dr. hab.

Jerzy Supernat
Institute of Administrative Studies
University of Wrocaw
The Concept
of Public Administration
The Concept of Public Administration
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The Bible Revised Standard Version.
The Gospel according to John, 1, 1:
The terms
administration and public administration
are equivocal (= ambiguous) ones.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Luther Gulick
Administration has to do with getting things done; with the accomplishment
of defined objectives.
Dwight Waldo
Administration is a type of co-operative human effort that has a high degree
of rationality.
George E. Berkley
Administration is a process involving human beings jointly engaged in work-
ing towards common goals.
Keith Henderson
Administration is the arrangement of men and materials in the rational carry-
ing out purposes.
Two essential elements of administration:
collective effort
common purpose
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Administration is an universal process and occurs in
diverse institutional settings. Based on its institutional
settings, administration is divided into:
public administration (refers to the administration
which operates in governmental setting)
private administration (refers to the administration
which operates in non-governmental setting)
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Woodrow Wilson
Public administration is a detailed and systematic execution of law. Every
particular application of law is an act of administration. [] Administration is
the most obvious part of the government; it is the government in action; it is
the executive, the operative, the most visible part of the government.
Edgar N. Gladden
Public administration is concerned with the administration of the government.
Leonard D. White
Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose
the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy.
Marshall E. Dimock
Public administration is the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy as de-
clared by the competent authorities. It deals with the problems and powers of
the organizations and techniques of management involved in carrying out the
law and policies formulated by the policy-making agencies of government.
Public administration is the law in action. It is the executive side of a govern-
ment.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Felix A. Nigro
Public administration: (1) is a cooperative group effort in a public setting; (2)
covers all three branches executive, legislative, and judicial and their
interrelationships; (3) has an important role in the formulation of public policy,
and is thus part of a political process; (4) is different in significant ways from
private administration; and (5) is closely associated with numerous private
groups and individuals in providing services to the community.
David H. Rosenbloom, Robert S. Kravchuk
Public administration is the use of managerial, political, and legal theories and
processes to fulfill legislative, executive, and judicial mandates for the provi-
sion of governmental regulatory and service functions.
Dwight Waldo
Public administration is the art and science of management as applied to the
affairs of the State. [] The process of public administration consists of the
actions involved in effecting the intent or desire of a government. It is thus
the continuously active, business part of government, concerned with carry-
ing out the law, as made by legislative bodies (or other authoritative agents)
and interpreted by the courts, through the process of organization and mana-
gement.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Luther Gulick
Public Administration is that part of the science of administration which has to
do with government and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive
branch where the work of government is done, though there are obviously
problems in connections with the legislative and judicial branches.
James W. Davis
Public administration can be best identified with the executive branch of a
government.
William F. Willoughby
The term administration may be employed [] in two senses. In its broadest
sense it denotes the work involved in the actual conduct of governmental af-
fairs, regardless of the particular branch of government concerned. It is, thus,
quite proper to speak of the administration of the legislative branch of the
government, the administration of justice or judicial affairs, or the administra-
tion of the executive branch as well as the administration of the affairs of the
administrative branch of the government, or the conduct of the affairs of the
government generally. In its narrowest sense, it denotes the operations of the
administrative branch only*.
* Author made a distinction between executive power and administrative power and restricted the use of the term
administration to the activities of the administrative branch only. In other words he has given administration the
status of a fourth branch of government.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
In the negative concept, regarding the doctrine of se-
paration of powers, the traditional view expressed by Ger-
man scholars Otto Mayer and Walter Jellinek was that:
public administration (vast remnants) stays
outside the legislature and the judiciary.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Constitution of the Republic of Poland
Art. 10
1. The system of government of the Republic of Poland
shall be based on the separation of and balance be-
tween the legislative, executive and judicial powers.
2. Legislative power shall be vested in the Sejm and the
Senate, executive power shall be vested in the Pre-
sident of the Republic of Poland and the Council of
Ministers, and the judicial power shall be vested in
courts and tribunals.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
German public
administration scholar
Lorenz von Stein,
1815-1890,
one of the first
to acknowledge
that the modern state
is an administrative state:
Administration
is what I cannot name.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Polish scholar Janusz towski:
Administration can be described but not defined.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
David H. Rosenbloom, Robert S. Kravchuk
Public administration [] is difficult to define. [] In part, this is be-
cause public administration covers such a vast amount of activity.
Public administration jobs range from the exploration of outer space to
sweeping the streets. Some public administrators are highly educated
professionals, who may be at the forefront of their fields of specializa-
tion; others possess few skills that differentiate them from the mass of
the citizenry. Some public administrators make policies that have a
nationwide impact and may benefit millions of people; others have
virtually no responsibility for policy making and simply carry out
mundane governmental tasks like word processing, filing, and record
keeping. Public administrators are doctors, lawyers, scientists, engi-
neers, accountants, budgeters, policy analysts, personnel officers, ma-
nagers, clerks, keyboarders, manual laborers, and individuals engaged
in a host of other occupations and functions.
[] public administration as a category is so abstract and varied that it
can only be described in vague, general, amorphous, and somewhat
competing terms.
Prison administrative
establishment / public
undertaking
As of the end of August 2007,
Poland officially declared
90 199 prisoners
(13 374 pre-trial; 76 434 serving
sentences; 391 others; 2 743
prisoners were female),
giving an imprisonment rate
per 100 000 inhabitants
of about 234.
In Australian prisons at 30 June 2008
there were 27 615 prisoners
(sentenced and unsentenced) giving
an imprisonment rate of 169
prisoners per 100 000 adult
population.
War cemetery. Lest we should dream that we may die in vain!
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
German scholar Ingo von Mnch:
Von der Wiege bis zur Bahre: Formulare, Formulare.
(From the cradle to the bier: forms, forms).
There is, however, a core of diverse
meanings of terms administration and
public administration, linked with the
origin of the word administration.
Administration has originated from Latin
verb ministrare, strengthened by the
preposition ad-, meaning to serve.
Words minister and ministration also
conform that servant aspect of the
derivatives of ministrare.
Therefore, administration always means
a certain service or executive activity,
carried out with respect to somebody
and/or something more important.
Administration is an instrument serving
to achieve a goal and/or to execute a will
of superior. It should not have aims of its
own.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Polish scholar Hubert Izdebski:
Public administration is an operational instrument in the
hands of a political power. Serving the political power, pu-
blic administration in a democracy should serve the peo-
ple organised in a democratic state. It is, in a sense, an
executive of the executive power.
Public administration is also public in the sense that, in
liberal democracy, the only argument for its intervention
as the intervention of the state power in the affairs of
the state's subjects (individuals as well as their organisa-
tions: business and non-profit ones alike) is the public
good (the public interest).
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Polish scholar Magorzata Stahl:
Characteristics of public administration:
acting on behalf of the state or another public authority, to
which the state has ceded a part of its power (imperium)
administrative coercion performing a function with the pos-
sibility of applying public power to enforce decisions
political nature (the principle of spoils system developed in the
USA), in Poland e.g. when the government is dismissed, the govern-
ors of the provinces resign
acting on the basis and within the limits of law (a rule applic-
able to individuals it is allowed to do everything that is not explici-
tly forbidden is not applicable for public administration)
a continuous and stable operation
employing mainly professional personnel (in particular a cor-
ps of civil servants)
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Janusz towski added other characteristics of public administration:
a peculiarly monopolistic character: administration acts alone wi-
thin its competence
undertaking non-commercial activity, not aiming at gaining pro-
fits, which doesnt mean being gratuitous (= done freely, without re-
ward or payment being expected), sometimes resulting with profit
(but not only a profit)
acting on administrative own initiative or on request of the in-
terested party
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Hubert Izdebski 1 / 7
From the functional point of view, public administration can be
defined as an operational function, in any state, independently
of the epoch and of the form of government.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
2 / 7
It is not, however, the case of public administration approa-
ched in institutional terms. Public administration as
a specific set of authorities and institutions,
with missions set up in conformity with principles of the hori-
zontal and vertical division of work (constituting the division of
administrative tasks and competences) and
staffed by professional employees
is a relatively new phenomenon. Although public administra-
tion has been developing since late Middle Ages, it was as late
as in the Enlightenment period, i.e. in the 18
th
century, that it
appeared in the form comparable to the contemporary ones.

