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Public Administration
MEANING, SCOPE, AND SIGNIFICANCE
Public administration is an aspect of a more generic concept of administration. Therefore, before
understanding the meaning of public administration, it is necessary to understand the meaning of
the word ‘administration’.
The English word ‘administer’ is derived from a combination of two Latin words ad and ministrare
meaning ‘to serve’ or ‘to manage’. Literally, the term ‘administration’ means management of affairs—
public or private.

Administration Defined
The concept of administration is defined by various writers in the following ways:

E.N. Gladden:
“Administration is a long and slightly pompous word, but it has a humble meaning, for it means, to
care for or look after people, to manage affairs ... is determined action taken in pursuit of a conscious
purpose.”

Felix A. Nigro:
“Administration is the organisation and use of men and materials to accomplish a purpose.”

Herbert A. Simon:
“In its broadest sense, administration can be defined as the activities of groups cooperating to
accomplish common goals.”

John A. Veig:
“Administration is determined action taken in pursuit of conscious purpose. It is the systematic
ordering of affairs 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. It is the marshalling of available labour and materials in order to gain that which is desired
at the lowest cost in energy, time and money.”

Pfiffener:
“Administration is the organisation and direction of human and material resources to achieve desired
ends.”

L.D. White:
“The art of administration is the direction, co-ordination and control of many persons to achieve
some purpose or objective.”

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

George E. Berkley: “Administration is a process involving human beings jointly engaged in working
towards common goals.”

Brooks Adams: “Administration is the capacity of co-ordinating many and often conflicting social
energies in a single organism, so adroitly that they shall operate as a unity.”

Keith Henderson: “Administration is the arrangement of men and materials in the rational carrying
out of purposes.”
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Ordway Tead: “Administration is a variety of component elements which, together in action, produce
the result of a defined task done. Administration, primarily, is the direction of people in association
to achieve some goal temporarily shared. It is the inclusive process of integrating human efforts so
that a desired result is obtained”. He further adds, “Administration is the central power house of the
motivational impulse and spirit which makes the institution drive to fulfill its purpose.”

D. Waldo: “Administration is a type of co-operative human effort that has a high degree of
rationality.”

James McCanney: “Administration is the organization and use of men and materials to accomplish a
purpose. It is the specialized vocation of managers who have skills of organizing and directing men
and materials just as definitely as an engineer has the skill of building structures or a doctor has the
skill of understanding the human ailments”.

F.M. Marx: “Administration is a determined action taken in pursuit of a conscious purpose. It is the
systematic ordering of affairs and the calculated use of resources aimed at making those things
happen which one wants to happen and foretelling everything to the contrary”.

The above definitions make it clear that administration has two essential elements, viz. a collective
effort and a common purpose. Thus, administration means a cooperative effort of a group of people
in pursuit of a common objective.

Administration is a universal process and occurs in diverse institutional settings. Based on its
institutional setting, administration is divided into public administration and private administration.
The former refers to the administration which operates in a governmental setting, while the latter
refers to the administration which operates in a non-governmental setting, that is, business
enterprises.

Public Administration Defined

Public administration is an aspect of the larger field of administration. It exists in a political system
for the accomplishment of the goals and objectives formulated by the political decision makers. It is
also known as governmental administration because the adjective ‘public’ in the word ‘public
administration’ means ‘government’. Hence, the focus of public administration is on public
bureaucracy, that is, bureaucratic organisation (or administrative organisation) of the government.

Public administration is defined as follows.

Woodrow Wilson: “Public Administration is detailed and systematic execution of law. Every
particular application of law is an act of administration.” He further says, “Administration is the most
obvious part of the government; it is the government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the
most visible side of the government.”

L.D. White: “Public Administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the
fulfilment or enforcement of public policy.”

Luther Gulick: “Public Administration is that part of the science of administration which has to do
with government and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of
government is done, though there are obviously problems in connection with the legislative and
judicial branches.”

