Introduction to Public Administration

This lesson complies with the following course outcome:

CO 1: To provide an understanding and appreciation of the challenges of public administration in a
representative democracy.

Synopsis
In this lesson you will learn the meaning of public administration, a dynamic field of study
within the Social Science. Public administration is a very important field of study and very
close to the daily life of each and every member of the society. This lesson will introduce
you the dichotomy of policy and administration. It is important for all staff of public service
and the society to understand that there should be a clear separation between the functional
duties of politics and administration.

You will also learn the differences between

administration in the private sector and the public sector.

The Meaning of Public Administration

Do you know that in Malaysia, Public Administration activities are already introduced to a
person right from the very moment of their birth? For example, it is mandatory for every
parents or guardians to register their newly born to the Registration Department within 14
days. This is only one procedure from the constellation of rules and procedures the
government imposed on the population. The government machinery or the public service will
implement these procedures.

As the child grows, he/she will be introduced to more and

more government regulations that need to be met: schooling, attending university education,
driving, getting married, and participating in organization, working, retiring and ultimately
dying. Yes, public administration also plays important role for a deceased person. For
example, before any funeral service can be conducted, a report about the deceased person
must be made to a police station, which will issue a burial permit and to the Registration
Department so that the record of the person can be updated.

However, public administration is not merely meeting with governmental procedures alone, it
is an important enterprise that helps any government to function effectively and to provide
favourable environment for quality of life to the entire population. This is not surprising,
because public administration covers a broad range of activities that can be differentiated
from the private sector entities.

Denhardt and Grubbs (1999) advocate that public sector

management (public administration) is different from that of the private sector because of
grater ambiguity of purpose in the public sector as compared to the bottom-line profit
making in the private sector; pluralistic decision making in the a public sector organization
involving many people instead of a few in a private organization; and visibility of public sector
management, the feeling of operating in a goldfish bowl of public scrutiny. What this simply
means is that, decisions made in a private company though involve several parties such as
the board of director and the management team, they are still straight forward as compared
those of the public sector. Government decision-making is elaborate because it involves
many people and interest. First, the people is involved because they elect the governmentof-the-day and given mandate for them to rule. Second, it involves all the three branches of
government namely, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Third, the different
ministries also make decision. Finally, there are numerous government departments and
agencies that also play important roles.

Now, lets look at how public administration is

defined?

Definition of Public Administration

I think by now, after you have read the above paragraphs you already have a sense of what
public administration is.

Now, I will share with you some formal definitions of public

administration. In its simplest meaning, public administration has to do with managing the
realm of governmental and other public activities.

The word public refers to both the

government and the population at large. I like to share with you the definition provided by
Cutchin (1981) from his popular work entitled, Guide to Public Administration. He defined
public administration as the executive branch of government; civil service; bureaucracy;
the formulation, implementation, evaluation, and modification of public policy.

The term

represents a broad-ranging, amorphous [unstructured] combination of theory and practice

whose objectives are to promote understanding of government and its relationships with
society, to encourage public policies that are more responsive to social needs, and to
institute managerial practices in public bureaucracies that are designed to achieve
effectiveness and efficiency and, increasingly, to meet the deeper human needs of the
citizenry. Lets us expand this definition and look at it in a more focused discussion:

1.

Public administration is part of the executive branch of government. Executive

simply means, to execute of to implement. The executive branch as you will learn
in the coming chapters, is one of the three branches of government as I have
mentioned above.

The Prime Minister who heads the cabinet also heads the

executive branch in Malaysia. Cabinet members usually lead (as minister, deputy
minister or parliamentary secretary) the ministries. A huge team of personnel who
are also known as the bureaucracy or simply the public administration will manage
the ministries.

Thus, it is right to say that public administration is part of the

executive branch of the government.

2.

Although in principle the government formulates and modifies policies, it cannot

function well without the aides from public administration.

Government

departments are filled with meritorious people appointed based on their ability.
They are professionals who understand the needs of the society and relate them
back to the government. As such, they help government in deciding the best policy
for the people. Public administration is the key in implementing policies. They
translate policies into workable environment to meet the objectives of those
policies.


3.

The term represents a broad-ranging, amorphous [unstructured] combination of

theory and practice whose objectives are to promote understanding of government
and its relationships with society has a very important implication. You see, public
administration covers a wide range of human needs. You can see that public
administration exists in almost all aspects of life including in space science. When
NASA invests millions of USD, its intention is deeply rooted in human advancement
and to find new frontiers for the sake of humanity. Well of course you can argue
that. However, what I want to emphasise here is the fact that whatever people do
in this world it is certainly for some humanitarian reasons. Some are positives, and
unfortunately some are negatives. Public administration pursues humanity as a
holistic endeavour by giving enough rooms for all disciplines to work in tandem to
achieve public interest.

