Public Policy,
Administration and
Governance
Defining Public
Policy
Course Outline
Introduction
• Origin of the State
• Police State vs. Welfare State
• Types of Public Policies
• Public Policy – Interdisciplinary in Nature
• Connection of Public Policy and Political Science
Concept of Public Policy
• The Concept of ‘Public’ means that there is an area or domain of life, which is not
private or purely individual, but held in common.
• Policy is nothing else but a declaration of goals/course of action/general purpose/an
authoritative decision.
Key Attributes of Public Policy
Birkland
1. Policy is made in response to some sort of problem that requires attention.
2. Policy is made on the behalf of ‘Public’.
3. Policy is oriented towards a goal or desired state, such as the solution of a problem.
4. Policy is ultimately made by government.
5. Policy is interpreted and implemented by public and private actors.
6. Policy is what the government choses to do or not to do.
Definitions of Public Policy
• Cochran and Malone: Public Policy refers to the study of government decisions and
actions designed to deal with a matter of public concern.
• Guy Peters: Public Policy is the sum of government activities, whether acting
directly or through agents, as it has an influence on the life of citizens.
• Birkland: Public Policy is a statement by government – at whatever level – of what it
intends to do about a public problem.
• David Easton: Public Policy is the authoritative allocation of values for the whole
society.
• Dye: Public Policy is whether governments choose to do or not to do.
Nature of Public Policy
Nature
General or Broad or Simple or Public or Written or Discretionary Qualitative or
Specific Narrow Complex Private Unwritten or Detailed Quantitative
Nature of Public Policy
• Public Policy is an Art as well as a Craft.
• Two Broad Categories i.e. Definite/Specific Policies and General/Vague/Inconsistent
Policies
• Action without a policy, Policy without an Action
• Overlapping Nature of Policies
• Mega Policies
• Policy may be either positive or negative in nature
• Public policies sometimes have a legally coercive quality that citizens accept as
legitimate.
Scope and Utility of Public Policy
1. Increase in the role of government.
2. Increase in complexities related to technology, social organization, industrialization
and urbanization.
3. Utilization of Resources
4. Economic Development
5. Aim of Social Justice
6. Ensuring Environmental Sustainability
7. Maintaining National Security
8. Development
Public
Administration
Course Outline
Introduction
What is Administration?
• Herbert A. Simmon: In its broadest sense, administration can be defined as the
activities of groups cooperating to accomplish common goals.
• Felix A. Nigro: Administration is the organization and use of men and materials to
accomplish a purpose.
• Pfiffener: Administration is the organization and direction of human and material
resources to achieve desired ends.
• LD White: The art of administration is the direction, co-ordination and control of
many persons to achieve some purpose or objective.
• Note: Broad and Narrow Interpretation of Public Administration
Introduction
Administration, Organization and Management
• Distinction by William Schulze
• Administration is the force which lays down the object for which an organization
and its management are to strive and the broad policies under which they are to
operate.
• An organization is a combination of the necessary human beings, materials, tools,
equipment and working space brought together in systematic and effective co-
relation to accomplish some desired object.
• Management is that which leads, guides and directs an organization for the
accomplishment of a pre-determined object.
Nature of Public Administration
Nature
Integral Manageri
View al View
Introduction
Integral View
• Public administration includes all activities which are undertaken to accomplish the
given objective.
• It is sum total of managerial, technical, clerical and manual activities.
• Constitutes activities of all persons from top to bottom.
• Thinkers: LD White and Dimock
Introduction
Managerial View
• Includes only managerial activities and not the technical, clerical and manual
activities.
• Constitutes the activities of only the top persons
• Thinkers: Simon, Smithburg, Thompson and Luther Gulick
Scope of Public Administration
POSDCORB View
• P – Planning
• O – Organizing
• S – Staffing
• D – Directing
• Co – Coordinating
• R – Reporting
• B – Budgeting
Scope of Public Administration
Subject Matter View
• POSDCORB advocates that the problems of administration are same in all the
agencies regardless of the peculiar function they perform.
• It overlooks the fact that different administrative agencies are faced with different
functions
• POSDCORB represents only tools of the Administration.
