Approaches and Paradigms of

Public Administration
 Public Administration

• Public Administration can be traced back to

human history. It has been suggested that it is
as old as the ancient empires of China, India,
Egypt, Greece, Rome and Mesopotomia.
• The institutionalisation of administrative
capacity for collective purposes is the
foundation of public administration. Such
arrangement has existed in all societies
(Caiden ,1982).
 Traditional / Classical Public Administration
• All societies are devoted to advancing the general
welfare or the public interest. The idea that “public
administration should not be considered
administration of the public, but administration for
the public” has been practiced and expressed in the
Code of Hammurabi, in Confucianism and in the
funeral oration of Pericles (Caiden 1982: 7).

• In other words, the idea of client-oriented public

administration has its roots in ancient public
administration.
• Caiden (1982) also noted that the genesis of
Public Administration must have had
originated from monarchial Europe where
household officials were divided into two
groups: one in charge of public affairs, i.e. the
administration of justice, finance, training of
armies, and the other was responsible for
personal services.
Rutgers (1998) supports this
claim that (i.e. royal) administration had
already been manifested way back in the mid
17th century and early 18th century in
Prussia.
 Woodrow Wilson’s 1887
1800s to 1950s. If the roots of Public Administration as
a distinct field of study have to be traced, the
tendency is to draw on classic essay, “The Study of
Public Administration,” which was written at the
height of Progressive Movement in the US. It was in
that essay that there was a serious claim that public
administration should be a self-conscious, professional
field. Wilson suggested the distinction between
politics and administration i.e. administration should
be politics-free and that “the field of administration is
the field of business;” (Wilson 1953: 71) thus,
establishing what became known as the “politics-
administration” dichotomy. Wilson set a
demarcation line between politics and administration
“politics-administration” dichotomy.
Wilson set a demarcation line between politics and
administration

politics administration
 Frank Goodnow (1900)
• Frank Goodnow (1900), the “Father of
American Public Administration,” presented
a more meticulous examination of politics-
administration dichotomy in his book,
“Politics and Administration” that
“supplanted the traditional concern with the
separation of powers among the various
branches of the government.” (Shafritz and
Hyde 1997: 2)
 Frank Goodnow (1900)
• Politics administration dichotomy has
provoked long-running debates which
persist until today. It may be argued
though that, as far as experience is
concerned, the dichotomy
is artificial and that in practice, power
and partisan politics have had a
disproportionate influence upon the
workings of public administration
 Leonard D. White, 1926
It was in 1926 that the first text in the field of
Public Administration was written by Leonard
D. White. His book, Introduction to the Study
of Public Administration, is one of the most
influential texts in public administration to
date. One of his assumptions was that
administration is still an art. He, however,
recognized the ideal of transforming it into a
science. Interestingly, his work avoided the
potential pitfalls of the politics-administration
Dichotomy, but rather concentrated on
emphasizing the managerial elements of
administration.
 Approaches to the study of Public
Administration
 Public administration consists of distinct
approaches that grow out of different
perspectives that shape its structures and
functions. Each approach gives a particular
point of view of administrative activity.
 Most authors agree that there are three main
approaches to the study of public
administration
1) The Managerial Approach
1) The Political Approach
2) The Legal Approach
1) The Managerial Approach:
• It emphasizes the management and organization of public
organizations
• Suggests that management in the public sector is very
much like that in the private sector, in that it is primarily
concerned with efficiency.

2) The Political Approach :

• related to the legislative function in government
• concerned about assuring constitutional safeguards
• According to this approach. efficiency becomes less a
concern than effectiveness or responsiveness.
3) The Legal Approach:
• is related to the judicial function.
• It emphasizes the administrators role in
applying and enforcing the law in specific
situations
 Interdisciplinary Interface of
Public Administration

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
LAW • DISCRETIONARY
POWERS

BUSINESS
PUBLIC
POLITICS ADMINISTRATION
MANAGEMENT

PUBLIC POLICY ECONOMICS PUBLIC CHOICE

Rationale Economic Man
Responsive to citizens Man: The Decision Maker
need and preferences
www.ginandjar.com 3s
 However, Bidyut (2012) comes up with more
detailed explanation of the approaches
• Institutional Approach : largely based on the legal
rights and obligations of the government,
emphasizing formal relationships and separation of
powers of the three branches of the state.
• Structural Approach: Influenced by scientific
management by focusing on organisational structure
and personnel management. It treats public
administration as non-political and technical
organisation based on certain scientific principles
• Behavioural Approach: Focuses on actual
behaviour of individuals and groups in
organisations. It applies social psychology,
anthropology, psychology, and other disciplines
to better human behaviour in organisations.
• Systems Approach: administration is seen as a
system of interrelated and interdependent parts
and forces. The administrative system receives
inputs in form of demands from citizens and
converts unto outputs in form of goods and
services.
• Ecological Approach: Views public
bureaucracy as a social institution which
interacts with economic, political, and socio-
cultural sub-systems of society. It determines
how an administrative system operates in
practice.
• Comparative Approach: compares
administrative structures of different nations
with different socio-cultural settings
• Public Policy Approach: aims at understanding
and improving public policy process- which is
a significant component of a political system.
• Political Economy Approach: draws on
interdisciplinary studies drawing on
economics, law, political science in explaining
how political institutions, political
environment and economic system influence
each other.
• Public Choice Approach: focuses on element
of choice, with citizens in the role of customer.
It favours citizen’s choice in provision of public
goods and services.
 Conceptual Development and Paradigms of
Public Administration
• PARADIGMS are a distinct set of concepts or thought
patterns, including theories, research methods, and
standards for what constitutes legitimate contributions to a
field.

