CBCS SCHEME 2018-19 ONWARDS

POLITICAL SCIENCE
VI SEMESTER

PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
PAPER 8
UNIT- 1 INTRODUCTION TO PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
1.1 Meaning, Nature, Scope and Significance of Public Administration
1.2 Similarities and differences between Public and Private Administration

UNIT-2 ORGANISATION
2.1 Organisation: Meaning and types
2.1.1 Principles of Organisation- Hierarchy, Unity of Command, Span of Control, Centralisation and
Decentralisation.
2.2 Independent Regulatory Commissions- Characteristics, merits and demerits.
2.3 Public Corporations – its features, advantages and disadvantages

UNIT-3 THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE

3.1 Administrative functions of the Chief Executive
3.2 Administrative Process- Decision Making, Leadership, Communication and Control, Co-ordination.
UNIT-4 MANAGEMENT
4.1 Meaning, Features and functions of Management
4.2 Tests of good management.

References:
1. Public Administration – A. R Tyagi
2. Public Administration – Dr. Avasti and S. R Maheshwari
3. Public Administration – T. K Agarwal
4. Public Administration – Mohit Bhattacharya
5. Administrative problems in India – Corruption in Public Administration and Remedies – B. B Mukherjee
6. A text book on Public Administration – Vishnu Bhagwan and Vidya Bushan
7. Indian Administration – Vishnu Bhagwan and Vidya Bushan
 UNIT-1
INTRODUCTION TO
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
1.1 Meaning and Nature of Public Administration
Before understanding the meaning of PA it is necessary to understand the meaning of
Administration. The word Administration is derived from the Latin word ‘ad’ and ‘ministrare’ which means
‘to serve’ or ‘to manage’. Literally, the term “administration” means management of affairs.

“Administration is the Organisation and use of men and materials to accomplish the purpose”. -
FELIX. A. NIGRO
 “The art of administration is the direction, co-ordination and control of many persons to achieve
some common purpose or objective”. - L.D WHITE
 “Administration has to do with getting things done; with the accomplishment of defined
objectives”. -LUTHER GULLIK

Thus, it is clear that administration has two essential elements; collective effort and common purpose.
Public Administration is an ancient activity common to all countries and all levels of
government. It is an aspect of larger field of administration. In the earlier period there was no separate
branch of Public Administration in government. It was merged with Executive branch of government. Now in
the modern period it has become an independent branch of government as well as independent branch of
study also. It is described as “Heart of modern civilization”.
The word Public has many meaning but in the context of administration it means ‘governmental’. Hence
Public Administration simply means, ‘governmental administration’. OR When the term refers to the activities
of the state it is called Public Administration.
 “Public Administration is a detailed and systematic execution of Public Law”. - WOODROW WILSON
 “Public Administration is concerned with administration of government”. -E.N GLADDEN
 “Public Administration is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of state”. -
WALDO

Broader Sense: Public Administration includes the activities of all three branches of government.
Narrow Sense: It includes the activities of only the executive branch.
Thus, we can summarise PA in the following way as put forth by Nigro and Nigro;
 PA is cooperative group effort in a public setting
 It covers all three branches of government and their interrelationship
 It has an important role in formulation and implementation of public policy
 It works for welfare of people according to laws set up by State
 It is different from private administration.
NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:
In Political Science the term “Public Administration” is used in two sense. One is
the broader sense (all three branches), and the other is the narrow sense(only executive branch).Thus, the
scholars of PA have expressed two divergent views on the nature of PA namely;

1. Integral View:
According to this view PA is the sum total of all the activities undertaken in the fulfilment of
Public Policy. These activities include not only managerial and technical but also manual and clerical. It
comprises of all the activities of whole hierarchy of employees in the executive department from the Chief
Executive at the top to the down to lowest ranking employee. All the activities from manual to managerial
and from technical to non technical comes under this view.
This view is represented by L.D White, Woodrow Wilson, Marshal Dimock and others.

“all the acts of the officials of government from the peon in a remote office to the head of the State
at the capital constitute Public Administration”. – M. Ruthnaswamy
2. Managerial View:
According to this view PA deals with managerial activities of the administration only. In this
view only top officials namely the managerial staff are responsible for efficient running of administration. To
achieve the desired goal their job is to plan, program, organise, coordinate etc. Luther Gullick has summed
up managerial activities I the word “POSDCORB”. According to this clerical, manual and technical activities
of non managerial staff are excluded from the purview of PA.
This view is represented by Luther Gullick, Herbert Simon etc.
SCOPE:
Scope means the subject matter. Scope of PA means the contents of its study. Regarding the scope of PA
there is no unanimity or agreement among the writers. When PA was defined we came across two views
namely narrow and broader view. This controversy is very unfortunate. PA is witnessed as a “growing
discipline”. We in India cannot accept the restricted view of PA as there is mutual dependence and
interaction between the three branches of government as a result of which PA must be defined in broader
term. The scope of PA is thus wide enough.
Writers have defined the scope of PA in different terms. Broadly there are
two views regarding the scope:
1. The POSDCORB view
2. The Subject matter view
1. POSDCORB VIEW:
A distinguished classical writer Luther Gulick sums up the various aspects constituting the scope of
PA in a word POSDCORB.
 Narrow view as it takes into account only the executive branch of government
 Luther Gulick, Henry Fayol, M.Queen,
 Urwick and Fayol- Planning, Organising, Command, Control, and Co- Ordination (POCCCO).
 M Queen says, “the study of administration deals with Men, Materials and Methods”.
 But Luther Gulicks word POSDCORB Describes the scope of PA in the following way;
 P- PLANNING – deciding in advance what has to be done to achieve desired goals
 O- ORGANISING - establishment of formal authority through which work will be divided, arranged, and
coordinated
 S- STAFFING – recruitment and training of personnel's and their conditions of work
 D- DIRECTING- making decisions and issuing orders and instructions for guidance of staff
 CO- COORDINATION- inter relating the works of various departments/ divisions/ sections of the organisation
so as to eliminate conflict
 R- REPORTING- keeping both the superiors and subordinates informed on what is going
 B- BUDGETING- includes fiscal planning, accounting and control.

