Political Science and Public Administration (Part 2)Lecture-1: Introduction

Professor Dr. Mohammad Mohabbat KhanSenior-most Professor

University of DhakaDepartment of Public Administration

Dhaka -1000Bangladesh

Public Administration

Public administration is both an art and a science, with administration being as old as mankind. Pre-historic humans practiced administration, which may appropriately be termed a cooperative activity engaged in whenever two or more people work together to pursue a common objective.

The science element of administration is an indication that man’s development has improved the activity. This is what Wilson implied with his adage ‘the study of public administration’.

Meaning of Public Administration

Public administration has and continues to defy precise definition. One-sentence or one-paragraph definitions are avoided as inadequate because they contain several abstract words or phrases.

The abstract words or phrases can further be explained by other abstract words and phrases which may lead to ‘mental paralysis’ rather than enlightenment and stimulation.

Public administration must develop new answers to questions that fit the changing realities of public programs.

Public administration is undertaken in a dynamic environment, hence the necessity to develop new answers to changing realities.

In this sense, supplanting grand successful solutions from one country to the other without the necessary adaptations should be discouraged.

The two ways in which public administration is usually defined are as follows:

Public administration is the organization, mobilization and management of human and material resources to achieve the purposes of government.

Public administration is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of state.

Scope and Significance of the Discipline

Scope It is widely acknowledged that the scope of the discipline of Public Administration has to be wide enough to respond to the complex social realities of today. Major concerns of the discipline are:

• Promoting (publicness): In a democratic society, Public Administration has to be explicitly 'public' in terms of democratic values, power-sharing and openness. This calls for a new climate in the bureaucracy. Public Administration, in practice, has to absorb the principles of democracy as an overarching form of the government.

Policy Sensitivity: As governments are called upon to play increasingly active roles in times of rapid changes and social crisis, innovative and timely policy formulation becomes 'a prime necessity in the government. This would necessitate a new preparedness within the administrative set-up that had hardly any precedence in the past.

Implementation Capability: Effective policy implementation is going to test the coping capacity of the governments in today's complex situations. Goals have to be clearly set; planning, programming and projections have to be followed step by step; and project management in all its ramifications has to have top priority in government.

Shared understanding of social reality: The capacity to cope with social and administrative complexity can be enhanced by a deliberate policy of organizational openness. The underlying assumption here is that the administration needs to understand the diverse interests and influences.

Administration as a learning experience: Shifting social reality and complex environmental conditions impose certain rigors on Public Administration today. Rusted 'principles' of the past or the administrative recipes of bureaucratic routine are no longer appropriate tools for analysis and problem solving. Public Administration in modern time has to be proactive, innovative, risk-taking, and often adventurous.

Significance

The significance of Public Administration as a specialized subject of study was well brought out by Woodrow Wilson the founder of the discipline. In his celebrated essay on 'The Study of Administration' published in 1887, he characterized government administration as the practical or business end of government that could be separated from the rough and tumble of 'politics'. Urging for the establishment of an autonomous field of academic inquiry, Wilson observed:

"There should be a science of administration which shall seek to straighten the paths of government, to make its business less unbusiness like to strengthen and purify its organization, and to crown its duties with dutifulness."

The significance of public Administration as social science lies in its methodical study of government and attempts to organize knowledge about governmental structure and operations.

In this role, Public Administration as a discipline is more interested in providing scientific explanations rather than merely solving public problems.

Administration is looked at, in this perspective, as a social activity. Hence the concern of academic inquiry would be to understand the impact of government policies and operations on the society.

From this social science perspective, Public Administration, as a discipline, has to draw on a variety of sister disciplines such as History, Sociology Economics, etc.

Public Administration's special status in the "developing countries" has been widely acknowledged. The post-colonial, "third world" countries have everywhere embarked upon ‘ speedy socio-economic development. These countries have naturally to rely on the government to push through speedy 'development'.

This means Public Administration, has to be organized and operated to increase productivity quickly. Similarly social welfare activities have to be efficiently and effectively executed.

