Unit 1: Public Administration

Meaning of Public Administration

• Administration as an area of study originated after the publication of

Woodrow Wilson’s Essay on the study of Administration in 1887.
• Administration is a process that occurs in public and private organizations.
• Public Administration = Activities carried out by government
• Private Administration = Management of private businesses
Administer is an English word, which is originated from the Latin word ‘ad’ and
‘ministrare’. It means to serve or to manage. Administration means management of
public or private issues.
Definitions of Public Administration =
• Prof. Woodrow Wilson, says in his book ‘The Study of Public Administration’,
published in 1887 “Public Administration is a detailed and systematic application of
law.”
• According to Simon – “By Public Administration is meant the activities of the
executive branches of the national, state, & local governments.”
• According to 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.”
• According to Waldo – “Public Administration is the art and science of
management as applied to the affairs or matters of the state.”
• Marshall E. Dimock – “Administration is concerned with ‘What’ and ‘How’
of the government. The what is the subject matter, the technical knowledge of
afield which enables the administrator to perform his tasks. The ‘How’ is the
 technique of management according to which co-operative programs are
carried to success.”
Important Characteristics of Public Administration =
• It is part of executive branch of government.
• It is related with the activities of the state.
• It carries out the public policies.
• It realizes the aspirations of the people as formulated and expressed in the
laws.
• Waldo and other thinkers insist on the commitment and dedication to the well-
being of the people. Otherwise, Public Administration behaves in a
mechanical, impersonal and inhuman way.
• Public Administration is politically neutral
• Deals with the ends of the State, the sovereign will, the public interests and
laws
Nature of Public Administration
There are 2 views regarding the Nature of Public Administration, i.e., Integral and
Managerial.

