 Traditionally, The policy-making process is viewed as
sequential in most instances.
 This has been described as the policy cycle
 This approach views the policy process as a cycle that is
deliberative, staged, and administrative.
 Policy making is viewed as dynamic ongoing process
confirming the importance of policy as a learning system.
cont.
 It isperceived asevolving along thefollowing lines:
From the initial issueidentification and agenda setting,
policies are formulated and then adopted.
Attempts are made to implement the policy and then
finally there will be an effort to examine the results of the policy
implementation.
The feedback from the evaluation then inform the next action and
future policies
 TheAgenda Setting
 For an issueto get on the agenda can be a difficult
process.
 First an issueneeds to be identified as a problem that
deserves serious attention from thegovernment.
 It is argued that all issues that are recognized as deserving of
public attention get on a systematic agenda,and
 Thosebeing seriously considered by the policy makers make
it onto another agenda, the institutional agenda.
 Policies that make it to the institutional agenda are much more
likely to find their way into legislation.
 Suchissues that make it onto the institutional agenda are often
advocated by powerful interest groups, supported by the
bureaucracy, or propelled by a public crisis.
Cont.
 The first step in the public policy process is to outline
the problem.
 This involves not only recognizing that an issue
exists, but also studying the problem and its causes
in detail.
 This stage involves determining how aware the
public is of the issue which is mostly a social
problem, deciding who will participate in fixing it,
and considering what means are available to
accomplish a solution.
Cont.
 Answers to such questions often help policy makers
gauge which policy changes, if any, are needed to
address the identified problem.
 The agenda therefore means “which problems are
addressed”
 Asmentioned earlier, the agenda can be set by the
public, special interest groups, or government
officials, among others.
Formulating a Policy Public Policy
 After identifying and studying the problem, a new public
policy may be formulated or developed.
 This step is typically marked by discussion and debate
between government officials, interest groups, and
individual citizens.
 The aim of such discussions is to identify potential
obstacles, to suggest alternative solutions, and to set
clear goals and list the steps that need to be taken to
achieve them.
 This part of the process can be difficult, and often
compromises will be required before the policy can be
written.
 Cont.
 Once the policy is developed, the must be the effort to
achieve policy legitimation else implementation will
suffer.
 In other words, once a decision has been made to do
something about the issue, alternative policy solutions
need to be compared and a decision needs to be made
about what sort of solution will be supported.
 The resulting policy must be acceptable to both the
legislators and the public; this process of building
support is called policy LEGITIMATION.
Policy implementation
 After the policy is determined, the implementation process
begins.
 According to Hewlett and Ramesh(2003) public policy
implementation refers to “the process by which programs or
policies are carried out, the translation of plans into practice”
 It implies that the new policy must be put into effect, which
typically requires determining which organizations or agencies
will be responsible for carrying it out.
 This stage of the policy process is described as the one that can be
difficult if the people who are tasked with carrying out the
policy are not committedto complying with it.
 Cont.
 During the policy development and legitimation stage,
compromises may have been made to get the policy
passed.
 If it happens that those who are ultimately required to
help carry the policy out do not agree with the
compromises made at the formulation stage; they are
less likely to enforce it effectively.
 Clear communication and coordination, as well as
sufficient resources, are also needed to make the
implementation phase a success.
 Public Policy Evaluation
 Generally, few, if any, can predict what might go wrong with
a new public policy and so the process of policy evaluation is
crucial.
 Through evaluation or assessmentpolicymakers can
determine if the outcome was what they expected.
 Public policy evaluation usually involves a careful and
systematic study of how effective the new policy has been in
addressing the original problem.
 It also includes reviewing funds and resources available to
ensure that the policy can be maintained and sustained.
 Historically, this step has not always been treated as very
important.
 Stages in the Public PolicyProcess

Genesis of the Public

Policy

Stage I
Feedback on
the Policy Development of
OR Stage IV Stage II the Public Policy
Policy
Evaluation
Stage III

Implementation of the
Public Policy
Thetop-down vs. bottom-updebate
 “Top-down” and “Bottom-up” approaches.
 the top-down models argue that analysis of policy
implementation process starts from policy decision by
government officials and focuses on the extent to which
formal policy objectives are realized over time.
 It assumes that we can usefully view the policy process as
a series of chains of command where political leaders
articulate a clear policy preference which is then carried
out at increasing levels of specificity as it goes through
administrative machinery that serves the government
Bottom-up approach
 It emerged out of the perceived fundamental flaws in the top-
down approach.
 the top-down approach focuses on central decision makers and
neglects other actors thereby neglecting strategic initiatives
from private actors and local implementing officials.
 The bottom-up approach is based on the premise that policy
studies should start with a careful analysis of the actions of
those actors who interact at the operational (local) level or
those affected by and involved in the implementation of the
policy.
 Here, because all plans and decisions arose from the
community it minimise the problems at the implementation
stage.
Benefits of using the bottom-up approach