Thus, dont be surprised if one claims that public

administration has relationship with other fields of knowledge such as sociology,

anthropology, and even biology!

4.

A final comment from Cutchins definition is based on his remark about

effectiveness and efficiency to meet the deeper human needs of the citizenry.
For your information, effectiveness simply means the ability to do the right things in
the right way to produce a desired effect or achieve objective.

Effective

organization can sense change, communicate it with the relevant unit, readjust
operations while anticipating and avoiding mistakes. On the other hand, efficiency
is simply the effective use of administrative methods to produce the greatest results
for a given objective at the least cost, reduction of material and personnel cost
while maximizing the precision, speed, and simplicity of administration.

Some

scholars claim that efficiency is the primary aim of administrative science. Thus,
public administration should be seen as an enterprise that is accountable to use
public fund effectively and efficiently to meet the deeper human needs of the
citizenry.

Public Administration as an Academic Field

Public administration is also an academic field concerned with the study of, improvement of,
and training for the activities mentioned above. In many universities, public administration is
seen as an academic field, which seeks to understand, develop, criticize, and improve that
professional practice as well as to train individuals for that practice.

Public Administration and Society

We are living in the information age and certainly surrounded by multitude of information
about public life. Perhaps 20 years ago, our main source of information was provided by
government media, may it be printed or electronically.

Today, with the advent of the

Internet, broadband connections and wireless protocols, we are bestowed with numerous
and growing alternative of information.

Both sources; government and the alternative offer

many stories about politics and government at the local, state, national and even
international levels every day. They also provide us with information about our needs such
as commerce, health, education, employment, and community activities. It would seem that
the public today is saturated with information. Well, that does not necessarily be the case.
In a democratic setting such as ours, people have the rights for information they like. They
can even redistribute that information to others as long as they do not break any laws or
regulations. What this means is simply; in a democratic country people have the right to
make selections or choices and opinions. However, there are limitations prearranged by
laws and regulations as to protect other peoples rights. Public administration can be seen
as a mechanism to help implement these laws and regulations. By so doing, it is not taking
side within the society at large. As a huge professional body of agencies, it has one ultimate
goal; and that is to fulfil the publics interest.


Public administrators, or the employees of the public service engage in the above process
everyday. They are hired based on their expertise and orientated in the career service to be
neutral politically. They should possess detailed knowledge of management techniques and
practices.

They also should have considerable knowledge of social conditions and the

needs of the people. It is extremely important for these professionals to be closer to the
community as to continuously update their knowledge and understand what are required by
the population from them. The public administrators also should be seen to be implementing
the policies of the government-of-the-day efficiently and effectively. Although government
changes over time as a result of elections, public administrators are there to stay. While
policies may change to reflect the agenda of the government-of-the-day, professional public
administrators should be able to adapt them in accordance with the public interest.

At this juncture you need to also understand that in a democratic country, the majority rules.
The public administration of the country acts as the government policy implementation
agent. Government policies to a certain extent require the population to abide by them.
Some scholars called this as mandatory and enforced coercively.

Though the word

coercive usually carries a negative connotation feeling of something that is forced upon
people against their will, it is important as a tool to protect the publics interest. For example,
people can be arrested on suspicion of having committed a crime. In a democratic society,
public governance in theory depicts that people agree to participate in the collective activity
of the whole. Another example, if a person decides that the public sector should not fund
higher education and refuses to pay a portion of his/her income taxes equivalent to the
proportion of the public money be used for higher education, he/she can expect there will be
consequences such as financial penalties and/or imprisonment. Thus, as you can see, the
peoples are coerced into participating in the support of public institutions, complying with the
will of the majority, whether or not they agree and whether or not they personally benefit
from a particular government service or program. The basis for this is as long as it is good
for all the people. If the people do not agree with the government policies, they can join
together with others to change the way government is operated through public opinion,
policy advocacy and election. In sum, public sector regulations should be seen as mandatory
and coercive because there is no other way to operate the government. The government
would fail if citizens were given the luxury of choosing only preferred regulations or policies
to abide to. In contrast, customer of the private sector have the right to choose whether or
not to buy a product or service because there is a range of choices in a private economy and
people choose what they want. In the public sector there is only one government.

