Course: Introduction to Public Administration, 2021 By Z.A.

CHAPTER ONE
0 The Nature and Scope of Public Administration
0 Meaning of Public Administration
Public administration is the management of governmental affairs or issues at all levels or tiers:
national, regional (state), and local. It is the branch of the wider field of administration. There are slight
differences between "administration" and "public administration".
Different writers defined the term "administration" in various ways:
0 For Marx (1964), "Administration is a determined action taken in pursuit of a conscious
purpose. It is a systematic ordering of affairs and the calculated use of resources aimed at
making those things happen which one wants to happen".
1 Pfiffner (1960) also defined administration as "the organization and direction of human and
material resources to achieve desired ends…getting the work of government done by
coordinating the efforts of the people so that they can work together to accomplish their set
(pre-determined) tasks".
2 L. D. White (1955) explained, "Administration is a process common to all group effort, public
or private, civil or military, large-scale or small scale..."
The important elements of administration, according to these definitions, are cooperative effort,
systematic application, and purposefulness.

Public Administration on the other hand can be understood as any kind of administration in the public
interest. This simply means governmental administration. Therefore, the difference between
"administration" and "public administration" are essentially revealed in their scope, the former being
much broader than the later.

There are also differing views regarding the scope and range of activities to be included in public
administration. Some thinkers view it broadly to include all governmental activities, while others see it
narrowly to consider only those activities concerned with the executive branch of the government. The
definitions given by different thinkers show the emphasis they lay on different aspects of public
administration. Some of the definitions include:
0 "Public administration consists of all those operations with the purpose of the fulfillment or
enforcement of policy", L.D White (1955).
1 "Public administration is detailed and systematic application of law", Wilson.
2 "Public administration is the fulfillment or enforcement of policy as declared by the competent
authorities…it is law in action, it is the executive side of the government", Dimock (1937).

Page 1 of 10
 Course: Introduction to Public Administration, 2021 By Z.A

Nigro (1965) defined public administration in a more comprehensive way to include, besides the
above-mentioned aspects, the relationship between public administration and the political and social
systems as well. For him public administration:
0 It is cooperative effort in a public setting.
1 Covers all the three branches of the government; i.e. executive, legislative, and judiciary and
their interrelationships.
2 Has an important role in the formulation of public policy and is thus part of the political process
3 Is more important than, and also differs significantly from private administration
4 Has been much influenced in recent years by the "human relations approach" both as a field of
study and practice.
5 Is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the
community.

A system of public administration is the composite of all the laws, regulations, practices, relationships,
codes and customs that prevail at any time in any jurisdiction for the fulfillment or execution of public
policy. Functionally speaking also, the art of administration is the direction, coordination, and control
of many persons and other resources to achieve some purpose or objective. It is a dynamic art, taking
the human and physical resources to the achievement of some required goals.

Generally, public administration is the non-political bureaucratic machinery of the government, but
operating within the political context, for implementing its laws and policies in action such as the
collection of revenues, maintenance of law and order, maintaining an army, providing social and
economic services. Public administration is a means by which the policy decisions made by the
political decision-makers are carried out.

The following is an all-encompassing definition that consists all of functions of public administration
including:
"Public administration is decision-making, planning the work to be done, formulating objectives
and goals, working with the legislative and citizen organizations to gain public support for
government programs, establishing and revisiting organizations, directing and supervising
employees, providing leadership, providing and receiving communications, determining work
methods and procedures, appraising performance, exercising controls and other functions
performed by government executives and supervisors. It is the action part of the government, the
means by which the purposes and goals of government are realized”.

Page 2 of 10
 Course: Introduction to Public Administration, 2021 By Z.A

This comprehensive definition and all points raised under this sub-topic could enable us to
understand not only the meaning of public administration, but also its major concerns, aspects,
purposes and scope. It is to mean that public administration is concerned with action in particular
or concrete situation, but in accordance with long-range objectives.

The immediate objective of the art of public administration is the most efficient and effective
utilization of resources at the disposal of officials and employees. The aspects of public administration
are innumerable and its scope is generally wide. The scope of public administration has been
broadening from time to time with the growing expectations of people.

In other words, what ‘public administration’ is supposed to do variety with people's expectations of
what they should get from the government, public administration is, therefore, the means by which
these policy adjustments are made effective. In broad context, the ends of public administration are the
ultimate objectives of the state itself-the attainment of the good life.

1 Evolution of Public Administration as a Discipline and Art

Public Administration holds two meanings; firstly it stands for ‘the activity of administering
governmental affairs’, secondly it is also ‘an academic discipline.’ The first is definitely an art. What
needs analytical explanation is the science aspect of public administration; i.e. is it, as a subject of
study of governmental affairs, a science?