Integral View = Public Administration is the sum total of all the activities (manual,
clerical, managerial, etc.), which are undertaken to realize the objectives of an
organization
 • According to this view, all the officials of the government (from peon to the
Head of the State) constitute public administration
• Activities in this view include manual, managerial, technical, and non-
technical
• Administration will be different based on different public matter
• It is about doing things
• This view is supported by Henri Fayol and LD White
Managerial View = Public Administration includes people who are involved in
planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling the public matters
• Manual, clerical, and technical activities do not form a part of this view
• Only the managerial activities form a part of this view
• Luther Gullick emphasized on the POSDCoRB view such as Planning,
Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Controlling, Reporting and Budgeting where
he emphasized that administration is only related to managerial techniques
• It is about getting things done by others
• Luther Gullick, Herbert Simon, Smithburg and Thompson are the supporters
of this view
Scope & Importance of Public Administration
Scope of Public Administration as an Activity
• It is the basis of a government
• Welfare and security services
• It is the instrument of change in society - application of welfare schemes such
as MGNREGA
• Essential for executing laws, policies, and programs of a state
• Instrument of national integration
POSDCoRB =
• 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.
Subject Matter View =
• 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 specialized 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
• Therefore, the study of public administration should deal with both the
processes (that is POSDCoRB techniques and the substantive concerns)
Importance of Public Administration
Importance of the Public Administration can be discussed from two point of views =
• Importance of Public Administration as a specialized subject of study (as a
discipline)
 Identifying challenges of administration: It identifies various issues and
challenges faced by the administration in delivery public services and
upholding public interests.
  Providing solutions to administrative challenges: After identifying the
challenges public administration as a discipline conducts studies and
provides theories for providing solutions to these challenges
• Importance of Public Administration as an activity (implementation wing of
the state)
 Implementation of various welfare measures. E.g. include Health, Education.
Employment, Law and Order, etc.
 Regulating various aspects of the administration. E.g. include RBI governor
regulating the banking sector, SEBI regulating trading activities.
• Other aspects include =
 Community development
 Sustainability - climate change
 Leadership during crisis
 Public safety
Private & Public Administration
Administration occurs in both public and private institutional settings. Its nature
depends upon the nature of the setting and goals with which it is concerned. On the
basis of the nature of the institutional setting, public administration can be roughly
distinguished from private administration.
 Public administration is governmental administration concerned with achieving
state purposes, determined by the state.
 Private administration, on the other hand is, concerned with administration of
private business organisation and is distinct from public administration.
According to Simon, the distinction between public and private administration relates
mainly to three points:
 Public administration is bureaucratic whereas private administration is business
like
 Public administration is political where as private administration is non-political
 Public administration is characterised by red-tape where as private administration
is free from it.
According to Sir Josiah Stamp, the four principles, which differentiate public from
private administration, are:
 Principle of Uniformity: Common and uniform laws and regulations mostly
regulate public Administration
 Principle of External Financial Control: the representatives of the people through
a legislative body control Government revenues and heads of expenditure
 Principle of Ministerial Responsibility: Public administration is accountable to its
political masters and through them to the people
 Principle of marginal Return: The main objective of a business venture is profit;
however small it may be. However, most of the objectives of public
administration can neither be measured in money terms nor checked by
accountancy methods.
The more important distinguishing features of Public administration may be described
under the following sub-heads:
 Political Direction: Public administration is political, while private administration
is non-political, public administration takes place in a political context.
 Absence of profit motive: The primary purpose of governmental organisation is
to provide services to the people and promote social good.
 Prestige: Public administrators who serve in the Government enjoy high status
and prestige in comparison to their counterparts in private enterprises especially
developing countries.
 Public Gaze: All the actions of public administration are exposed to wide public
gaze because the public closely watches it. This does not happen in private
administration.
 Service and Cost: Most governments spend more money than their income or
revenues. That is the reason for finding generally a deficit budget that is,
expenditure exceeding income. Conversely, private administration income often
exceeds expenditure without which they cannot survive.
 Legal framework: Public administration operates within a legal framework. It is
rule oriented. The responsibilities of public administrators are fixed by a set of
constitutional practices, laws and regulations. Government officials are obliged to
act within their legal powers and not outside the law.
 Consistency of treatment: A government official is required by law to maintain a
high degree of consistency in his dealings with the public. He has to observe the
principle of equality of treatment in serving the people. It is a legal obligation to
not to discriminate against any person.
 Public accountability: Public administration is responsible to the public, though
not directly but indirectly through political executive, legislature, judiciary, etc.
 Large-scale administration: Public administration is large-scale administration. It
is by all means larger than any big private concern in terms of size., complexity
and diversity of activities.
 Monopolistic and Essential Services: In the field of public administration, there is
generally a monopoly of the government and it does not generally allow private
parties to compete with it. For example, no person or bodies of persons are
allowed to establish or perform functions related to public services like national
security, foreign relations, law and order, mint and currency, as these are the
exclusive fields of the government and thoroughly important for the community
and polity to prosper.
 Financial meticulousness: Public administration has to be very careful in financial
matters because it is working as custodian of people’s money.
 Lower level of Efficiency: Due to varied responsibilities, lack of effective control,
less accountability, involvement of a large number of levels and job security of
employees, efficiency has not been there in public organisations to the effect
desired. With profit as the major motive, the level of efficiency in private
organisations is much higher.
Similarities between Public and Private Administration
The following similarities between the two types of administration may be noted:
 Both public and business administration rely on common skills, techniques and
procedures.
 In modern times the principle of profit motive is not peculiar to private
administration, because it is now accepted as a laudable objective for public
sector enterprises also.
 In personnel management, the private organisations have been influenced greatly
by the practices of public organisations and vice-versa.
 The private concerns are also subjected to many legal constraints. Government is
exercising much control over business firms through regulatory legislation such
as taxation, monetary and licensing policies, etc. Consequently, they are not as
free as they once used to be.
 There is a similar type of hierarchy and management systems, both in public and
private sectors. Both have same kind of organisation structure, superior –
subordinate relationships, etc.
 Both Public and private administration carries on continuous efforts to improve
their internal working and also for efficient delivery of services to people or
customers.
 Public and private administration serves the people, whether being called clients
or customers. Both have to maintain close contact with people to inform about
their services and also to get feedback about services and product. In both the
cases, public relations help them to inform and improve their services to the
people.
Politics & Public Administration
The relationship between politics and administration is inherently complex because
elected officials — politicians — create laws through the legislative process.
Administrative officials—serving in the agencies of government—are tasked with
implementing the policies made by elected officials. Both groups share in
responsibility for enacting laws, but they also have distinct considerations that govern
their behaviour.
As Demir and Nyhan (2008) describe, there are three approaches to the relationship
between politics and public administration.
1) Early Scholars Believed in Separation =
 Early public administration scholars, such as Woodrow Wilson, believed that
there should be a firm separation between politics and public administration.
  Wilson referred to this as the Politics-Administration Dichotomy.
 Elected leaders are the ones who provide policy leadership and direction.
 Administrative officials, on the other hand, should carry out the
implementation of policy in line with legislative intentions.
 The benefits of the separation between politics and administration is that
each group’s role is clear in the process.
2) Other Scholars View them as Inseparable =