The Policy and Administration Dichotomy

Leonard Whites writing entitled, The Study of Administration in 1926 was a very important
cornerstone in the field of public administration. One of the concepts that were suggested in
his writing, which immediately became an important theory in public administration, is the
separation of administration from the direct influence of politics and vice versa. Renowned
administration and organizational scholars such as Frank Goodnow, Woodrow Wilson, and
Herbert Simon applauded Whites idea. This theory, which is popularly known as the
dichotomy of administration and politics, states that in a democratic nation, the responsibility
to formulate policies and laws lies in the hands of the elected politicians. They are given the
mandate by the people and have wide authority to even amend the constitution. While the
politicians may have sufficient knowledge and ability to implement the laws and policies they
put together, they should not involve in the implementation or even influence on how the
policies and laws should be performed.

On the contrary, the public administration or

administrative branch of the government according to this theory; are manned by careers
professionals and those who are not elected by the voters. Theoretically, administrators who
are also known as bureaucrats do not have political interest.

They represent the

administrative machinery of the government. Their most noble roles are translating policies
into effective programs and activities to meet not only the goals of the government but also
the publics interest.

Bureaucrats do not involve in policy-making, amendment of the

constitution and laws nor deciding on the political agenda of the government. This theory
extends the dictum of bureaucratic neutrality.

The dichotomy doctrine is certainly compatible with the Weberian tradition. It has become
the hallmark of modern public administration in the Western world. Although the doctrine
was prescribed for most developing countries especially those which, gained independence


from western colonial masters, it was almost never implemented strictly. In Malaysia, during
the occupation of the British Empire, the only separation was between them and us. Us
is referring to the colonial administration, which in general had no issues that require them
drawing a line between formulation and implementation of policy. Them is actually the
people, their subject of colonialism.

Besides indigenous politics, matters that were

imperative to the locals such as the administration of cultural and religious ceremonials
were left to administration of the locals (including the rulers and their immediate ministers).
On the other hand, policies related to economy, security and politics were reserved for
colonial administration that not only formulated but also implemented them. Thus, we can
say that the spirit of the dichotomy doctrine was never introduced during the British
occupation until we gained independence.

Question within the text.

Do you know what is Weberian Tradition?

Maximilian Carl Emil Weber (21 April 186414 June 1920)

The influential sociologist Max Weber proposed a theory of authority that included three
types. He pioneered a path towards understanding how authority is legitimated as a belief
system. His essay The three types of legitimate rule, translated in English and published
posthumously in 1958, is the clearest explanation of his theory. His ideas and suggestions
find ways into the Western administrative culture especially in the public sector.

This

administrative culture is widely known today as merely the Weberian tradition.


After independence, we immediately subscribe to the federal system of government, also
known as federalism. Though separation of powers between the legislative, executive and
judiciary is the main ingredient of federalism, by default our system has an exception. You
see, members of the legislative council (Dewan Rakyat) are elected officials and their main
role is creating new laws or amending existing ones. The executive body is lead by the
Prime Minister who controls his/her cabinet. They are all elected members of the legislative
body! In our case, our separation of powers is actually fused (between legislating duties and
executing duties). Only the judiciary body enjoys the privilege of being separated. The
bureaucracy makes an important part of the executive body. Although they are not elected,
their appointments by the government require them to be obedient to executive body, thus,
the Prime Minister and his/her administration.

The same setting also does not provide

ample spaces for bureaucrats to be independent from the policy makers. Let me illustrate
this:

On one hand, the politicians may not have all the important facts and information required to
perform their duties. They certainly need the help of key bureaucrats who usually, based on
their appointments and duties have the facts and information about public needs.
Bureaucrats are continuously sought after by policy makers to provide them with intellectual,
up-to-date and factual information.

Without them, policy makers could be reduced to

merely popular politicians. On the other hand, politicians who are appointed as ministers
and the like have the tendency to resume towards implementation of policies within their
portfolio. By so doing, the ministers certainly have violated the dichotomy doctrine. When
bureaucrats provide suggestions for the most probable policy formation, he/she has also
violated the doctrine. Can you explain why?

Private Administration vs Public Administration

By this time, you should already understand the roles of creating a policy and implementing
it by the politician and administrator respectively. Do you that these roles also exist in the
private sector? Yes, company also makes policies and administer them in the best manner
they can think at.

Therefore, it is important that you be able to make comparison between

private administration and public administration. Lets look at the following elements and how
these two entities differ from each other.


1.

