Political Science

MOOC on Administration and Public Policy: Concepts and Theories

Module-1

Meaning, Nature and Scope of

Public Administration

ACADEMIC SCRIPT

Public Administration is the non-political machinery of the government carrying on its

work for the welfare of the people according to the laws formulated by the state.
Administration has to do with human beings for whom it is meant. It is essentially a
matter of social relationships. The administrator is neither a philosopher nor a politician
but the non- political side of the executive.
Public Administration is both an art and a science because its techniques are based
mostly on practical experiences than on theoretical propositions. Moreover, it is
concerned not only with formulation of general principles but also with actual running of
administration. A good knowledge of the principles of public administration helps the
administrator to undertake correct action.
There are different opinions about the scope of public administration, i.e., whether it is to
be understood as the managerial part of the governmental work or of all the branches of
the government, i.e., legislative, executive and judicial. There are thus two divergent
views regarding the scope of the study of public administration; integral view and
managerial view.

Meaning and Nature of Public Administration:

Public administration consists of the activities undertaken by a government to look after
its people or to manage its affairs. The word ‘public’ stands for the people of a definite
territory or state. As the will of the people is represented by government of the state, the
word ‘public’ also has a specialised governmental meaning. Therefore the acts of
administration performed by the government are called ‘public administration’. Those
acts, which are undertaken by individuals in their own capacity, are termed ‘private
administration’.
The English word ‘administer’ is derived from the Latin words ‘ad’ and ‘ministrare’, which
means to serve. Thus in simple words ‘administration’ means the ‘management of
affairs’ or looking after the people. In the words of 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 specialised character. Specifically excluded are judicial
and legislative agencies within the government and non-governmental administration.”
According to J. M. Pfiffner ‘Administration is the organisation and direction of human and
material resources to achieve desired ends’. Therefore administration means
appropriate organisation of men and material in pursuit of desired ends.
The concept of public administration has been given various interpretations by different
thinkers. The main difference comes across in terms of the activities, which are to be
considered as administrative activities. Some thinkers take a broad view and consider all
governmental activities aimed at fulfillment of public policy as administrative activities,
which others take a narrow view and include only those activities that are concerned
with the executive branch of the government.
The definitions given by prominent writers can broadly be classified into three different
categories on the basis of the importance they attach to different aspects of
administrative functioning. There are some who emphasise the function of
implementation of public policy- for example L. D. White, who states “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, 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 civilisations 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 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. “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”.
M. Ruthanaswami states, “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 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 cooperative programmes are carried
through to success. Each is indispensable; together they form the synthesis called
administration”.
Nicholas Henry is of the opinion that “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”.
J.S. Hodgson and other thinkers like J.M. Pfiffner lay more emphasis on the coordinating
role of the administration. A third group focuses upon the administrative function of
implementing the law of the country – for example H. Walker who states ‘the work which
the government does to give effect to a law is called administration’.
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:

• 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 policymaking;
• 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.

Public Administration: Science or Art

There is a difference of opinion among the thinkers on whether public administration is a
science or an art. Most of them conceive it as an art and not a science. J. Winer,
Professor of Economics at Princeton University USA, for example, has said, 'No one
knows better than the occupants of the social science chairs that their discipline is so
fallible and erratic that to persist in the term, scientific, is an open invitation to ridicule'.
Cohen also denies it the status of a science. He argues that if human affairs obey
casualty rules, it may be true because of the infinite complexity of human affairs; these
affairs would not demonstrate any 'laws' at all to be a finite being in finite time.

Public Administration: A Science

But on the other hand there are a few thinkers who consider administration to be a
science. They say, 'Administration is an activity which demands correct analysis and
accurate orientation with relation to other sciences. To analyse and through analysis to
understand and through understanding to make possible the final function of rational
and creative action-this is the highest end which man can conceive for himself. W B.
Donham writes, 'Administration is a social science with its own techniques, its own
abstractions clustering around the concept of action through human organisations and
its own problems of theory. It is vitally concerned in integrating other sciences, physical,
biological and social, at the point where action is involved.'

