Author Name:   MD SAHABUDDIN MONDAL

Public Administration is a newly emerged discipline compare to other Social Sciences discipline. Public Administration has gained immense importance since the emergence of Administrative state.

Nature And Scope of Public Administration

Public Administration is a newly emerged discipline compare to other Social Science’s discipline. Public Administration has gained immense importance since the emergence of Administrative state. In Ancient Greek, Roman and Indian political system gave more importance to the concept of Administration. Kautilys’s “Arthasathra” contributed large scale in the administrative system; it deals every aspect of the state and its relation to subjects. In simple sense Public Administration is state mechanism. In every Political System administration have significant role.

Meaning of Public Administration
The word Administration has been derived from the Latin words ‘ad’ and ‘ministiare’ which means to serve. In simple language it means the ‘management of affairs’ or ‘looking after the people’. In general sense Administration can be defined as the activities of groups co-operating to accomplish common goals. It is a process of management which is practiced by all kinds of organisations from the household to the most complex system of the government. According to L. D. White, Administration was a ‘process common to all group effort, public or private, civil or military, large scale or small scale’.

Public administration is "centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behavior of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct. Generally Public Administration has been used in two senses. In the wider sense it includes all the activities of the government whether falling in the sphere of legislature, executive or judicial branch of the government, in the narrow sense Public Administration is concerned with the activities of the executive branch only.

Definitions of Public administration

Ø L D White observes, “Public Administration consist of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfilment or enforcement of public policy”.
Ø Pliffner defines It would seem that “Public Administration consists of getting the work of government done by co-ordinating the efforts of the people so that they can work together to accomplish their set tasks”.
Ø Prof: Woodrow Wilson defined Public Administration as detailed and systematic execution of public law; every particular application of general law is an act of administration.
Ø Luther Gullick ‘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 the government is done.
Ø Dwight Waldo, defines Public Administration as ‘the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of state’.

Nature of Public Administration:

There are two divergent views regarding the nature of the Public administration. These views are following·
Integral View. According to this view, Public administration is a sum total of all the activities undertaken in pursuit of and in fulfillment of public policy. These activities include not only managerial and technical but also manual and clerical. Thus the activities of all persons from top to bottom constitute administration although they are of varying significance to the running of administrative machinery. Prof: L D White adopts this view of Public administration. According to him, Public Administration ‘consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfilment or enforcement of public policy’. This definition covers a multitude of particular operations, many in fields. Another scholar Marshal E Dimock also shares the same view. He holds that administration is concerned with the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of government. The ‘what’ is the subject matter, the technical knowledge of a field which enables the administrator to perform his tasks. The ‘how’ is the technique of management, the principles according to which cooperative programmes are carried to success.

· Managerial view. According to this view, the works of only those persons who are engaged in the performance of managerial functions in an organisation constitute administration. In this managerial view the administration has the functions of planning, programming and organise all the activities in an organisation so as to achieve the desired ends. Luther Gullick and Herbert Simon subscribe this view. Gullick says ‘Administration has to do with getting things done; with the accomplishment of defined objectives’.

These two views are deals the nature of public administration. In simply the nature of Public Administration deals the execution.

Scope Of Public Administration

In the modern time Public administration have a pivotal role. There are many discussions about the scope of Public Administration, some scholars are argued that in the Neo-liberal time the scope of Public administration is very less and Private administration have growing importance. Some argues that the neo-liberal time the term Public administration has significant one because the neo liberal state has faced many problems like environmental and technological issues. The scope of Public administration deals in many ways Public Administration and People. Public Administration is an organisational effort it needed a close relation to people. In every Administrative system they have good relation between people and administrative agencies. It influenced the day to day life of the common people.

Public Administration and Democracy o In a Democratic political system scope of public administration is related in many ways. It have close link to people and at the same time they are the watch -dog of the political system. The Modern democratic state gave more important to the welfarism, In a welfare democracy the effective administration is essential.

There are many other reasons also contribute the scope of Public Administration.
Ø Development of Communication and Technology
Ø The Development of Neo-Liberal State
Ø The concept of Participatory Development
Ø Good Governance.
Ø E-Governance
Ø Environmental concerns
Ø Human rights approach
Ø New Social Movements and State

Evolution And Growth Of Public Administration

The growth of public administration has many facets. As a discipline the term Public Administration has emerged in the late 19th and beginning of 20th century. American President Woodrow Wilson contributed very much to the subject of Public Administration, he also known as the father of Public Administration. As a discipline Public Administration is not very old it is emerged during the 19th century last. During these years Public Administration has passed through several phases of development. We can broadly divide the growth of Public Administration into the following five stages.
Period I 1887 – 1926
Period II 1927 - 1937
Period III 1938 - 1947
Period IV 1948 - 1970
Period V 1971 - continuing

Period I (1887 – 1926) Public Administration Dichotomy: The discipline of Public Administration was born in the USA. The credit for initiating as an academic study of Public Administration goes to Woodrow Wilson. He is regarded as the father of the discipline of Public Administration. In his article entitled “The Study of Administration”, published in 1887, he emphasized the need for studying Public Administration as a discipline apart from politics. This is known as Principle of politic administration dichotomy, i.e., a separation of Politics and Administration. Wilson argued that, “Administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics. According to Frank J.Goodnow, politics “has to do with the expression of the state will” while administration “has to do with the execution of these policies.” In short, Goodnow posited the politics-administration dichotomy and he developed the Wilsonian theme further and greater courage and conviction.

