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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Public Administration: Meaning, Nature & Scope:
Public administration is a broad ranging and amorphous combination of theory and practice; its purpose is to promote a superior understanding of government and its relationship with the society it governs, as well as to encourage public policies more responsive to social needs and to institute managerial practices attuned to effectiveness, efficiency and the deeper human requisites of the citizenry.
Public Administration is a specialized academic field. It essentially deals with the machinery and procedures of government activities.
Public Administration is an aspect of more generic concept of administration. Administration is as old as civilization itself and public administration dates back to the origin of the state. As an aspect of government activity, public administration is as old as political society that is, it has been co-existing with every political systems, to accomplish the objectives set by the political decision makers.
Administration has been defined as a cooperative human effort towards achieving some common goals. Thus defined, administration can be found in various institutional setting such as a business firm, a hospital, a university, a government department and so on. As an aspect of this more generic concept, Public Administration is that species of administration which operates within a specific political setting.
It is a means by which the policy decisions made by the political decision makers are carried out. 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 government programmers, establishing and revising organization, directing and supervising employees, providing leadership, communicating and receiving communication, determining work methods and procedures, appraising performance, exercising controls and other functions performed by government executives and supervisors.
Public Administration lend itself to two usages; it is an activity; and it also refers to the discipline (or subject) of intellectual inquiry and study. Maintaining law and order is an activity and is part of Public Administration. Public Administration is also a discipline like Economics, Sociology, History etc., and it studies these activities and functions, formulate concepts and builds models and theories.
Public Administration as an academic discipline is barely one hundred and twenty five years old. The publication of Woodrow Wilson’s Essay ‘The Study of Administration’ in Political Science Quarterly in 1887 is considered as the symbolic beginning of a fairly autonomous inquiry. Whereas public administration as an activity can be traced back to the earliest periods of human history when man started living in organized societies. Governmental administration of earlier times (ancient and medieval) however differed considerably in its structure and goals from state administration in the modern era.  
In every society, public administration began with its main focus on the performance of activities like maintenance of law and order, collection of revenue, defence, etc. The rise of the modern welfare state has expanded the importance scope of public administration. Besides law and order, revenue collection and security functions, it operationalises a vast variety of public laws, provides public services like post and telegraphs and transport facilities in cities and towns, educational and health services and is the main instrument of socio-economic transformation in developing societies. It has widened to the extent that now very few aspects of an individual life remained unaffected by public administration. This stands true for all societies. – Socialist, capitalist and so on.
Public administration as visible public serving activity is before everyone’s gaze. Public administration is a system of organization and action concerned with performance of public serving activities. It can best be looked at as an instrument that is used for the realization of the goals of the government. Just as societies have their political systems and economic systems, they also have their public administrative systems.

Meaning and Definitions:
WHAT IS ADMINISTRATION?
            The English word ‘administer’ is derived from a combination of two Latin words ad & ministrare meaning ‘to serve’ or ‘to manage’. Literally, the term ‘administration means management of affairs – public or private.
            Administration may be defined as “group activity which involves cooperation and coordination for the purpose of achieving desired goals or objectives”.
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. Vieg: “Administration is determination 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.”

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

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

F. M. Marx: “Administration is 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.”

J. M. Pfiffner: “Administration is the organization and direction of human and material resources to achieve desired ends.”
Therefore, the two essentials of administration are:
i)                    Cooperative effort and
ii)                  Pursuit of common objectives.
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.

DEFINING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:
            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’.  The ‘Public’ aspect of Public administration attributes a special character and focus to it. So, public administration is government administration, government in action, or a socio-economic and politico-administrative confluence, the focus being especially on public bureaucracy. Hence, the focus of public administration is on public bureaucracy, i.e., bureaucratic organization of the government or the administrative organization.
            It is the action part of the government, the means by which the purposes and goals of the government are realized.

Encyclopedia Britannica defines public administration as ‘the application of a policy of a state through its government.’
Public Administration, therefore, refers to that part of administration, which pertains to the administrative activities of the government.
Now we will try to look into the definitions of Public Administration provided by various scholars.

Woodrow Wilson:
Public administration is the detailed and systematic application of law. Every particular application of law is an act of administration.

 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 the government; it concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of the government is done; though there are obviously problems also in connection with the legislative and judicial branches.

 J.M. Pfiffner:
“Administration consists of getting the work of government done by coordinating the efforts of people so that they can work together to accomplish their set tasks”.