There have been many people writing or arguing public administration as possessing an element of
science since the 1880s. Woodrow Wilson, who was known as the pioneer of public administration as a
subject of study, he called it the "science of public administration" as early as 1887.

The essential characteristics of science are absence of normative (or ethical) values, predictability of
behavior, and universal application. Hence, public administration can obviously be rated as a science
if it proves that it has developed a set of principles and acquires all the above three features. The
question again is that does public administration have a set of such principles and features?

Many writers agree in that counter arguments in public administration to deserve a science position are
feeble and insufficient. Rather, the last hundred years have seen remarkable development of the science
of public administration. Evidences of which are:
0 The transformation of the laissez-faire (liberal) state into the modern welfare state.
1 The works of the scientific methods with emphasis on experimentation, observation, collection of
data, classification and analysis, and the formulation of laws and principles.

Page 3 of 10
 Course: Introduction to Public Administration, 2021 By Z.A

2 The development of other administration components such as organizing, planning, personnel

administration, and budgetary control as a result of the progress of the scientific method.
3 The contributions of writers from different disciplines (backgrounds) to administration and
management such as Fayol, Drucker, and others show that it is derived from a body of cross-
cultural studies. All these arguments are aimed to strengthen discussions in understanding and
accepting public administration to be called as ‘science.’

2 Public and Private Administration

Generally speaking, although the administration of public and private affairs differ at many points and
vary in form and purposes, there are underling similarities in their processes. Among a number of
distinguishing factors between public administration and private business administration, the following
could be considered as the major ones.
0 The Political environment: public administration is concerned with the implementation of
decisions made within the political system. In a democratic system, the policies of the government
duly approved by the legislature should represent the political will of the people, or at least the
resultant of the activities of the various competing political interests in the society. In
consequence:
0 The government creates individual rights and imposes constraints on individual and group
behavior
1 The administrator is in frequent contact with his clients and his major concern is with equity and
impartiality
2 Administrative procedures are built around strict compliance with the law. On the other hand,
private industry is essentially guided by the principles of profit maximization and doesn't act as
an arbiter between conflicting social interests.

1 Social costs: public administration decision-making varies from that of private business in that
where private business is primarily concerned with questions of financial cost and benefit, public
administration is intimately concerned with the concepts of social costs and benefits in addition to
those of a mere financial nature.

2 Public interest: Public administration is often evaluated by the ability to operate in a manner so
as to maximize and integrate the public interest, whereas private business is evaluated on the
basis of profit maximization. In other words, although efficiency is maxim number one in the
value scale of both public and private administration, in private business it has to do with the

Page 4 of 10
 Course: Introduction to Public Administration, 2021 By Z.A

minimization of cost and maximization of profits, while in the context of public administrative
system the aims are more complex to include other concepts like public service, public
accountability, and social responsibility. Therefore, the differing aims require efficiency to be
redefined in connection to public administration. In practice, it is much more difficult quantify in
financial terms the substantial investment of resources undertaken by the public sector.

3 Instability: As a result of operating in a political environment, public administrators are faced

with a much greater turnover of political leadership and consequent changes in policy than is
encountered in private business.

4 Allocation of responsibilities: the method of allocation of functions in the public sector is often
based more on political considerations than pure test of efficiency, as it would be done in the
private sector.

5 Functions: Public administration is faced with a much wider variety of functions than those
operating in private business, and also deals with matters, which are the exclusive jurisdictions of
central administration such as defense, and law and order.

6 Decision criteria: Decision-making in public administration is unlike that of a private

organization whose customers are free to take or leave the organization's products or services.
Public administration decision-making is often not based on commercial forces. Rather, the
public, who are in a sense the "customers" of its services, indicate their interests and views via
their political representatives. All decisions of public administration take place against the
background of public criticism.

Besides to the above-mentioned differences, public and private administrations could also vary in many
respects. For example, as the nature of the basic administrative problems in public and private sectors
varies substantially, decision-making inevitably varies accordingly. Whilst the business (private) sector
is strongly oriented to market innovation, public administration can be said to be concerned more with
market compression.

The extent and magnitude of the vise versa influences of the two administrative systems are quite
different. Private administration is highly affected by the decisions, laws, and procedures of public
administration. From the outset, private sector is supposed to fulfill certain requirements imposed by
the government (public sector) before it starts to operate, and to respect and adhere to public laws. On
the contrary, public administration is less likely to be affected by private administration.

