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The significance of Public Administration is its action part of the government. The action part of government affects the public opinion on government and is instrumental in the translation of government goals and influences public policy. Significance can be broadly classified into 5 aspects.

1. Visibility
2. Complexity
3. Diversity
4. Balance
5. Change

Visibility

In this context, Woodrow Wilson ( US President) observed ” Public administration is the most obvious part of government which is most visible to the public ”

It is most visible as it wields a significant impact on the public. Therefore the impact of government policies depends on public admins. In this context, Stevenson observed ” Public Administration is all that comes after the last campaign promise and the election night’s cheer meaning thereby the public will assess the government not through manifestos or the campaign promises but through the Public Administration ”

Complexity

Society is becoming increasingly complex every day, therefore the role of government and the need for Public Administration. Thus Public administration is visualized as a ” Specialized organ which can assist the Government as a dedicated agency for execution of policy in a fast and effective manner. “

As a practice, Public administration is as old as the concept of state and society. Therefore without public administration in practice, it is impossible to run a state esp. the modern complex state and society. In this context significance of Public Administration is summed by Woodrow Wilson as ” it is getting harder to run a constitution than to frame one “.

Diversity

Subject to the diversity of society, the administration varies. Therefore it is necessary to study administration comparatively and apply contextually known as ” context sensitivity “.

So public administration should neither replicate the methods and models of others blindly nor ignore them totally.

A system of lateral entry is practised in countries like India to learn from the Private sector. While in countries like Singapore, Britain, and New Zealand, a system of secondment is practised instead of lateral entry. Pubic Administrators work in Private firms on deputation and vice-versa.

Balance

Public administration brings the balance between the regulation of Public activities and the accountability of the Government. This balance is needed for welfare. Therefore is said ” If men were angels then no administration is required but when men govern men we must have administration “

Change

NPA or New Public Administration advocates for four themes in the study of Public Administration namely

1. Value
2. Relevance
3. Equity
4. Change

The change from the old administration is needed to achieve societal values and government goals of welfare. Therefore Public Administration acts as a change agent.

Summing up the significance, Gerald Caiden observed Public Administration plays the following roles in contemporary society

• Preservation of Polity (Continuity)
• Maintenance of stability and order
• Institutionalization of socio-economic change (MGNREGA)
• Management of large-scale commercial service of government (Railways)
• Ensuring growth and economic development
• Protection of weaker section of society (Welfare)
• Formation of Public opinion (Visibility)
• Influencing the Public Policy (dilution of dichotomy)

The scope is a logical corollary of the meaning or definition of Public Administration. Since the meaning of Public Administration is not well defined the scope is also not well defined.

Scope means what is all included in Public administration and what is all excluded in public administration.

According to Dwight Waldo ” Scope of Public administration is based on the government in action “. Since the government in action is evolving the scope is also evolving according to Dwight Waldo.

The scope of Public administration is boundary-less so substantive efforts were made to delineate and outline the scope of Public Administration. Scholars like Willoughby, McQueen, Pfiffner, and Walker defined the scope of Public Administration in different ways.

Willoughby

Willoughby in his book ” Principles of Administration “ said the scope of administration included the study of 5 major aspects of an organization

1. Overhead Administration
   • Managerial Functions
   • Tools and Techniques
   • POSDCoRB
2. Organization
   • The structure of the organization such as hierarchy, a span of control
3. Material and Supply
   • Building
   • Procurement
4. Personnel Management
   • Recruitment, selection, and transfer
   • Promotion and Posting
5. Finance
   • Accounting, auditing, and Budgeting

McQueen

• Scope of Public administration includes the study of 3Ms – Men, Material and Methods

John Pfiffner

• The scope of Public administration is within two major heads – Principles and Spheres
• Principles
  • Tools, techniques and concepts of administration like
    • Organisation
    • Personnel Management
    • Method and procedure
    • Material and Supply
    • Public Finance
    • Administrative responsibility
• Spheres
  • Various levels of Organisation
    • Central
    • State
    • Local
    • Public corporations …etc

Walker

• He divided the scope of public administration into two heads
  1. Administrative Theory
     1. Discipline or Study of Public Administration
     2. It includes concepts, theories, and verified generalizations relating to structure, organization, functions, and methods
     3. Includes all types of public authorities
  2. Applied administration
     1. Activity or practice of Public Administration
     2. Includes study of the specific administrative system and their problems
     3. Includes hospital administration, public health administration, educational administration, revenue administration, financial administration…etc
• It is one of the well-defined scopes of Administration
• In addition to individual contributions, many schools of thought tried to outline the scope of Public Administration.

