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History Nature and Scope of Public Administration

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17 views11 pages

History Nature and Scope of Public Administration

Uploaded by

mwq6hxhc6n
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as KEY, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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(Module 1)

History, Nature
and Scope of
Public
Administration
Defining Public Administration

The acts of administration performed by the government are called


‘public administration’. Those acts which are undertaken by individuals
in their own capacity are termed ‘private administration’.
The word ‘public’ stands for the people of a definite territory or state.
The word ‘administer’ is derived from the Latin words ad and ministrare,
which means ‘to serve’. Thus, ‘administration’ means the ‘management
of affairs’, or looking after the people.
Scope of Public Administration
(PA)

Managerial View- It defines PA as the managerial part of the governmental


work, including of all the branches of the government, i.e., legislative, executive
and judicial.
L.D White subscribes to this view
It involves- planning, staffing, organising, directing, co-ordinating, budgeting,
reporting.
Integral View- it defines PA is a sum-total of all the activities undertaken in
pursuit of and in fulfilment of public policy.
These would include not only managerial and technical, but also manual and
clerical activities. L Gulick subscribes to this view.
Pfiffiner argues the scope of public administration can be divided
under two broad heads: principles of public administration
and sphere of public administration.
Principles of public administration studies management of personnel,
organisation, methods and procedure, public accountability and
finance.
It focuses upon what must be the underlying principles that should
govern the functioning of the administration.
Sphere of Public Administration. PA is understood through a
jurisdictional point of view. The sphere of public administration includes
the central government, state governments, its regional and local
authorities and also the public corporations.
Thus, sphere of public administration, in sum, includes the totality of
government activity, encompassing exercise of endless variety and the
techniques of organisation and management.
Evolution of Public Administration

The origin and evolution of Public Administration as a distinctive subject can


traced from 1887 onwards.
The major turning point in the history of public administration came with an
essay "The Study of Administration" authored by Woodrow Wilson in
1887.
FIRST STAGE: POLITICS –ADMINISTRATION DICHOTOMY (1887-
1926):-
Period I: (1887–1926)—The Era of Politics–Administration Dichotomy This is
the beginning of evolution of public administration as a disciplie.
The first stage focused on seperation of politics and
administration
“Politics has to do with policies or expressions of the state will”, whereas, “
administration has to do with the execution of these policies”- Goodnow
SECOND STAGE: PRINCIPLE OF ADMINISTRATION(1927-1937):
The central belief of this period was that there are certain ‘principle’ of
administration, and it is the task of the the scholars to discover them and to
promote their application.
This period opened with the publication of W.F. Willoughby’s Principles of
Public Administration(1927).
THIRD STAGE- ERA OF PRINCIPLES CHALLENGED (1938-1948):
The advocates of the principles of administration began soon to be challenged.
In 1938, Chester I. Barnard’s ‘The Function of the Executive’ was published. AND
Herbert A. Simon’s article entitled,
‘The Proverbs of Administration’ in 1946 put a big question mark on the acceptability as
well as applicability of the ‘principles of administration’ which he branded as ‘mere
proverbs’
This book discussed the challenegs of Formal and informal functions, functional overlay,
organizational environment, equilibrium among organizational units and inducement
contributions.
FOURTH STAGE : CRISIS OF IDENTITY (1948-1970):
With the rejection of politics-administration dichotomy a new crisis
arose for Public administration
public administration lost its separate identity and distinctiveness and it
had to merge with the larger field.
Some of them returned to the fold of political science
Some others moved towards the administrative science.
FIFTH STAGE: PUBLIC POLICY PERSPECTIVE (1971-1990)
public administration during period 1971-91 registered progress and
entered the seventies with an enriched vision.
Public administration became interdisciplinary in its nature.
Public administration has come closer to policy science and
managemnet science
SIXTH STAGE : GOOD GOVERNANCE (1991- CONTINUING)
Technology, communication ,economy became global
The power and role of government has led to self-analysis of business
and government sectors.
These changes have influenced the dynamics of government facilitating
its entrepreneurial growth in 1992
with the publication of "Reinventing Government". Osborne and
Gaebler reconstructed the functions of government.

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