Unit 1

Introduction
What are the Types
of Administration?
 Introduction
 The word Administration is derived from two Latin words ‘ad’ and ‘ministiare’ which
means ‘to serve’, in simple words administration means to look after people or to
manage affairs.
 Public administration refers to an activity with which the government is involved. So it
can be said that the word public administration has got more significance in the
background of government functions.
 In other words, public administration means the implementation of government
policies.
 Public administration is a feature of all nations, whatever their system of government.
Within nations public administration is practiced at the central, intermediate, and
local levels.
 In most of the world the establishment of highly trained administrative, executive, or
directive classes has made public administration a distinct profession. The body of
public administrators is usually called the civil service.
 Definition
 Woodrow Wilson is that public administration as “detailed and systematic execution of public
law. Every particular application of general law is an act of administration”.
 According to L.D White, Public administration is the activity required for the implementation
of public policy.
 According to Luther Gullick “Public Administration is that part of the science of administration
which has to do with Government and thus concern itself primarily with the executive branch
where the work of the Government is done.”
 In a simple way we can say that public administration is the administration in which public
policies are implemented. It is the action part of the government.
 Public Administration also includes questions such as-
✓ How are the laws implemented?
✓ Is Law justifiable or not?
✓ How are efficient our administrations dealing with those laws?
✓ To whom public administration is accountable?
✓ What are the Roles of people in the process of administration?
 Nature of Public Administration
 In terms of nature there are also two divergent views in public administration. The first one
is Integral view and the second one is Managerial view.
1. Integral View
 From this perspective, Public administration refers to all activities from clerical to managerial
activity of the administration. That means integral view proposes that administration is the
sum totals all activities of manual, clerical or managerial.
 In simple we can say, all the work process done by the government official from peon to
executive officers are the part of public administration.
 L.D White and Woodrow Wilson, Marshal E. Dimock are the main supporters of this view.
2. Managerial View
 In the managerial view, Public administration refers to only managerial activity of the
administration. That means in this view administration constitutes of the work of only those
person who are performing managerial functions.
 Activities of clerical, manual and also technical departments are excluded from the range of
public administration.
 Luther Gulick, Henry Fayol, Herbert Simon are the main supporters of the managerial view.
 Scope of Public Administration
 When we concern about the scope of public administration, basically we want to
know the major concerns and areas of public administration.
 Traditional writers restrict the scope of public administration to only one branch
(executive) of the government.
 But modern administrative thinker extends the scope of public administration to all
branches (Executive, Legislature, and Managerial) of the government.
 There are also two views in the scope of public administration. These are the
• POSDCORB view and
• Subject Matter view.
Scope of Public
Administration
 POSDCORB View
 The POSDCORB view in the scope of public administration is given by the prominent administrative
scholar Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick.
 According to them every administration should have seven elements. These seven elements are
acronym as POSDCORB. Each letter of this acronym implies one element of administration.
 They explain these seven elements of administration in the following way-
 P- Planning– It is the task of managers of every administration to plan everything that needs to be
done and the methods for doing them to accomplish the purpose set for the enterprise.
 O- Organizing- Every organization needs to be well organized. Managers should allocate the task to
their employee and others subordinates by the proper techniques.
 S- Staffing- Staffing refers to the whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff and
maintaining favorable condition for work.
 D- Directing- It refers to the continuous task of making decisions and embodying them in specific
and general order and instructions and also serving as a leader to the enterprise.
 CO- Coordinating- It is the important duty of the manager to coordinate between coworkers and
executives.
 R-Reporting- It is referred to inform every report of the work to the executives.
 B- Budgeting- All that goes with budgeting in the form of fiscal planning, accounting and control.
 Subject Matter View
 Subject matter view in scope of public administration simply refers to the subject matter
of public administration.
 M.E Dimock said that “administration is concerned with ‘What’ and ‘How’ of the
government. The ‘What’ is the subject matter, the technical knowledge of a field, which
enables the administrator to perform his task. The ‘how’ is the technique of
management, the principles according to which the co-operative programs are carried to
success. Each is indispensable; together they form the synthesis called administration.”
Significance of Public Administration
 Public administration plays its role in many ways which makes the public administration
more significant to us. It plays an important role-
1. As an Instrument for Providing Service
2. As an Instrument for Implementing the Laws and Policies of the Government
3. As an Instrument for Development and socio-economic change
4. As an Instrument for the Sustainable Development
5. As an Instrument for National Integration
6. As an Instrument for Community Development
7. As an Instrument for Public Safety
8. As a Separate Academic Discipline

