PA 101 (1ST LECTURE)

Part I of the course is very crucial, becau

this will give the “first ray of light” in
understanding public administration.
View of PA
The literature of PA abounds with various
definition of the term. We can discern
from the literature several ways of
examining its meaning. One is in terms o
how it is viewed or used.
‘administration’ - derived from Latin words;

‘ad’ = to and ‘ministiare’ = serve

‘Public’ =people or citizens

ACCORDING TO WALDO (1995), PA
HAS DUAL USAGES: AS A FIELD OF
PRACTICE AND AS A FIELD OF STUDY
This means that PA is a “both a professional
and scholarly discipline. When distinction is
made between the practice and study, it is
customary to used:
SMALL Letters – public administration as the
PRACTICE
Capital Letters – Public Administration when
we refer to the STUDY

How it is viewed?
Waldo (1995), Pa is the activity or process of
administrating public affairs and carrying out
governmental functions.

Example: 1. Enacting Law

2. making decision on the best policy
concerning debt issue, formulating NTPDP,
MDGs, maintaining peace and order. Building
environmental protection, providing health
and welfare service, etc.-all of these activities
and process illustrate the practice of public
administration.
When referred to as a field of study or as a
discipline,
PA means the “the systematic” study and
improvement of governing capacity and practice in
forming policies, making decision, implementing
them, and securing the desire results.” Therefore,
as a scholarly pursuit, PA is concerned with
discovering and advancing theoretical and practical
knowledge in the field by using scientific methods
that other social sciences use, for example,
empirical studies, case methods, analysis,
surveys, quantitative analysis, etc.
You may ask: what constitute the administration
field or area of inquiry? Or the subject matter or
focus to be studied? There is an abundance of
phenomena, or variables of topics that can be
studied in the practice of public administration.

Examples: PA scholar may study how a policy is

made and implemented, the interrelationship
between and among gov’t institutions, the human
resources development of particular
Agency, the impact of environmental
regulation on communities and economic
activities, the behavior of public servant as
they perform their official duties, the
leadership styles of public managers, the
mechanism adopted by government in solving
poverty issue, etc. the list goes on, and we can
say that “ as the size and scope of government
activities increase, the area of inquiry
expands.
PA is also considered as applied discipline
because it has practical use for government,
particularly in improving government
performance.

PA is also viewed as an art and as science. As an

art, PA involves creativity, leadership, a good
sense of judgment.

PA as a science means that there is “a body of

knowledge” or theories that can explain or
predict certain phenomena or variables in the
Field of PA. that PA theories and concept are built
based on empirical and systematic methods.
These theories can be used not only to explain but
also to improve the art and practice of PA.

ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC

There is much to be said about feature or
characteristic of PA as a practice and as an
academic discipline. For instance, in delineating
the practice of PA, Tapales pointed out that it has
a “rational and generic meaning. Broadly defined
as a “cooperative human action, administration
connotes rationally because the cooperative
action seeks to achieve specific goals.
administration
Has also generic or universal meaning because
it can help in any organization, public or
private, and in any political system and culture
. For instance recruitment is a technique that
is used in public and private administration
and this process is guided usually by the
“policy of getting the best minds, talents, and
skill in the market.

As to the modifier PUBLIC, it refers to

collective community, all or general. Thus,
Administration is for all; the attainment of
objective of cooperative human action is
meant to benefit the community and the
general population.

The conventional usage of public

administration (with emphasis on the world
“public”) focuses on the government and its
various institutions. We usually connotes PA
with government and its various institutions.
We usually connotes PA with government and
what it is doing for people and society. It also
means that administration takes place in or is
carried out by government and its arms. This
perspective is largely drawn from general
Political science which is the mother discipline
of public administration.

Another view of PA-that it differs across

culture and political system, that what may be
regarded as public administration in one
country may not necessarily be true in one
another. The domain of PA can vary from state
to state. What may be regarded as public
administration in one country may not
necessarily be true in one another. The domain
of PA can vary from state to state. What may
be considered as function of and activities in
government in one country may not be the
same as those in another. For instance, many
countries in Western Europe own and operate
their public transport system. In the Philippines,
transport system is in the hands of private
companies.

Waldo also cited that “culture accounts for the

variation in administration between different
societies.” as the constituent parts of culture
parts of culture vary within a society, or
between societies, so does administration vary as
a system of rational cooperative action in that
society, or between societies.
 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
ORGANIZATION
Another way of defining PA is to distinguish it
from private administration.

