Public Administration – Comprehensive Exam Notes

Meaning of “Administration”

  • Etymology
    • Derived from Latin words ad + ministrare → “to serve” / “to manage”.
    • Literally: management of affairs, public or private.
  • Core elements common to all definitions
    • Cooperative, collective effort.
    • Pursuit of a consciously held common purpose.

Classical Definitions of Administration

  • E.N. Gladden: caring for / looking after people; managing affairs in pursuit of conscious purpose.
  • Felix A. Nigro: organisation & use of men + materials to achieve purpose.
  • Herbert A. Simon: activities of groups cooperating to reach common goals.
  • John A. Veig: systematic ordering of affairs & calculated use of resources to obtain desired ends at lowest cost in energy, time, money.
  • Pfiffener: organisation & direction of human/material resources to achieve desired ends.
  • L.D. White: direction, co-ordination & control of many persons to achieve an objective.
  • Luther Gulick: getting things done; accomplishing defined objectives.
  • Additional contributors: George E. Berkley, Brooks Adams, Keith Henderson, Ordway Tead, D. Waldo, James McCanny, F.M. Marx.

Administration: Public vs. Private

  • Administration = universal process; varies by institutional setting.
  • Public administration → governmental setting (a.k.a. governmental administration).
  • Private administration → business / non-governmental setting.

Public Administration – Key Definitions

  • Woodrow Wilson
    • “Detailed & systematic execution of law.”
    • “Most obvious part of government; government in action; executive, operative, visible side.”
  • L.D. White: operations aimed at fulfillment / enforcement of public policy.
  • Luther Gulick: science of administration dealing with government (focus on executive branch, yet recognizes legislative/judicial problems).
  • Simon: activities of executive branches at national, state, local levels.
  • Pfiffner: getting governmental work done by coordinating people.
  • E.N. Gladden: administration of government.
  • H. Walker: government’s work in giving effect to law.
  • Willoughby: broad vs. narrow sense; students focus on narrow = administrative branch.
  • D. Waldo: art & science of management applied to State affairs; continuous, active, “business” part of government.
  • M.E. Dimock: fulfillment/enforcement of public policy; “law in action,” executive side.
  • Further authorities: Corson & Harris, F.A. Nigro (five-point elaboration), Hodgson, Fesler, Goodnow, Ridley, Dimock & Dimock, Greenwood & Wilson, Rosenbloom, McGregor, F.M. Marx, etc.

Dual Usage of the Term

  1. Wider/Broader sense → includes activities of 3 branches: legislature, executive, judiciary. (Wilson, White, Dimock, Nigro, Pfiffner).
  2. Narrower sense → confines to executive branch only. (Simon, Gulick, Tead, Fayol, Willoughby).
    • Willoughby further separates “administrative power,” treating administration as a potential “fourth branch.”

Administration, Organisation & Management (Distinctions)

  • William Schulze
    • Administration → sets objectives & broad policy.
    • Organisation → combines people/materials/tools in systematic correlation.
    • Management → leads, guides & directs organisation to achieve set object.
  • Oliver Sheldon
    • Administration decides policy & goals.
    • Management executes within limits set by administration.
    • Organisation is the machine; management the executive use; administration the directional force.
  • Implication: Administration = umbrella concept containing organisation + management.

Nature of Public Administration

  1. Integral View (White, Dimock)
    • Sum total of managerial, technical, clerical, manual activities → concerns everyone, top to bottom.
    • Varies with subject-matter of agency.
  2. Managerial View (Simon, Smithburg, Thompson, Gulick)
    • Restricts to managerial activities (planning, organising, directing, etc.), i.e., only top-level behaviour.
    • Techniques considered universal across fields.
  • Balanced perspective: meaning shifts with context (Dimock, Dimock & Koenig).
    • In developing nations (e.g., India) integral view often more realistic (clerical level pivotal).

Scope of Public Administration

POSDCORB View (Technique-oriented)

  • Coined by Luther Gulick; 7 managerial elements:
    • P Planning – broad outline of tasks & methods.
    • O Organising – formal structure of authority; subdivision & coordination.
    • S Staffing – recruiting, training, maintaining workforce.
    • D Directing – decision-making, ordering, leadership.
    • CO Co-ordinating – interrelating parts of work.
    • R Reporting – informing superiors & self via records/inspection.
    • B Budgeting – fiscal planning, accounting, control.

Subject-Matter View (Service-oriented)

  • Reaction against exclusive focus on POSDCORB.
  • Emphasises substantive functions/services: defence, health, education, agriculture, social security, etc.
  • Each agency has its own “local POSDCORB” shaped by content area.
  • Argues for integrating managerial techniques WITH knowledge of subject matter.
  • Lewis Meriam: POSDCORB + substantive knowledge = scissors’ two blades.
  • M.E. Dimock: Administration concerns both “what” (technical field knowledge) & “how” (management techniques).

Branches of the Discipline

  1. Organisational Theory & Behaviour.
  2. Public Personnel Administration.
  3. Public Financial Administration.
  4. Comparative & Development Administration.
  5. Public Policy Analysis.

Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

  1. Philosophical
    • Normative; ideals of good governance.
    • Advocates: Plato, Locke, Hobbes, Mahabharata’s Shantiparva, Vivekananda, Peter Self.
  2. Legal / Juridical
    • Focus on constitutional & legal structures; strong in France, Germany, Belgium; US champion: Frank J. Goodnow.
  3. Historical
    • Traces administrative evolution chronologically (e.g., L.D. White’s four-volume U.S. studies; Kautilya, Mughal, British histories).
  4. Case Method
    • Detailed narratives of specific administrative decisions/events.
    • Popularised in U.S. 1930s; Harold Stein’s 20 cases (1952); promoted in India by IIPA & LBSNAA.
  5. Additional Modern Approaches
    • Structural
    • Human Relations
    • Behavioural
    • Systems
    • Comparative
    • Ecological
    • Development
    • Public Choice

Fact–Value Classification

  • Empirical (descriptive: “what is”).
  • Normative (prescriptive: “what ought to be”).

Significance of Public Administration

  • Era of the “Administrative State”: cradle-to-grave regulation & service.
  • Scholarly testimonials
    • Donham: civilisation’s failure would stem from administrative breakdown.
    • L.D. White: heart of modern government; citizens expect services & protection.
    • Alexander Pope: best-administered form is best government.
    • Ramsay Muir: administrations endure when governments fall.
    • Edmund Burke: without administration, constitution is paper.
    • Sir Josiah Stamp: officials must drive new society.
    • Cutting-edge roles (Gerald Caiden): preservation of polity, order maintenance, socio-economic change, large-scale services, development, protection of weaker sections, opinion formation, policy influence.

Dimensions of Role

  1. Basis of government in any regime.
  2. Instrument for executing laws, policies, programmes.
  3. Vehicle of social change & economic development (esp. developing world).
  4. Tool of national integration where sub-nationalism threatens.
  5. Provider of essential services.
  6. Stabilising continuity across regime changes.

Factors Driving Growing Importance

  • Scientific & technological advances → “big government.”
  • Industrial Revolution → socio-economic problems requiring state action.
  • Transformation from “police state” to “welfare/service state” (Roscoe Pound).
  • Adoption of economic planning.
  • Population explosion → urban slums, food, transport issues.
  • Modern warfare → resource mobilisation.
  • Increased natural calamities linked to environmental degradation.
  • Decline in social harmony → conflict & crisis management needs.
  • Resultant “administrative lag”: gap between aspirations & administrative capacity → calls for administrative development.
  • Concurrent trend: privatisation reducing some economic functions of state.

Evolution & Status of Public Administration as a Discipline

  • Dual reference: (a) activity of governing; (b) academic field.
  • Ancient roots: Kautilya’s Arthashastra, Aristotle’s Politics, Machiavelli’s Prince.
  • 18th-century Cameralism (Germany/Austria): systematic management for civil-service training; scholar: George Zincke.
  • U.S. milestone: Hamilton’s Federalist No. 72 (late 18th c.).
  • First treatise: Charles Jean Bonin, Principes de l’Administration Publique (1812).
  • 20th-century drivers (per Rumki Basu)
    1. Scientific Management (F.W. Taylor).
    2. Industrialisation & rise of large organisations.
    3. Emergence of welfare state.
    4. Reform of spoil-ridden civil service.

Stages / Paradigms of Development

  1. Stage I: Politics–Administration Dichotomy (1887-1926)
    • Launch: Woodrow Wilson’s 1887 essay “The Study of Administration”.
    • Politics = policy-making; Administration = execution; urged a science of administration.
    • Advanced by F.J. Goodnow’s “Politics & Administration” (1900).
    • First textbook: L.D. White’s “Introduction to the Study of Public Administration” (1926).
  2. Stage II: Principles of Administration / Orthodoxy (1927-1937)
    • Quest for universal, scientific principles (efficiency/economy).
    • Major works: Willoughby (1927), Fayol, Follett, Mooney & Reiley, Gulick & Urwick’s “Papers on the Science of Administration” (1937).
  3. Stage III: Era of Challenge / Human-Relations & Behavioural Critique (1938-1947)
    • Hawthorne studies (Mayo) → importance of informal organisation.
    • Key critiques: Barnard (1938), Simon’s “Proverbs of Administration” (1946) & “Administrative Behavior” (1947); Dahl (1947); Waldo (1948).
    • Rejection of rigid principles & dichotomy.
  4. Stage IV: Crisis of Identity (1948-1970)
    • Scholars split: back to Political Science or toward Administrative Science/Management.
    • New directions: Human Relations (Argyris, McGregor), Comparative PA, Ecological (Riggs), Development Administration, New Public Administration, Public Choice, Critical perspectives.
  5. Stage V: Public Policy Perspective (1971-present)
    • Focus on policy analysis, political economy, programme evaluation.
    • Themes: inseparability of politics & administration; programmatic nature of administration; interdisciplinarity; greater social relevance.

Alternative Periodisations

  • Nicholas Henry’s Five Paradigms align largely with above (ending with “Public Administration as Public Administration”).
  • Robert T. Golembiewski’s Four Phases distinguished by locus (context) & focus (analytical target).

Public Administration in India – Academic Trajectory

  1. 1930s: Lucknow University introduces first compulsory M.A. Political Science paper on public administration.
  2. 1937: Madras University launches first Diploma course in public administration.
  3. Subsequent expansion: courses and research proliferate across Indian universities and institutes (e.g., IIPA, LBSNAA).

Ethical & Practical Implications Highlighted across Text

  • Administration as moral act (Ordway Tead) & creative social force (Waldo).
  • Guardianship vs. change facilitation debate (Pigors ↔ Brooks Adams).
  • Need for administrative development to match expanding welfare-state commitments.
  • Tension between efficiency (managerialism) and democratic/ethical values.