1. ADMINISTRATION & PUBLIC POLICY

Introduction

Public administration as a subject is of recent origin whereas public administration as an activity is as old as human civilization.

Examples of ancient administration in action are found in Aristotle's book "politika" and Kautaliya's Arthashastra. These examples show how organizations have typically existed since the establishment of political systems. The release of Woodrow Wilson's essay on administration studies In 1887, political science established the groundwork for a distinct and methodical investigation of public administration.

Meaning

The Latin words "ad" and "ministrare," which mean to care for, look after, and manage matters, are the source of the English word "administration."

Cooperative group work is what administration does to improve society. It consists of

—Aim-oriented,

—focused on outcomes,

—focused on people.

Governmental administration, another name for public administration, is a subset of a broader area of administration.

In the global context, public administration refers to actions undertaken by the government at all tiers—national, state, and municipal.

Bright Waldo discusses four administrative components.

—realism

— precision

—comprehensiveness

—intellectual

Definitions by some scholars

Woodrow Wilson

He was also known as the father of public administration, he defined administration as “ detailed and systematic execution of law every particular application of law is an act of administration”

LD white

In his book he has defined public administration “as a discipline which consists of all those operations having for their purpose or fulfillment or enforcement of public policy.”

Luther and gulick

Public administration is that part of the science of administration which has to do with government and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of government is done, though there are obviously problems in connection with legislative and the judiciary brances.

Herbert Simon

According to him “public administration as concerning the activities of the executing branches of the national, state and local branches.”

Nigro

he define public administration in the following words

1. it is a cooperative group efforts in a public setting

2.it covers all the three branches legislature, executive and judiciary branch and it has an important role in the formulation of public policy

1. It has an important role in the formulation of public policy and is thus it is an important part of political processes.

2. It is different in significant ways from private administration

3. it is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community.

Nicholas Henry

public administration as a device used to reconcile the bureaucracy with democracy. It is a broad ranging and amorphous combination of theory and practice, it's purpose is to promote 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.

Nature of public administration

there are two broad categorization of nature of public administration.

1. managerial (narrow )

2. integral (broader)

manegerial

managerial according to the managerial view administration comprises of the work of only those persons who are engaged in performing the managerial function in an organization that focuses principally on the planning organizing directing controlling and coordination of government operations. It believes in getting things done not doing things.

theorist who are in favor of managerial are

Henry fayol

victor Thompson

Luther gulick

robert dahl

INTEGRAL

the integral view purposes that administration that is some total of all the activities ——manual, clerical and technical and managerial

Woodrow Wilson

Dimock pfiffner

LD white