The often cited difference between public and

private administration is goal or mission.

Public ad is service-oriented, while private ad

is profit-oriented.

Another difference lies in the nature of goods

and service they provide.
Public ad provides what we called public goods
or services which can be enjoyed by all
regardless whether they have money or not to
pay-example are street lights, good roads
whether they have money or not to pay-example
are street lights, good roads and services, no one
is excluded whether they pay their taxes or not.

Private administration provides goods and

services to those who can afford to pay for them.

Public administration is subject not only to public

pressure and scrutiny or what Taples calls as
“fishbowl existence” but also to
Internal legal administrative constraints
presented by gov’t rules and regulations.
Pressures are posed as well by political
institutions, such as the legislature and
individual political leaders themselves, on the
civil servants. This kind of environment makes
the task of public administrators more
complicated and their discretion and flexible
more circumscribe than their counterparts in
the private sector (Fry,1989)
According to Caiden (1997), PA has
peculiarities that separate it from other
institution.

First, it is unavoidable. Citizen cannot escape

the reach of its authority and have to deal
with it in their daily life.

Second, it can compel obedience from the

citizens because it has a legal monopoly of
coercive power. The powers it enjoys is
generally accepted and considered legitimate
by the people and necessary for maintaining a
stable, civilized, and productive society.
Third, the activities carried out by PA have
priority. This means that the activities are
important and significant in making the life of
citizen better, that these are all needed in making
society a better place to live in. the implication is
that PA must be able to perform its functions with
efficacy so that no activities will be jeopardized.
Identifying what activities require priority
attention and budget than others will certainly
pose a problem to PA because resources are scare.
Fourth, having largest single multipurpose
organization, public administration can
provide, as it does, people with the wide range
of public service, from issuing birth certificate
to pollution control, granting franchise,
maintaining peace and order, vaccination of
children, delivering mails, sweeping the
streets, maintaining public parks, etc.
Fifth, public administration has, for its boss,
the political leadership, to which its report
directly. It’s the political leadership that
determines the activities it will perform, the
services to provide, the organizations to which
these activities will be carried out, the budget
to support them, the mission and objectives to
follow, etc. in our political system, it’s the
elective officials, local and national, who
make up our political leadership.
Sixth, measuring the performance of public
administration is difficult due to its political nature
and the kind of function and processes it performs.
For instance, when we read in the newspapers
about the series of killings and carnappings in the
Metropolis, does it mean that public administration
has failed in its job of maintaining peace and order
in the country? Are the Law’s enforcement
ineffective? In the private sector, its quite easy,
performance can be meassured using their
bottomline-profit.
Seventh, there are public expectation which
PA must meet which are not headed upon
private sector. A basic expectation is the
protection and promotion of public interest at
all times. Public officials are also expected to
posses personal virtues and attributes and,
most often, the public expects that they
observe these in their private and public life.
They are expected to be honest, scrupulous,
courteous, efficient, dedicated, prompt, etc.
 DEFINITION OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
Public Administration as a field of study today
continuous to confront remarkable interludes
of “intellectual ferment” (REYES, 2003). He
continued that Public Administration has
experience constant, almost periodic episodes
of re-examination of its focus or terrain of
inquiry in the course of this struggle for
academic acceptance. Public administration as
a field of study has certainly been ruthless to
itself and this ruthless to itself and this
ruthlessness has evoked the intellectual
motivation among its scholar to confront what
They perceive to be searing and unsettled
question of their field (Reyes, 2003).

-> is the organization and management of men

and materials to achieve the purposed of
government; the art and science of
management as applied to the affairs of the
state (DWIGHT WALDO)

->the use of managerial, political, legal

theories and processes to fulfil legislative,
executive, and judicial governmental
mandates for the provision of regulatory and
services functions for the society as a whole
Or for some segment of it; is the action part of
the government; the means by which the
purpose and goals of government are realized;
as a field is mainly concerned with the means
for implementing values, and can be best
identified with the executive branch; it differs
from political sciences in its emphasis on
bureaucratic structure in behaviour and its
methodologies; it differs from administrative
sciences in the evaluative techniques used by
non profit organization are considerable less
constrained in considering public interest in
their decision making structures and the
behaviour of their administrators (DAVID
ROSENBLOOM).
-> is an electric field, interdisciplinary, and
has accommodated knowledge, methodologies
and techniques from other discipline: from
organization theory, sociology, anthropology,
economics, law, business administration,
psychology and the quantitative sciences
(BARTON & CHAPPELL, GOLEMBIEWSKI).