H.A. Simon, D.W. Smithburg and V.A. Thompson:
“By Public Administration is meant, in common usage, the activities of the executive branches of national, state and local governments, government corporations and certain other agencies of a specialised character. Specifically excluded are judicial and legislative agencies within the government and non-governmental administration.”

Dimock:
“Public Administration is the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy as declared by the competent authorities…Public administration is law in action. It is the executive side of government.”

D. Waldo:
Public Administration is “the art and science of management applied to the affairs of the State.”

Percy Mc Queen:
Public administration is related to the operations of government whether local or central.

F.A. Nigro and L.G. Nigro:
Public Administration:
• is co-operative group effort in a public setting;
• covers all three branches-executive, legislative, and judicial, and their inter-relationships;
• has an important role in the formulation of public policy and is thus a part of the political process;
• is different in significant ways from private administration; and
• is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community”.

Thus, Public Administration is the management of affairs of the government. It operates within a political context. It is a means by which the policy decisions made by the political decision makers are carried out.

An analysis of the above definitions indicates that the term public administration has been used in two sense i.e., wider sense and narrow 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, 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 Willoghby.

NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:
There are two views regarding the Nature of Public Administration, that is, Integral and Managerial.
According to the integral view, ‘administration’ is the sum total of all the activities – manual, clerical, managerial, etc., which are undertaken to realise the objectives of the organisation. In this view all the acts of officials of the government from the Attendant to the Secretaries to the government and Head of the State constitute Public Administration. Henri Fayol and L.D. White are the supporters of this view.

Thus, administration, according to this view, depends upon the subject matter of the concerned agency, that is, it differs from one sphere to another sphere.

According to the managerial view of administration, the managerial activities of people who are involved in planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling constitute Public Administration. This view regards administration as getting things done and not doing things. Luther Gullick, Herbert Simon, Smithburg and Thompson are the supporters of this view. The managerial view excludes Public Administration from non-managerial activities such as manual, clerical and technical activities.
            Thus, administration according to this view constitutes the activities of only the top persons. Administration, according to this view, is same in all the spheres as the managerial techniques are same in all the fields of activities.
The two views differ from each other in many ways. According to Prof. M.P. Sharma the difference between the two views is fundamental. The integral view includes the activities of all the persons engaged in administration whereas the managerial view restricts itself only to the activities of the few persons at the top. The integral view depicts all types of activities from manual to managerial, from non-technical to technical whereas the managerial view takes into account only the managerial activities in an organisation. Furthermore, administration, according to the integral view would differ from one sphere to another depending upon the subject matter, but whereas that will not be the case according to the managerial point of view because the managerial view is identified with the managerial techniques common to all the fields of administration.
The difference between the two views relates to the difference between management and operation or we may say between getting things done and doing things. The correct meaning of the term administration would however, depend upon the context in which it is used.

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

SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:
By the scope of Public Administration, we mean the major concerns of Public Administration as an activity and as a discipline.
Scope of Public Administration as an activity:
                Broadly speaking, Public Administration embraces all the activities of the government. Hence, as an activity the scope of public administration is no less than the scope of state activity. In the modern welfare state people expect many things – a wide variety of services and protection from the government. In this context public administration provides a number of welfare and social security services to the people. Besides, it has to manage government owned industries and regulate private industries. Public administration covers every area and activity within the ambit public policy. Thus, the scope of public administration is very wide in modern state.

Scope of Public Administration as a Discipline:

The POSDCoRB view:
Several writers have defined the scope of public administration in varying terms. Gullick sums up the scope of the subject by the letters of the word POSDCoRB which denote: Planning, Organisation, Staffing, Directing, Co-ordinating reporting and the Budgeting.
  • Planning means the working out in broad outline the things to be done, the methods to be adopted to accomplish the purpose.
  • Organization means the establishment of the formal structure of authority through which the work is sub-divided, arranged, defined and coordinated.
  • Staffing means the recruitment and training of the personnel and their conditions of work.
  • Directing means making decisions and issuing orders and instructions.
  • Coordinating means inter-relating the work of various divisions, sections and other parts of the organization.
  • Reporting means informing the superiors within the agency to whom the executive is responsible about what is going on.
  • Budgeting means fiscal planning, control and accounting.
            According to Gullick the POSDCoRB activities are common to all organisations. They are the common problems of management which are found in different agencies regardless of the nature of the work they do.
            POSDCoRB gives unity, certainty, and definiteness and makes the study more systematic. The critics pointed out that the POSDCoRB activities were neither the whole of administration, nor even the most important part of it. The POSDCoRB view overlooks the fact that deferent agencies are faced with different administrative problems, which are peculiar to the nature of the services, they render and the functions they performed. The POSDCoRB view takes into consideration only the common techniques of the administration and ignores the study of the ‘subject matter’ with which the agency is concerned. A major defect is that the POSDCoRB view does not contain any reference to the formulation and implementation of the policy. Therefore, the scope of administration is defined very narrowly, being too inward looking and too conscious of the top management.