The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
3 / 7
The absolute monarchies of the 18
th
century lacked however an im-
portant characteristic feature of the contemporary liberal democratic
state. They lacked a strict link between public administration and the
law, especially administrative law.
The contemporary link between public administration and the law
consists in the submission of all the executive power, and
public administration operating therewithin, to the law. The
submission is the most important aspect of:
the rule of law, the principle which has been developed in England
since the Middle Ages, or
the state of law (Rechtstaat / Etat de droit / Estado de derecho /
pastwo prawa), the concept introduced in the continental Europe,
especially in Germany in the 19
th
century, as an overt opposition to
Polizeistaat.
From that point of view, public administration is an instrument of im-
plementation of provisions of the statutes and other sources of law.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
4 / 7

Such idea, linked with the principle of legality (each action
of public administration must have a legal basis), and the pro-
tection of citizen rights against uncontrolled discretion of state
power, has opened room for the judicial control of public admi-
nistration.

Art. 7 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland
The organs of public authority shall function on the basis of,
and within the limits of, the law.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
5 / 7
When taking into account the importance of the legal factor in
organisation and activities of public administration, it should be,
nevertheless, borne in mind that public administration may not
be a simple bouche de la loi, a kind of machinery of law enfor-
cement, as its basic role is providing to the public neces-
sary services in diverse fields of the governments activity.
Public administration is sometimes defined as an organisa-
tional activity of the government. Such activity needs an
initiative and certain freedom of action as well, and it cannot be
a passive implementation of orders of the law in any way.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
6 / 7
In the contemporary liberal democratic state, based upon lega-
lity and market economy, public administration belongs to the
most important elements of the whole system of social organi-
sation. The system can be presented in a simplified way as
composed of several interactive sub-systems, i.e.
political system
market economy
law
public administration
each of which having been set within the larger context of civil
society.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Political system
Law
Market
economy
Public
administration
7 / 7
Civil society (citizens)
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Polish scholar Jacek Jagielski:
The principle of legality, the fundamental principle go-
verning the functioning of public administration, derives
directly from democratic tenants. This is clearly set forth
in the Constitution, which provides that units of public
authority must operate only on the basis of law and strict-
ly within its bonds (art. 7). This means that every action
of public administration has to be explicitly authorized by
law. The maxim that anything which is not forbidden is
allowed does not apply here. Quite to the contrary, only
what is specifically provided by law is allowed.
Concluding Remark
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
If it is dangerous to suppose that government is always
right, it will sooner or later be awkward for public admini-
stration if most people suppose that it is always wrong.
John Kenneth Galbraith