Business and Government

Relations (Bus 401)

Introduction to Public
Administration
Chapter One

Definitions of Public Administration

Public administration is both an academic discipline

and a field of practice;
Public administration houses the implementation of
government policy and an academic discipline that
studies this implementation and that prepares civil
servants for this work
As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its
fundamental goal is to advance management and
policies so that government can function.
2

Public Administration: more definition

The management of public programs

Translation of politics into the reality that citizens
see every day
The study of government decision making, the analysis of
the policies themselves, the various inputs that have
produced them, and the inputs necessary to produce
alternative policies
Public administrators are public servants working in public
departments and agencies, at all levels of government.
3

Government, Governance and Politics

1) Government
a) Is the legal entity that is charged by a constitution to make
and enforce laws and exercise the highest authority among
human institutions (state or local government).
b) The word originated in the Greek term for the pilot of a
ship, suggesting that to govern is to steer a society's
development and make choices that shape its future.
2) Governance
Recently, the term governance means a cooperative process
with many partners, both within and outside governments,
who interact to determine policy choices and their
implementation.

Definitions of Government, Governance and

Politics
3) Politics
We can think of politics as conflict and cooperation
over the distribution of benefits and costs in society,
which entail the exercise of power by those with the
ability to influence public choices.
Politics is concerned with "who gets what, when how"
in a society.
Experience has made it clear, though, that politics
appears wherever there is disagreement over goals and
means, even over the finest details.
5

Definitions of Government, Governance and

Politics
Public Policies
A policy is a plan that guides the actions taken by a person or
group. Public purposes must be framed in specific policies to
have any effect on the nation's life. These policies are the
choices of actions intended to serve these purposes. They
therefore target a desired outcome and the means for its
achievement.
The Policy Cycle
The bottom line of public administration is making public
policy work, its implementation. This is, most simply, a cycle
with three basic stages.
6

Definitions of Government, Governance and

Politics
The first stage
This refers to embody the public purposes in specific
programs, with budgets, responsible agencies, and legal
powers.
The second stage
Is the application of those program resources to the target
populations. This calls for management skills (POSDCORB).
These functions encompass all the actions that meet a
program's objectives.
7

Definitions of Government, Governance and

Politics

The third step the public policy reaches the highest point
with outcomes and impacts. An outcome, is the specific
result of the program on the targeted situation; an impact
is the broader change achieved by the program along
with other public and private efforts over a period of
time.

The Tools of Public Policy

Governments can use many instruments to implement
policies, and the choice of one or another can be vital to a
program's success. We refer to these instruments as tools,
each with its unique political and administrative features.
Each of these tools consists of:
1) A tangible good or activity that government provides to
citizens, (such as public school teaching, mail delivery by
the public postal service, inspection of food....)
2) A means by which it is delivered to those who benefit from
it, cash payments to individuals (such as pensions and
social assistance to low-income families, and subsidizing of
basic goods and services.)
A body of rules and policies that control its delivery and use.

The Tools of Public Policy

3) Enable citizens to act in publicly desirable ways. One
example is the deduction taxable income for
contributions to charitable organizations, intended to
encourage private contributions to social services.
4) Encourage private organizations to provide desired services
with financial support and legal authority.

10

The Essential Public Purposes

1.

Public Purpose

Example

Protect the lives, property, and

rights of citizens

National defense Public health and

disease control Police and fire
protection Workplace safety
Antidiscrimination regulations

2. Maintain or ensure the supply of

essential resources

Protection of oil imports Emergency

food supplies Water, electricity, and
gas supplies

3. Support persons who are unable

to care for themselves

Pensions for retired and disabled

people Homes and therapy for the
disabled Foster homes for children
Unemployment compensation
11

The Essential Public Purposes

Public Purpose

Example

4. Promote steady and balanced

economic growth

Interest rate regulation Financing for

new businesses Promotion of
international trade Employment-skills
training Construction of transportation
facilities Local development of
business and jobs

5. Promote quality of life and

personal opportunity to succeed

Education, early childhood to adult

Housing assistance Cultural amenities
Recreational facilities
12

The Essential Public Purposes

6.