The Subject Matter View:
        We all know that public administration deals not only with the processes but also with the substantive matters of administration, such as Defence, Law and Order, Education, Public Health, Agriculture, Public Works, Social Security, Justice, Welfare, etc. These services require not only POSDCoRB techniques but also have important specialised techniques of their own which are not covered by POSDCoRB techniques.
For example, if you take Police Administration it has its own techniques in crime detection, maintenance of Law and Order, etc., which are much and more vital to efficient police work, than the formal principles of organisation, personnel management, coordination or finance and it is the same with other services too. Therefore, the study of public administration should deal with both the processes (that is POSDCoRB techniques and the substantive concerns).

       We conclude the scope of public administration with the statement of Lewis Meriam: “Public administration is an instrument with two blades like a pair of scissors. One blade may be knowledge of the field covered by POSDCoRB, the other blade is knowledge of the subject matter in which these techniques are applied. Both blades must be good to make an effective tool”.

         
We may conclude the discussion with the observation of Herbert Simon who says that Public administration has two important aspects, namely deciding and doing things. The first provides the basis for the second. One cannot conceive of any discipline without thinking or deciding. Thus Public administration is a broad-ranging and an amorphous combination of theory and practice.
Role of Public Administration Under Liberalisation, Privatisation And Globalisation (LPG)
Since the 1980s a number of countries, have been influenced by the concept of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation. Under the forces of globalization-liberalization recent decades have seen a shift towards reduced role for the state and government in all countries.

Key Terms:
Globalisation:
Globalisation means progressive integration of Economies throughout the world and treating the whole world as one global market by removing the restrictions on foreign trade.
The process of globalisation not only includes opening up of world trade, development of advanced means of communication, internationalisation of financial markets and services, growing importance of multinational corporations, population movements and, more generally, increased mobility of persons, goods, capital data and ideas, but also of infectious diseases and environmental problems like pollution.
Liberalisation:
A process of freeing the economy, from various Governmental regulations such as industrial licensing, controls on pricing and distribution of products and services, imports and exports and foreign exchange regulations; control of capital issues by companies; credit controls, restriction on investment, etc., so that the development and operation of the economy is increasingly guided by freely operating market forces. Thus liberalisation is essentially a process of withdrawal of all direct controls on the economy.
Thus the private sector is permitted to function freely in respect of investment, production and products.
Privatisation:
It means transfer, from the public to the private sector, of ownership or control over assets or activities. Privatisation fosters efficiency, encourages investment – and thus new growth and employment – and frees public resources for development of infrastructure and social programmes.
In India, 1990s have witnessed a fundamental shift in the orientation and style of functioning of administration.  Liberalization has over taken state regulation and control.  The emphasis has shifted from regulation to deregulation and from state control to privatization.  The licensing foreign currency, foreign capital investment, technical collaboration, imports and exports regulations have been either abolished altogether or reduced considerably.  The role of public sector has been deemphasized and the government is no longer prepared to bear burden of the loss-making public sector undertakings and as a policy, decided to close down or sell out such units.  Thus, the socialist model has been replaced by the free market economy model and the change is taking place at an unprecedented speed.
Ø  One form of LPG has entrusted the management of public sector enterprises partially or fully to private companies.
Ø  Another form of LPG is disinvestment in public sector enterprises, which is followed in India.

As a result of this the public sector enterprises find themselves in a competitive and challenging environment. However, the role of public administration under LPG continues to be quite significant.
It requires dismantling of a regime of regulations, controls, restrictions, licences, secrecy and delay. The bureaucracy has to play an investor friendly, responsive, transparent, open and competitive role. So, this requires necessary administrative reform, which should aim at elimination of redundant practices, procedures, administrative laws and corruption. Thus, the policy of LPG affects the role, values and skills of public bureaucracy. It also decreases the scope of the functions of the state, resulting in minimum of state interference in the lives of the individuals. The state is called upon to oversee the operational side of the enterprises. This gives the state a new role as regulator.