Before we decide whether there is a science of administration or not, it is necessary to

understand the meaning of the term 'science'. If science stands for a conceptual scheme
of things in which every particularity may be assigned a mathematical value then
administration is not a science. If, on the other hand, rightly use the term in connection
with a body of systematised knowledge, derived from experience and observation, then
public administration is a science. Administration of some sort has existed since the
earliest times and in the course of history a large and extensive volume of knowledge
accumulated which formed the science of administration. The work of Kautilya, the
prime minister of King Chandragupta Maurya, in the fourth century BC entitled
Arthashastra is an excellent manual of public administration rather than a treatise on
political philosophy. Similarly Abdul Fazal's Ain-e-Akbari, works of Micino in China,
Cicero's De Officiis in Rome, Machiavelli's Prince in Europe and other scattered pieces
are books written primarily with the purpose of passing on 'tips of the trade' to rulers and
officials. In short, all ages countries have contributed their share of administrative
experience. All this experience has been pooled together, analysed, correlated and
systematised and it has been possible to formulate certain principles of Administration,
which serve as a guide to the administrator. Efforts have been made to discover the
laws of public administration and thereby to rescue executive methods from the
confusion and costliness of empirical experiment and set them upon foundation laid
deep in stable principle'. Thus Willoughby writes: In administration, there are certain
fundamental principles of general application analogous to those characterising any
science which must be observed if the end of administration, efficiency in operation, is to
be secured and that these principles are to be determined only by the rigid application of
the scientific method to their investigation.

Public Administration is Not a Science like Physical Sciences

Though we may call public administration a science but it cannot be an exact science
like physics or chemistry. There is one main difference between these natural sciences
and administration. This is the human element involved in the administrative activity.
Thus, public administration can more rightly be called a social science because it deals
with human beings who have a will and mind of their own and are capable of thinking
and acting in a number of ways. Matters of human relationships are not amenable to the
techniques of physical sciences. In other words, the methods of pure science are not
applicable to administrative phenomena; only a scientific approach and a common
sense approach can be used in this sphere.

Public Administration as Both a Science and an Art

Hence, public administration, is both arts and a science but more of an art than science
because its techniques are based mostly on practical experiences than on theoretical
prepositions. Moreover, it is concerned not only with formulation of general principles but
also with actual running of administration. Whether an official speaks, writes or tours on
duty, his work always has some practical end. It is the act of doing things, which makes
it an art. An officer who possesses knowledge of the science of public administration will
be a successful administrator just as a painter knowing the laws of composition and
decomposition of light shall be a great painter. A good knowledge of the principles of
public administration would help the administrator to undertake correct action but the
knowing is not a substitute for action. Before taking action the mind has to be made up
on the basis of science but ultimately there must be action to achieve the desired result
and action is an art. Both the aspects of administration should be harmoniously blended
together so that the best results may be obtained.
Scope
By the scope of Public Administration, we mean the major concerns of Public
Administration as an activity and as a discipline.

Scope of Public Administration as an activity

Broadly speaking, Public Administration embraces all the activities of the government.
Hence as an activity the scope of public administration is no less than the scope of state
activity. In the modern welfare state people expect many things – a wide variety of
services and protection from the government. In this context public administration
provides a number of welfare and social security services to the people. Besides, it has
to manage government owned industries and regulate private industries. Public
administration covers every area and activity within the ambit of public policy. Thus, the
scope of public administration is very wide in modern state.
There are two views regarding the scope of Public Administration, that is, Integral view
and Managerial view.

According to the integral view, ‘administration’ is the sum total of all the activities –
manual, clerical, managerial, etc., which are undertaken to realise the objectives of the
organisation. In this view all the acts of officials of the government from the Attendant to
the Secretaries to the government and Head of the State constitute Public
Administration. Henri Fayol and L.D. White are the supporters of this view. According to
the managerial view of administration, the managerial activities of people who are
involved in planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling constitute
Public Administration. This view regards administration as getting things done and not
doing things. Luther Gulick, Herbert Simon, Smithburg and Thompson are the
supporters of this view. The managerial view excludes Public Administration from non-
managerial activities such as manual, clerical and technical activities.
The two views differ from each other in many ways. According to Prof. M.P. Sharma the
difference between the two views is fundamental. The integral view includes the
activities of all the persons engaged in administration whereas the managerial view
restricts itself only to the activities of the few persons at the top. The integral view
depicts all types of activities from manual to managerial, from non-technical to technical
whereas the managerial view takes into account only the managerial activities in an
organization. Furthermore, administration, according to the integral view would differ
from one sphere to another depending upon the subject matter, but whereas that will not
be the case according to the managerial point of view because the managerial view is
identified with the managerial techniques common to all the fields of administration.
The difference between the two views relates to the difference between management
and operation or we may say between getting things done and doing things. The correct
meaning of the term administration would however, depend upon the context in which it
is used. Dimock and Koening sum it up in the following words: “As a study public
administration examines every aspect of government’s efforts to discharge the laws and
to give effect to public policy; as a process, it is all the steps taken between the time an
enforcement agency assumes jurisdiction and the last break is placed (but includes also
that agency’s participation, if any, in the formulation of the programme in the first place);
and as a vocation, it is organizing and directing the activities of others in a public
agency.”

