welfare state means more government function

third world country need government led development

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION is a system of organization and action oriented with
performance of socio-economic activities.
It deals with machinery and procedure of government.
It is an instrument used for realization of goals of government.
It is action part of government for fulfillment of objective set up by decision makers.
It is decision making, planning, formulating objectives and goals, working with legislature and
citizen organization, establishing and revising organization, directing and supervising employees,
providing leadership, communicating, determining work methods and procedures, appraising
performance, exercising control, etc
It is use of managerial, legal and political theories and processes to fulfill executive, legislative
and judicial government mandate for provision of regulatory and service function for society as a
whole or some segment of it.
Administration is cooperative human effort towards achieving some common goals.
ARISTOTLE- POLITICS,
MACHIAVELLI- THE PRINCE
systematic study started in 18 century in Europe and 2 system developed
1. Anglo-American- preference for local self-government, citizen participation, dispersion of
authority, well established responsibility of administration to legislative body and to civil court.
2. French- formulated by Napoleon based on concentration of power, domination of national
over local authorities, professionalization of public service and responsibility of officials to
separate administrative courts.
WOODROW WILSON contribution public administration1. advocacy of science (a systematic and disciplined body of knowledge) of administration
2. distinguishing administration from politics
3. apparent predilection (preference) for private or business administration
4. initiative for comparative study of administration
POLITICO ADMINISTRATIVE DICHOTOMY-Wilson said that "administration was
removed from the hurry and strife of politics" by this his basic argument was that administrators
could concentrate on operating the government rather than on substituting their judgement for
that of elected representative. This idea came to be called as POLITICO ADMINISTRATIVE
DICHOTOMY
Public administration & management or business administration- affairs of both are
synonymous so administrators could use mechanism of government as well as pvt industry

Comparative public administration- it is working of government in different socio economic

and cultural setting ie filtering lessons learned from other countries and using them as per their
cultural, social, economical needs.

Mans feet may wallow in the bog of self-interest but his eyes and ears are strangely
attuned to calls from the mountaintops.

Philosophies of public administration1. intuitionist philosophy- right course of action under given circumstances, it does not provide
any guidelines for action nor does it spell out an explicit theory of public interest. It justifies
status quo and therefore is of little help in actual administration.
2. perfectionism- it is elitist philosophy and anti-egalitarian and not compatible with democratic
theory. It favors excellence at expense of social equality.
3. utilitarianism- (john stuart mill) public interest is served when a public policy make every
one slightly better off even though it makes a few individual slightly worse off. It accepts
position that few may be worse off.
4. theory of justice- (john rawls) anglo-saxon concept of fairness and these come close to what
is called in economics pareto optimality(which is similar to utilitarian philosophy). It has 2
basic principles first each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty
compatible with a similar liberty for others. Second social and economic inequalities are to be
arranged so that they are both (a) reasonably expected to be to everyones advantage and (b)
attached to position and offices open to all. In case of conflict between two second prevails. It is
much more balanced then other 3.

Evolution of Public Administration

study of public administration developed as an offshoot of political science and until
recently as an academic subject it was plain step sister of older discipline- peter self
Stage 1:

Politico administrative dichotomy

Wilsons science of administration
Administration was for implementation of decisions taken politically
As per Frank Goodnow politics is to do with policies and administration is to do with
implementation of these policies
Politics=>legislature arm of government, Administration=>executive arm of government
Process of administration has regularity and concreteness and hence science

Stage 2:

Reinforced idea of politics-administrative dichotomy

Value free science of management
Public aspect of public administration was virtually dropped
Stage of orthodoxy
Politics by politicians was considered as irrelevant
Business of administration
mechanistic concept of administration
findings had origin in private administration but are applicable to public administration

Stage 3:

Hawthrone experiment came with human relation approach

Much more impact on post war period
Drew attention towards informal work group and informal organization in formal setup
Leadership, conflict and cooperation among groups in organization was analysed
Gave limitation of machine concept of scientific management
Drew attention towards psychological and social factors in work situation

