Public Administration: An Action Orientation
What is Public Administration?
1- Public Administration is concerned with the initiating, designing, and managing public programs.
2- Public administrators work at all levels of government, home and abroad, managing non profit org. and interest groups of all kinds.
3- Fields of work: defense, national security, social welfare, environment, construction of roadsââ¬Â¦Ã¢â¬Â¦..
Public Service is distinguished by:
1- Its pursuit of democratic values
2- An obligation to achieve efficiency, effectiveness + responsiveness to:
a- elected officials, members of the legislature, and citizens.
3- Being mindful of managerial concerns, political concerns, and ethical concerns.
4- Developing thus the structures and process that ensure the three concerns.
P.Adm ââ¬â Historical context
- It is a relatively young field of study- began as part of the late nineteenth century to reform gov. operations.
- Scholars and practitioners had focused on political institutions (congress or the presidency). But too little concern had been paid to administrative questions.
- Woodrow Wilson's essay in 1887 marks the symbolic beginning of American P. Adm. And was reformist in nature. He realized that : ââ¬ÅIt was becoming harder to run a constitution than to frame oneââ¬Â. He thought also that Public orgs would operate best if they pursued ââ¬Åbusinesslikeââ¬Â operation. He favored the idea of concentrating power in a single authority atop a centralized administrative structure.
W. Wilson & Followers called for:
1- Reforming Public structure to work more efficiently.
2- Extending democracy ideas (liberty and justice) throughout gov and society.
i.e: P. adm needs to operate efficiently while at the same time consistent with democratic values (Leonard White).
Values affecting Public Administration:
1 -Democracy.
2- Separation of Authorities.
What Democracy?
-Western view (gov. by and of the people)
(free election + freedom: of press, of movement, to criticize the gov)
-Russian view (gov policy in the interest of people)
Modern definitions of Public Administration:
Focus on the work of administrators in the executive branch of government, but also give attention to the administrators working the legislative and judicial branches, and even focus on the administrators in nonprofit or non-governmental organizations.
Why Study Public Administration?
1. Preparing for Administrative Positions (program managers, staff managers, policy analysts) in a wide range of government sectors, in NGOs, in private organizations public affairs departments.
2. Combining Technical and Managerial Knowledge and Training
3. Interaction of Business and Government (Policy formulation and implementation).
4. Influencing Public Organizations and Affairs.
5. Pursuing an academic career in public administration.
Contrasting Business and Public Administration
1. Ambiguity
2. Pluralistic Decision Making
3. Visibility
4. Publicness
5. Complexity
------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Ambiguity
a- In Public Organizations, the objectives may be more vague (ambiguous). They are often stated in terms of social and political objectives. The financial bottom-line is not the main consideration.
b- Hard to assess performance (ex. Improving quality of environment)
2. Pluralistic Decision Making
a- In public administration-especially in a democratic society-
b- many groups and individuals have access to the decision making process.
c- This makes the process more complicated and more difficult.
While in business, the decision making authorities are well defined: Manager, board of directors, chief executive officer, etc.
3. Visibility
- The work of the government in a democratic society is subject to constant scrutiny by the press and by the public.
while the work of business is not as scrutinized as that of the government. There is more privacy and less disclosure of information.
4. Publicness
-Whose interest is being served? Private or public?
Public Administration is pursuing public purpose.
5. Complexity
a- In the political and ethical context
b- In setting objectives
c- In developing budgets
d- In hiring personnel
e- In dealing with other orgs
f- In evaluating success and failure of progs
Issues in Public Administration Theory and Practice
1- Politics Versus Administration
2- Bureaucracy Versus Democracy
3- Efficiency Versus Responsiveness
The Issue of Politics Vs. Administration
According to Woodrow Wilson: ââ¬ÅAdministration lies outside the proper sphere of politicsââ¬Â
Council ââ¬âmanager plan on the local level
ââ¬â Public Administrators participate in policy making :
ââ¬â Through advice to policy makers; they are thus called upon to present their ideas.
ââ¬â Through the exercise of discretion in implementation of loose legislations or laws
How can we ensure ACCOUNTABILITY?
- Objective/ Structural Controls
(more legislative review and involvement in the admin process, or more public participation in admin process through surveys of pub. opinion)
- Subjective Controls
(professional standards and code of ethics)
The Issue of Democracy Vs. Bureaucracy
- The bureaucratic model has autocratic features completely at odds with democracy theory, so
- how can a democratic government carry out its work through authoritarian organizations ?
Democratic Values
- Individuality
- Equality
- Participation & Involvement
Bureaucratic Values
- Group or Organization
- Hierarchy
- Top-Down Decision Making
The Issue of Efficiency Vs. Responsiveness
- While public managers must operate in the most efficient way possible, getting things done quickly and with the least cost to taxpayers,
- They must also constantly attend to the demands of the citizens directly or indirectly .
The way out : continuous ethical deliberation of both points of view case by case.
