Study Unit 1 Introduction to Public Administration: An Overview

What is Public Administration

Definition

public administration can be understood as being primarily concerned with managing the realm of governmental and other public activities
centres around government and its various capacities, policy
formulation and implementation.
Public administration is the interaction between politics and public policy and together they formulate, implement, evaluate and modify public policyQ1

Why is the Study of “Public Administration” Salient Now?

Allows us to Identify public preferences, goals and values, specifically through robust understanding of publicness and rich interactions with the public

5 Core differences between private and public administration

In a nutshell, private administration faces far less constraints than public administration, especially when
public administration is answerable to elected politicians and the entire society, while private administration concerns itself with satiating the demands of its profit-oriented shareholders and directors.

Profit and Loss

Public administrators are concerned with cost efficiency and resource management as they deal directly with public funds.
Private sector are also cocncenre with profit margin but their underlying cocenrns are locaclised, in relations to internal buisness target

Values

Public administrators are seen as arbeiters of values.
Private administrators are not expected to exercise the same levels of social values as their concerns are moe localacised

Ethics

Public administrators are expected to be equitable, fair and impartial across all levels of society
Private administrators exercise ethical values selectively - with shareholder interests being their primary matter of concern as opposed to the larger society.

Markets for Good

Public administrators constantly balances between the various and often time conflicting public demands for goods and services
Private administrators on the other hand attempts to create, expand and entise the public into engaging their goods and services.

Openness

Public administration are expected to be open and accountable for their actions
Private administration may operate discretely to prevent sensitive information leakage to business competitors

Positive and negatives of publuc administration

Positive Attributes of Public
Administration

Public goods and services are not provided with aims of profit maximisation
High levels of accountability to the public, with clarity of responsibility
Rules, regulations and procedures allow public administrators to be fair, neutral and accountable
Non-financial incentives usually
used to motivate and evaluate staff (meritocracy)

Negative Attributes of Public Administration

There may be an over-supply of public goods and services that are not in demand
Rules, regulations and procedures may impede efficiency and speed of policy delivery

White’s Four Assumptions in the Study of Public Administration

White was more interested in studying the managerial aspect of public administration
he defined public administration as “the management of men and materials in the accomplishment of the purposes of the state
- the objective of administration was the “efficient utilization of the resources at the disposal of officials and employees”
- concerned with
  - economical usage of resources and elimination of waste
  - the conservation of material and energy
  - how public administration impacted citizens
- Other objectives include
  - protection of individual rights (including welfare of workers)
  - the development of civic capacity and sense of civic responsibility
  - paying due recognition of the manifold phases of public opinion
  - the maintenance of order
  - provision of a national minimum of welfare

Assumption 2

The basis for study is management, not law.

Assumption 3

Administration is still art, but the ideal of transformation to science is both feasible and worthwhile.

Assumption 1

Administration is a unitary process that can be studied uniformly, at the federal, state, and local levels.

Assumption 4

Administration “has become, and will continue to be the heart of the problem of modern government.”

The Trajectory of Public Administration: Theories and Scholars of Public Administration

Studying the Evolution and History of Public Administration

Evolution of Public Administration: Three Models of Public Administration Systems

These models are significant in that they help to define the breadth and essence of public administration

History of Public Administration

Pre-modern period

1880s as the period in which public administration began to gain traction among scholars and government
1930s public administration and many public administrators were seen to use a combination of government research and scientific management principles to administer local government programmes
- One of the most significant trends in this era was the insistence to delink public service problems from political influence and focus instead, on administrative techniques.

The Modern Period

This modern period saw the face of public administration shift to accommodate growing problems in a rapidly changing polity, experiencing modernisation, urbanisation and post-materialist values
public administration also faced several crises in the existential sense (the physical world) as the legitimacy, ethics and morale of the public service were questioned.
- frequent government stalemates on formulating and implementing legislation were viewed as breakdown in public administration and required public administration to promote and ensure ethical conduct among public administrators

Why is it important

help us “discover incomplete understandings, misinterpretations, or even deliberate distortion” and such endeavours will
help us better comprehend exactly what role public administration plays in polities.

What is Public Administration History

Administrative history is understood as “the study of the origins and evolution of administrative ideas, institutions and practices”
- specifically, it is the “study of structures and processes in and ideas about government as they have existed or have been wanted in the past and the actual and ideal place of public functionaries therein”

Understanding the 'Emerging approach'

the public administration field has also undergone several identity crises and numerous transformations
This is known as the emerging approach
- which emphasises
  - government’s promotion of public values
  - the polity’s reception of such public values
  - ensuring that public administration revolves around public service delivery and
  - how the government administrative structures can enhance democratic accountability in the polity
emerging approach can only be studied or adopted by examining prior dominant perspectives in public administration

Aims of studying History

examine public administration theories and philosophies developed by eminent historical scholars
gain insight into trends and developments in public administration
understand what the field of public administration essentially is concerned with