Scope of Public Administration as a Discipline

The scope of public administration as a discipline, that is subject of studies, comprises
of the following:
a) The POSDCORB View:
Several writers have defined the scope of public administration in varying terms. Gulick
sums up the scope of the subject by the letters of the word POSDCORB, which denote:
Planning, Organization, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting.
Planning means the working out in broad outline the things to be done, the methods to
be adopted to accomplish the purpose. Organization means the establishment of the
formal structure of authority through which the work is sub-divided, arranged, defined
and coordinated. Staffing means the recruitment and training of the personnel and their
conditions of work. Directing means making decisions and issuing orders and
instructions. Coordinating means inter-relating the work of various divisions, sections
and other parts of the organization. Reporting means informing the superiors within the
agency to whom the executive is responsible about what is going on. Budgeting means
fiscal planning, control and accounting. According to Gulick the POSDCORB activities
are common to all organizations. They are the common problems of management,
which are found in different agencies regardless of the nature of the work they do.
POSDCORB gives unity, certainty, and definiteness and makes the study more
systematic. The critics pointed out that the POSDCORB activities were neither the whole
of administration, nor even the most important part of it. The POSDCORB view
overlooks the fact that different agencies are faced with different administrative
problems, which are peculiar to the nature of the services, they render and the functions
they performed. The POSDCORB view takes into consideration only the common
techniques of the administration and ignores the study of the ‘subject matter’ with which
the agency is concerned. A major defect is that the POSDCORB view does not contain
any reference to the formulation and implementation of the policy. Therefore, the scope
of administration is defined very narrowly, being too inward looking and too conscious of
the top management.

Conclusion
Administration is looked at, in the social science perspective, as a cooperative and
social activity. Hence the concern of academic inquiry would be to understand the
impact of government policies and operations on society. What kind of society do the
policies envisage? To what extent administrative action is non-discriminatory? How is
public administration functioning and what are the immediate and long term effects of
governmental action on the social structure, the economy and polity? And so on are
questions requiring careful analysis. From the social science perspective, public
administration, as a discipline, has to draw on a variety of sister disciplines such as
History, Sociology, Economics, Geography, Philosophy, Psychology, etc., with the
objective to explain and not just to prescribe. The contemporary age, which has
witnessed the emergence of ‘Administrative State’, public administration has become an
essential part of society and a dominant factor. The functions it is called upon to
perform, have expanded in scope and nature, and what is more, are continually
increasing. Many of them are more positive in nature because they care for the essential
requirements of human life, be it health, education, recreation, sanitation, social security
or others. It is, therefore, a creative factor, with its motto being ‘human welfare’. These
functions are over and above its regulatory functions. The viewpoints of several eminent
scholars amply reflect the significance of public administration.
Public administration has a special status in the developing countries. Many of these
countries, after independence from the colonial rule have stressed upon speedy socio –
economic development. Obviously, these countries have to rely on government for
speedy development. The latter requires a public administration to be organised and
effectively operated for increasing productivity quickly. Likewise, social welfare activities
have to be effectively executed. These aspects have given birth to the new sub-
discipline of development administration. The emergence of development administration
is indicative of a felt need for a body of knowledge about how to study the third world
administration and at the same time to bring about speedy socio-economic development
with government’s intervention. Development administration has therefore, emerged as
a sub-discipline to serve the cause of development.