• According Robert Golembeiwski (1977), Public Administration

developed as an academic field going through 5 successive
overlapping paradigms involving LOCUS ( institution): where
and FOCUS ( specialisation): what

• “FOCUS” refers to the analytical targets of public

administration, the “what” with which specialists are
concerned. “LOCUS” refers directly to the “where”, to the
contexts that are conceived to yield the phenomena of
interest.
 GOLEMBIEWSKI’S DEVELOPMENT PHASES

• PHASE I: The Analytic distinction of politics

from administration, interpreted as ideal categories or
function of governance, which function are performed in
different institutional loci in varying degrees.

• PHASE II: the Concrete distinction of politics from

administration, with the former conceived as having a
real locus in the interaction between legislatures and
high level members of the executive branch, and the
latter as having a real locus in the bulk of the public
bureaucracy.
• PHASE III: a Science of Management, which
emphasized the isolation and analysis of administrative
processes, dynamics, activities, or “principles” that are seen as
universal or at least.

• PHASE IV: the pervasive orientation toward

“Public Policy”, in which politics and administration commingle
and which has a unspecified locus that encompasses the total
set of public and private institutions and processes that are
policy relevant.
 The Paradigms of PA (N.Henry 1975)

• Paradigm-1: The Politics-Administration

Dichotomy
• Paradigm-2: The Principles of Administration
• Paradigm-3: Public Administration as Political
Science
• Paradigm-4: Public Administration as
Management
• Paradigm-5: Public Administration as Public
Administration
 Paradigm-1: The Politics- Administration Dichotomy
(1900-1926)

• Started off by Wilson in 1887

• Goodnow (1900) in Politics and Administration pointed out
that Politics has to do with policies or expressions of the state,
while administration deals with execution of policies.
• Separation of power provided the basis for distinction
• The emphasis was locus: Bureaucracy
• Value/fact dichotomy
• Public administration is value free, and its mission is efficiency
and economy
• Pub. Admn. isolated from business administration
 Paradigm-2: The Principles of Administration (
1927-1937)
• Principles of administration was discovered and it
was thought that these would work in any
administrative setting, without exception
• Significant contributors were:
– Willoughby- Principles of Public Administration
(1927)
– M.P. Follett- Creative Experience (1924)
– Mooney and Reiley- Principles of Organizations
(1937)
– F. W. Taylor- Principles of Scientific Management
(1911)
 Paradigm-3: Public Administration as Political
Science ( 1950-1970)
• Renewed definition of locus , but a resultant loss of
focus
• Reestablishing the conceptual linkages between Pub.
Admistration and Pol. Science
• It resulted in a second class status of the discipline
• Two developments during the period reflected the
tension between the two:
– Use of case studies
– Rise of comparative public administration
 Paradigm-4: Public Administration as
Management ( 1956-1970)
• Due to second class status, there was a search for
alternatives
• Management ( administrative science) was a viable
alternative
• Management covers organisation theory &
behaviour, planning, decision-making and
management techniques involve leadership.
Motivation, communication, MIS, budgeting,
auditing , etc
 Paradigm-4: Public Administration as Management
( 1956-1970) Contd.
• This paradigm provided a focus (techniques of
management) but a not a locus ( institutional setting)
• Similarities and differences among organisations
could be understood by comparing organisations as a
whole rather as parts of organisations
• Prominent works in this era:
– James G. March and H. Simon- Organization
(1958)
– March- Handbook of Organization (1965)
– J. D. Thompson-Organization in Action (1967)
 Paradigm-5: Public Administration as Public
Administration ( 1970-90)
• Formation of National Association of Schools of
Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA)
• Less movement towards delineating a locus for the
field
• Emphasis on areas of local government, executive
management, administrative laws
• Led to ideas of New Public Administration, Re-
inventing Government , New Public Management
 Paradigm -6: Government to
governance?? ( 1990 ??)
• New Public Governance ???
• Digital Governance ????
• Collaborative Governance

• THESE IDEAS ARE YET TO BE CRYSTALISED

INTO A PARADIGM…..
 Paradigm 1:
Politics/Administration
Dichotomy, 1900-1926
PA as a Paradigm 2: The Principles of
Period of Orthodoxy

Scientific management

Developing Administration, 1926-1937

Bureaucracy

Discipline Paradigm 3: Public

Administration as a Political
POSDECORB

The Most Serious Challenge

Science, 1950-1970
Administrative Behavior
Paradigm 4: Public
Evolution of Paradigm Administration as Public Management
Management, 1956 -1970

Paradigm 5: Public New Public Administration

Administration as Public
Reinventing Government
Administration, 1970
New Public Management
Paradigm 6: From Government New Public Service
to Governance, 1990
Post Modernism

The Future Digital (e)

Source www.ginandjar.com
Governance
 Phases in the Evolution of
Public Administration
Phase Indicative
Period
Traditional / Classical Public 1800s to
Administration 1950s
Modern Public Administration 1950 to the
Development Administration (1950s to 1960s)
present
New Public Administration (1970s)
New Public Management (1980s to 1990s)
Reinventing Government (1990s)
PA as Governance (1990s to the present)