Simon: “By Public Administration is meant in common usage, the activities of the executive branches
of the national, state and local governments.”
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Pfiffner: “Public Administration consists of doing the work of the government whether it be running
an X-ray machine in a health laboratory or coining money in the mint... Public Administration consists
of getting the work of government done by coordinating the efforts of the people so that they can
work together to accomplish their set tasks.”

E.N. Gladden: “Public Administration is concerned with the administration of the government.”

H. Walker: “The work which the government does to give effect to a law is called Public
Administration.”

Willoughby: “The term administration may be employed in Political Science in two senses. In its
broadest sense it denotes the work involved in the actual conduct of governmental affairs, regardless
of the particular branch of government concerned. It is, thus, quite proper to speak of the
administration of the legislative branch of the government, the administration of justice or judicial
affairs, or the administration of the executive branch as well as the administration of the affairs of
the administrative branch of the government, or the conduct of the affairs of the government
generally. In its narrowest sense, it denotes the operations of the administrative branch only. As
students of Public Administration we are concerned with the narrower meaning of the term.”

D. Waldo: “Public Administration is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of
the State.” He further observes, “The process of public administration consists of the actions involved
in affecting the intent or desire of a government. It is thus the continuously active, ‘business’ part of
a government, concerned with carrying out the law as made by legislative bodies (or other
authoritative agents) and interpreted by the courts, through the process of organization and
management. The field of study—putatively a science or discipline—of public administration focuses
upon public administration as a process.”

M.E. Dimock: “Public Administration is the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy as declared by
the competent authorities. It deals with the problems and powers of the organization and techniques
of management involved in carrying out the laws and policies formulated by the policy-making
agencies of government. Public administration is the law in action. It is the executive side of a
government.”

John A. Veig: “Administration signifies the organisation, personnel, practices and procedures
essential to effective performance of civilian functions entrusted to the executive branch of the
government.”

P. McQueen: “Public Administration is administration related to the operations of Government

whether central or local.”

Merson: “The administrator gets things done, and just as the science of politics is an enquiry into the
best means whereby the will of the people may be organised for the formulation of policy so the
science of Public Administration is an enquiry as to how policies may best be carried into operation.”

Corson & Harris:

“Public Administration is the action part of the government, the means by which the purposes and
goals of the government are realized.”

F.A. Nigro:
“Public Administration (i) is a cooperative group effort in a public setting; (ii) covers all the three
branches—executive, legislative and judicial, and their inter-relationship; (iii) has an important role in
the formulation of public policy and is thus part of the political process; (iv) is different in significant
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ways from private administration; and (v) is closely associated with numerous private groups and
individuals in providing services to the community.”

J.S. Hodgson:
“Public Administration comprises all activities of persons or groups in governments or their agencies,
whether these organizations are international, regional or local in their scope, to fulfill the purposes
of these governments or agencies.”

James W. Fesler:
“Public Administration is policy execution and policy formulation, public administration is
bureaucracy and public administration is public.”

James W. Davis:
“Public Administration can be best identified with the executive branch of a government.”

Frank Goodnow:
“Administration includes the function of executing the law as well as the semi-scientific, quasi-judicial
and quasi-business or commercial functions.”

Ridley:
“Public Administration is administration in the public sector… It is administration by the state… Public
Administration is governmental administration… It is administration by public authorities… Public
authorities are authorities which administer according to the rules of public administration. Public
administration should be the study of administration, descriptive, theoretical and normative.”

M. Ruthna Swamy:
“When administration has to do with the affairs of a state or minor political institutions like a
Municipal or County Council, or District Board, it is called Public Administration”.

Dimock and Dimock:

“Like the study of politics, the study of public administration is a study of what people want through
government and how they go about getting it. In addition, administration also emphasizes the
methods and procedures of management. Thus, public administration is as much concerned with
what government does as it is with how it does it.”
They further add, “Public administration is the area of study and practice where law and policy are
recommended and carried out.”

