PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
MARIANNE GAIL Z. CARIÑO AB POLITICAL SCIENCE II-B WF 10:30AM-12:00NN 11-12-15
1. What is Public Administration?
The term “public administration” encompasses a complex set of interrelated
concepts, thus a simple definition will not suffice. It draws from many different academic
disciplines, includes a variety of agencies, and is linked closely to several distinct
professions. There are four given definitions to capture the intrinsic richness and subtlety
of the broad phrase “public administration.”
Political. Public administration is what government does. It exists within a
political environment, and it is this political context that makes it “public.” Public
administration is about implementation of the public interest. It is also about doing
collectively what cannot be done as well individually.
Legal. Public administration is law in action in the form of statutes, regulations,
ordinances, codes, etc.
Managerial. The executive nature of public administration enables the public will
to be translated into action by the people responsible for running the public bureaucracy.
Occupational. Public administration includes many occupational fields—
medicine, engineering, social welfare, economics, etc. It is within the framework of each
of these fields that the political, legal, and managerial aspects of public administration
are transformed by public administrators into the work of government.
Source: wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/270/276644/IM.doc
PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
MARIANNE GAIL Z. CARIÑO AB POLITICAL SCIENCE II-B WF 10:30AM-12:00NN 11-12-15
2. Compare and contrast the new and old public administration
The traditional model of public administration can be characterized as: an
administration under formal control of political leadership, based on a strictly hierarchical
model of bureaucracy, staffed by permanent, neutral officials, motivated only by public
interest serving any governing party equally and not contributing to policy but merely
administrating policies decided by the politicians. The term public administration is
always meant the study of the public sector, in addition to being an activity and a
profession. (Hughes, 1994)
There were challenges to the then old public administration and it was shaken
and influenced by the social turbulence and crisis-ridden period of the sixties. The
evolving discipline of public administration has come to be enriched by the emergence of
what has come to be known as the “New Public Administration Movement” (Basu, 1990)
There are four main characteristics of the new public administration:
Relevance: The traditional public administration has been interested in economy
and efficiency. The New Public Administration movement pointed out that the discipline
had little to say about contemporary problems and issues and was therefore becoming
irrelevant. Management oriented public administration studies were found inadequate
and the demand was to deal explicitly with the political environment and implications of
administrative action. The New Public Administration movement demanded radical
syllabi change to facilitate meaningful studies oriented toward the realities of modern day
public life.
Values: New public administration rejected the value neutral position of
traditional public administration. Value neutrality in public administration was declared
PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
MARIANNE GAIL Z. CARIÑO AB POLITICAL SCIENCE II-B WF 10:30AM-12:00NN 11-12-15
impossibility and the discipline championed the cause of the disadvantaged sections in
society. The new public administrator should be less ‘generic’ and public, less
descriptive and more prescriptive, less institution oriented and more client impact
oriented, less neutral and more normative.
Social Equity and Social Change. (Dutta, 1990)
The summarized comparison of the old, traditional public administration (TPA)
and the new public management (NPM) are as follows: the organizational structure of
the TPA is hierarchical while in NPM, the structure is that of a network; The normative
order of TPA is command and control while negotiation and persuasion for the NPM.
The values of the TPA are efficiency while efficiency and effectiveness in the NPM. TPA
has a paternalistic role of government while empowering for the NPM. The TPA views
the citizens as citizens while in NPM, they see citizens as customers.
With the emergence of globalization, financial constraints, and rising social
expectations, public administration has to live with many dilemmas. Modern
administration has to deal with the problems of technical complexity, new technology,
transitory professionals who move in and of public organizations with ease, public-
private partnerships, and the meshing of powers in addition to more public demands for
services. The most important of all these developments is the overlapping of powers.
More specifically, the concept of separation of power has gradually eroded into a domain
where the boundaries of state organs- legislature, executive, and judiciary – seem
blurred. This is particularly true in the case of problems such as combating terrorism and
protecting environment. In order to have better understanding of public administration,
there is a need for a new approach that combines the values of traditional public
PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
MARIANNE GAIL Z. CARIÑO AB POLITICAL SCIENCE II-B WF 10:30AM-12:00NN 11-12-15
administration and those advocated by the New Public Management (NPM). In other
words, a synthesis of managerial, legal, and political approaches to public administration
is required in addition to accommodating some of the values of New Public
Management.
Sources:
Amir M. Nasrullah, “From Public Administration to New Public Management: An
Analysis”, Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences 3 (Grace Publications Network, 2005)
Yorid Ahsan Zia and M. Zeb Khan, “A Comparative Review of Traditional and New
Public Administration and Critique of New Public Management”, The Dialogue Volume 9,
Number 4