Thus POSDCORB activities are common to all organisations. But it includes

only managerial activities of top administration and excludes other activities of public employees from the
scope of PA. It also ignores Human Relation approach as it stress more on structure and method of working and
does not take into account human beings who form the heart of PA.
This approach of Gullick is ‘Technique oriented’ rather than being ‘Subject
Oriented’.
2. THE SUBJECT MATTER VIEW OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:
The various defects of POSDCORB view gave rise to the ‘Subject matter view of PA’.
According to this view the real core of administration is the basic service provided or performed for the
Public. It lays emphasis on various services such as education, health, police and fire protection, public
works, social security etc. In short PA is nothing but the whole government in action.

WALKER DIVIDES THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION INTO TWO;

1. ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY
2. APPLIED ADMINISTRATION

1. Administrative theory;
It deals with theoretical aspect of administration. It includes study of structure, organisation,
functions and methods of all types of public authority engaged in administration whether national, regional,
or local.
2.Applied Administration;
It deals with practical aspect of administration. It is concerned with application of theory by
various fields of administrative activity such as education, health, police and so on. Walker has made an
attempt to classify the main forms of applied administration on the basis of ten principle functions namely;
Political, Legislative, Financial, Defensive, Educational
Social, Economic, Foreign, Imperial, and Local.
In this case it may be said that the scope of PA varies with peoples
expectations from the government. A century ago people expected government to maintain law and order
but now they expect government to promote welfare, guarantee social security, peaceful living etc.
IMPORTANCE or SIGNIFICANCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:
The importance of PA is steadily increasing with the expansion of state activity in modern
states. The importance can be studied under following heads;
1. An instrument for providing services (health, education, social security, housing etc)
2. An instrument to implement the policies
3. Basis of government “Administration is the basis of govt. No government can exist without it”. -
PAUL H. APPLEBY
4. A stabilising force in the society
5. An instrument of social change and development
6. The concept of welfare state has further increased the importance of PA (aims to provide more
service to people).
7. Public Administration as a mechanism for promoting culture in society (ideals and values of state may
be high but their impact on life is gauged by the way it is put into practise, the role of PA has greater
importance in its implementation).
8. Public Administration as the fourth branch of government (earlier maintaining law and order now
welfare. W.F WILLOUGHBY)
9. Public Administration as an agency of National Development (formulates organises and implements
the action program)
10. Importance of Public Administration as a subject.
Gerald Caiden in his book, “The Dynamics Of Public Administration” says that Public Administration has
assumed the following importance in modern society,
 Preservation of policy
 Maintenance of law and order
 Ensuring growth and economic development
 Protection of weaker sections of society
 Influencing public policies.
SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION:

Public Administration is an universal process. Generally speaking all the activities performed by government
is called PA and all the activities performed by private agencies is called private administration. Public and
Private administration are also known as governmental and business administration.

There are some thinkers like Henry Fayol, Mary P Follet, Max Weber and Urwick who do not differentiate
between the two and argue that all administration is one and exhibits same characteristics. Few other
thinkers like Paul H Appleby, Herbert A Simon and Peter Drucker made distinction between the two.
1. Difference in political direction
2. Difference in motive (PA- Service, Privates- Profit making)
3. Difference in service and cost (Private- income exceeds expenditure; Public- close relation between
the two; cost charged from Public; Tax)
4. Difference in nature and function
5. Difference in monopoly (complete control over goods and services PA alone runs railways, posts and
telegraphs are maintained but no such thing in Private Administration)
6. Difference in responsibility
7. Difference in Principle of Uniformity
8. Difference in financial control (PA- legislature; Private- Proprietors)
9. Social Necessity (PA- Meets social needs of people; Private- marketable consumer goods)
10. Difference in efficiency (Private is superior in this matter)
11. Anonymity
12. Difference in securing promptness and discipline (Quicker the decision better the discipline).
SIMILARITIEES:
Even though Public and Private administration differ from each other yet there are few
similarities between them;
1. Both are based on law
2. Provides services to people
3. Both require common skill (office management, statistics, filing, stocking etc)
4. Administrative set up (Principle of Hierarchy)
5. Both face risks and difficulties
6. Research and improvement