J. Greenwood and D. Wilson:

“Public Administration is an activity, a set of institutions and a subject of study.”

Rosenbloom:
“Public Administration does involve activity, it is concerned with politics and policy-making, it tends
to be concentrated in the executive branch of government, it does differ from private administration,
and it is concerned with implementing law.”
He further adds, “Public Administration is the use of managerial, legal and political 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.”

Eugene McGregor:
“The term public administration is reserved to denote the generation of purposive public action
whose success depends on reconciling the competing demands of administrative operations,
democratic governance and public solving.”
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F.M. Marx:
“Public Administration has come to signify primarily the organization, personnel, practices and
procedures essential to effective performance of the civilian functions entrusted to the executive
branch of government.”

Analytical Note (Final Paragraph):

An analysis of the above definitions indicates that the term public administration has been used in
two senses i.e., wider sense and narrower sense. In the wider sense (broader sense), public
administration includes the activities of all the three branches of the government, that is, legislature,
executive and judiciary. This view has been taken by Woodrow Wilson, L.D. White, Marshall Dimock,
F.A. Nigro and Pfiffner. By contrast, public administration in the narrower sense includes the activities
of only the executive branch of the government. This view has been taken by Simon, Gulick, Ordway
Tead, Fayol and Willoughby.

It must be noted here that Willoughby even made a distinction between executive power and
administrative power and restricted the use of the term ‘administration’ to the activities of the
administrative branch only. In other words, he has given administration the status of a ‘fourth
branch’ of government (other three being legislature, executive and judiciary). Albert Lepawsky
remarked: “Willoughby’s recognition of administration as a fourth branch of government is the most
extreme, but probably the most logical result of the strict separation of administration and politics
initiated by Wilson.”

Administration, Organisation and Management

The three terms administration, organisation and management are used interchangeably. However,
there is a specific difference in their meanings. This distinction is made clear by William Schulze. He
says
“Administration is the force which lays down the object for which an organisation and its
management are to strive and the broad policies under which they are to operate. An organisation is
a combination of the necessary human beings, materials, tools, equipment and working space,
appurtenances brought together in systematic and effective co-relation to accomplish some desired
object. Management is that which leads, guides and directs an organisation for the accomplishment
of a pre-determined object.”

Similarly, Oliver Sheldon states, “Administration is the function in an industry in the determination of
the policy……Management is the function in an industry concerned with the execution of policy
within the limits set by administration and the employment of the organisation for the particular
objects set before it…..Organisation is the formation of an effective machine, management of an
effective executive, administration of an effective direction. Administration determines the
organization, management uses it. Administration defines the goal; management strives towards it.
Organisation is the machine of management in its achievements of the ends determined by the
administration.”

Thus, administration is a broader concept and includes within itself both organisation and
management.

Nature of Public Administration

The scholars of public administration have expressed two divergent views on the nature of public
administration, viz. integral view and managerial view.
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The Integral View

According to this view, public administration encompasses all the activities which are undertaken to
accomplish the given objective. In other words, public administration is the sum total of managerial,
technical, clerical and manual activities. Thus, administration, according to this view, constitutes the
activities of all persons from top to bottom. L.D. White and Dimock subscribed to this view.
Administration, according to this view, depends upon the subject matter of the concerned agency,
that is, it differs from one sphere to another sphere.

The Managerial View

Public administration, in this context, encompasses only the managerial activities and not the
technical, clerical and manual activities which are non-managerial in nature. Thus, administration,
according to this view, constitutes the activities of only the top persons. Simon, Smithburg,
Thompson and Luther Gulick adopt this view. Administration, according to this view, is same in all the
spheres as the managerial techniques are same in all the fields of activities.

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

Ordway Tead observes, “Administration is conceived as the necessary activities of individuals

(executives) in an organization who are charged with ordering, forwarding and facilitating the
associated efforts of a group of individuals brought together to realize certain defined purposes.”