 Administrators do (and according to some, should) engage in the policy

making process.
 It is impossible to keep politics out of administration since the legislation
passed by political officials may be vague or show a lack of technical
expertise possessed by the administrative officials.
 As a result, administrators become involved in the policy making process.
3) Interactive Approach =
 Interactive due to the shared nature of their job responsibilities
 This is a sort of middle view between the separation and political models of
the relationship between politics and administration.
 Practically speaking, because of the nature of the legislative process and the
implementation of policy, administrators will need to have some policy
making role.
Role of Public Administration in Developing Countries
1. Public Administration has to meet the rising expectations of the people
 Government of the developing countries is expected to provide basic amenities to
the various sections of the society such as poor people, women, aged person,
children etc. Therefore, these people have to look to government for their
betterment. For this purpose, bureaucracy helps the political executive to
formulate good policies (education, health, employment) for the welfare of the
targeted persons and gets the policy implemented to get the maximum outputs.
Thus, bureaucracy play crucial role to improve living standard of the people.
2. Role in Socio-Economic Development
 Developing countries are those countries which are in the stage of transformation
from agriculture to industries. These countries may have lack of infrastructure,
technology, resources, trained man-power. So, government of these countries has
a accomplish its objectives. As the developing countries has the limited resources
so these kinds of policies are framed through which the resources can equally be
distributed among the citizens and help to improve their socio-economic
development.
3. Effective performance of traditional functions which support developmental effort
 The traditional function of government is to maintain law and order. This
function is prerequisite for the development of the society or we can say that
there is no development of the society without maintaining the law and order. In
the developing countries, this traditional function is so difficult to maintain
because most of the sections of society do agitation just to fulfil their demands.
Thus, it becomes difficult for the government to maintain law and order all the
time which create hurdles in the process of development. In this context, it has to
make strict rules and regulations to maintain law and order so that development
of the society can be increased.
4. Developing a sense of nationhood
 No country can develop without the sense of nationhood but most of the nations
do not have it due to ethnic and communal conflicts, castes and regional rivalries
and all these things threaten the development, stability and national unity.
Therefore, to create a sense of nationhood among the citizens of the developing
countries. In this direction, bureaucracy play a vital role in the preservation of
national unity and tries to resolve all the disputes of the sections of the society.
5. Helps democracy survive
 In most of the developing countries, the democracy is not as strong as it needs to
be because people of these countries do not have much experience of the
democratic system. Therefore, these countries require the support of
administration for the survival of democracy. The administration maintains law
and order and democracy at the time of election of these countries. Moreover, it
also helps the political executives to formulate policies and to get the policy
implemented effectively.
Public Administration: Science or Art?
The division reminds us that public administration can be understood from two angles.
One is its intellectual aspect or its science aspect and the other is his practical aspect
or his art aspect.
1) Public Administration as a Science:
 The author of the article that marks the beginning of public administration is
Woodrow Wilson. In his book ‘The Study of Administration’, he called public
administration a Science of Administration. Later, in 1937, Luther Gullick and
Lyndall Urwick wrote a famous book in the title of ‘Papers on the science of
administration’.
 Systematic Inquiry: Public administration employs methodologies like
quantitative and qualitative research methods to investigate the structures,
processes, and outcomes of public organisations and policies. Through
observation, data collection, and analysis, practitioners discover patterns, and
relationships, and generate knowledge that becomes the edifice for policy
development.
 Theory: Public administration is guided by frameworks that provide insights into
behaviour, decision-making processes, and policy outcomes. These theories are
the cornerstone of an understanding of complex issues and for the basis of further
 research. This in turn leads to building on knowledge and its applicability in
different contexts.
 Evidence-Based Decision-Making: Administrators and policy-makers rely on
empirical research to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, and equity of
government programmes and policies. This approach is key to ensuring
accountability, transparency and responsiveness in a fair decision making
process.
2) Public Administration as an Art:
 Leadership: Leaders engaged in Public Administration must possess the vision,
and emotional intelligence to enable them to collaborate, manage conflicts, and
foster innovation. Leadership, thus, goes beyond implementing predetermined
strategies to responding to challenges and opportunities through creative thinking
and improvisation.
 Communication: The ability to convey information, build relationships, and
influence stakeholders effectively through communication skills is key to
successful Public Administration. Communication with diverse audiences like
officials, citizens, interest groups, and colleagues can help in persuasion and
negotiation.
 Analytical skills: Strategic decision-making in uncertain and ambiguous
situations is key for administrators. They must prioritise, anticipate potential
outcomes, and make choices that align with objectives and public values. This
requires analytical skills that are built on an understanding of human behaviour,
culture, and political dynamics.
3) Intersection of Science and Art:
The science and art of public administration are intertwined in practice, intersect, and
are interdependent. Effective governance requires a blend of creativity, problem-
solving, empirical approach, and adaptive strategies to be successful in a dynamic set-
up. In that sense, Public Administration should incorporate both dimensions – the
application of scientific methods and leveraging artistic abilities to derive solutions.
Therefore, public administration is a hybrid discipline that requires both scientific and
artistic abilities to address the challenges and opportunities of public service.
Previous Year Questions
Q1) POSDCORB view
Q2) What is Private Administration?
Q3) Discuss the role of Public Administration in Developing Countries
Q4) Who is known as the father of Public Administration?
Q5) Write two differences between Public and Private Administration.
Q6) Explain POSDCORB view of the scope of Public Administration.
Q7) Discuss the definition and scope of Public Administration. Differentiate between
the administration and politics.
Q8) Which thinker gave the POSDCORB approach?
Q9) Explain the difference between Public Administration and Private Administration.
Q10) Explain the meaning of Public Administration. Public Administration is Science
or Art? Give arguments in confirmation of your answer.
Q11) What is the meaning of Administration?
Q12) Describe the role of Public Administration in the formation of Public Policy.
Q13) What do you understand by Public Administration? Explain the POSDCORB
view in the scope of Public Administration.