Stage 4:

Two important publications by Hebert Simons Administrative Behaviour and Robert

Dahls Science of public administration: Three problems
Simons book emphasizes on requirement of science of public administration
Simon said classical principles are unscientific and are mere proverb
He rejected politico administrative dichotomy and introduced concept of means and ends
He insisted if any theory is involved it must be derived from logic and psychology of
human choice
His approach widened the scope of public administration relating to psychology,
sociology, economics and social science
He identified 2 stream of thoughts one was engaged in development of pure science of
administration and another was dealing with broad range of values.
Dahl essay gave 3 problems in evolution of science of public administration:
1. problem of excluding normative consideration from problem of public administration
2. science of public administration must be study of certain aspect of human behavior
3. conception of public administration
Stage 5:

public policy approach became intellectually easier

study of public administration has been gaining in social relevance with no clear
boundaries
And hence no clear demarcation of exclusive province of public administration

discipline orthodoxy of PA has boosted ego of PA experts but its alienation from political
science have caused concern in scholars of the same

New public administration / Minnowbrook I

Challenged orthodoxy of public administration

September 1968
4 major themes:
Relevance
Reinterpretation of theme
Management oriented PA was found irrelevant and demand for political and
administrative implication were raised.
Another issue was character of knowledge of PA
Values
Rejected value neutral position taken by political science and management
oriented PA
Disadvantaged section in society should be helped
It was less generic and more public
Less descriptive and more prescriptive
Less institute oriented and more client oriented
Less neutral and more normative
Equity
Work for removal of wrongs in society
Took side of deprived section of society
Change
To serve cause of social equity
Attack on status quo and powerful interest entrenched in permanent institutes

Minnowbrook II

September 1988
Different social environment then first conference
Context of PA changed in favour of less directly performing government more 3rd party
government
Voluntarism and social capacity
They were more practical and pragmatic
5 themes were: - concern for social equity, democratic values, normative and behavioral
perspective, social diversity and privatization.
It set out vision for near future, did not acknowledge indebtedness of other discipline,
strong adversarial attitude towards business, discussed need for innovation, question on
what government should do was avoided.

Minnowbrook III

Purpose- exchange knowledge of present situation, develop network, present papers.

Was in 2 phases: - 1st phase was for summaries of concern and future direction and focus
areas. 2nd was more of a conference where scholars were invited to submit proposals
Conference took serious note on present issues like terrorism, war, climate change, etc
It was argued that PA failed to address grave social issue because: - 1st field is not
adequately recognized and 2nd field suffers from bureaucratic hurdles.

Public choice approach

Deals with institutional pluralism in provision of public goods and services.

Ostrom said that perfection in hierarchical ordering of public service accountable to
single power will reduce capacity of administrative system to respond for different public
goods and services
It questions hegemony of bureaucracy
Thus bureaucracy has to pass its function to private sector making space for market
forces to play role.
Two of its assumptions are: - individuals act rationally in ordered preference, individuals
are utility maximizers.

Critical theory and public organization

Public choice approach is an attempt to construct theory of public organization in tune

with consumers interest and preferences
Public interest and bureaucratic interest are many times loggerheads to each other
Critical theory of public organization is interested in improving quality of organizational
life.
Critical approach concentrate on distorted pattern of communication both internal and
external
Mostly structural arrangement stands in way of free flow of communication.

Public service approach

two disciplines in this approach are: - a) approach of Osbourne and Gaebler for
reorientation of studies from point of view of competence which have been termed as
steering rather than rowing,
b) new public management (neo liberal school of thoughts) focusses on downsizing of
government from point of view of scope and on enhancing competence using information
technology
but neo liberal thoughts has failed to appreciate the critical role of public institute and has
functioned as detriment of larger public interest specially poor and marginal. It also had
made central government as core regulator of society.
Listening to public rather than telling is serving rather than steering.