Today, the role of public administration is towards more of governance, then of direct involvement. The public administration has to play enabling, collaborative, cooperative, partnership and regulatory roles.
  • Coming to the core areas such as defence, atomic energy, law and order, foreign policy it has a direct role to play.
  • In certain other areas such as telecommunications, airlines, insurance, etc., it has to compete with the private sector, for which there should be regulatory commissions to provide for equal level playing fields for both the sectors.
  • There are other areas which it can have partnership with the citizens for efficient delivery of services, for example, maintenance of schools, hospitals, irrigation water and civic amenities. An example we can give is the ‘Bhagidari Scheme’ adopted by the Delhi Government.
  • In certain areas like electricity, water and transport it can have partnership with the private sector. A number of states have partnership with the private sector in providing these services. Other such areas are protection of forests, empowerment of women, micro credit, health schemes, and awareness programmes, it can have partnership with the Non- Governmental (NGO) and Voluntary Organisations.

Effects of LPG on Public Administration:
  • Element of Competition:
·         Bureaucratic model- rule bound, conservative, slow, unresponsive, inefficient, ineffective and high cost- Challenged.
·         Reforms in terms of NPM, E- governance, etc.
·         Process of LPG proved useful.
·         Liberalization encourages competition among the players by ending monopoly of Government owned companies. \
  • Modernization and Technological Preparedness:
·         Free flow of technology and management techniques led to modernization and increased use o technology in Pub. Administration.
  • Attitudinal changes:
·         Principle of effectiveness added to traditional principles of Pub administration- efficiency and economy..
·         Competition allowed consumers to make choice..
·         Attitudinal change- pub administration became people oriented- improved quality service- attractive products.\

  • Increasing importance of specialists:
·         In policy making to achieve efficiency and effectiveness.
·         Bureaucracy became result oriented due to competition with private players.   
  • Decentralization:
·         Privatisation and deregulation shift responsibility for functions from the public to private sector and is another type of Decentralisation
  • Professional Competence:
·         Reorientation of attitude- new work ethics-acceptance of NPM,
·         Introduction of private management principles in Public Administration,
·         Entry of MNC’s
·         Free play of labour and manpower


                                 
Evolution of Public Administration as a social science:
The study of Public Administration, as Peter Self points out, ‘developed as an offshoot of political science or Public Law.’ Emergence of Public Administration as a separate study of as a social science is of very recent origin.
Woodraw Wilson, in his celebrated essay “The Study of Public Administration” published in 1887 laid the foundation of the science of public administration.  In this essay he defined the problems and character of public administration in a modern democratic society.
Phases: Avasthi and Maheshwari have classified Public Administration into major five phases.
Phase
Period
Dominant Theme
I
1887-1926
Politics-Administration Dichotomy
II
1927-1937
Principles of Public Administration – An independent discipline
III
1938-1947
Era of Challenge- Behavioural challenge
IV
1948-1970
Crisis of Identity
V
1971 onwards
Public Policy Perspective




1) Politics-Administration Dichotomy- (1887-1926)
The evolution of Public administration as a specialized field of study falls into a number of critical stages. The first stage can be called as the era of Politics –Administration Dichotomy. The stage began with the publication of Woodraw Wilson’s essay ‘The Study of Administration’ in the Political Science quarterly in1887. Hence Wilson is also regarded as the father of PA. He was the originator of politics – administration dichotomy. 
He argued that politics is concerned with policy making while administration is concerned with the implementation of policy decisions. Administrative questions are not political questions. His basic argument was that ‘it is getting harder to run a constitution than it is to frame one.’ According to him Administration is the most obvious part of government.  It is government in action. It is the most visible side of the government. It was gradually accepted that though administration operates in the political context it is distinct from politics. There is a need of an efficient administration for the rational implementation of goals.  He also argued for the science of administration.
The wilsonian line of line of thought was further continued by Frank. J. Goodnow in his book ‘Politics and Administration’ published in 1900. He made a technical distinction between politics and administration.  Politics concerns with the expression of the will of the state while administration concerns with its execution.
 In 1914, the American Political Science Association recognized Public Administration as an important sub-area of Political Science and the objective of the study was to preparing ‘specialists for governmental positions’.  The subject began to gain increasing recognition in the American University.
                In 1926, the first text-book on the subject was published namely,  “Introduction to the study of Public Administration” by L.D.White.  He also emphasized that politics and administration are to be kept separate but at the same time visualized involvement of administration in policy matters and through policy with politics.  Efficiency and economy were the watch words of Public Administration then.

