andState.

EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

MODERN ERA

As a field of systematic and scientific study, Public Administration is a modern discipline

It is regarded as among the newest of the social sciences. In the 18th century, the German
scholars (Cameralists) in Western Europe felt interested in this branch of academic inquiry
With the growing importance of government in the wake of expanding public functions, Publi
Administration became highly complex and more specialised. The need for better management
of public affairs through scientific investigations into government working and training of public
employers was voiced by practitioners and academicsalike. The movement for governmenta
 sOLUTIONOF THE DISCIPLINE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
OLUTION
81
mgathered momentum
especially in the United States of America, where intellectual
afs were systematicaly expanded for the steady development of exclusive body of
rwledge on the structure and functioning of Public Administration.
The evolution of Public Administration has
passed
through several
ntAccording Robert T. Golembiewski Public Administration
to phases of develop-
has developed as an
academic field through a succession of five overlapping paradigms. As observed by Golem-
hiewski the paradigms of Public Administration may be characterised and understood in terms
their locus and focus. Locus is the institutional Where' of the field. Focus is the
What of the field.
specialised
Paradigm 1: The Politics-Administration Dichotomy, 1900-1926
Paradigm 2: The Principles of Administration, 1927-1937
Paradigm 3:Public Administration and Political Science, 1950-1970
Paradigm 4: Public Administration as Management, 1956-1970
Paradigm 5: Public Administration as Public Administration, 1970
For our convenience we are dividing the historical evolution of Public Administration into
thefollowing six periods

1.Period I: 1887-1926
2. Period Il : 1927-1937
3. Period lIl: 1938-1947

4.Period IV: 1948-1970

5. Period V: 1971-1980
6. Period VI :1980 onwards
Period I: 1887-1926 (Politics-Administration
Dichotomy)
Public Administration as a discipline is said to have been born
there is no sharp point in history where the
in the United States, but
of
story Public Administration can be said to begin.
Woodrow Wilson, who became the President of the U.S.A. in his
later years, was among the
earliest thinkers to outline the concept of Public Administration as a
Wilson's seminal contribution "The Study of Administration" separate discipline of study.
published in the Political Science
Quarterly in 1887, laid the foundation for a systematic study of Public Administration. To
students, Wilson as an administrative theorist, may sound illogical as he did not many
concept or theory but it was he who delineated Public Administration as a distinctive propound
0 study and emphasised the need for continued study and research. To Wilson, subject Public
Administration is a detailed and systematic execution of public law. He described
administration
as an art but emphasised that it be studied scientifically. The dichotomy between politics and
aministration was first mooted by Wilson, and the cleavage acquired the name after him-the
wIsonian dichotomy'. Wilson argues that administration and
politics are
Ohim, the field of administration is a field of business. It is removed fromseparate. According
the hurry and strife
O
politics..administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics. Administrative questions
enot political questions. He further says that politics is the special province of the statesman
d administration that of the technical official. Thus, Wilson was the first thinker who
pouics and administration were different functions. In his argued
speech before the Historical and
82 SAHITYA BHAWAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATte
Political Science Assoclation at Cornell University, he issued a call to political scientists to she
more effective techniques for administration.
The publication of Wilson's essay marks the birth of Public Administration as a sal..
scious inquiry Through the essay, Wilson sought to ald in the establishment of P
Administration as a recognised field of study." Doctrine after doctrine which Public Adminie
tion has accepted as valid was first clearly enunciated by Wilson in his essay." Thus, Wi
is regarded as the founding father of the discipline of Public Administration.
In 1900 Frank J. Goodnow published a slender volume that was destned to have a wa
influence, entitled "Politics and Administration". He developed the Wilsonian theme further
boldly argued that politics and administration were two distinct functions of the governmert
ar
"Politics has to do with policies or expressions of the will of the state while administration a
to do with the execution of those policies." In short, Frank Go0dnow posited the politicSa

administration dichotomy.
In the first decade of the 20th century, many American universities began to take actve
interest in the reform movement in government. The interaction between the gcvemment an
the universities increased. In a report published in 1914, the American Political Scienca
Association declared that one of the objectives of teaching Political Science was to preparg
specialists for governmental positions. Thus the study of Public Administration gained increas
ing recognition in American universities. In 1926, L. D. White released "An Introduction to the
Study of Public Administration," which was recognised as the first textbook on the subject. t
reflects the theme of that period-the politics-administration dichotomy alongwith highlighting
that economy and efficiency should be the watchwords of Public Administration. As Waldo has
pointed out, White's text was quint essentially American Progressive in character and in its
quintessence, reflected the general thrust of the field : politics should not intrude on administra-
tion; management lends itself to scientific study; the mission of administration is economy and

