THEORY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

I.
1. CASTINO According to Gerald Caiden (1982), public administration is founded on an
oath of allegiance to public service, backed by a stringent code of ethics, enforced by
sanctions, which is itself rooted in a philosophy of the public interest. PA is not
founded on personal interest.

2. NDDU

3. CASTINO Public administration’s nature is culture-bound because it depends upon a

particular setting, i.e. space and time. It requires modification to make it relevant or
applicable to a particular area. It is multi-disciplinary in nature because it is
borrowed from other disciplines like political science (mother discipline), sociology,
economics, psychology, history, law, etc. It is eclectic owing to its nature as a study
that deals with how to make government operation responsive to societal needs.

4. CASTINO According to Avelino Tendero (1993), the institutional approach to the

study of public administration emphasizes the formal relationships among these branches
of government on the basis of separation of powers theory and the ways of keeping
public administration responsible to the elected branch and the public as clientele.
On the other hand, the structural-descriptive approach to the study of public
administration views public administration from the standpoint of organizational
structure, functions, techniques, and procedures.

5. NDDU

6. CASTINO According to Max Weber (1922), an ideal bureaucracy is characterized by

hierarchy, division of labor, formally written rules and procedures. However, it is not
characterized by personality and partiality, but by impersonality and neutrality.

7. CASTINO New Public Management (NPM) advocates the main route to social
progress that lies in the achievement of continuing increases in economically defined
productivity through the application of ever sophisticated technologies by labor force
disciplined in accordance with the productivity ideal.

Meanwhile, New Public Administration (NPA) emphasizes social equity which refers
to the enhancement of political power and economic well-being of the
underprivileged/disadvantaged sectors of the society.

8. CASTINO Ibaliktad lang ang item number 7.

9. CASTINO According to Osborne and Gaebler (1992), reinventing government

emphasizes client-oriented administration characterized by a government that is catalytic,
community-owned, competitive, mission-driven, customer-driven, enterprising,
anticipatory, and market-oriented, but not process-oriented and centralized. Rather, it
is results-oriented and decentralized.
10. CASTINO As a counter-attack to reinventing government, Janet Denhart and Robert
Denhart (2003) presented seven arguments anchored on the postulations that the
government should serve citizens, not customers; seek the public interest; value
citizenship over entrepreneurship; think strategically, act democratically; recognize that
accountability is not simple; and serve rather than steer.

However, it is not to value productivity over people but to value people, not just
productivity.

11. CASTINO Benchmarking is not the fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of
business process to achieve dramatic improvements in critical contemporary measures of
performance such as cost, quality, service and speed. Rather, it is Reengineering.

12. NDDU

13. CASTINO The sub-fields of public administration are organization and management,
public personnel administration, public fiscal administration, and local government
administration. While its new sub-fields are policy analysis and program evaluation,
voluntary sector management, and spatial information management, and public
enterprise management.

14. CASTINO Public Management is subject to many mechanisms of control, including

those from outside the agency. It is also subject to close legislative oversight groups or
judicial orders. However, it has no clear bottom line. Profit, market performance
and survival are the bottom lines of Private Management.

15. NDDU

16. CASTINO According to Leveriza (1990) the Philippine bureaucratic behaviour is

influenced by its socio-economic structure, as well as by the traditions and cultures of the
Filipinos. According to him, however, many social scientists considered the following as
some of the four types of behaviour of the Philippine bureaucracy such as conformity to
policies, preference towards continuity and routinization, loss of self-direction or self-
assertion and politically supportive. Preference towards conformity, high self-
direction and politically unsupportive or apathetic are not types of behaviour of the
Philippine bureaucracy.

17. According to Karina David (2005), the reasons that prompted the government in pushing
for the rationalization program are: first, to make the government do the right things
(effectiveness), second, to do things in the right or best way (efficiency), third, to be able
to do the right things in the right way within affordable levels (affordability); fourth, to be
able to achieve these in the most accountable, transparent manner as possible
(accountability).
 Caveat: Note the erratum in interchange of the first 2 terms. NDDU akong answer dire
ba.

18. CASTINO Devolution is the political decentralization which essentially involves the
transfer of powers and responsibilities from national government agencies to local
governments as provided for in the Local Government Code of 1991. Deconcentration,
on the other hand, is the administrative decentralization which involves the transfer
of powers and functions of the central office of the department or ministry to its
regional and local units. It involves intra-departmental transfer.

19. CASTINO Development of Administration is a facet of development administration

that deals with those activities and processes designed to improve the capabilities of the
administrative system or public agencies involved in the development process.
Administration of Development is the facet of development administration that
covers all activities and processes involved in improving the quality of life of the
people.

20. NDDU

II.