Conflict of Factions model

the polity is full of groups of individuals who are in constant conflict of interests
- elitist interest vs populist interests vs corporate interest
The goal of public administration in such a polity, is to ensure parity i.e. that “no one interest or related interests alone could determine policy” as this would be unfair
Those in positions of authority could either moderate these demands and respond accordingly, or themselves be subject to checks and balances such as separation of powers to ensure that no public official is captured by any of these factions
Key Points
- response to a variety of societal interests
- separation of powers

Rule of Factions model

the polity now begins to see numerous political parties rising, the electorate burgeoning (as a result of universal suffrage) and an increase in the number of elected offices
- Government policy was now to reflect results of the election
as a result of the dynamics of electoral systems, many politicians elected appeared to have “little regard for the impact of public programmes
- This in turn necessitated the expansion of the bureaucracy, consisting of individuals who possessed specific technical knowledge in public policy to support the elected politicians

Public Interest model

in this model, the expansion of the bureaucracy is imminent,
- but it is to be staffed by those who possess technical and scientific knowledge as “the efficacy of science formed the cornerstone of governance”
Public administrators were also supposed to be rational, which scientific management encouraged
Technocracy
- The bureaucracy, which supported the political appointees with “expert advice”, was staffed by experts with technical knowledge (technocrats), who would then “exercise all administrative authority”

Three key assumptions

Assumption 1

People are inherently corrupt or susceptibility to corruption
Checks and balances are necessary

Assumption 2

Limits and control must be put on officials to avoid tyranny

Assumption 3

Individuals and groups of individuals act out on their conflicting interest
Government should balance between these conflicting factions

Impact

Create small government
- Decentralise the power distribution between administrative offices

Frederick Taylor

Frederick Taylor’s writings on scientific management were instrumental in the popularity of “technology-based management”
Taylor believed that scientific management and analysis would result in time and cost efficiencies
As scientific management became more popular, so did the need for training and education for public service officials as Taylor’s techniques were subsequently introduced to both private industrialists as well as government organisations
- both government officials and academics were beginning to recognise the significant contributions of “professional training and informed analysis

Gulick

In line with the Rule of Factions model, critics – particularly Gulick – increasingly called for a combination of political influence and scientific management - a leadership that would now be supported by staff who were public administration experts
- This is because a strong executive would then have command and control and would have the authority to deliver orders to subordinates.

Identity crisis of Public Administration: Early academic debate

The doctrine of a strong executive continued to permeate much of the literature on public administration in the next few decades, with scholars debating on which was the best academic direction in which public administration should develop
Recognising the flaws of the classical, orthodox public administration scholars, Dwight Waldo and Max Weber entered the debate, broadening the perspectives of the field of public administration

Waldo

Waldo concluded that the principles of public administration had been too rigidly applied and the over-emphasis of the depoliticisation of administration had contributed to the debate
Waldo advocated that public administration should be a part of the democratic governmental framework, rather than dominate it.

Weber

Weber introduced a new dimension of public administration which incorporated sociological and psychological-oriented views to the study of governance and public administration.

1950: Broadening of public admin and decision-making .

As a result of the academic contribution from Waldo, Weber and others, public administration was now beginning to take on a more interdisciplinary identity
a significant development in public administration was the identification of decision-making as central to public administration

Lindblom 'root/branch method'

Lindblom identified the root (rational-comprehensive) and branch (successive limited comparison) method of decision-making, whereby
- he discredited the root method as it was time-consuming and exhausting given the extensive evaluation of all available resources and policy options.
- Lindblom instead, advocated the “branch method”, which allowed for incremental decision-making based on past experiences.
The entire point of Lindblom’s research was to identify a method of policy formulation for complex policy issues that would be “superior to any other decision-making method available for complex problems in many circumstances” and as practical, rational actors, public administrators should follow the branch method, otherwise known as the “science of muddling through”

Simon

Simon studied decision-making from a behavioural perspective.
Together with another scholar, James March, Simon explained that decision-makers in real-life were confounded with a multitude of problems such as
- a lack of information about policy alternatives;
- a lack of background information of the problem, which was often “ambiguous and poorly defined”;
- and limitations of timelines, skills and resources.
As such, it is concluded that a more realistic way to make decisions in public administration was to “satisfice” by choosing the most satisfactory option available to him - in some cases, the more easily a solution is found, the higher the standards of public services would be and vice-versa

Regulations

In the pre-modern period, not just in the United States of America, but in many industrialising countries, the government often played a strong role in regulating businesses as economies grew. (i.e. regulating policies to manage foreign investors and home-grown businesses)
However, in the Modern period, particularly, from the 1960s right up to the 1980s (and beyond even), deregulation was the order of the day.
- Deregulation refers to the “removal or scaling down of regulatory authority and regulatory activities of the government” in a bid to remove inefficiencies associated with government and increase efficiency and profit associated with private enterprise.

Addressing deregulation

another development in the Modern period saw government and public administrators adding “new legislation and agencies” to regulate business, to ensure social good
- i.e. 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment and the introduction of policies which promote environmentally responsible behaviours including amongst economic actors.