efficiency.
Period II: 1927-1937 (Search for Universal Principles)
The second stage of evolution is marked by the tendency to evolve a value free science
of management'. In this period the focus was almost wholly on 'efficiency' and Public
Administration has its central theme the 'principles of administration'. Separate studies of public
and private business administration tended to merge into a single science of organisation,
whose theories and concepts were to be equally applicable to both private and public
administration. The general belief in this stage was that there are certain principles' of
administration, and it is the task of the scholars to highlight them and to promote their
application.
t was solidly behind F. W. Taylor, the application of scientific methods to administratve
processes associated with. Taylor believed that "the best management is a true sclenc
applicable to all kinds of human activities. F. W. Taylor, father of scientific management, wrole
Shop Management (1903) and The Principles of Scientific Management (1911). HiS man
concern was the scientific methods of periorming the routine work of organisation wth
esfficiency. Through experimentation spread over a period of time, he developed a number ot
tools and techniques to aid both the worker and manager. He insisted on a high degree
specialisation and propounded a theory of functional foremanship", in its cause. A number
techniques like exception principle, work study, work measurement, etc., which are being
 83
vOLUTION OF THE DISCIPLINE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
EVOLUTIO

adonted in the contemporary public and industrial organisations, were all initially developed
by him.
The main publication during the period from 1927 to 1937 were Willoughby's 'Principles
of Public Administration, Mary Parker Follet's 'Creative Experience', Henry Fayol's 'Industria
and General Management, Mooney and Reiley's 'Principles of Organsiatio and Gullick &
Urvick's 'Papers on the Science of Administration'. All these writers emphasised that ad
ministration while executing decisions, has to face many problems and that it was, therefore,
necessary that, through a scientitiC research of the phenomenon of administration, some
principles of administration might be derived which might provide formulae for efficient
administration.

Wiloughbys approach to Public Administration in his Principles of Public Administration

(1927) represents the new thrust of the discipline. His main thesis is to apply the techniques
of science to the solution of problems of organising and administering with economy and
eficiency. He was concerned with developing a science of administration centering around
the separation of politics from administration. Henry Fayol defined administration in terms of
five concepts, viz., Planning, Organising, Command, Co-ordination and Control. These five
principles provide a system of concepts, through which, administrators may seek to clarify their
perception of activities. Keeping efficiency and economy as two basic values which the
administration should attain, Gulick & Urwick tried to develop universal principles to achieve
organisational goals. They coined that acronym-POSDCORB-to promote seven principles
administration. Urvick is of the opinion thatthere are pinciples which can be arived at
inductively from a study of human organisation. These principles can goven the arrangements
for human association of any kind.3
Thus, the years 1927-1937 werethegolden years of 'principles and techniques' in the life
of Public Administration. In this period, the general view was that Public Administration is a
separate activity with its own well marked field and principles. Its field was demarcated on the
basis of the so-called politics-administration dichotomy. The field of politics was
policy making
while that of administration was execution of that policy. Administration had its own
techniques
and principles independent of the form of the government under which it might function.
Administration was nothing but management and it should be possible to discover the best
ways or principles of managing everything.
Period III: 1938-1947 (The Humanistic
Challenge)
Taylorism popularised the search for universal generalisations on the administrative
process. The writings on the Public Administration that followed the Scientific
Management
Movement showed concen for 'principles' of administration. The administrative practitioners
and the business schools joined hands to emphasise the mechanistic aspect of management.
But the excess of scientific
management triggered
a series of reactions against the mechanistic
concept of administration. These principles of work division, unity of command and span of
control have all been attacked as
the traditional
being ambiguous and as mere proverbs. Simon is critical of
principles of administration and calls them as proverbs.
The most notable
contribution, in this connection, came from the famous Hawthorne
expeniments (1924-1940) caried out by a group of scholars at the Hawthorne Plant of the
westem Electric Company. The Hawthorne experiments pioneered a movement which came
o be
known as the Human Relations
Approach to administration. This approach to organisa-
84 SAHITYA BHAWAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIO

groups the work in organisation,

onal analysis drew attention to the formation and eect of ang
set up, the phenomena o
o r c e of informal organisation in the formal organisational setting. n uman
onticts and co-operation among groups in the machine concept of organisation on in
Relations Approach brought out the limitations of the social and psycnological tactors
attention to the
a n a g e m e n t ' thought. By drawing side of the administration'
WOTk SItuation, it underlined the importance
of the 'human (1938) treats
"The Functions ofthe Executive"
provoking book organisations
nester Barnard's thought sianificant and views both formal and informal
very Peter Drucker
wrote " I n e Practice of
ne informal organisation a s the s a m e phenomena. in
industry
aspects of and human relatons
De inter-dependent emphasised long range planning organisation has been a
Management in which he administrative
to
The contribution of Elton Mayo attempt to understand the
government. first time, he made a n
times. For the the t r a d i t i o n a l approach
great innovation of the modern different from
management
from an angle useful not only in the
of the industrial is immensely
problems contribution of Mayo in the case of
Or Scientific Management.
The
of a state, particularly
a d m i n i s t r a t i v e system w a s in discovering
industrial sector but
also in the investigation
significance of H a w t h o r n e
the
as a whole, all organisations.
bureaucracy. Taken realised exists in
which it is n o w
the informal organisation
Studies)
Inter-disciplinary
(Focus on
Period IV:
1948-1970
Administration changed. The behavioural
of Public attention on the
the whole concept
After world w a r II, administrative theory by focussing
orientation to m o t i v a t i o n and
satisfaction. In
a new
scientists have given dynamics,
group famous Human
leadership in organisation, stated with the
role of individual, considered to have
b e h a v i o u r a l i s m is Chester Barnard and
a d m i n i s t r a t i v e studies,
developed among others, by
Relations Movement
of the 1930's and later behavioural
s t u d i e s - a r e studies of

and Barnard-called
Herbert Simon. The
works of Simon knowledge available in
inter-disciplinary approach
drawing from the
behaviour through become a part of the
vital development
human and have
and Psychology
Anthropology, Sociology Science.
Behavioural
labelled as
that is generally a s he laid emphasis
on
can be caled behavioural,
organisation Executive"(1938),
Barnard's approach to Functions of the
His book "The
of management. and allied fields
the psychological aspects interest in Economics, Psychology
and abiding in Barnard's
is a product of ripe experience as basically a social system. Authority
viewed the organisation the subordinate. He
of knowledge. He role of the supervisor by
of the superior
view is a matter of acceptance motivation and underplayed the role
as a m e a n s of
believed in theimportance of persuasion which, he thought,
He pinned his faith in organisational leadership
of coercion in organisation.
was the most important
factor in organisational management.
(1947)
Behaviour is a critique of traditional Ad Public
scientific analysis in
Simon's 'Administrative
it sets forth the rigorous requirements of
ministration. More, significantly,
the perspectives and methodology of behaviouralism in
l i c Administration. Reflecting the enforcement of
'Administrative Behaviour' pleaded for
and Social Psychology,
Psychology
Administration. Simon recommended an empirical
approach to tne
scientific rigour in Public
to be scientific one must exclude
value judgments
study of administration. He maintains that
definition of terms, apply rigorous analysis
and concentrate attention on facts, adopt precise
about administration.
and test factual statements or postulates
 TION OF THE DISCIPLINE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
Simon had identified two mutually supportive trends in the evolution of Public Administr
tion a5 'discipline.
a There was on the one
hand, a group of scholars attempting to deveiop a
nire 'Science' administration which called for a good
of
grounding in social psychology. Another
oroup of scholars were engaged in the task of working out
grou
prescriptions for public policy. Simon
found that the second approach would result in a loss of identity of Public Administration as a
separate discipline as t would involve swallowing up the whole of Political Science and the
absorption of Sociology and Economics as well. Simon regarded these two trends as
reinforcing components, and pleaded for combination of these two trends of mutually
thought for the
healthy growth of Public Administration as a discipline.
Simon's 'Administrative Behaviour dealt a deadly blow to the two
classical administrative theory-politics-administration dichotomy and defining pillars ofof ad-
the
the principles
ministration. Referring to this work Waldo says that it was paradoxically a radical and a
conservative work. It was radical because it had rejected politics-administration dichotomy
thesis and regarded 'decision making' as the heart of administration and insisted on
sharply
raising the standards of scientific rigour in Public Administration. It was again conservative
because it had attempted to define and refine the concept of efficiency. Simon's call for a
pure science' did not find tavour with many public administrationists. There had already existed
growing irritation in the field with POSDCORB on the basis of its 'pure science' claims. Again,
as science was perceived as being 'value free', a science of Public Administration would
require public administrationists to abandon their richest sources of inquiry, namely normative
political theory, concept of public interest and the entire spectrum of human values.
Some of the worth mentioning works in this period related with behavioural approach are :
(a) The study of bureaucracy (Robert Merton, Peter Blau and other scholars using and
extending upon the Weberian bureaucratic model); (b) Human relations research pertaining
to motivation and increasing job satistaction (Douglas McGregor, Chris Argyris, Rensis Likert
Warren Bennis and others);: (©) Motivation studies using the Barnard-Simon equilibrium model
and (d) Decision-making studies emphasising primarily cognitive processes and the rational
Components of administrative behaviour.
1960's is a very eventful decade in the history of Public Administration. At least two major
developments have occurred during this decade-the rise and fall of Comparative Public
Administration and Development Administration. Comparative studies of government and
administrative systems are hardly new. However, the concept was pushed into new realms
only during the 1950's because of the sweeping shift in the orientation and aims of Political
Science and developments occurred after the world war l in several parts of the world. As
noted by William J. Sifin these two broad lines have contributed the ways and means and
incentive for the comparative study of Public Administration. However, the most influential
factor responsible for the surge of interest in comparative studieswasthe assertion of Robert
Dahl that aslong comparative approach is not adopted the claims of Public Administration as
a Sclence remains hollow. This conceptualization took a concrete shape in 1960 when the
of the development of this field
omparative Administration Group (CAG) was formed. Much
Epended upon the contributions made by Fred W. Riggs who chaired the CAG.
ne concept of development administration has been almost exclusively used with

