STUDYING PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

An Overview of the Discipline

It is the object of administrative study to discover first, what goverment can properly and successfully do and secondly, how it can do these proper things with utmost possible efficiency and at the least possible cost either of money or of energy.

THE STUDY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Goverment and public agecies essentially ‘manage’

the affairs of the state and implement a wide variety of

policies that affect virtually everyone in society.

The practice involves the work 19 million people who

are employed in goverment agencies at the federal, state,

and local levels. The academic discipline involves studying the

activities

that take place in public agencies, mainly by proffessors

and other researchers.

Public administration is a multidisciplinary field that

involves other academic areas, including political

science and management.

The study of public administration is concerned with

understanding the complexities of public agencies. Also

this include, how they function, what they do, why they

do it.

THE DISCIPLINE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Public administration’ s history has existed many centuries but the discipline of public administrationis not that old. “The study of administration” whichwas published in 1887. The discipline, born inpolitical science, may be thought of as an

“unwantedchild”.

CLASSICAL PERIODTHE POLITICS-ADMINISTRATION

DICHOTOMY The idea of bringing competence to govermental

administration. Politics can be seperated from administration. The techniques of business administration are

applicable to public organization.

Wilson’ s essay, “The study of Administration,” reflected

the basic philosophy held by public administration during

the classical period. His artichle suggested that there was a

distinction between political funcition and administration

agencies.

Partisan politics was blamed for many of the problem during

this era, so writers would want to seperate politics from

administration.

Wilson and many reformer want to bring competence to

goverment eventhough other reformers want to limit the power

of political parties.

The public –private dichotomy: Believed that public and

private management were similar.

Influenced partly by other developments of the era, namely

Frederick Toylar’ s “scientific management.”

To Frederick Toylar, poltics should not be mixed with

management.

The purpose of Elton Mayo was to examine the relationship

between workers, work environment and productivity. Also

during this time period Max Weber defined the bureaucratic

form of organization.

POSDCORB the principles greatly affected the discipline

and continue to be discussed in public administration textbooks

today.

BEHAVIORIST PERIODPUBLİC ADMİNİSTRATİON AS POLİTİCAL SCİENCE AND AS MANAGEMENT

Concern is aimed at organisation and structure to make

better organization. Public administration returns to political science, still as

the unwanted child. One division of public administration focuses on

management

Behaviorist sough to modify the hierarchical structure and

appeal to a broad range of human needs to more effectively

motivate workers in the organisation.

Believes that public and private management are similar.

To the behaviorist, the central questions revolved around

understanding and explaning the reliaties of the organization

and life inside the organization.

For public administration, new hope emerged with the

promising new subfield of comparative and developmental

administration. Like comparative politcs, comparative

administration focused on administration in other countries.

During this same era, roughly 1956 until 1970, another

group focused on “public administration as management”.

NEW PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Its goal is to use the power of the bureaucracy to remedy

many of society’ s ills and injustices.

The new public administration was very moral and eager

to bring about change. It sought to use public agencies to

advance the needs of clienteles and to use the power of the

bureaucrarcy to remedy the social problems of the times.

Cost-benefit analyses, efficiency, and organizational design were not the tools of the new public administration.

Peter Drucker, famous for management by objectives

earlier, wrote a book, “The Age of Discontinuity”, that would

challange goverment to govern and let the private sector

produce society’s goods and service.

Politics-administration dichotomy: Believes that

administration cannot and should not be seperated from

Politics.

PUBLİC ADMİNİSTRATİON AS PUBLİC ADMİNİSTRATİON AND THE REFOUNDİNG PERİOD

Public administration moves into a new age and sees itself

as “public administration”. Many MPA programs leave political science departments

or

are created in areas outside of political science. Efficiency must be balaced with other competing goals,

such

as public accountability and equity.

Public administration tends to accepts the institutions that

have emerged to govern and seek to make them more efficient

and effective.

Moreover, the goals of public administration are to acquire

knowledge, train future administrators, and create strong,

stable, and effective organizations to help govern society.

Public-private dichotomy: Holds that public and private

Sectors have differences but also similarities. Goverment can

Learn from the private sector.

Politics-administration dichotomy: Politics complicates management but cannot be seperated from it.

Goverment was viewed as inefficient by design because it

was a monopoly. So privatization movement was launched.

At the end of the 1980, the term privatization was widely

known and recognized by public administration.

Privatization: Increasing the use of the private sector in

producing and delivering services.