New Perspectives in Public Administration
Public Administration has developed as an academic discipline through a succession of a number of paradigms. Over years, the scope of the discipline of the Public Administration got widened with efforts made to relate it to other social sciences such as economics, political science, sociology, psychology, etc. All these efforts resulted in the evolution of new perspectives in the study of Public Administration.
Public Administration can be also be studied with the following new perspectives -
- Public Administration as an instrument
- Public Administration as an institution
- Public Administration as an agency
Public Administration as an Instrument
This perspectives views Public Administration as a means only for implementation of policies.
Political System (Government) is political executives. They are non-permanent, i.e., elected → They made policies
Administrators are permanent executives, i.e., they are selected/appointed. → They implement the policies.
Public Administration as an instrument
It means that the administration is not an independent system rather it works under the control and guidance of political system.
In fact, it assumed that the Public Administration does not have any inherent power/authority of its own. It derives its power from the political system.
The entire content of the Public Administration derives from the very idea that independent existence of administration is neither desirable nor accpetable.
Public Administration as an Institution
Public Administration as an institution perspective is a symbolic phrase for indicating the growing power of the administration vis-à-vis the political system.
In fact, under the idea of citizen sovereignty within a democracy, the political system as well as the administration must serve the needs of the citizen but in reality it is the other way.
The government and the administration are engaged in a nexus formation, i.e., they formed a 'Politics-Administration Cartel' where both are fulfilling their individual interests mutually.
Theoretically, in India the Public Administration is like an instrument (in structure) but in reality Public Administration now becomes an institution (in behaviour) which is not desirable.
Public Administration as an Agency
Principal-Agent approach
Principal (Citizen) → agent (Government) → agent (Administration)
As Administration is more close to the citizen, it is more informed. Thus, this creates a asymmetry of powers between government and the administration because of asymmetry of information.
(More informed → more powerful & can easily manipulate the information)
That's why RTI Act 2005 was passed, so that citizen can also get information about the government and its schemes directly.
Question for practice
What are the various perspectives to the study of Public Administration? Which of the following would be more suitable to understand the role of administration in developing society?
The term Administration is derived from words 'Ad' and 'Ministiare' which means 'to serve'. Thus the term public administration in general means 'to serve or look after people or citizen'.
As the scope of public administration is very dynamic, various theories and perspectives have been put forwarded over a period of time. Some of them are as follows -
- Narrow vs Broader view
- Theory vs Practice approach (i.e., Science vs Arts)
- Francophone and Anglophone approach
- Public Administration as an Organisation
- Public Administration as a Function
- Public Administration as Behaviour
- Public Administration as an Instrument
- Public Administration as an Institution
- Public Administration as an Agency
As the administration acts as a link between government and citizen, it played a very crucial role in the development, particularly in developing society/country like India.
Role of Public Administration in developing countries
- Political role - Since the political leaders are considered as layman and are not capable of making pragmatic and realistic policies, so Public Administration plays an important role in the formulation of policies.
- It plays an important role in removing poverty, social illness, disparities, etc prevalent in the society.
- It plays a crucial role in nation building.
- Role in the establishment in democracy - The ideals of democracy was implemented on the ground level by Public Administration.
As every perspectives of Public Administration explains different dimensions of Public Administration and also because of the polyglot nature of the Public Administration, a single approach of Public Administration would not completely define the role of Public Administration.
For example - The narrow perspective of Public Administration deals only with the interaction of executive-administrator and implementation but its role is not limited only to the implementation; it played important role in legislature as well as in judiciary which covers under Broader perspective but it does not take into account the functional and behavioural aspect of Public Administration.
Thus, there is no such defined perspective of Public Administration which covers all the roles of Public Administration. Also the nature of Public Administration is very dynamic, so its role also keeps changing (Administrative Darwinism).
Dwight Waldo commented that it is better that Public Administration should not be defined since definition instead of providing clarity are more confusing and are restricted to limited perspective.
The above remark of Waldo clearly indicates the polyglot nature of Public Administration.
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Notes on other subjects
Optional Notes
Note - This is my Vision IAS Notes (Vision IAS Class Notes) and Ashutosh Pandey Sir's Public Administration Class notes. I've also added some of the information on my own.
Hope! It will help you to achieve your dream of getting selected in Civil Services Examination 👍
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