 It is believed that the use of the bottom up approach is

most appropriate in the implementation of policies at the
local level as the approach has the benefit of local
knowledge, input and commitment of local operators and
programme beneficiaries.
 It also ensures ownership of programmes by communities
who are beneficiaries and deployment of local resources
towards the realization of policy objectives.
 This is also because if plans and decisions arise from the
community it minimise the problems at the
implementation stage.
UGBS 105

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, ETHICS &

ACCOUNTABILITY
 Defining ethics
❑The concept Ethics is not:
❑The same as feelings. Feelings provide important information
for our ethical choices.
❑Religion: because many people are not religious but ethics
applies to everyone.
❑Following the law: a good system of law does incorporate many
ethical standards, but law can deviate from what is ethical
❑Following culturally accepted norms
❑A science: just because something is scientifically or
technologically possible, it may not be ethical to do it.
What then is ethics?
❑Ethics is about standards of behavior that tell us how
human beings ought to act in the many situations in which
they find themselves as:
❑Friends
❑Parents
❑Children
❑Citizens
❑Teachers
❑Professionals and so on.
❑It is a body of principles or standards of human conduct
that govern the behavior of individuals and groups
 Cont.
❑Although there is no consensus in defining ethics it is generally
accepted that it relates to:
❑An individuals conscience by which he/she will be directed to
reach a fair decision on the basis of organizational values.
❑Philosophically, ethics oblige employees to choose between good
and evil and directs them to act morally.
❑Ethics is a "system or code of conduct based on universal moral
duties and obligations which indicate how one should behave; It
deals with the ability to distinguish good from evil, right from
wrong and propriety from impropriety" (Josephson 1989, 2).
Cont.
❑Ethics originate from the idea that there are certain moral
principles that are common to all human beings
❑There is therefore difference between ethics and morals
❑Morals are defined as those actions which are considered
“right behavior” in any society.
❑A moral judgment often and centrally serves as a kind of
injunction, spoken aloud or in one’s heart to others, or to
oneself to behave or not to behave in a certain way.
Universality of ethical values
❑Generally, there appears to be a consensus as to a certain
core ethical values that transcends cultures and time.
❑These values include, trustworthiness, integrity, fairness,
and caring.
❑It is the universality of such ethical principles and values
that gives support to the notion of moral absolutism.
❑ It is based on the assumption that there are eternal
principles that exist beyond time and are always and
everywhere applicable
 Issues in Administrative Ethics
❑Public administrators face significant ethical issues on a
daily basis.
❑Some of these issues are strictly organizational
❑Several others are broader societies issues bothering on
ethics and accountability.
❑In both situations, public administrators are required to
employ ethical principles as a guide to review them. Some
of the issues are
Cont.
❑Recruitment and selection
❑Disciplinary action or termination of appointment
❑Patronage vs. merit systems
❑Whistleblowing
❑Covering for the boss or colleague
❑Conflict of interest
❑Nepotism and patronage
❑Moral and productivity
❑Use of public property for private use
❑Color, gender, race, conviction, ethnicity etc.
Ethical challenges in public admin in Ghana
❑Conduct of PA and affairs in Ghana is characterized by: an
elite mentality, displaced sense of purpose, nepotism,
distrust, disregard for time, absence of loyalty, paternalism,
and gift giving and expectations.
❑An elite mentality – the perception of performing roles
which were previously a preserve of the European
Displaced sense of purpose
❑Promoting the public interest is expected to be the sole
motive behind decisions and action in public administration
in Ghana.
❑However, the reality suggest that public sector
organizations do exist to serve the needs of public servants
and officials more than the interest of the general public.
Nepotism
❑The strangle - hold of the extended family system on most
public officials often result in an attempt to favor relatives.
❑ The use of concepts like brother – covers blood relations
through persons coming from same clan, village, tribe,
attending the same church.
❑There are two sources of pressures that lead to nepotism:
❑In response to the need to take care of one’s own and to
meet familial obligations, and
❑To help persons in authority to surround themselves with
mindless minions they can trust and exploit.
Distrust
❑Administration is a cooperative activity aimed at achieving
a common good.
❑The basis of such cooperation is trust which manifest itself
in truth-telling, goodwill and reliability.
❑Where this is missing, joint effort is beset with frustration.
Disregard for time
❑The concept of African punctuality meaning it is
African to be late for meetings and events.
Absence of organizational loyalty
❑As a result of conditions of distrust, nepotism and
corruption in public sector organizations in Africa and Ghana
in particular most public organization do not enjoy the
needed absolute loyalty of their employees.
❑The importance of loyalty lies in the fact that loyal
employees identify easily with the organization and its vision
and mission.
❑But in PA today, the only loyalty we find is employees
loyalty to personal goals, to family, tribal groups, social
groups etc.
Paternalism
❑In public organizations in Africa and Ghana, individuals in
authority positions behave, and are encouraged to behave
like fathers, mothers, uncles etc.
❑For instance responses like uncle, “wofa”, “togbe”
irrespective of the age of the respondent
