What is Public Administration?

Module 1, Basic Concepts

CRJU/POSC 320: Introduction to Public Administration

Dr. David P. Adams

What is Public Administration?

Overview

• What is public administration?
• Public vs. private administration
• Policy execution vs. policy making
• Administrative responsibility
• Accountability
• Theory and practice

What is Public Administration?

• Public administration is the study of how public organizations function and how they are managed.
• Public organizations are characterized as bureaucracies, formal rational systems with administrative authority to execute public programs.
• Bureaucracy's association with authority and accountability dates back to 14th century France.
• Civil servants play a critical role in public service.

Public vs. Private Administration

• Public administration
  • is often contrasted with private administration.
  • is concerned with the implementation of public policy.
  • involves political conflict, requiring careful management.
  • is subject to greater public scrutiny and accountability.

Public vs. Private Administration

Crucial differences: the what and how of administration

• Public organizations do the public's business—implementing public policy.
• They use different processes and work in different environments than private organizations.

Processes that make public administration different

• Career Service: Public orgs are staffed by career civil servants.
• The Bottom Line: Public orgs are not profit-driven.
• Competing Standards: Pubic orgs must balance efficiency, equity, and responsiveness.
• Public Scrutiny: Public orgs live in "fish bowls."
• Persuasion: Public managers persuade employees and balance conflicting political demands.
• Scope of Authority: Public orgs have limited authority and are required to administer programs according to law.
• Oversight: Public orgs are subject to oversight by elected officials and the public.

Policy Execution vs. Policy Making

Policy Execution

• Public administration is concerned with the implementation of public policy.
• Policy execution is the process of translating public policy into action.
  • Expanding some individuals' opportunities by extending governmental services and protections to them.
  • Regulating the behavior of individuals and organizations.
  • Redistributing resources from some individuals to others.
  • Protecting the public from harm.

Policy Making

• Public administrators help decision makers make policy in two stages:
  • Policy formulation: identifying problems and developing solutions.
  • Policy implementation: translating policy into action.

Administrative Responsibility

• Public administrators are responsible for the effective and efficient implementation of public policy.
• Complex and confining system of accountability:
  • Statutes and regulations limit administrators' discretion.
  • Legislative oversight committees monitor administrators' actions.
  • Budgetary oversight committees control administrators' resources.

Administrative Responsibility

• Commitments that shape administrative responsibility:
  • Complex web of government and a legitimate role for other parts of government, including those with legal control over administrative behavior
  • Loyalty to agency and to the programs they carry out
  • Professional civil service standards and desire to be recognized by fellow professionals outside government

Accountability

• Accountability is the obligation to explain and justify actions to some higher authority.
• Fundamental problem:
  • External controls lead to rules, standardized procedures, and red tape.
  • Internal controls can replace external oversight, but that requires trust between administrators and elected officials.

Our politics is Greek but our administration is Roman.

Theory and Practice

• Public administration is both a theoretical and practical field.
• Public administration is bound by time, place, culture, and context.
• How do we advance the field with limited generalizations?

Theory and Practice

• Universal elements
  • Independent of time, place, and political system
  • Selection, motivation, control, and coordination of human behavior
  • Budgeting, accounting, and record keeping
• There is no one best way to organize and manage public organizations.
• PA as a field of study should be neutral but reflective of its polity

Theory and Practice

What is really important?

• The theoretical and the practical
• The theorist informing the practitioner
• The practitioner informing the theorist
• For example, Public Administration Review

What is Public Administration?

Review

• What is public administration?
• Public vs. private administration
• Policy execution vs. policy making
• Administrative responsibility
• Accountability
• Theory and practice