Development Administration Development Administration has emerged as an

extremely useful field that has great practical utility in the special circumstances of the developing countries. The emergence of 'Development Administration' is indicative of a felt need for a body of knowledge about how to study the Third World administration and at the same time to bring about speedy socio-economic development with government intervention.

All the developing countries in the Third World depend on the government’s aggressive role in nation-building and socio-economic reconstruction. Development Administration, therefore, has emerged as a special sub-discipline to serve the cause of development. This is a distinct branch of the discipline, pursuing a distinct cause, viz. development.

The Concept of Development Administration has two major facets.

• One facet of it refers to ‘development of administration’. By this we mean to develop administrators. It involves strengthening and improving administrative capabilities as a means for achieving development goals.

• The other facet is ‘administration of development’. According to this interpretation, we expect development administration (administrative organization) to act as an instrument in the implementation of development programs, projects and policies.

Elements of Development Administration

1. Planned and Coordinated EffortDevelopment Administration in operational terms refers to organized efforts to carry out development programs and projects in the direction of state-building and socio-economic progress.

2. Goal-oriented AdministrationDevelopment Administration is not just public administration in the sense of carrying out activities , it is a goal- oriented administration with emphasis on achieving social and economic goal.

3. Management CapacitiesDevelopment Administration involves creating and enhancing management capacities as a means for achieving development goals.

4.ProgressivismProgressive realization of social and economic goals by developing countries has been considered an important task of governments of these countries. To achieve this objective, the instrument of development administration is employed.

5.Participation Progressive realization of development goals by developing economy would involve greater participation of the people.

6. Creativity and InnovativenessAn important element in development administration is creativity. The term creativity is often understood as the ability and power to develop new ideas. On the other hand, ‘innovation’ generally means application of these ideas. It means a new way of doing things.

7. Responsiveness and Accountability Development Administration is required to be responsive and accountable. A top-down/bottom-up flow of communications and initiatives is recognized as the main element in accountable administrative capacity.

8. People-centered AdministrationDevelopment Administration is a people-centered administration. It aims at serving the people.

9. Keeping in Touch with Social RealitiesIn contrast to the traditional administration, development administration is required to keep in touch with realities, including grassroots situations, local problems, etc.

New Public Administration In 1968, using the fund supplied as part

of a ‘super-professorship’ paid for by the state of New York, Dwight Waldo facilitated a meeting at Minnowbrook, Syracuse University’s beautiful conference center in Adirondack Mountains.

New Public Administration was markedly different from existing perception of Public Administration. It puts more emphasis on a normative approach.

There were four goals and three anti- goals of the NPA. The four goals were –relevance, value, equity, change.

The anti goals were – Rejection of value neutral concept of public

administration. Rejection of the notion that public administration is

concerned with preserving the status-quo. Public administration is not a sub-field of politics or

management.

In order to achieve the goals the participants of Minnowbrook put forth four solutions which have been referred to as the 4D’s. These are: debureaucratization, democratization, delegation and decentralization

According to George Frederickson (1971) New Public Administration was less ‘generic’ and more ‘public’ than its past counterparts less ‘descriptive’ and more ‘perspective’, less ‘institution-oriented’, and more client-oriented’ and less ‘neutral’ and more ‘normative’. Frederickson (1980: 43) further clarifies NPA as, “to develop a concept of new public administration, one must therefore begin by arguing that a different set of values should predominate. These values would certainly not be new. They would foster humanistic, decentralized, democratic organizations that distribute public service equitably. The objective of new public administration, therefore, would be to organize, describe, or make operative organization that further these values. These objectives are much less ambitious than those proposed by many public administrators”.

Bureaucratic responsiveness, worker and citizen participation in decision making, social equity, citizen choice, administrative responsibility for program effectiveness – these are the values to be achieved in New Public Administration

What, then, can be made of new public administration, both theoretically and normatively?First, new public administration would reject the notions that administrators are value-neutral and that administrative theories are value neutral models.Second, it must be recognized that the values are legitimate, although often in conflict.