2) Principles of Administration: 1927-1937           
            During this stage, the scholars believed that there certain principles of administration which could be discovered and applied to increase the efficiency and economy of Public Administration. This phase began with the publication of W.F. Willoughby’s “Principles of Public Administration” in 1927.  He tried to establish the discipline of Public Administration as an independent social science.  This period witnessed publication of a number of important works, on Public Administration.
1.      Creative Experience (1924) -Mary Parker Follett.
2.      Industrial and General Management (1916)-Henri Fayol
3.      Principles of Organisation (1939) -Mooney and Reiley
4.      Papers on the Science of Administration ( 1937)-Gulick and Urwick
            This stage in the evolution of PA reached its zenith with the appearance of Gulick and Urwick’s Papers on the Science of Administration in 1937. The central theme of this phase was the Principles of Administration.  It was believed that it is the task of the scholars to discover universal principles and to promote their application.  Gulick and Urwick called these principles – POSDCORB.  During this period Public Administration commanded a high degree of respectability and its theories were in great demand in both business and government. This period is regarded as the golden years of ‘Principles’ in the history of Public Administration.

3) Era of Challenge and Behaviouralism- 1938-1947
            The main theme of this stage was the advocacy of human relations and Behavioural Approach. Bothe defining pillars of Public Administration were challenged. It was argued that administration cannot be separated from politics because of its political nature and political role. In other word Politics –Administration dichotomy was rejected. Similarly principle of administration were challenged and criticised on the ground that they lack validity and universal relevancy.
            The Hawthorne studies (1924-32) conducted under the leadership of Elton Mayo shook the foundations of the principles approach to organizational analysis by demonstrating the role of informal organisations in determining efficiency.
Important Publications of this stage were:
1) Functions of the Executive by Chester Barnard (1938)
2) Proverbs of Administration by Herbert Simon (1946)
3) The Science of Public Administration: Three Problems by Robert Dahl (1947)
            Simon was the harshest critic of the principles of administration and described them as proverbs. He focused upon decision making. He advocated an empirical and Behavioural approach to the study of PA. Robert Dahl emphasized the environmental effects on administrative behaviour. He believed that PA cannot escape the effects of national psychology, and social, political and cultural environment in which it developes. He suggested cross- cultural or comparative studies.

4) Crisis of Identity- 1948-1970
            With the rejection of politics-administration dichotomy and principles of administration in the earlier stage, Public Administration suffered from crisis of identity. Consequently scholars in this phase reacted in two ways:
1) Some of them returned to the fold of Political Science. John Gaus in his article entitled  Trends in the theory of Public Administration (1950) developed a thesis that a theory of PA means in our times a theory of Politics also. Rosco Martin in his 1952 article called for continued dominion of political science over PA.
2) Some others moved towards administrative science. They argued that administration is administration irrespective of its setting. They founded the Journal of Administrative Science Quarterly in 1956. The major work influenced by this perspective is Organisation (1958) by March and Simon.
Various developments took place during this phase of the evolution of Public Administration. They are:
1) Rise of New Human Relations Movement advocated by Chris Argyris, McGregor, Rensis Linkert, Warren Bennis and Others.
2) Growth of Comparative Public Administration
3) Ecological Approach by Fred Riggs
4) Conceptualization of Development Administration by Edward Weidner and Riggs
5) Emergence of New Public Administration
6) Advocacy of Public Choice Approach by Vincent Ostrom and others.
7) Rise of Critical Perspective of PA.

5) Public Policy Perspective- 1971 onwards
            Despite the uncertainty in the earlier period PA registered great progress in the seventies.  It has attracted scholars from various disciplines and thus became truly inter-disciplinary in its nature. It focused its attention on the dynamics of administration and management sciences. The main theme in the final stage of evolution is the concern for Public Policy Analysis. It is showing interest in the related fields of policy-science, political economy, policy-making, policy analysis and so on.

According to Robert T. Golembiewski the public policy approach is built upon two basic themes- 1) The interpenetration of politics –administration at all levels and 2) the programmatic character of all administration.