Similarly, Simon, Smithburg and Thompson write: “The term ‘administration’ is also used in a narrow
sense to refer to those patterns of behaviours that are common to many kinds of co-operating
groups; and that do not depend upon either the specific goals towards which they are co-operating
or the specific technological methods used to attain these goals.”

However, neither the integral view nor the managerial view is without any flaws. The correct
meaning of the word ‘administration’ would depend upon the context in which it is applied. M.E.
Dimock, G.O. Dimock and L.W. Koenings have summarized the position in this way: “As a study, public
administration examines every aspect of government’s efforts to discharge the laws and to give
effect to public policy; as a process, it is all the steps taken between the time an enforcement agency
assumes a jurisdiction and the last brick is placed (but includes also the agency’s participation, if any,
in the formulation of the programme in the first place); and, as a vocation, it is organizing and
directing the activities of others in a public agency.”
They further observed: “In developing countries like India, public administration has to be studied
with the integral approach as 90 per cent of the work originating at the clerical level is okayed at the
top level—that is why the ‘clerk’ or ‘babu’ is considered as the kingpin of Indian administration.”

Significance of Public Administration

Public administration has become an essential segment of modern society which has witnessed the
emergence of what is called by administrative thinkers as ‘Administrative State’. This means that
every activity of individuals from ‘Womb to tomb’ is regulated and controlled by the State agencies,
that is, administrative agencies.

Views of Scholars
The following views expressed by various scholars clearly highlight the significance of public
administration in the society:
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W.B. Donham:
“If our civilization fails, it will be mainly because of a breakdown of administration”.

L.D. White:
“Its (of public administration) nature, contents and scope—all go to make it the heart of the problem
of modern government.”
He further observes, “There was a time when people expected nothing but oppression from the
public authorities. Later they expected chiefly to be let alone. Now, however, they expect a wide
variety of services and protection.”

Alexander Pope:
“For the forms of government let fools contest; whatever is administered best, is the best.”

Ramsay Muir:
“While governments may come and go, ministers may rise and fall, the administration of a country
goes on for ever. No revolution can change it and no upheaval can uproot it.”

Edmund Burke:
“You may constitute the government in the way you like it but without the proper management your
commonwealth is no better than a scheme on paper and not a living, active, effective constitution.
Administration is there under all situations. There would be no existence without administration.”

Sir Josia Stamp:

“The officials must be the mainspring of the new society, suggesting, promoting and advising at
every stage.”

Gerald Caiden:
“The society is becoming more and more dependent on the political system, which in turn is
becoming more and more dependent on the administrative system”.

Henry Fayol:
“The administrative process is universal”.
He further adds, “That its existence is percentage-wise the most important element in practically all
vocations and professions, and that there is therefore a widespread need for the scientific study of
administration.”

Paul Pigors:
“The main purpose of administration is to preserve the status quo in society. It (Administration)
ensures the continuance of the existing order with a minimum of effort and risk. Its fundamental aim
is to ‘carry on’ rather than to venture new and untried paths. Administrators are essentially the
guardians of traditions.”

Brooks Adams:
“Administration is an important human faculty because its chief function is to facilitate social change
and to cushion the stock of social revolution.”
He further observes, “Social consolidation is not a simple problem, for social consolidation implies an
equivalent capacity for administration, perfection in administration must be commensurate to the
bulk and momentum of the mass to be administered, otherwise the centrifugal will overcome the
centripetal force, and the mass will disintegrate. In other words, civilization would dissolve.”

C. Merriam:
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“Administration is the evolution of another human technology leading to man’s adaptation to his
complex environment.”

C.A. Beard:

“Administration is the science of contemporary civilisation. There is no subject more important than
this subject of administration. The future of civilised government and even, I think, of civilisation
itself rests upon our ability to develop a science and a philosophy and a practice of administration
competent to discharge the functions of civilised society.”

M.E. Dimock:

“Administration is now so vast an area that a philosophy of administration comes close to being a
philosophy of life.”
He further says, “It does not take much thought to realize that popular government can only be
made competent enough through proper administration to survive the complexities and confusion of
a technological civilization.”