Schools of thought in outlining the scope of Public Administration

Broad and Narrow View

1. Narrow View
   1. The scope of Public Administration is limited to the executive branch of the government or action part of the government or visible part of the government
   2. Scholars
      1. Simon
      2. Wilson
      3. Smithsburg
      4. Thompson
2. Broad View
   1. The scope of Public Administration covers all three organs of the state i.e executive, legislative, judiciary, and their interdependence.
   2. Scholars
      1. L.D.White
      2. Dimock
      3. John Pfiffner

Managerial and Integral View

1. The managerial view believes in the scope of Public Administration should emphasize in managerial functions like planning, control, budgeting….etc
   1. Scholars
      1. Herbert Simon
      2. Smithsburg
      3. Thompson
      4. Luther Gullick
      5. Cyert
      6. March
2. The integral view believes in the scope of Public administration should include 4 functions of an organization – technical, clerical, manual activities and managerial functions not only managerial functions
   1. Scholars
      1. Henry Fayol
      2. Leonard D. White
      3. Pfiffner
      4. Wilson
      5. Willoughby

Process and Subject Matter Views

1. Process view is similar to managerial view focused only on managerial functions like POSDCorB
2. The subject matter view challenged this to include subject matter as the most important function to be studied in addition to managerial function. For instance, they said Public Administration should focus on service delivery, the very reason for their existence and Public Administration should study public policy expanding the scope to the extent, Public administration now included every other discipline. For example, Public administration already included managerial principles from management and public policy from political science, now after ” subject matter view ” health administration will study human physiology, financial administration will study the economy, and so on.

Therefore the boundary of Public administration was blurred and created an identity crisis. So critics concluded Public administration is not fit to be considered as a separate discipline.

So, Frederickson and Dwight Waldo observed ” The polyglot nature is not restricted to Public Administration. It is the characteristic of all disciplines. Public administration despite its polyglot nature has a staple core – government in action – and derives its identity from its staple core. The periphery of Public Administration may vacillate but the core provides the stability “

Dwight Waldo even remarked that Public Administration is enriched because of its polyglot nature. In due course, the subject-matter view became the most accepted view among other schools of thought

Contemporary View

Many contemporary scholars attempted to outline the scope of Public Administration.

1. Stephen K. Bailey defined the scope of Public Administration in four dimensions

2. Dwight Waldo also suggested the scope of Public administration should include both facts (descriptive and assumptive) and values(normative)
3. Ridley suggested that the scope of Public administration should include
   1. What all are studied under Public Administration
   2. Who all are studies in Public Administration
   3. Who all are concerned with the study of Public administration – Academia, Practitioners and citizens.

• The meaning of public administration can be understood through the semantics of Public Administration.
• ” Administration ” is derived from two Latin words ” ad “ and ” ministrare “ meaning ” to serve, to care for or to look after “
• ” Public ” is derived from the Latin word ” Populus ” meaning ” people “.
• So from an etymological or semantics perspective, ” Public administration means to serve or to care for or to look after people “
  • So E.N. Gladden remarked ” 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 “

• The term Public in Public Administration was debated and defined by many theorists but According to Dwight Waldo Public in Public Administration means ” State or Government “
  • So from the epistemological perspective, Public Administration refers to efforts taken by the government to serve the people

• But the state or Government is
  • composed of people(political reps)
  • and it exists for the people(public welfare)
  • and it is administered by the people(public servants)
• So the public in public administration includes 3 P’s – political reps, public servants and people.

• But the above oversimplified epistemological perspective doesn’t encompass the entire scope of Public Administration because Public Administration is not a static but ever-changing and evolving subject. Therefore there can’t be a unanimous definition. So many scholars defined Public Administration from their own perspective.
  • So Dwight Waldo remarked ” Public administration is a study of government in action. Government inaction is never static, is ever-changing and that is why it becomes difficult to capture fully. A single sentence definition or a single para definition is a mental paralysis rather than enlightenment which restricts the view rather than broadening it. ”

Schools of thought in defining Public Administration

• Many scholars attempted to define Public Administration but all these definitions were the product of its time and situation. The ever-evolving character of the state, public, and administration needs an ever-evolving definition. So, Public Administration doesn’t have a single unanimous definition. But the meaning of Public Administration can be understood through attempts made by scholars to define public administration.