❑In such situations, official relationships are conceived and
operationalized as blood relationships
❑Such officials often blow hot and cold – they become
autocratic and patronizing depending on their mood.
❑This is because in the traditional setting, fathers and uncles
are revered in anticipation of some inheritance and favors.
 Gift giving and expectations
❑Some believe that giving of gifts is uniquely Ghanaian
custom.
❑Even if it is a local custom, we all agree that it is being
abused to serve selfish ends.
❑Because acceptance of gifts automatically generates an
obligation on the part of the recipient to repay someday.
❑People therefore use gift to seek favor for superiors – all
kinds of items such as foodstuff, livestock , clothing and
money.
Causes of low moral standards: Society
❑It is not possible to have moral public service from immoral society.
❑This is because the public servant is recruited from the society so if the
society is corrupt then the public servants will logically be corrupt.
❑Secondly, the public service engages in constant interaction with the
society. i.e. there is organic linkage source is corrupt then public servants
would always be corrupt.
❑Society standards are low, there are decay, permissiveness in society.
❑There is materialism in society and we do not frown on corruption,
excessive materialism.
❑There is also the less influence of church/community influence on
society.
❑Piety in the church is not transferred to the social life of people in the
society.
 Competition
❑There is much stress to succeed in life by cutting
corners/short circuiting the system.
❑This can create a situation of lowering standards in
ethics.
Economic condition
❑The difficulty of economic environment.
❑The economic conditions are bad the competition to
survive is lowering the moral standards in society. There is
therefore the conflict.
❑“Everybody is saying that times are hard, the times are
bad. But who are the times, we are the times. Let us be
good. Such as we are, such are the times. Let us be good
and the times will be well”-
❑ST AUGUSTINE
State of political ethics
❑There is general disarray and general ethical confusion in
the political system.
❑We are not sure and do not see anything wrong with
people using political office to favor their near and dear ones
❑ There is political corruption and loss of control in
government due mainly to bad supervision
Greed/selfishness/pleasure for profit
❑There is desire for gain because there is worship of
money as a measure of success.
❑There is lack of personal integrity and moral life. Because
integrity doesn’t allow for partiality-It involves wholeness
Drivers of high moral standards
❑Public disclosure: Publicity, wide media coverage and
better communication. There should be “sunshine effect” as
in the USA. Under this, because people wouldn’t like their
actions to be given wide coverage or exposed and on that
basis avoid such behavior.
❑Increased public concern: Public awareness and education
is very important because sometimes people do not know
the implications of their behavior. A better informed public
therefore lowers unethical behavior and raises moral
standard.
 Cont.
❑Societal pressure: Society must be organized in such a way that
people would feel ashamed when caught involved in unethical
behavior rather than today that when people are sacked for
misappropriating the society still respects them most especially
when they can support groups and individuals financially.
❑Government regulation: There must be legislation and
government intervention though one cannot legislate against
However, there is the need for some kind of law.eg.on the sale of
expired drugs, the use of bromide e.g. Should be punished
❑Openness: The public must have access to officials files
because without the public having access to document covering
the issues like declared assets, officials mail conceal private gains
Cont.
❑No gift policy - Gifts may be offered in good faith. Or they
may be given in the hope of attaining special benefit either
presently, the future or even used as a reward for past
experience. In all cases, all gifts must be refused. We need to
use common sense and judgment to depart from the rule of
life. “BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT GIFTS CORRUPT”.
❑Improved conditions of service: People who are fairly
compensated develop a feeling of their worth as well as
receiving tangible indication of the community’s estimations
of their work. If salary is low people can easily be influenced
and corrupted which suggests that paying respectable
salaries may help officials to resist bribes/gifts.
Cont.
❑Discourage unofficial use of public office: The use of public
office/political party positions for personal enrichment is a
major source of unethical behavior. People can use their
positions in job and political parties to facilitate personal
activities and to enrich themselves. People can become rich
in the political party of the day as a result of their position in
the party or in government.
❑Exhibit ethical leadership: To promote and mention high
ethical values, the leader must be e.g. He should preach
ethical values by his actions
Cont.
❑Enforcement of disciplinary procedures: People should not
hesitate to sack/(discipline/involuntary resignation) those
who go against the rules and regulations of the organization
to deter others. After this such people should be blacklisted
and should not be allowed to undertake further public job.
❑Select professionally qualified employees: The
assumption here is that a professional must have some
ethical values related to the profession in question.
❑This is because all professionals have something to defend
and any attempt to falsify would make their
minds/conscience attack them than un-professionals.
Conclusion
❑Definition of ethics and morals
❑Universal ethical issues
❑Ghana ethical issues
❑Causes of low ethical standards
❑Drivers of high ethical standards

ALL THE BEST

BY DANKWA KOFI ASARE @ kojo_baron.