Public Administration is a newly emerged discipline compare to other Social Science’s discipline. Public Administration has gained immense importance since the emergence of Administrative state. In Ancient Greek, Roman and Indian political system gave more importance to the concept of Administration. Kautilya’s “Arthasathra” contributed large scale in the administrative system; it deals every aspect of the state and its relation to subjects. In simple sense Public Administration is state mechanism. In every Political System administration have significant role.
Meaning of Public Administration :
The word Administration has been derived from the Latin words ‘ad’ and ‘ministiare’ which means to serve. In simple language, it means the ‘management of affairs’ or ‘looking after the people’. In general sense, Administration can be defined as the activities of groups co-operating to accomplish common goals. It is a process of management which is practiced by all kinds of organisations from the household to the most complex system of the government. According to L. D. White, Administration was a ‘process common to all group effort, public or private, civil or military, large scale or small scale’.
Public administration is "centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behavior of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct. Generally, Public Administration has been used in two senses.
In the wider sense, it includes all the activities of the government whether falling in the sphere of legislature, executive or judicial branch of the government. In the narrow sense, Public Administration is concerned with the activities of the executive branch only.
L.D. White observes that although public administration varies in form and objects, and although the administration of public and private affairs differs at many points, there is an underlying similarity, if not identity. As an integral aspect of such generic concept, public administration could be related to that type of administration, which operates within a specific ecological setting. It is a means to carry out the policy decisions made by political executive.
To be seen along with it is the ‘Public’ aspect of Public administration, which attributes a special character and focus to it. ‘Public’ can be looked at formally to mean ‘government’. So, public administration is government administration, government in action, or a socio-economic and politico-administrative confluence, the focus being especially on public bureaucracy. Encyclopaedia Britannica defines Public administration as ‘the application of a policy of a state through its government.’ Public Administration, therefore, refers to that part of administration, which pertains to the administrative activities of the government. Now we will try to look into the definitions of Public Administration provided by various scholars.
According to Woodrow Wilson, Public administration is the detailed and systematic application of law. Every particular application of law is an act of administration.
According to L.D. White, “Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy”. As per White, this definition covers a multitude of particular operations in many fields the delivery of a letter, the sale of public land, the negotiation of a treaty, the award of compensation to an injured workman, the quarantine of a sick child, the removal of litter from a park, manufacturing uranium 235, and licensing the use of atomic energy. It includes military as well as civil affairs, much of the work of courts, and all the special fields of government activity-police, education, health, construction of public works, conservation, social security, and many others. The conduct of public affairs in advanced civilizations requires the employment of almost every profession and skill-engineering, law, medicine, and teaching; the crafts, the technical specialties, the office skills, and many others.
According to Percy Mc Queen, Public administration is related to the operations of government whether local or central.
According to Luther Gulick, Public administration is that part of the science of administration, which has to do with the government; it concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of the government is done; though there are obviously problems also in connection with the legislative and judicial branches.
According to J.M. Pfiffner, “Administration consists of getting the work of government done by coordinating the efforts of people so that they can work together to accomplish their set tasks”.
According to M. Ruthanaswami, “When administration has to do with the affairs of a state or minor political institutions like the municipal or country council (district board), it is called public administration. All the acts of the officials of a government, from the peon in a remote office to the head of a state in the capital, constitute public administration.”
According to H.A. Simon, D.W. Smithburg and V.A. Thompson, “By Public Administration is meant, in common usage, the activities of the executive branches of national, state and local governments, government corporations and certain other agencies of a specialized character. Specifically excluded are judicial and legislative agencies within the government and non-governmental administration.”
According to Corson and Harris, “Public administration … is the action part of government, the means by which the purposes and goals of government are realized.”
According to Dwight Waldo, “Public administration is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of State.”
According to M.E. Dimock, “Public Administration is concerned with ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the government. The ‘what’ is the subject matter, the technical knowledge of a field, which enables the administrator to perform his tasks. The ‘how’ is the technique of management, the principles according to which co-operative programmes are carried through to success. Each is indispensable, together they form the synthesis called administration”.
According to Nicholas Henry, “Public Administration is a broad-ranging and amorphous combination of theory and practice; its purpose is to promote a superior understanding of government and its relationship with the society, it governs, as well as to encourage public policies more responsive to social needs and to institute managerial practices attuned to effectiveness, efficiency and the deeper human requisites of the citizenry”.
The traditional definitions of Public Administration, which are given above reflect the view that the Public Administration is only involved in carrying out the policies and programmes of the government. It reflect that it has no role in policy making and also locates the administration in the executive branch but today the term public administration is used in a broader sense that it is not only involved in carrying out the programmes of the government, but it also plays an important role in policy formulation and covers the three branches of the government. In this context, we may reflect on the definition offered by F.A. Nigro and L.G. Nigro. According to them Public Administration :
In this context, we can reflect the definition offered by F.A. Nigro and L.G. Nigro. According to them Public Administration :
• is co-operative group effort in a public setting;
• covers all three branches-executive, legislative, and judicial, and their inter-relationships;
• has an important role in the formulation of public policy and is thus a part of the political process;
• is different in significant ways from private administration; and
• is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community.
In sum, Public administration :
• is the non-political public bureaucracy operating in a political system;
• deals with the ends of the State, the sovereign will, the public interests and laws;
• is the business side of government and as such concerned with policy execution, but it is also concerned with policy-making;
• covers all three branches of government, although it tends to be concentrated in the executive branch;
• provides regulatory and service functions to the people in order to attain good life;
• differs significantly from private administration, especially in its emphasis on the public; and
• is interdisciplinary in nature as it draws upon other social sciences like political science, economics and sociology.
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