• So Dwight Waldo Opined ” Precepts flow from theory and theory flows from the precepts. The state (or Government) administration is ever-evolving and today Public Administration is all-encompassing ”

• The theories are conceptualized based on realities and the realities enrich these theories. But these theories are constrained by time and societal happenings. Therefore any attempt to define public administration in an ever-changing environment suffers from the limitation of the future, necessitating a new definition.
• In simple words, a thinker comes up with a definition but ignores or misses certain aspects of public administration, so a new thinker comes up with another definition encompassing the missing aspects of public administration due to the limitation of time and societal happening even the enriched definition misses out the newly evolved aspects necessitating new definition by another thinker.

• These attempts to define public administration gave rise to a number of schools of thought. They are
  1. Narrow View and Broad View
  2. Political School of thought
  3. Legalistic View
  4. Public Weal
  5. Process View
  6. Subject-matter View
  7. Market View of Public Administration

Narrow View and Broad View

• Narrow View – Public Administration is a study of only Policy Implementation or executive branch of Government or action part of the government or visible part of the government
  • Proponents
    • Herbert Simon
    • Woodrow Wilson
    • Dwight Waldo
    • Smithsburg
    • Thompson
    • Cyert
    • EN Gladden
• Broad View – Public Administration should include the study of activities of all three organs of state i.e executive, legislative, judiciary and their interdependence
  • Proponents
    • John Pfiffner
    • Marshal Dimock
    • Willoughby
    • Nigro

Political School of Thought

• The narrow and broad view was challenged by the Political School of Thought and according to them the Public administration involved the study of state and non-state actors and extended it to anti-state actors as well
• Proponents
  • Robert Dhal
  • Easton

Legalistic View

1. Public administration is the study of the enforcement of Law and should confine to the formulation and implementation
   • Proponents
     • L.D.White – Public administration means the study of all the operations having for their purpose the enforcement of law and policies or fulfilment of the public policy
     • Woodrow Wilson – Public administration means the systematic and detailed implementation of public law
     • Marshall Dimock
2. This legalistic view was challenged to include non-legal aspects of the state that are outside the boundaries of enforcement of public policies and included illegal aspects of the state like subversion and spying.

Public Weal

• Public administration is the study of activities dealing with the welfare of the people
• But this view was criticized for excluding non-welfare activities of states like subversion, War, offensive strike ….etc

Process View

• They are one of the oldest schools of thought belonging to the classical era.
• For them, Public administration is all about the study of generic and Universal managerial tools, techniques, processes and principles of administration
  • Proponents
    • Luther Gullick and Lyndall Urwik – “Administration is Administration whether public, non-public, religious or cultural”
    • They also gave POSDCoRB, an acronym for steps in the administrative process
• This view was challenged by every other later school of thought

Subject-Matter View

• Subject-matter view is a.k.a substantive or content view.
• According to them, Public administration should include the study of subject matter in addition to tools, techniques, and processes because of its multidisciplinary nature.
  • For e.g, Health policies should study medical science, diseases
  • RAW & IB should study literature on security, subversion …etc

Market View

• It is one of the most accepted views in Public Administration
• Here Public administration includes the study of both state and non-actors like NGOs, private for-profit and not-for-profit organization that plays a major role in performing any activity that affects the public, that delivers public goods, that achieves public goals and activities funded out of public exchequers.
  • E.g PPP projects
  • The public goal of Education and Health is delivered through both state and non-state actors

All these viewpoints created a pool of definitions with various focus and locus and in the process expanded the ambit and broadened the scope of public administration. Yet every definition has a limited perspective restricting the definition of Public Administration.

So Dwight Waldo remarked ” Every single sentence or paragraph on the definition of Public Administration is a mental paralysis rather than enlightenment and stimulation “ because these definitions instead of providing clarity raised many questions and created confusion. So Frederick C. Mosher says that it is best that it (Public Administration) is not defined.

