INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Public Administration is a
newly emerged discipline compare to other Social Science’s discipline. Public
Administration has gained immense importance since the emergence of
Administrative state. It deals every aspect of the state and its relation to
subjects. In simple sense Public Administration is state mechanism. In every
Political System administration have significant role.
Meaning of Public Administration
The word Administration has
been derived from the Latin words ‘ad’ and ‘ministiare’ which means to serve.
In simple language it means the ‘management of affairs’ or ‘looking after the
people’. In general sense Administration can be defined as the activities of
groups co-operating to accomplish common goals. It is a process of management
which is practiced by all kinds of organisations from the household to the most
complex system of the government. According to L. D. White, Administration was
a ‘process common to all group effort, public or private, civil or military,
large scale or small scale’.
Public administration is "centrally concerned with
the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behavior
of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct.
Generally Public Administration has been used in two senses. In the wider sense it
includes all the activities of the government whether falling in the sphere of
legislature, executive or judicial branch of the government, in the narrow
sense Public Administration is concerned with the activities of the executive
branch only.
Definitions of Public administration
·
L D White observes, “Public Administration consist
of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfilment or enforcement
of public policy”.
·
Pliffner defines It would seem that “Public
Administration consists of getting the work of government done by co-ordinating
the efforts of the people so that they can work together to accomplish their
set tasks”.
·
Prof: Woodrow Wilson defined Public Administration as
detailed and systematic execution of public law; every particular application
of general law is an act of administration.
·
Luther Gullick ‘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 the government is
done.
·
Dwight Waldo, defines Public Administration as ‘the
art and science of management as applied to the affairs of state’.
NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
There are two divergent views
regarding the nature of the Public administration. These views are following
INTEGRAL VIEW:
According to this view, Public administration is a sum
total of all the activities undertaken in pursuit of and in fulfillment of
public policy. These activities include not only managerial and technical but
also manual and clerical. Thus the activities of all persons from top to bottom
constitute administration although they are of varying significance to the
running of administrative machinery. Prof: L D White adopts this view of Public
administration. According to him, Public Administration
‘consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or
enforcement of public policy’. This definition covers a multitude of particular
operations, many in fields. Another scholar Marshal E Dimock also shares the
same view. He holds that administration is concerned with the ‘what’ and ‘how’
of government. The ‘what’ is the subject matter, the technical knowledge of a
field which enables the administrator to perform his tasks. The ‘how’ is the
technique of management, the principles according to which cooperative
programmes are carried to success.
MANAGERIAL VIEW:
According to this view, the
works of only those persons who are engaged in the performance of managerial
functions in an organisation constitute administration. In this managerial view
the administration has the functions of planning, programming and organise all
the activities in an organisation so as to achieve the desired ends. Luther
Gullick and Herbert Simon subscribe this view. Gullick says ‘Administration has
to do with getting things done; with the accomplishment of defined objectives’.
These
two views are deals the nature of public administration. In simply the nature
of Public Administration deals the execution.
SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
In the modern time Public
administration have a pivotal role. There are many discussions about the scope
of Public Administration, some scholars are argued that in the Neo-liberal time
the scope of Public administration is very less and Private administration have
growing importance. Some argues that the neo-liberal time the term Public
administration has significant one because the neo liberal state has faced many
problems like environmental and technological issues.
The scope of Public
administration deals in many ways
·
Public Administration and People.
·
Public Administration is an organisational effort it
needed a close relation to people. In every Administrative system they have
good relation between people and administrative agencies. It influenced the day
to day life of the common people.
·
Public Administration and Democracy
·
In a Democratic political system scope of public
administration is related in many ways. It have close link to people and at the
same time they are the watch -dog of the political system. The Modern
democratic state gave more important to the welfarism, in a welfare democracy
the effective administration is essential.
There are many other reasons
also contribute the scope of Public Administration.
·
Development of Communication and Technology
·
The Development of Neo-Liberal State
·
The concept of Participatory Development
·
Good Governance.
·
E-Governance
·
Environmental concerns
·
Human rights approach
·
New Social Movements and State
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION
Private
administration is a concept newly emerged one. Private Administration
challenged the development of Public Administration. After 1970s the term
private administration gained immense importance. There are many differences
between these administrations.
·
The most apparent difference between the two sectors is
their organizing principles or goal. While private administration has a definite
mission, which is the pursuit of profit or stability or growth of revenues,
public administration, on the other hand, has ambiguous purposes. Furthermore,
the dilemma in ambiguity of purposes is exacerbated by too many unnecessary and
inoperable agencies, with purposes that overlap and bloated bureaucracies.
·
Another factor that makes the public sector different
from the private is decision making. In public administration, the decision
must be and should be pluralistic. The founding fathers intentionally created a
democratic republic where all key decisions are made in politicized
environment. This allows for maximum participation: open debate, multiple veto
points - a decision making hierarchy where consensus must be achieved at each
level, ideally, an informed decision. While private administration's
decision-making is much simpler- it's monopolistic or close to monopolistic.
This type of decision-making would avoid any conflicts in interest; hence, the
goal is clearly defined.
·
Public Administration is not characterized solely by
profit motive; In fact in Private administration mainly functioned on the basis
of profit motive.
·
Public Administration is strictly in accordance with
certain legal safeguards in a manner to sustain the confidence and trust of the
general public. In Private Administration no legality, it only considered about
the owner.
·
Public Administration is not concerned about the time
factor but private administration strictly follow time factor.
·
Private Administration focused to the efficiency,
transparency, accountability and credibility but in public administration these
functions are only in nominal level.