Ordway Tead:

“Administration is a moral act and administrator is a moral agent.”

He further observes, “In an almost literal sense, most of us, certainly in urban life, live and move and
have our being either administering or being administered, or at least as the beneficiaries of
administration.”

D. Waldo:

“Public administration is a part of the cultural complex, and it is not only acted upon, but also acts. It
is indeed a great creative force with man’s welfare as its ideal.”

Paul H. Appleby:

“Administration is the basis of government. No government can exist without administration.

Without administration government would be a discussion club, if indeed, it could exist at all.”

Felix A. Nigro:

“The real core of administration is the basic service which is performed for the public.”

H. Finer:

“The salient feature of modern government is its positive nature. It hardly fails to envisage any
branch of the moral or material sides of human endeavour…..The state is everywhere; it leaves
hardly a gap.”

Dimensions of Role
The role and importance of public administration can be analysed as follows:

(i) It is the basis of government whether in monarchy or in democracy or in communist country like
China or in capitalist country, and so on.
(ii) It is the instrument for executing the laws, policies and programmes formulated by the state.
(iii) It is the instrument of social change and economic development especially in the ‘Third World’
(i.e., developing countries), which are engaged in the process of social-welding and nation-building.
(iv) It is an instrument of national integration particularly in the developing countries which are
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facing the challenges of sub-nationalism, secessionism, classwars, and so on.

(v) It is the instrument of the state for providing to the people, various kinds of services like
educational, health, transportation, and so on.
(vi) It is a great stabilising force in the society as it provides continuity when governments change
either due to revolutions or elections or coups.

Gerald Caiden in his popular book The Dynamics of Public Administration says that the public
administration has assumed the following crucial roles in contemporary modern society:

• (a) Preservation of the polity

• (b) Maintenance of stability and order

• (c) Institutionalisation of socio-economic changes

• (d) Management of large scale commercial services

• (e) Ensuring growth and economic development

• (f) Protection of the weaker sections of society

• (g) Formation of public opinion

• (h) Influencing public policies and political trends

Growing Importance
• Traditionally, the role of public administration in the society has been limited. But in
contemporary society, its role has increased manifolds. The following factors have
contributed to this phenomenon:
• (i) The scientific and technological developments have led to ‘big government’ which
implies vast increase in the scope of the activities of public administration.
(ii) The Industrial Revolution which gave rise to socio-economic problems forcing the
government to take up new responsibilities.
(iii) The emergence of ‘welfare state’ replacing ‘police state’ (i.e. a negative state
based on the philosophy of laissez faire). A welfare state is a positive state which is
committed to the welfare of the people. Roscoe Pound calls the welfare state as
‘service state’.
(iv) The adoption of economic planning by the modern governments to achieve the
goals of welfare state has increased the scope of the role of public administration.
(v) The population explosion has created various socio-economic problems like
growth of slums, food shortage, transportation problem, and so on, which have to be
dealt by the public administration.
(vi) The nature of modern warfare has increased the responsibilities and activities of
public administration in terms of mobilization of necessary human and material
resources.
(vii) The increase in the natural calamities like floods, droughts, earthquakes, due to
excessive environmental degradation has enhanced the functions of public
administration as it has to handle the rescue operations.
(viii) The decline in social harmony and increase in violence due to class conflicts,
communal riots, ethnic wars, and so on, have increased the importance of public
administration in terms of crisis management.
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• However, an increase in the variety, number and complexity of functions performed

by the modern welfare state has resulted in an administrative lag. It means the
existence of serious imbalance between aspirations and performance. This implies gap
between the needs to be met and the adequacy of the administrative machinery to
fulfil them. This requires what is known as administrative development, that is,
strengthening the capacity and capability of the administrative system through
structural, procedural and behavioural changes.
• "Moreover, a trend which is noticed in the recent times is that of ‘privatisation’. This
has decreased the scope of economic functions of the state."