Expert definition of Public Administration

Dwight Waldo

” Public Administration is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of state “

” Public administration is a study of government in action “

Art means the skill of the admin and science means universal principles of management. He tried to incorporate a narrow view and a process view in his definition

F.M Marx

” Public administration has come to signify primarily the organization, the practices, personnel and the procedures which are essential for the effective performance of civilian functions and entrusted to the executive branch of the government “

This definition takes a narrow view or dichotomy view i.e watertight separation of power between organs of government

Rosenbloom

” Public administration is the use of managerial, political and legal theories and processes to fulfil the legislative, executive and judicial mandate of the government for the provision of regulatory and service function for the society or for some of its segments “

This definition took a broader view, legal view and process view

Nigro and Nigro

” Public administration is a cooperative group effort in a public setting which covers all branches of government namely legislative, executive, judiciary and their interrelationships. It has an important role in the formulation of policy and it is different from private administration in significant ways. But it is closely associated with private groups providing services to the community “

This definition is quite comprehensive as it takes a broad view and market view.

Paper – I Administrative Theory

1. Introduction: 

• Meaning, scope, and significance of Public Administration ( Extra: nature of Public Administration )
• Wilson’s vision of Public Administration
• Evolution of the discipline and its present status
• New Public Administration
• Public Choice approach
• Challenges of liberalization, Privatisation, Globalisation
• Good Governance: concept and application
• New Public Management

2. Administrative Thought: 

• Scientific Management and Scientific Management movement
• Classical Theory
• Weber’s bureaucratic model – its critique and post-Weberian Developments
• Dynamic Administration (Mary Parker Follett)
• Human Relations School (Elton Mayo and others)
• Functions of the Executive (C.I. Barnard)
• Simon’s decision-making theory
• Participative Management (R. Likert, C. Argyris, D. McGregor)

3. Administrative Behaviour: 

• Process and techniques of decision-making
• Communication
• Morale
• Motivation Theories – content, process and contemporary
• Theories of Leadership: Traditional and Modern

4. Organisations: 

• Theories – systems, contingency
• Structure and forms: Ministries and Departments, Corporations, Companies, Boards and Commissions
• Ad hoc and advisory bodies
• Headquarters and Field relationships
• Regulatory Authorities
• Public – Private Partnerships

5. Accountability and control: 

• Concepts of accountability and control
• Legislative, Executive and Judicial control over administration
• Citizen and Administration
• Role of media, interest groups, voluntary organizations
• Civil society
• Citizen’s Charters
• Right to Information
• Social audit

6. Administrative Law: 

• Meaning, scope and significance
• Dicey on Administrative law
• Delegated legislation
• Administrative Tribunals

7. Comparative Public Administration: 

• Historical and sociological factors affecting administrative systems
• Administration and politics in different countries
• Current status of Comparative Public Administration
• Ecology and administration
• Riggsian models and their critique

8. Development Dynamics: 

• Concept of development
• Changing profile of development administration
• Anti-development thesis
• Bureaucracy and development
• Strong state versus the market debate
• Impact of liberalisation on administration in developing countries
• Women and development – the self-help group movement

9. Personnel Administration: 

• Importance of human resource development
• Recruitment, training, career advancement, position classification, discipline, performance appraisal, promotion, pay and service conditions
• employer-employee relations, grievance redressal mechanism
• Code of conduct
• Administrative ethics.

10. Public Policy: 

• Models of policy-making and their critique
• Processes of conceptualisation, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and review and their limitations
• State theories and public policy formulation.

11. Techniques of Administrative Improvement: 

• Organisation and methods, Work study and work management;
• e-governance and information technology;
• Management aid tools like network analysis, MIS, PERT, and CPM.

12. Financial Administration: 

• Monetary and fiscal policies;
• Public borrowings and public debt Budgets – types and forms;
• Budgetary process;
• Financial accountability;
• Accounts and audit.

Paper – 2 Indian Administration

1. Evolution of Indian Administration: 

• Kautilya’s Arthashastra
• Mughal administration
• Legacy of British rule in politics and administration
  • Indianization of public services, revenue administration, district administration, and local self-government.

