The Evolution of Public Administration

The existence of Public Administration in the Philippines can be traced back to the ancient period which
constitutes the Traditional Public Administration Phase, but its presence is more evidently felt because
of the different influence that transpired during the period where the country is colonized, specifically
by the Americans, which in turn introduced the different practice in Public Administration like Civil
Service, Standard Qualifications for Government Employee, etc.

Public Administration has been in a developing state, but started out poorly. The classical phase of
Public Administration is described as one that is slow, inefficient, had limited resources, and had low
quality of civil service. It is like the experimental phase, wherein the focus is more on the construction of
a centralized government, but lacks attention to its people needs, thus making this era less competitive
compared to the present.

As time and knowledge evolves, making its way to the phase of a New Public Administration,
developments have been taken into account. In this phase, citizen’s needs have been taken into
consideration. Public service has been more efficient and effective, and focus on the central government
has been shifted: meaning there has been a move to give emphasis on the smaller units of the country,
paving its way to the creation of the Local Government Code, which I can consider is a huge turn in the
field of public administration.

Now, during our modern times, the field of Public Administration is still adapting to the rampant
changes that is occurring. With the advancement of technology, critics, opinions and insights have found
an easier way to be heard in the society. On a positive note, the new phase of Public Administration’s
focus is scattered, though not evenly, on the different aspects of the country like education, health,
defense, economic development, labor, finance, raising of standard of living, etc. There have been so
many efforts to uphold and sustain the programs and projects intended to