erence to the developing nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Third world development
m e avery powerful intellectual category in the American social science thinking in 1960s.
 S6 SAHITYA RHAWAN
PURLIC ADMINISTRATtr
Itwas looked at as a strategy against insurgency and the growth of Communism
Comparative Administration Group peroeived modern administration as a mechanism fr
rs
hs
attainment of developmental goals. Thus the bureaucracy was looked at as a pror9ssr
provide planning and an identical infrastnucture for converting inputs of objectives, capital an.
an
know-how into developmental outputs. Two development goals-nation building and sori
economic development constitute the keynote of development administration
Development administration assumes that the bureaucracy is the efficient and ratiorai
form of human organisation and that the vast amount of experience in reconstnucion
management and organisation in the west could be adopted to suit the specific devalopmeta
needs of the third world. In fact, development administration was seen as a 'mutation from
colonial administration by injecting development goals and structures in the old core of cn
servants. The task of the developed countries was thought to lie in creating external inducemerts
to change through technical assistance and technology and insttutions transter. It wasthug
that the institutional imitation would produce results obtained in the developed countries, namely
efficiency, increased rationality and the like.
By the late 60s it became however evident that externaly induced moderanisation hac
failed to solve the basic problems of underdevelopment. Development administration mode
came under attack in the hands of both the radical and the conservative critics.
In 1962 Public Administration was not included as a sub-field of Political Science in the
report of the committee on Political Science as a discipline of the American Political Science
Association. In 1964, a major survey of political scientists indicated a decline in faculty interest
in Public Administration generally. In 1967, Public Administration disappeared as an organising
category in the program of the annual meeting of the American Political Science Associa-
tion.Waldo wrote in 1968 that many political scientist not identified with Public Administration
are indifferent or even hostile; and added that the Public Administrationist has an
'uncomfortable' and 'second class citizenship. Between 1960 and 1970, only 4 per cent of
all the articles
published in the five major political science journals dealt with Public Administra
tion.
This period has been one of crisis for Public Administration.
Partly because of their second
class citizenship status in a number of
political science department, some public ad-
ministrationists began searching for an alternative. None- theless, the management option
(which sometimes called 'administrative science) was a viable alternative for a
number of scholars in Public Administration. The significant
impact of management on public administra-
tion was more positive. It forced public
administrationists to examine more closely what the
public' in 'public administration' meant.
Period V: 1971-1980 (New Public
Administration)
In the late 1960s, some of the best
a new movement in American
of the younger generation of American scholars pioneered
Public Administration which came to be
Administration'. The scholars gathered at Minnowbrook under known as the 'New Public
the
critically reviewed the relevance of the study and practice of Public patronage of Dwight Waldo and
changing environment posing challenging problems before the Administration in terms of rapidly
Marini (ed.) Toward a New Public
Administration, government. Two volumes [Frank
1971 &Dwight Waldo
in a Time of Turbulence,
1971] were produced to herald a new brand(ed.) Public Administratio
of Public Administration
oriented toward political theory.
uOUTION OF THE DISCIPLINE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION 87