2. Philosophical and Constitutional framework of government: 

• Salient features and value premises;
• Constitutionalism;
• Political culture;
• Bureaucracy and democracy;
• Bureaucracy and development.

3. Public Sector Undertakings: 

• Public sector in modern India
• Forms of Public Sector Undertakings
• Problems of autonomy, accountability and control
• Impact of liberalization and privatization

4. Union Government and Administration: 

• Executive
• Parliament
• Judiciary – structure, functions, work processes; Recent trends
• Intragovernmental relations
• Cabinet Secretariat
• Prime Minister’s Office
• Central Secretariat
• Ministries and Departments
• Boards
• Commissions
• Attached offices
• Field organizations

5. Plans and Priorities: 

• Machinery of planning
• Role, composition and functions of the Planning Commission and the National Development Council
• ‘Indicative’ planning
• Process of plan formulation at Union and State levels
• Constitutional Amendments (1992) and decentralized planning for economic development and social justice.

6. State Government and Administration: 

• Union-State administrative, legislative and financial relations
• Role of the Finance Commission
• Governor
• Chief Minister
• Council of Ministers
• Chief Secretary
• State Secretariat
• Directorates.

7. District Administration since Independence: 

• Changing role of the Collector
• Union state-local relations
• Imperatives of development management and law and order administration
• District administration and democratic decentralization

8. Civil Services: 

• Constitutional position
• Structure, recruitment, training and capacity-building
• Good governance initiatives
• Code of conduct and discipline
• Staff associations
• Political rights
• Grievance redressal mechanism
• Civil service neutrality
• Civil service activism

9. Financial Management: 

• Budget as a political instrument
• Parliamentary control of public expenditure
• Role of finance ministry in monetary and fiscal area
• Accounting techniques
• Audit
• Role of Controller General of Accounts and Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

10. Administrative Reforms since Independence: 

• Major concerns
• Important Committees and Commissions
• Reforms in financial management and human resource development
• Problems of implementation

11. Rural Development: 

• Institutions and agencies since independence
• Rural development programmes
• foci and strategies
• Decentralization and Panchayati Raj
• 73rd Constitutional amendment

12. Urban Local Government: 

• Municipal governance: main features, structures, finance and problem areas
• 74th Constitutional Amendment
• Global-local debate
• New localism
• Development dynamics, politics and administration with special reference to city management

13. Law and Order Administration: 

• British legacy
• National Police Commission
• Investigative agencies
• Role of central and state agencies including paramilitary forces in maintenance of law and order and countering insurgency and terrorism
• Criminalisation of politics and administration
• Police- public relations
• Reforms in Police

14. Significant issues in Indian Administration: 

• Values in public service
• Regulatory Commissions
• National Human Rights Commission
• Problems of administration in coalition regimes
• Citizen-administration interface
• Corruption and administration
• Disaster management

This is a complete guide to mastering Public Administration like Demi-God. This guide is both prescriptive and descriptive in nature i.e it has both what to do and how to do details.

How to study PubAd?

1. Go chapter by chapter
2. Refer to as many books as you like until you understand that particular chapter
3. Write the summary of that chapter without referring to these books
4. Edit the summary by referring to textbooks
5. Attempt to solve the previous year’s question paper without referring
6. Correct the answers with a reference book
7. Rewrite the answers without referring to and repeat points 5 to 7 until conceptual clarity
8. Teach that chapter without referring to using a separate rough sheet
9. Find out what points you missed and where you are facing issues repeat 2 to 9 if necessary
10. Do the same for all chapters
11. Add current affairs to your mix
12. Interlink paper 1 and paper 2 with added current affairs
13. That’s it you have mastered Public Administration

Pro Tips

1. For point 2 go in the following order
   1. Class Notes
   2. Aribam
   3. Chapter Specific Reference Book
2. Source of current affairs is the daily reading of The Hindu, Explained section of Indian Express, Yojana and Kurushetra
   1. Extract case studies and quote them in two lines
3. When you are doing paper 2 finish Polity, and Ethics simultaneously.

Art of Answer writing in Public Administration

• A good answer contains the following
  • Case Studies
  • Linkages between static and current topics
  • Linkages between chapters
  • Flow Chart and Diagram
  • All the keywords should be mentioned and explained
  • Tables and Comparative analysis
• All answers should have the above ingredients for a good score

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