Page 5 of 10
 Course: Introduction to Public Administration, 2021 By Z.A

3 Scope of Public Administration

Following are the three important perspectives about the scope of Public Administration: Narrow
perspective (POSDCORD), Broad perspective or subject matter view and Prevailing view.
0 Narrow perspective or POSDCORD Perspective
Luther Gullick is the main exponent of this perspective. According to him the scope of public
administration is narrow or limited. It is also regarded as POSDCORD view. It insists that the Public
Administration is concerned only with those aspects of administration which are related with the
executive branch and its seven types of administrative functions.

These seven types of functions which show the scope of Public Administration are as follows:
0 ‘P’ stands for planning: Planning is the first step of Public Administration i.e. working out the
broad outline of the things that need to be done.
1 ‘O’ stands for organization: It means establishment of the formal structure of authority through
which the work is sub-divided, arranged and coordinated for the defined objective.
2 ‘S’ stands for staffing: It means the recruitment and training of the staff and maintenance of
favorable conditions of work for the staff.
3 ‘D’ stands for Directing: It means the continuous task of making decisions and embodying them in
specific and general orders and instructions, and thus guiding the enterprise.
4 ‘Co.’ stands for Co-ordination: It is the interrelated the various parts of organization such as
branches, divisions, sections of the work and elimination of overlapping.
5 ‘R’ stands for Reporting: It means informing the authority to whom the executive is responsible as
to what is going on.
6 ‘B’ stands for Budgeting: It means accounting, fiscal planning and control.
In general, POSDCORB Perspective about the Scope of Public Administration is limited and narrow,
stressed on the tools of Public Administration. It does not show the substance of administration and it is
a technique oriented perspective, not a subject oriented.

1 Broad Perspective or Subject (Oriented Perspective )

Prof. Woodrow Wilson and L. D White are main exponents of this perspective. They have taken a very
broad approach about the scope of Public Administration. According to them:
0 Public Administration covers all three branches of the government. Legislative, Executive and
Judicial and their interrelationship. Legislative organ makes the laws, executive organ of the
government implements the laws, and judicial organ of the government interprets the laws. There is
interrelationship between these three organs.

Page 6 of 10
 Course: Introduction to Public Administration, 2021 By Z.A

1 Scope of Public Administration is like a cooperative group. It consists of all from lower class officer to
highest class employees.
2 Public Administration is a part of the political process. It has an important role in the formulation of
public policy at all levels, from national to grassroots. It is closely associated with numerous private
groups and individuals in providing services to the community. It has been influenced in recent years by
the human relations approach.

2 Prevailing/Existing Perspective
Prevailing view divides the scope of Public Administration into two parts: administrative theory and
applied administration.
0 Administrative theory: It includes the following aspects.
0 Organizational Theory: The study of Structure, organization, functions and methods of all types of
public authority engaged in administration, whether national, regional or local and executive.
1 Behavior: The study of functions of administrative authorities and the various methods appropriate to
different types of functions. The various forms of control of administration.
2 Public Personal Administration: The problems concerning personnel e.g. recruitment, training,
promotion, retirement etc. and the problems relating to planning, research, information and public
relation services.

1 Applied administration: It includes the following aspects :-

a) Political functions: It includes the executive- legislative relationship, administrative activities
of the cabinet, the minister and permanent official relationship.
b) Legislative function: It includes delegated legislation and the preparatory work done by the
officials in connection with the drawing up of bills.
c) Financial functions: It includes total financial administration from the preparation of the
budget to its execution, accounting and audit etc.
d) Defense administration: Functions relating to military administration.
e) Educational function: It includes functions relating to educational administration.
f) Social welfare administration: It includes the activities of the departments concerned with
food; housing, social security and development activities.
g) Economic Administration: It is concerned with the production and encouragement of
industries and agriculture.
h) Foreign administration: It includes the conduct of foreign affairs, diplomacy, international
cooperation etc.
i) Local administration: It concern with the activities of the local self-governing institutions.

Page 7 of 10
 Course: Introduction to Public Administration, 2021 By Z.A

4 Importance of Public Administration

In today’s modern state and in developing countries functions and role of Public Administration is very
important. The importances of Public Administration are as follows:
1) It is the basis of Government
It is possible for a state to exist without a legislature or judiciary; but not even the most backward state
can do without administrative machinery. The modern state cannot confine its field of activities to
merely maintenance of law and order, dispensation of Justice, collection of revenue and taxes and
participation in welfare activities.

2) It is an instrument for executing laws, policies, and programs of the state.

The modern welfare state is expected to provide more and more services and amenities to the people.
Public Administration is the machinery used by the state to place itself in a position to make plans and
programs that can be carried out.