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION: CRISIS OF IDENTITY

.With the rejection of politics-administration dichotomy and principles of administration. Public Ad-
ministration found itself in the Crisis of ldentity. In this period (1948-1970), the scholars of Public
Administration reacted in two ways some of them returned to the fold of political science. However,
Dolitical scientists were indifferent or even hostile to them. Scholars like John Gaus have already argued
that "a theory of public administration means in our time a theory of politics also." Further, Rosco Martin
in one of his articles, called for continued, "domain of political science over Public Administration".
Some others moved towards administrative science. They argued that administration is administration
irrespective of its setting.
However, in both cases, Public Administration lost its separate identity and distinctiveness and it had to
merge with the larger field. This is why, the period (1948-1970) in the evolution of Public Administration is
known as the 'period of crisis of identity.
The problem of crisis of identity is not something
peculiar to public administration alone. The parent
discipline Political Science was also faced with the problem of crisis of identity in the early twentieth
century (1900-1920) which was transformed into what Seymour Martin Lipset calls 'a legitimacy crisis'
by the outbreak of the First World WNar.
Thus, Public Administration has been facing the trauma of crisis of identity since the mid 1940s with
the adoption of the multi-disciplinary,
environmentally sustainable development policy and administra-
tion approach. Public Administration has
emerged as an inter-disciplinary, multi-disciplinary, trans-dis-
ciplinary and applied frield, the integrating discipline-the social science of social sciences, the meta
social science, the meeting ground for all branches of knowledge on which public policy process is
based. Briefly, the crisis of identity faced by the
subject has resolved itself with its recognition as an
inter-disciplinary and applied discipline.
Noorjahan Bava has very rightly observed, "The
problem of crisis of identity of the study of public
administration has been resolved with the recognition and
acceptance of the field as inter-disciplinary,
multi-disciplinary and applied."

The whole campaign of the younger scholars of Public

Administration meeting at Min-
nowbrook centred on
highlighting the lacunae of the traditional Public Administration. They
castigated it as too formalistic, excessively oriented toward obsolescing
base, obsessed with the instrumental values of philosophical-scientific
economy and efficiency and visibly insensitive
to the democratic ideas
and humanitarian approach that should guide
public life.
The scholars of the New Public Administration
a Public highlighted the foci and the philosophy of
Administration that should be based on the premises of normative
concern, activism, humanism, participation and other related ideas and ideals. theory,
social
It stresses on
the social relevance
of knowledge. Normative conclusions, maintains New Public
are
inevitable as well as necessary. It disagrees with the
Administration,
approach of behaviouralists and
Condemns the notion of a value-free social science. It sounded the death-knell of the already
ennous politics-administration dichotomy. Not only does it accept that administrators do make
, Dut it also holds tenaciously that administrators should make policies. Its positive value
in
S bringing
Public Administration closer to Political Science. In fact, the movement has been
ucoessful in
integrating Public Administration with the basic concerns of political theory.
he abandonment of
politics-administration dichotomy made the public policy approach
aDle to administrative analysis. The Policy school sought to emphasize the significance
auistical analysis and stressed the need for using informational technologies. The
policy
proach shares Public Administraticn's
positive thinking about government, but it retains the
 PUBLICADMINISTRATION
88 SAHITYA BHAWAN
It is muiti-ds.
science can retain the governmental rationality.
old promise that research and a new thrustin
Political aspects of administration was given
Ciplinary and receptive politics.
to
In fact this era called
to an end the
and Political Development".
La Palombara's "Bureaucracy administration are experiment
dichotomy and feltthat both politics and
politics-administration
different perspectives.
ing with the same problems from
administration was initiated by scholars ke
revival movement of comparative
By 1980, the others who had
demonstrated their interes
O.P. Dwivedi and
Ferrel Heady, Charles T. Goodsell, The 'new' Comparative Public Administration proposed by
movement.
in giving a fresh life to the the subject includes comparison
of the study. As such now
Charles T. Goodsell widened the scope cross-national comparison.
levels of analysis and
supra-national, sub-national