Reform

The final major development in public administration in the modern period is one that is ongoing - reform
- widely believed that public administration reform commenced in 1905 with Teddy Roosevelt’s Keep Commission in a bid to reduce red-tape
each of the reform campaigns had identified different target areas and had different goals but the common thread linking them all is that they had labelled government as problematic and aimed to reimagine how public administration should solve the persistent administrative issues that affected the electorate’s confidence and trust in government

Critical Issues in Public Administration: A
Selection

The Politics- Administration Dichotomy and Debate

Woodrow Wilson and the Politics-Administration Dichotomy

According to Wilson’s dichotomy, the government consisted of two distinct domains
- politics was the exclusive dominion of elected officials, politics was about
  - (1) who makes the law, and
  - (2) what that law should constitute.
- while public administration was exclusive to public administrators
  - Wilson’s logic was that if the administration was kept separate from government, it would still be able to function in a neutral, efficient and effective manner, regardless of how government functioned or what type of government it was
Wilson also believed that it placed them in a “hierarchical (superior-subordinate) relationship”

Other Approaches to the Politics-Administration Dichotomy (European view)

Several other scholars have included the politics-administration dichotomy in their research on the field but formed a different view, unlike Wilson
To the European scholars, politics and administration existed in a symbiotic relationship and “each could be used to improve the organic state”
- administration was but one form of power and worked in tandem with other powers such as legislative power and judicial power (i.e. another tool/ state institution)

Which should it be: “Politics vs Policies” or “Politics and Policies”

It is difficult to cleanly and absolutely separate policy and politics because “policies do not exist in a vacuum” but “start with a political objective
In general, one of the most significant arguments borne out of the politics-dichotomy argument, is that the dichotomy promotes political neutrality

Towards a More Nuanced Understanding of Public
Administration

Why apply Public Administration Concepts to Southeast Asia?

examining public administration simply from a theoretical or an Americaninfluenced perspective is not as useful and comprehensive
we also need to examine how these trends can and should be successfully transplanted and subsequently adapted in non-Western contexts

Why apply Public Administration Concepts to Developing Countries?

Another consideration is the development of public administration systems in developing, less wealthy countries which may have weaker public institutions and structures - this will severely impact successful policy formulation, implementation and public service delivery.
the United Nations believes that the importance of public administration in developing countries is to address
- “sustained economic growth, the promotion of social development
- facilitating infrastructure development and protecting the environment
- promoting public private partnerships
- managing development programmes and
- maintaining a legal framework for development”

Organising the dichotomic schools

Demir (2009) developed a framework that categorises various scholars’ understanding of the dichotomy according to three schools of thought

The political school

The Political school envisions a more collaborative relationship between public administrators and other political actors to create a mutually-beneficial, democratic society

The interaction School

Interaction school suggests a delicate balance between the elected officials and public administrators, where the two sets of actors engage in a reciprocal, cooperative relationship even though the public administrators “remain accountable and responsive to their elected officials”
(i.e. a hierarchical acknowledgement)

The seperation

The Separation school emphasises separating politics from administration, as per the Wilsonian tradition, resulting in the elected officials directing public administrators, who professionally perform their duties with expertise

Svara's Critique

Svara argues that there is little value in this approach as neither does it effectively illustrate the interactions between elected officials and public administrators nor does it determine “how they should interact to have a constructive relationship to serve the public interest”
Svara explains that a dynamic view of the politics-administration relationship is necessary
argue that political neutrality is possible to achieve without the politics-administration dichotomy

Complementarity As opposed to dichotomy

In this case, a model of complementarity would be more useful, where it provides for the ability to distinguish between politics and administration, while concurrently describing how politics and administration are intermixed and how this relationship of complementarity should look like.
This would allow public administrators to be insulated from political interference but also provide “for extensive interaction and shared functions with elected officials and considerable independent decision-making by administrators”

Problems with the PoliticsAdministration Dichotomy

Lack of reciprocity in the relationship between the elected official and public administrator
Uncertainty and confusion about the scope and meaning of the dichotomy
Dichotomy need not undermine political neutrality
More labels and definitions required to be understood effectively

Key concerns for public admin

public administration concerns itself with “how politicians in government and non-elected public sector employees devise policy, sustain machinery of government and ensure policies are put into practice”.
there are three major concerns that have an impact on this process and these three differ between countries

Organisation

Second, the institutional organisation of the public service and the values it is based on, is another important consideration - public services may be influenced by more traditional, conservative values or shaped by more liberal forces

Environment

Finally, the environment in which public administration functions in also impacts the public administration system - the public service agencies and their administrators may have a close, amicable relationship with elected officials, they may be “impervious” to political control and unchanging in their “values, traditions and methods of operation” or be subject to politicians’ attempts at restructure, reform and control

Bureacrats

First, the characteristics, behaviour, motivations and conduct of public administrators, particularly career bureaucrats who have close contact with elected officials, affect the process of policy formulation and implementation.

Contextual difference.

These 3 considerations will play out differently in various countries
- Governments differ from country to country
- politicians within governments differ from election term to election term
These are influenced by several country-specific factors such as
- the historical trajectory,
- societal cleavages,
- political culture,
- values,
- levels of socio-political and
  economic development,
- and population size among others.