3) It is the instrument of change in the society

Public Administration is regarded as an instrument of change and is expected to accelerate the process
of development. In our country, the government has undertaken the task of leveling down the economic
inequalities, spreading education among all abolishing untouchability securing equality of status, rights
of women and effective and all round economic and industrial development. The burden of carrying
out these social changes in a planned way rests upon the Public Administration of the country.

4) It plays vital role in the life of the people

Today every aspect of human life comes within the range of Public Administration. Various
departments of government such as education, social welfare, food, agriculture, health, sanitation,
transport, communication etc. are run by the department of Public Administration. Thus Public
Administration is rendering various types of services to the people from birth to death of an individual.

5) It is a stabilizing force in the society as it provides continuity

Public Administration is carried on by the civil servants who are the permanent executives. Political
executives i.e. ministers may come and go also systems of government or constitutions may undergo
change but administration goes on forever. Hence, Public Administration is a great stabilizing force in
society. It is a preserver of the society and its culture.

6) It is tool of national integration in the developing countries which are facing class wars
The success of government is dependent on the ability of public administration. The future of civilized
government rests upon the ability, to develop a service and philosophy and a practice of Administration
competent to discharge the Public functions of civilized society.

Page 8 of 10
 Course: Introduction to Public Administration, 2021 By Z.A

5 Comparative Public Administration and Its Importance

Fred Riggs is the father of Comparative Public Administration. In 1962 Fred Riggs in his article
“Trends in comparative study of Public Administration,” emphasized on following points. These are
the need to study politico-administrative institutions in their Social settings, Comparative Public
Administration means cross-cultural and cross national study of Public Administration and understand
impact of comparative Public Administration is necessary.

0 Trends in the Comparative Study of Public Administration

Fred Riggs pointed out three trends in the Comparative study of public administration:
1) From normative to empirical orientation
2) From ideographic to nomothetic orientation
3) From non-ecological to ecological orientation
0 From Normative to Empirical orientation
It means emphasis on the scientific methods, with a view to evolve the science of public
Administration, Normative study stress on ‘what ought to be’ and Empirical study stress on ‘What is’.
In comparative Public Administration we study from ‘what ought to be’’ to ‘What is’.
1 From Ideographic to Nomothetic orientation
Ideographic orientation means study of one nation only or individualistic studies e.g. concentration on
the unique case or case study, the single country, the biography etc. Nomothetic orientation means
Universal studies. This approach seeks generalizations, laws hypotheses that assert regularities of
behavior, correlation with variables. In comparative public administration, we go from individualistic
study to universal study.
2 From Non-ecological to Ecological orientation
The ecological orientation meant the study of the environment of the administrative system and
interaction between the two. Administrative system operates within the political system and is also
influenced by social and economic forces. Thus the political, social and economic factors constitute the
‘environment’ of the administrative system.

1 The Levels Comparative Administrative Studies

There are three levels of Comparative administrative studies: Macro studies Middle Range studies
Micro studies.
0 Macro Studies
It means focus on the comparisons of whole administrative system e.g. India and the United States in
their ecological contexts. Generally, the relationship between an administrative system and its external
environment are highlighted in the macro level studies.

Page 9 of 10
 Course: Introduction to Public Administration, 2021 By Z.A

1 Middle Range Studies

It means studies are of specific aspects of administrative system e.g. a comparison of local government
in different countries.

2 Micro studies
It relates to an analysis of a part of an administrative system e.g. the recruitment or training in two or
more administrative organizations. Thus the question of modernization and developmental diversity in
different systems are of great importance to the students of comparative public administration.

2 Importance of the study of Comparative Public Administration

1) Provide a scientific basis and help for theory building.
Now it is believed that generalizations relating to administrative structures and behavior emerging out
of comparative studies in different nations and cultures can help in formulating theoretical constructs
which can provide a scientific basis to the study of public administration

2) Contributes to a greater understanding

The study of comparative public administration contributes to a greater understanding of the individual
characteristics of administrative system functioning in different nations and cultures. Besides,
Comparative studies also help in explaining factors responsible for cross-national and cross-cultural
similarities as well as difference in the administrative system.

3) Can understand impact of environmental factors on administration

Through comparative analysis we can find out which important Environmental factor help in the
promotion of administrative effectiveness and which administrative structures function appropriately
and successfully in what type of environmental settings. Accordingly we learn about the administrative
practices followed in various nations and then we can try to adopt those practices which can fit in our
own nations and systems.

4) Academic Utility/Contributions
Scientific and systematic study of public administration is possible with the approach of comparative
study. Appropriate administrative reforms and changes can be brought about in different nations.

Page 10 of 10