Period VI: 1980 onwards

(Paradigmatic Shifts)
A new environment has
marked shift in the history of Public Administration.
1980s saw a The greatly reduced
some of the earlier premises
of Public Administration.
emerged which rejected the disintegration of the
of Public Administration was reinforced by
confidence in the efficacy The notion of big government
intellectual foundatiorns of the discipline
alongwith its paradigms.
of economic efficiency
to individual freedom and as the enemy
was rejected as a potential
threat
appeal in several countries of the west
small government started finding
while the movement of of
activities and simultaneous growth private
in the decine of govemmental
and non-west resulted
sector activities, at least in
the West.4
watershed in the growth of
Government° in 1992 is a
The publication of Aeinventing functions
Administration in the sense that
it has sought to redefine the
Contemporary Public that is certain to
The authors argue in favour of 'entrepreneurial government'
of government.
improving public management through performance
bring about radical changes by (a) (c) downsizing the government, (0)
measurement and evaluation, (b) reducing budgets,
and (e) contracting out in selective
areas.
selective privatization of public enterprises
Administration is
with changes in the role of government, globally, Public
As evident, in the
in an act of soul-searching.
Some of the major theoretical concerns
currently engaged from both the developed West and
it has shaped now in response to inputs
discipline, as
non-Western societies, are as follows: °
Public seeking to assess the
Administration
(a) Application of Public Choice theory to of public go00,
relative importance of both market and State as contending providers
and empowernment of
(b) Decentralization and democracy-underlining participation
people at the grassroots;
(c) The inadequacy of the Weberian notion of 'rational bureaucracy' in the post-colonia
states which is being assailed as 'self-aggrandizing' priority-distorting and budge
maximizing;
in
(d) Organizational pluralism striving to ensure absolute freedom' of the individuals
choosing without interference. As a consequence, suggestions are being offered tor
"load-schedding' of Government, privatization, decentralization and empowerme
and also encouragement of NGOs in the voluntary sector. Organizational pluralism
being articulated in the advocacy of enhanced social capacity as against governmenl
capability. Government through the agency of Public Administration is being treateo
 uOLUTION OF THE DISCIPLINE OF PUBLICADMINISTRATION 89
as just one form of governance. The concept of
of government through non-bureaucratic agencies,govern-
ance
opens up possibilities
other than formal government,
(e) 'Performance partnership' in the form of different
levels of government coming
together corresponding to public-private joint venture. And, networking of
NGOS and private agencies is being government,
suggested
() Small government in terms of downsizing and grassroots
and
pursued;
people's efforts is another
idea being broached now. In this
context, decentralization of government and people's
own efforts are being more and more
advocated. Another kindred suggestion is the
reconceptualization of government's role. Also, re-examination and assertion of 'Public
Interest' has led to a revival of interest in this core
in the form of
concept. Neo-institutional device
institutional capacity-building is
being advocated and institutional studies
are gaining in importance
(g) Transparency of governance and open citizen-friendly administration via 'citizen's
charter' being advocated. Also the 'gender' issue has been brought to the
are now
fore arguing that Public Administration has
the discourse of bureaucratic
virtually been a male preserve. Alongside
rationality, there is the need for the
discussion of domesticity' connoting feeling, emotion, and humanjuxtaposition
of the
warmth.
"We reinvented Public Administration in the form of New
Public Administration in the early
second half of the 20th century to achieve objëctives of social
justice, equality, relevance and
socio-economic progress. The last exercise in reinvention, attempted in 1990s-called New
Public Management which is also known as
Entrepreneurial Government-aims at efficiency
economy and effectiveness."
New Public Management (NPM)
hinges on public choice theory and managerialism, thus
reposing belief in the primacy of the market and of private sector management. The market
its
model is the dominant model of
governance in the NPM scheme. It introduces competitive
elements into PA, marketisation being its key feature.
Very recently, Janet V. Denhardt and Robert B. Denhardt in the book "The New Public
Service: Serving, not Steering" have
propounded the concept of the "New Public Service". In
this conception the
primary role of public servants is to help citizens, articulate and meet their
shared interests rather than to control or steer
society.
The 21st Century Public Administration is
advancing on two parallel paths: the first path
continues to follow developments in the private business sector and borrows from it
ideas and
intiatives that have been formed as a benchmark for
improving the managerial and organisa-
Tional tools in public The second path follows a line opposed to the business and
systems.
economical trends, and tries to preserve and strengthen social, civilian and humane
wnich are not aspects,
always tradeable one-by-one and are therefore not usually formulated and
aCcepted in the business
management-field.
Such several currents are blowing across the discipline of Public Administration. The
new
academic study of Public Administration in the west has been buffered
by many of the volatile
urents of the past quarter century. The ethno-centric Western paradigms are losing appeal
e hird World academics who are now trying to create indigenous models firmly grounded
n their own
convictions and cultures.