Public Purpose

Example

Protect natural environment

Conservation of water and soils Wildlife

protection Pollution control Waste
management

7. Promote scientific and

technological advancement

Patents for inventions Medical research

Space exploration Agricultural
improvement

13

Challenges facing the Public Sector

1. Growth and Complexity of Government

As governments responded to the expansion of public
purposes, they themselves grew in size and complexity.
We can attribute this growth in government to urbanizing
and industrializing with technologies that closely link
widely dispersed areas, and due to citizens often view
government as the problem solver of last resort.

14

Challenges facing the Public Sector

2. Enhancing the understanding of ethical values of

government system wide and provide incentives to practice
them creatively and consistently.
3. The Principal-Agent Relationship (customer or clientagent relationship).
4. The new public service movement
a- serve, rather than steer
b- creation of shared interests and shared
responsibility
c- Think strategically, act democratically
15

Challenges facing the Public Sector

d- Serve citizens, not customers, they should be attentive to

more than the market; they should also attend to
constitutional law, community values, political norms,
professional standards, and citizen interests.
e- Treat citizens with respect so that they treat you with
respect, too.
5. Citizen participation in decision making (political,
economic, and social decisions.)
6. Applying the e-government and e-governance within
todays technological dynamic world.
16

Contrasting Business and Public

Administration
Most observers would agree that the primary distinction
between business and private service is primarily
concerned with making a profit, while public service is
concerned with delivering services or regulating
individual or group behavior in the public interest.
There are 3 apparent differences beside the above
mentioned:
1. Ambiguity
difficulty of measurement of many outputs in
terms of financial bottom line.
17

Contrasting Business and Public

Administration
2. Pluralistic Decision Making
In public and non-profit organizations, decision
making require input from many diverse groups and
organizations.
3. Visibility
The public service in a democratic society is
subject to constant scrutiny by both the press
and the public.
18

The Tension that public Administration is

living now-a- days

1. Efficiency versus Responsiveness

Those in public administration have long wrestled with the
issues of politics and administration, and democracy and
bureaucracy, public managers have begun to experience these
tensions more frequently in the day-to-day problems they face in
terms of efficiency versus responsiveness. On one hand, there is
there is the hope that public and nonprofit organizations will
operate in the most efficient way possible, getting things done
quickly and at the least cost to taxpayers and donors. On the
other hand, public managers must be constantly attentive to the
demands of the citizen, whether those demands are expressed
through the chief executive, through the legislature, or directly.

The Tension that public Administration is

living now-a- days

2. Bureaucracy versus Democracy

Early discussions of public administration raised a problem had
to do with the potential for conflict between democracy and
bureaucracy as following points explain:
The development of the individual is the primary goal of a
democratic political system. In contrast to the democratic value
of individuality, there stood the bureaucratic value of the group
or organization.

20

The Tension that public Administration is

living now-a- days

All persons created equal, that differences in wealth, status, or

position should not give one person or group an advantage
over another. In contrast to the democratic values of equality,
there stood the bureaucratic hierarchy.
Democratic morality emphasizes widespread participation
among the citizens in the making of major decisions.
And in contrast to the democratic values of participation and
involvement, there stood the bureaucratic value of top-down
decision making and authority.
21

The Tension that public Administration is

living now-a- days
Set against these tenets of democracy are the ideals of
bureaucratic management:
The early scholars and practitioners in public administration
were, of course, writing at a time when businesses were
growing rapidly and beginning to use more complicated
technologies and new ways of organizing appropriate to
those technologies. To some extent the public sector looked to
the field of business for models of organization.

22

The Tension that public Administration is

living now-a- days
They found that the growth of large-scale business had led to
the development of large and complex bureaucratic
organizations, organizations that were built around values
quite different from those of democracy. (Although the term
bureaucracy is often used in a pejorative sense, but we here
are using it in a neutral and scientific sense: a way of
organizing work). The values of bureaucracy included first the
need to bring together the work of many individuals in order to
achieve purposes far beyond the capabilities of any single
individual. Also, bureaucratic systems were to be structured
hierarchically, with those at the top having far greater power
and discretion than those at the bottom. (Top Down chain of23