• Each agency has its own local ‘POSDCORB’
• POSDCORB is technique oriented rather than subject oriented
Significance of Public Administration
General
1. Basis of each government
2. Instrument for executing the laws, policies and programmes
3. Instrument for social change and economic development
4. Instrument of National Integration
5. Instrument of State to provide services
6. Stabilising force in the society
Significance of Public Administration
Gerald Caiden – The Dynamics of Public Administration
1. Preservation of the Polity
2. Maintenance of Stability and Order
3. Institutionalization of Socio-Economic Changes
4. Management of Large-Scale Commercial Services
5. Ensuring growth and economic development
6. Protection of the weaker sections of society
7. Formation of Public Opinion
8. Influencing Public Policies and Political Trends
Significance of Public Administration
Traditionally, the role of public administration in the society has been limited. But in
contemporary society, its role has increased manifolds. Justify.
Significance of Public Administration
Why?
Big Governments
Industrial Revolution
Welfare State
Economic Planning by Modern Government
Population Explosion
Increase in Natural Calamities
Decline in Social Harmony and Increase in Violence
Que. What is the impact of Privatization on Public Administration?
Evolution of the Discipline
Introduction
• Public Administration as an aspect of governmental activity and as Subject.
• Kautilya’s Arthashastra, Aristotle’s Politics and Machiavelli’s The Prince.
• Charles Jean Bounin’s Principles de Administration Publique (1812) in French is
considered as the First separate treatise on the subject of Public Administration.
• Public Administration as a Separate Subject in USA
Evolution of the Discipline
Stage I: Politics-Administration Dichotomy (1887-1926)
• Advocacy for the separation of politics from administration
• Woodrow Wilson’s essay – The Study of Administration
• Wilson – Politics is concerned with policymaking while administration is concerned
with the implementation of policy decisions.
• Wilson described Public Administration as a field of business.
• Wilson believed Administration is a Science.
• Other Thinkers: Frank J Goodnow and LD White
Evolution of the Discipline
Stage II: Principles of Administration (1927 – 1937)
• Principles of administration could be discovered and applied to increase the
efficiency.
• Administration is Administration irrespective of the nature and context of work
because the principles of administration have universal validity and relevancy.
Evolution of the Discipline
Stage III: Era of Challenges (1938-1947)
• Advocacy of ‘Human Relations – Behavioural Approach’
• Politics-Administration Dichotomy was rejected.
• Principles of administration – No scientific validity and No universal relevancy.
• Hawthorne Studies (1924-1932) conducted under the leadership of Elton Mayo –
Human Relations Theory of Organization
Evolution of the Discipline
Stage III: Era of Challenges (1938-1947)
• Robert Dahl observed, “We are a long way from a Science of Public Administration.
No Science of Public Administration is possible unless:”
• a. The place of normative values is made clear
• b. The nature of man in the area of public administration is better
understood and his conduct is more predictable
• c. There is a body of comparative studies beyond national boundaries and
peculiar historical experiences
• Robert Dahl believed that public administration cannot escape the effects of national
psychology and social, political and cultural environment in which it develops.
Evolution of the Discipline
Stage IV: Crisis of Identity (1948-1970)
With the rejection of politics-administration dichotomy and principles of
administration, public administration suffered from the crisis of identity.
• Scholars reacted in two ways:
1. Some returned back to the field of Political Science.
John Gaus in his article entitled Trends in the Theory of Public
Administration (1950) developed a thesis that “a theory of Public Administration in our
time a theory of politics also.”
Rosco Martin in his 1952 article called for continued “dominion of political
science over public administration.”
2. Some others moved towards the administrative science
Evolution of the Discipline
Stage V: Public Policy Perspective (1971-Continuing)
• Fields of Policy Sciences, Political Economy, Policy Making, Policy Analysis and so on.
• Reason: Politics – Administration Dichotomy was abandoned
• Robert T. Golembiewski – Public Policy stage in the evolution of public administration
is built upon two basic themes:
i. Interrelation of Politics and Administration at all or many levels
ii. Programmatic Character of all administration.
• With the adoption of Public Policy approach, Public Administration has become inter-
disciplinary, gained in social relevance and expanded its scope.