Ultimate goal. To the private sector, at the end of the day, how much profit is made
would be the most important question. Companies are created to maximize profit in
order to fulfil the interest of the stakeholders, which include individual shareholders.
The company can do so many things, but the end result would normally be in terms
of ringgit, or dollars or rupiah. On the contrary, public administration has a higher
order goal. Most of the time it is in terms of public interest. Public interest that
should include yours and mine is for most of the time beyond what money can buy
or beyond monetary measures. For example, to a handicapped person, getting a
wheeled chair from the Welfare Department is what he/she would ever wanted. That
person may not be able get it himself/herself because of poverty.

The department

would definitely have to invest some money to get the person what he/she need.
However, the investment is not targeted for monetary profit.

In return, the

department may just be able to make someone or a group of citizen happy and
satisfied. That is what public interest means, satisfied citizen.

2.

Establishment.

Companies are established following the requirements of the

Registrar of Company of Registrar of Business. Upon registration, they can operate

freely in the free market as long as they do not break any laws. The administration
and management of companies are subjected to the stakeholders of the company
and nothing else. On the other hand, public organizations are established by a
specific act of Parliament, ordinand of the state legislative body or simply by the
executive order of the government. Government departments report to the
respective ministries and the minister to the cabinet.

Since these organizations

operate based on the mandate given by the citizen (through elections), they are also
responsible to the whole population, thus called Public Organization.

3.

Decision-making. Decision making in the private administration is much faster as

compared to public administration. This is because in the private administration, the
chain of command is shorter and more focused. The reporting line is also shorter
and the number of people involved in decision-making is smaller. However, in public
administration sometimes decision-making may take a longer time frame because
matters need to be discussed and passed at different levels of the government. For
example, the budgeting process of the federal government requires inputs from the
district level offices followed by the state offices, agencies and finally the ministries
before it can be forwarded and finalised by the federal treasury.

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4.

Tenure of office. Officers and staff of the public service enjoy a more permanent
carrier as compared to the private sector counterpart. Although there are numerous
and extended regulations to be followed, public service personnel cannot be
terminated from their service easily. If an officer was found to be involved in any
deviant behaviour, he/she will be given ample spaces to defend his/herself through
various mechanisms such as the disciplinary board. If found guilty, there would be a
row of punishments besides the ultimate firing. In contrast, private sector personnel
are more susceptible to be fired though within the realm of the law.

5.

Pension scheme. Public sector employees enjoy the benefits of favourable pension
scheme upon retirement.

Although private sector employees too may enjoy

comparable benefits, being government employees have a better the privilege

because the pension scheme is not only protected by the Pension Act but also by
the government fund.

6.

Transferable. Unlike their counterparts in the private sector, government employees

are transferable to other geographical areas or other departments. This scheme
helps public employees gain more experiences and solve their personal problems.

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Roles of Public Administration

No government can be fully functioning without the help of public administration. I hope that
by now, after reading this lesson so far, you would not have problems to appreciate what I
had just said. The government of the day is just fulfilling their political obligations to the
country and of course to their political masters.

It is public administration that is

continuously serving the interests of the public no matter who would be the government.
They are professionals and neutral from political battles of political parties. Although it is
nave to say that they are completely free from the political struggle, their interests are not
to gain power but to ensure there is a continuous progress of the things the public requires.
Thus, they made up a very important entity of the state.
Public administration is seen to be very near to the public and understands them well. Their
inputs to policy makers are crucial to ensure sound and appropriate policies are enacted and
implemented. They shoulder the responsibilities of fulfilling publics interest in all the things
they do.

Public administration continues to find ways and avenues to help the nation gain the extra
edge in globalisation. It acts as the guardian to the nations important resources from being
siphoned out by selfish investors and players.

Public administration secures the state by providing state-of-the-art defence system against
domestic and foreign perpetrators with unfavourable objectives. The police and the armed
forces are only two examples of this effort. Other departments and agencies too are playing
their roles in defending the interest of the state.

Public administration is also doing its parts in creating new market for the nations products
overseas. By engaging itself to business communities abroad, public organizations such as
MIDA (Malaysia Industrial Development Agency) has successfully identified new markets for
Malaysia product besides engaging foreign businesses with Malaysian counterparts in jointventure projects for many years.

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Public administration also plays an important role in citizens medical needs. Malaysian
public hospitals are not only staffed by able physicians but also equipped with state-of-theart medical equipments. These hospitals have significantly improved the well-being of the
Malaysian people.

Lesson 1 Assignment
Ask your Seminar Facilitator for a list of assignments for this lesson.

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