2018-2019

H.P NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, SHIMLA

Political Science Assignment

Topic:

MEANING OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Submitted To:

Assistant Prof. Dr. Ved Prakash Sharma.

Submitted By:

Dushyant Pratap Singh

Roll no. – 1020171831

B.A.LLB. (HONS.) –IV SEMESTER

 Acknowledgement

The practical realization of this project has obligated the assistance of many persons. I express
my deepest regard and gratitude for Dr. Ved Prakash Sharma. His consistent supervision,
constant inspiration, and invaluable guidance have been of immense help in understanding and
carrying out the nuances of the project report.

I would like to thank my family and friends without whose support and encouragement, this
project would not have been a reality.

I take this opportunity to also thank the University and the Vice Chancellor for providing
extensive database resources in the Library and through Internet. I would be grateful to receive
comments and suggestions to further improve this project report.

I feel highly elated to work on the topic MEANING OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Dushyant Pratap Singh

Roll no- 1020171831

INTRODUCTION

Administration as an activity is as old as society itself. But as an area of study it originated, with
the publication of Wilson‟s essay on study of Administration in 1887. As a process,
administration occurs in both public and private organizations. It occurs in such diverse
institution as settings as a business firm, labour unions, religious or charitable organizations,
educational institutions, etc. Its nature is affected by the sphere with which it is concerned.
Administration is commonly divided into two types, Public and Private Administration. As an
aspect of government activity it has existed since the emergence of political system(s). While
public administration relates to the activities carried out by government, private administration
refers to the management of private business enterprises.

It is important to understand the functioning of administration for on this lies the understanding
of the government. In this Unit an effort has been made to bring the concept of administration,
public administration in particular, closer to you. This understanding will take you through the
entire course of Public Administration. In what follows, we will examine the meaning, nature
and scope of public administration.

WHAT IS ADMINISTRATION?

The word „administer‟ is derived from the Latin word administere, which means to care for or
to look after people, to manage affairs. Administration may be defined as “group activity which
involves cooperation and coordination for the purpose of achieving desired goals or objectives”.
Broadly speaking, the term administration appears to bear at least four different meanings or
different senses depending upon the context in which it is used:

1. As a Discipline: The name of a branch of learning or intellectual discipline as taught and

studied in colleges and universities.
2. As a Vocation: Type of work/trade or profession/occupation, especially one that involves
knowledge and training in a branch of advance learning.
3. As a Process: The sum total of activities undertaken to implement Public Policy or
policies to produce some services or goods.
 4. As a Synonym for 'word' Executive or Government: Such other body of persons in
supreme charge of affairs, for example, Manmohan Singh Administration, Bush
Administration, etc.

Noted below are definitions by a few famous writers.

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
conscious purpose”.

Brooks Adams

“Administration is the capacity of coordinating many, and often conflicting, social energies in a
single organism, so adroitly that they shall operate as a unity.

Felix A. Nigro

“Administration is the organization and use of men and materials to accomplish a purpose”.

J.M. Pfiffner and R. Presthus

“Administration is the organization 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 Gullick

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

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 and foretelling everything to the country”.

Herbert Simon, D.W. Smithburg and V.A. Thompson

“In its broadest sense, the administration can be defined as the activities of group cooperating to
accomplish common goals.”

A brief analysis of the definitions listed above reveals that administration comprises two
essentials, namely

1. cooperative effort, and

2. Pursuit of common objectives. One does not find any administration if there is only a
common purpose without a collective effort or vice-versa. Administration is also called a
„technology of social relationships‟. Thus, administration is a process common to all
group effort, public or private, civil or military, large scale or small scale. It is process at
work in a department store, a bank, a university, a high school, a railroad, a hospital, a
hotel or a local government.

ADMINISTRATION, ORGANISATION AND MANAGEMENT

Before we discuss about the meaning, definition, nature, scope and importance of public
administration we will try to know what is administration, organisation and management. As
these terms are often used interchangeably and synonymously, it is pertinent to know the
differences and distinctions between these three terms. According to William Schulze
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
pre-determined object. To put the above in simple terms, administration sets the goal,
management strives to attain it and organisation is the machine of the management for the
attainment of the ends determined by the administration.

DEFINING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

L.D. White observes that although public administration varies in form and objects, and although
the administration of public and private affairs differs at many points, there is an underlying
similarity, if not identity. As an integral aspect of such generic concept, public administration
could be related to that type of administration, which operates within a specific ecological
setting. It is a means to carry out the policy decisions made by political executive.