 The evolution of public administration from the end of the nineteenth century to the present has
taken place in the following 5 phases.
• Phase 1- Politics Administration Dichotomy (1887-1926)
• Phase 2 – Principles of Administration (1927-1937)
• Phase 3 – Era of Challenges (1938-1947)
• Phase 4 – Crisis of Identity (1948-1970)
• Phase 5 – Public Policy Perspective (1971- Onwards)
 Phase 1: Politics Administration Dichotomy (1887-1926)
 Woodrow Wilson’s “The Study of Administration” was the first to present the demand
for separation (Politics Administration Dichotomy) between politics and
administration.
 The fact that the administration is separate from politics and the administration
needs to be given a separate status for the sake of politics is being propagated to the
masses at this time.
 It is said that while it is the responsibility of politicians to make political decisions,
but politicians do not have the experience or excellence needed to implement this
decision. Therefore, to implement these policies (decisions) successfully, qualified
and trained employees are required. Only the administration can rely on efficient
and sustainable implementation of government policy.
 Thus the division between public administration and politics is drawn and this phase
is marked as politics-administration dichotomy.
 Phase 2: Principles of Administration (1927-1937)
 1927 is considered to be the beginning of the second phase of the evolution of public
administration as the book “Principles of Public Administration” by W F Willoughby
was published in the same year.
 In this phase of the evolution of public administration, discussions on public
administration have been tried as scientific discussions since this time. It is thought
that there are a number of scientific principles in the discussion of public
administration that need to be disclosed.
 If these principles are consciously applied by the administrators in appropriate
places, it is possible to increase work efficiency and also to develop public
administration as a scientific discipline.
Phase 3: Era of Challenges (1938-1947)
 The way in which public administration has developed over the years with its
emphasis on principles has faced some intellectual challenges with the publication of
Chester I Barnard’s book “The Functions of the Executive” in 1936.
 In this phase of the evolution of public administration, basically, the theoretical
concept of public administration is challenged from two perspectives.
 First, a new generation of theorists thought that the dividing line between politics
and public administration was never possible.
 Second, the administrative theories that have been published since 1940 criticize
administrative principles. The question arises as to whether there is a universal and
ultimate principle in the administration.
Phase 4: Crisis of Identity (1948-1970)
 The politics and public administration dichotomy and the application of universal
principles in the field of public administration have been abandoned by the theorists
of public administration since the 1950s.

 Administrative theorists of this time recognized the relationship of public

administration with politics. As a result, public administration became dependent on
political science. In this situation, there is confusion about what is the discussion
area of public administration.
 Emerging
Concepts Contributors
Chris Argyris, Douglas
This is why this phase of public
New Human McGregor,
administration is called crisis of
Relations theory Rensis Likert, Warren
identity in public administration.
Bennis.
To overcome from this identity
crisis, public administration came to Comparative Public
F.W Riggs and others
be seen as an interdisciplinary Administration
subject.
Development Edward Weidner, F.W
In this phase, several sub-topics Administration Riggs
emerge in the subject matter of
public administration such as- Administrative
F.W Riggs
Development
 Phase 5. Public Policy Perspective (1971- Onwards)
 Another recent development of the administration is the discussion of public policy
perspective.
 It gained popularity through pluralistic interpretations, communication theories, and The
Science of Muddling through.
 The aim of this theory is to establish which social, political and economic or personal forces
are effective in policy making.
 Robert A. Dahl, James Wilson, Charles E. Lindblom, Yehezkel Dror, Vincent Ostrom, all point
out the mutual importance of different forces (social, political and economic, environmental)
in policy making.
 Public and Private Administration
Similarities
 There is much in common between public and private administration. Some of the
similarities between the two may be listed as under –
 1. Both are based on law,
 2. Common services to people,
 3. Common skills & techniques,
 4. Hierarchically organized,
 5. Both face risks and difficulties,
 6. Research and improvement,
 7. Influence each other,
 8. Common Training center
 9. Impersonal Character
According to Simon, the distinction between public and private administration relates mainly to
three points:
 Public administration is bureaucratic whereas private administration is business like;
 Public administration is political where as private administration is non-political; and
 Public administration is characterised by red-tape where as private administration is free from
it.

 The more important distinguishing features of Public administration may be described under
the following sub-heads:
 1. Political Direction: Public administration is political, while private administration is non-
political, public administration takes place in a political context.
 2. Absence of profit motive: The absence of profit motive from the Public administration is
another feature, which distinguishes it from the private administration.
 3. Prestige: Public administrators who serve in the Government enjoy high status and prestige
in comparison to their counterparts in private enterprises especially developing countries.
 4. Public Gaze: All the actions of public administration are exposed to wide public gaze
because the public closely watches it.
 5. Service and Cost: Most governments spend more money than their income or revenues.
That is the reason for finding generally a deficit budget that is, expenditure exceeding
income.
 6. Legal framework: Public administration operates within a legal framework. It is rule
oriented.
 7. Consistency of treatment: A government official is required by law to maintain a high
degree of consistency in his dealings with the public.
 8. Public accountability: Public accountability is the hallmark of Public administration in a
democracy. Public administration is responsible to the public, though not directly but
indirectly through political executive, legislature, judiciary, etc.
 9. Officials remain Anonymous:In public administration, even the most senior officials remain
anonymous and their identity is not disclosed. This is so because whatever they do, they do in
the name of the government and not in their own name.
 New Public Administration
Meaning of New Public Administration:
 The 1960s and early 1970s were periods of turbulence, instability and confusion in the West,
particularly in the United States. Like other social sciences such as psychology, sociology and
political science, public administration was shaken by this revolutionary period.
 The earlier dogmas of public administration ‘economy’ and ‘efficiency’ were found inadequate
and incomplete objectives of administrative activity. it began to be said that efficiency is not
the whole of public administration. Man is the centre stage of all administrative activity who
cannot be subjected to the mechanical test of efficiency.
 The impact of administration on human character is more important than its efficiency and
economy. Public administration cannot be ‘value free’, it is to be ‘value-oriented’ as certain
human values are to promote in the society.
 The term New Public Administration was used to describe this new trend in the field of public
administration. The two books “Towards a New Public Administration, The Minnow-brook
Perspective” edited by Frank Marini and published in 1971 and “Public Administration in a
Time of Turbulence” edited by Dwight Waldo and published simultaneously gave currency to
the concept of New Public Administration.
Themes of New Public Administration
 1. Relevance
 2. Values
 3. Social Equity
 4. Change
 5. Management- worker Relations

Features of NPA
 1. Responsiveness
 2. Client Centricity
 3. Structural Change in Administration
 4. Multi Disciplinary nature of Public Administration