Part A:

a. According to Caiden (1982), Public Administration (PA) refers to the implementation of

the pronouncements made by recognized public authorities, the organization of enforced
machinery to ensure public conformity, and relations between the public and public
officials appointed further collective interests. It is founded on an oath of allegiance to
public service, backed by a stringent code of ethics enforced by sanctions, which is itsel
rooted in a philosophy of the public interest. It is professional in every respect – special
training, unique skills, dedicated career service, distinct body of knowledge – and covers
proliferating professions concerned with the health of the society. Its practice is an art;
its study is a science. It can be distinguished from other disciplines in terms of function,
structure, behaviour and ecology.

b. Approaches to the Study of PA are constitutional-legal, structural-descriptive,

institutional, behavioral, systems and contigency. The scope of Philippine PA includes
classification of Philippine PA by Activities as well as classification of Philippine PA by
Programs. Classification by Activities includes government activities undertaken and
designed to protect the society as a whole, to provide assistance to economic and social
groups, exercise of proprietary and corporate powers and to regulate business, trade and
manufacturing. Classification by Programs are external, regulatory, service, development
and grants-in-aid programs. These are programs that involve trade and economic
promotions, regulate operation of business enterprises, price controls, directly affect
individual and groups, socio-economic development and subsidy funds from external
sources.
 c. Public Administration is multi-disciplinary/eclectic in nature. It is multi-disciplinary in
nature because it is borrowed from other disciplines like political science (mother
discipline), sociology, economics, psychology, history, law, etc. It is eclectic owing to its
nature as a study that deals with how to make government operation responsive to
societal needs. It is culture-bound because it depends upon a particular setting, i.e. space
and time. It requires modification to make it relevant or applicable to a particular area.

d. The significance of the praxis of public administration on the modern government’s

search for good governance are as follows: As a study, it is concerned with public
policies and programs, their formulation and implementation and the socio-cultural,
economic and political factors bearing on them. It deals with systematic study of
institutions and processes and the interplay of factors in authoritative decision making on
goals, in implementing them, and in achieving desired results. As a practice, activities
involved in carrying out or implementing the policies and programs of the government
but also to the processes and contexts of these policies and programs. It is a cooperative
human action whether within public bureaucracy, the private sector, or in non-
governmental organizations (NGO) aimed at delivering services to the people.

Part B:

#2

Criteria Public Private

Time Perspective Short time perspective (political Longer time required for market
calendar) development, technological
innovation, and organizational
building
Duration Short length of service Longer length of service
Measurement of Little agreement on standards of Many agreed standards: profitability,
Performance performance market share
Personnel Action Little or no flexibility Wide latitude
Constraints
Subject to many mechanisms of More subject to line responsibility in
control, including those from outside the company
the agency
Values Providing equity Efficiency and competitive
performance
Exposure to Public Exposed to public scrutiny and more Private process, more internal, and
open less exposed to public review
Role of Press/Media Decisions and activities under Less often reportd
constant review/monitoring by
media

Operating in a “fish bowl” (like “Hoy

Gising” of ABS-CBN or
“Imbestigador” of GMA)
Mediating Conflicting Persuasion By direction or issuance of orders
 Decisions/Pressures
Coalition of outside and inside Private managers look to higher
groups authority
Relation to Legislative Subject to close legislative oversight Not/less
and Judicial Offices groups or judicial orders
Bottom Line No clear bottom line Profit, market performance, survival

#4

Aspects Old/Classical PA Contemporary PA

A. A. Scope 1. Narrow 1. Broad
2. Internal management 2. Internal and external
3. Public defined as management
“government” 3. Public defined as
“people”
B. B. Content of PA 1. Internal management- 1. Added subjects are
oriented subjects like those needed to make
personnel governance responsive
administration, supply to societal needs like
management, records public policy studies,
management, etc. ecology of PA, etc.
C. C. View of the 1. Closed system 1. Open system –
Organization organization interacts
with the environmental
suprasystem.
D. D. Values 1. The 3 Es: Economy, 1. The 3 Es plus the ff:
Effectiveness, and social equity, relevance,
Efficiency responsiveness,
integration of individual
and organizational
needs, organizational
humanism and client-
orientedness.
E. E. Mode of Service Delivery 1. Through government 1. Through government
agencies agencies plus
private/business sector
and NGOs/Pos.

#5
A sub-field of public administration that is in line with my field of interest is Public Fiscal
Administration. Public finance belongs to a branch of economics in earlier times but with the
emergence of the field of public administration, much interest has been directed towards fiscal
administration. It covers a wide range of issues and topics affecting government operations like
taxation, public expenditures and borrowings, resource allocation, revenue administration,
intergovernmental relations and auditing (my field of work). According to Briones (1996),
public fiscal administration embraces the formulation, implementation and evaluation of policies
and decisions on taxation and revenue administration; resource allocation, budgeting, and public
expenditure; public borrowing and debt management, and accounting and auditing. It is very
relevant to the present times considering the fact that our government have introduced tax
reforms such as the TRAIN Law, and our government now has a growing external debt.
According to the Bureau of Treasury, the Philippine national government has an outstanding
external debt of P6.875 Billion as of April 2018; 35% were sourced externally while 65%
acquired locally. In line with all of these growing trends, Public Fiscal Administration is very
significant in my line of work in examining and auditing the revenues, receipts, disbursements
and expenditures of public funds and properties of the government.

#7
Yes, there is a Philippine Public Administration characterized by structures and processes. We
have an executive branch with the bureaucracy at its core. We have a Philippine legislature. We
have a Philippine judiciary. We have Philippine electoral processes and procedures. We have
Philippine sub-national institutions and local governments, together with decentralization
processes and procedures. It is within this context that we argue that indeed, we have a
Philippine public administration characterized by the presence of administrative structures and
processes operating within a unique Philippine context.

Philippine PA may have been simply reacting and following the lead of the international public
administration community because discussions focused on the evolution of the field of public
administration in general and zeroed in on the Philippines in particular. However, we have
considered the Gawad Kalinga as a model of Philippine PA and governance. GK have 3
important characteristics that embody key concepts in new public administration, reinvented
government and governance: 1) enhancement of social equity 2) effective delivery of services,
and 3) cooperation between government, business and civil society.