To be seen along with it is the „Public‟ aspect of Public administration, which attributes a special
character and focus to it. „Public can be looked at formally to mean „government‟. So, public
administration is government administration, government in action, or a socio-economic and
politico-administrative confluence, the focus being especially on public bureaucracy.
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 fulfillment or
enforcement of public policy”. As per White, this definition covers a multitude of particular
operations in many fields the delivery of a letter, the sale of public land, the negotiation of a
treaty, the award of compensation to an injured workman, the quarantine of a sick child, the
removal of litter from a park, manufacturing uranium 235, and licensing the use of atomic
energy. It includes military as well as civil affairs, much of the work of courts, and all the special
fields of government activity-police, education, health, construction of public works,
conservation, social security, and many others. The conduct of public affairs in advanced
civilizations requires the employment of almost every profession and skill-engineering, law,
medicine, and teaching; the crafts, the technical specialties, the office skills, and many others.

Percy Mc Queen

Public administration is related to the operations of government whether local or central.

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”.

M. Ruthanaswami

“When administration has to do with the affairs of a state or minor political institutions like the
municipal or country council (district board), it is called public administration. All the acts of the
officials of a government, from the peon in a remote office to the head of a state in the capital,
constitute public administration.”

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
specialized character. Specifically excluded are judicial and legislative agencies within the
government and non-governmental administration.”

Corson and Harris

“Public administration … is the action part of government, the means by which the purposes and
goals of government are realised.”

Dwight Waldo

“Public administration is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of State.”

M.E. Dimock

“Public Administration is concerned with „what‟ and „how‟ of the 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 co-operative
programmes are carried through to success. Each is indispensable, together they form the
synthesis called administration”.

Nicholas Henry

“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”.

The traditional definitions of Public Administration, which are given above reflect the view that
the Public Administration is only involved in carrying out the policies and programmes of the
government. It reflect that it has no role in policy making and also locates the administration in
the executive branch but today the term public administration is used in a broader sense that it is
not only involved in carrying out the programmes of the government, but it also plays an
important role in policy formulation and covers the three branches of the government.

In this context, I may reflected on the definition offered by F.A. Nigro and L.G. Nigro.
According to them 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”.

In sum, public administration:

 is the non-political public bureaucracy operating in a political system;

 deals with the ends of the State, the sovereign will, the public interests and laws;
 is the business side of government and as such concerned with policy execution, but it is
also concerned with policy-making;
 covers all three branches of government, although it tends to be concentrated in the
executive branch;
 provides regulatory and service functions to the people in order to attain good life;
 differs significantly from private administration, especially in its emphasis on the public;
and
 is interdisciplinary in nature as it draws upon other social sciences like political science,
economics and sociology.

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.

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.

The two views differs 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 nontechnical 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
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 break 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 organizing 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 scope of public administration as a discipline, that is subject of studies, comprises of the
following:

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 the
Budgeting. Planning means the working out in broad outline the things to be done, the methods
to be adopted to accomplish the purpose.

Organisation 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
organisation.

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.

CONCLUSION

In the preceding text, the importance of Public Administration as a discipline and as an activity
has been discussed. Subsequent developments in the discipline in response to both practical
problems and academic questions have further enhanced its importance as a vibrant and
meaningful field. In the contemporary world, the burden of public duties on government has
been steadily increasing. It seems that public administration is indispensable because
contemporary civilisation cannot progress without a sound administrative system. According to
Gerald, E. Caiden “The positivistic-interventionist role of government would automatically find
reactions in academic inquiry. And as history has shown, the importance of Public
Administration as a discipline has been closely associated with the increasing activist role of
government everywhere. In the context of the newer and the wider duties and responsibilities
thrown on the state, the role of public administration is more vital and important than of almost
any other branch of government. As a growing field of knowledge and practice, Public
Administration has attempted to meet this challenge”.

In the light of the above discussions, the following two conclusions may be arrive at:

1. There are strong reasons to believe that Pubic Administration is both – a „Science” and an
“Art” i.e. though it can make predictions, the predictions are not absolutely correct. It
also mean that a contingency approach is required in the practice of administration i.e.
there is a need to modify the science of administration to suit the situation and then apply
it. The ability to modify it and to apply it is an art.
2. The word “Science” could be used here in the connotation of a „social Science‟. It has the
traits of a science since predictability is there though limited only up to some degree.
Hence one can say that the methodology applied in Public Administration is scientific
while its application is an art.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

 https://www.managementstudyguide.com
 http://www.legalservicesindia.com
 http://egyankosh.ac.in