Period II (1927 - 1937) Principles of Administration: The central belief of this period was that there are certain ‘principles’ of administration and which is the task of the scholars to discover and applied to increase the efficiency and economy of Public Administration. Scientific management handled the business of administration becomes a slogan. Administrative practitioners and business school join hands to mechanistic aspect of management. They claim that Public Administration is a science. The great depression in the America contributed a lot to the development. These periods were the golden years of ‘principles’ in the history of Public Administration. This was also a period when Public Administration commanded a high degree or respectability and its product were in great demand both in government and business.

Period III (1938 – 1947) Era of challenge: The main theme during this period was the advocacy of ‘Human Relationship Behavioural Approach’ to the study of Public Administration. The idea of administrative dichotomy was rejected. It was argued that Administration cannot be separated from politics because its political nature and role, Administration is not only concern with policy decision but it deals with the policy formulation. Similarly, the principle of Administration was challenge

Period IV (1947-1970): The mid-1940s theorists challenged Wilson and Gulick. The politics-administration dichotomy remained the center of criticism. In the 1960s and 1970s, government itself came under fire as ineffective, inefficient, and largely a wasted effort. There was a call by citizens for efficient administration to replace ineffective, wasteful bureaucracy. Public administration would have to distance itself from politics to answer this call and remain effective. Concurrently, after World War II, the whole concept of public administration expanded to include policy-making and analysis, thus the study of ‘administrative policy making and analyses was introduced and enhanced into the government decision-making bodies. Later on, the human factor became a predominant concern and emphasis in the study of Public Administration. This period witnessed the development and inclusion of other social sciences knowledge, predominantly, psychology, anthropology, and sociology, into the study of public administration. Fritz Morstein Marx with his book ‘The Elements of Public Administration’ (1946), Paul H. Appleby ‘Policy and Administration’ (1952), Frank Marini ‘Towards a New Public Administration’ (1971), and others that have contributed positively in these endeavors.

Period V (1971) Continuing:- After the 1970s the evolution of Public Administration has gained new ways. The emergence of Development Administration, Comparative Public administration and New Public Administration etc were contributed to the evolution of Public Administration. The emergence of globalization further contributed to this growth.

Development of Public Administration:-

The term Development administration first coined by U L Goswami in 1955, however the term popularised by F W Riggs, Joseph La Palambara etc. The emergence of welfare state and the end of colonial era are the two significant factors contributed to the concept. The third world countries were moved to underdevelopment to development, these countries face many problems in this time. Development administration is focussed to their administrative problems.

Development administration is process of guiding an organization toward the achievement of progressive political, economic and social objectives that are authoritatively determined one manner the other. Development administration is concerned with following matters
1. The formulation and implementation of plans, policies, programmes and projects for national development.
2. D A focussed to the national development; it is ‘action oriented’ and ‘goal oriented’ administrative system.
3. Socio-economic change
4. Time Frame work
5. Client Orientation
6. Goal Orientation and innovation

Significance of Public Administration

In a modern democratic welfare State, the Government has to provide many services for the welfare of its citizens. It includes the provision of schooling, medical facilities and social security measures. With the breakdown of joint families, the problem of looking after the old and infants, orphans and widows comes up. With the slowing of economic activity, the problem of unemployed youth crops up. The development process brings up many new problems like those of urban slums and juvenile delinquents. The welfare State has to identify these problems and devise solutions for them. The formulation of these schemes and their implementation is another significant function of public administration. The public administration is thus not only a protector of citizens from external dangers or internal disorders, but has become the greatest provider of various services. The welfare of the people depends very much on the way the public administration functions. No wonder today’s state has been called an “Administrate State”. Prof. V.V. Donham has rightly said, “if our civilization fails, it will be mainly because of administration”.

Conclusion :-
In the light of the above discussions, the following two conclusions may be arrive at:
1. There are strong reasons to believe that Pubic Administration is both – a ‘Science” and an “Art” i.e. though it can make predictions, the predictions are not absolutely correct. It also mean that a contingency approach is required in the practice of administration i.e. there is a need to modify the science of administration to suit the situation and then apply it. The ability to modify it and to apply it is an art.

2. The word “Science” could be used here in the connotation of a ‘social Science’. It has the traits of a science since predictability is there though limited only up to some degree. Hence one can say that the methodology applied in Public Administration is scientific while its application is an art.

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