-> its composite of all the laws, regulation,

practices, relationships, codes, and customs
that prevail anytime in any jurisdiction for
the fulfilment and execution of public policy
(LEONARD WHITE)
-> is a cooperative group effort in a public
setting; covers all branches the executive,
legislative, and judicial-and their
interrelationships; has an important role in the
formulation of public policy and is thus part of
the political process; is different in significant
ways from private administration; and is
closely associated with the numerous private
groups and individuals in providing services to
the community (NIGRO & NIGRO)

-> is the production of goods and services

designed to serve the needs of citizen
consumers (DIMOCK, DIMOCK & FOX).
-> 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. It seeks to institute managerial practices
attuned to effectiveness, efficiency and the fulfilment
of deeper human requisites of the citizency (NICHOLAS
HENRY)
-> from a very broad perspective, public administration
may be viewed to refer not only to those activities in
carrying out or implementing the policies and programs
of the government but also to the process and contents
of these policies and programs of the government but
also to the process and contents of these policies and
programs; from an even broader perspective public
administration may refer to cooperative human
Action whether within the public bureaucracy,
the private sector or in NGOs aimed at
delivering services to the people (RAUL DE
GUZMAN).

-> is a cooperative group effort in public

setting; covers all three branches, executive,
legislative and judicial and their
interrelationship; has an important role in the
formulation of public policy and is thus part of
the political process; is more important than,
and also different in significant ways from
private administration: as a field of study and
practice, has been much influence in recent
Years by the human relationship approach; is
closely related with numerous private groups
and individuals in providing services to the
community (GERALD CAIDEN).
Scholars of PA themselves could not agree to a
common single definition or even a one
sentence description. However, did you notice
that generally, all of the definitions, refer to
the practice of public administration?

Now, lets go over the different definition

provided by PA scholars:
 ACCORDING TO DWIGHT
WALDO
“PA is the organization and management of
men and materials to achieve the purpose of
government.”

“PA is the art and sciences of management as

applied to affairs of the state.”
 AS CITED IN CAIDEN (1971)
1. Is cooperative group effort in public setting
2. Covers all branches: executive, legislative, and
judicial- and their interrelationship
3. Has an important role in the formulation of public
policy and is, thus, part of the political process
4. Is more important than, and also different in
significant ways from private administration
5. As a field of study and practice, has been much
influence in recent years by the human-relations
approach
6. Is closely associated with numerous private groups
and individual in providing services to the
community.
 AS CITED IN FRY

PA is policy making. But it is not autonomous,

exclusive or isolated policy-making. Is policy-
making on a field where mighty forces
contend, forces engendered in and by society.
PA is one of a number of basic political
processes by which this people achieves and
controls governance.”
 DE GUZAMAN (1993)
“from a very broad perspective, PA may be
viewed to refer not only to those activities in
carrying out and implementing policies and
programs of the government but also to the
processes and contents of these policies and
programs. From an even broader perspective,
PA may refer to cooperative human action
whether within the public bureaucracy, the
private sector, or in nongovernmental
organizations aimed at delivering services to
the people.”
 AS CITED IN ROSENBLOOM
 PA is the action part of the government, the
means by which the purposes and goals of
government are realized.
 PA as a field is mainly concerned with the
means for implementing political values.
 PA can be best identified with the executive
branch of government
 PA differs from political science in its art
emphasis on bureaucratic structure and
behaviour and its methodologies. PA differs
from administrative science in the evaluative
techniques used by non-profit organization -
o The process of PA consist of the action involve
in effecting the intent or desire of a
government. It is thus the continuously active,
“business part of government, concerned with
carrying out the law, as made by the
legislative bodies (or other authoritative
agents) and interpreted by the courts, through
the process of organization and management.”

o Assignment:
1. You need to interview an elected official of
government-Aborlan. Ask her/him what are the
activities that the local government is doing.
What are the problems they came across in
policy-making, and in policy-implementation.
PHASES IN THE EVOLUTION OF
PA
PHASE INDICATIVE PERIOD
Antiquity
Plato’s “The Republic” 2,400 years ago
Roman Emperors 700 B.C-400 A.D
Pope and Church 400 A.D.-1,400 A.D.
Traditional/Classical PA 1800’s to 1950s

Modern PA:
-Development Admin (1950- 1950s
1960s) jn\hhhn to Present
-New Public Admin (1970s)
-New Public Mgt (2980s to
1990s)
-Reinventing Government
(1990)
-PA as Governance (1990s to
the present)