The Changing Definitions of Public Administration (1800 - 2000)

2. Lorenz von Stein (1855)
• A German professor from Vienna, is considered the
founder of the science of public administration in many
parts of the world. In the time of Von Stein, public
administration was considered a form of administrative
law, but Von Stein believed this concept too restrictive.
• Von Stein taught that public administration relies on many
pre-established disciplines such as sociology, political
science, administrative law and public finance. He called
public administration an integrating science, and stated
that public administrators should be concerned with both
theory and practice. He argued that public administration
is a science because knowledge is generated and
evaluated according to the scientific method.

3. In the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson
is considered the father of public administration. He
first formally recognized public administration in an
1887 article entitled "The Study of Administration."
The future president wrote that "it is the object of
administrative study to discover, first, what
government can properly and successfully do, and,
secondly, how it can do these proper things with the
utmost possible efficiency and at the least possible
cost either of money or of energy”.
Woodrow Wilson 1887

4. “Public Administration is the
detailed and systematic execution of
public law”
(Wilson. The Study of Administration, 1887)

5. Wilson was more influential to the science of public
administration than Von Stein, primarily due to an article Wilson
wrote in 1887 in which he advocated four concepts:
• Separation of politics and administration;
• Comparative analysis of political and private organizations;
• Improving efficiency with business-like practices and attitudes
toward daily operations;
• Improving the effectiveness of public service through
management and by training civil servants, merit-based
assessment;
• The separation of politics and administration has been the
subject of lasting debate. The different perspectives regarding
this dichotomy contribute to differentiating characteristics of the
suggested generations of public administration.

6. By the 1920s, A few distinguished scholars of that
period were, Luther Gulick, Lyndall Urwick, Henri
Fayol, Frederick Taylor, and others. Frederick Taylor
(1856-1915), another prominent scholar in the field of
administration and management also published a book
entitled ‘The Principles of Scientific Management’ (1911).
He believed that scientific analysis would lead to the
discovery of the ‘one best way’ to do things and /or
carrying out an operation. This, according to him could
help save cost and time. Taylor’s technique was later
introduced to private industrialists, and later into the
various government organizations (Thalassinos, 2012).
Luther Gulick, Lyndall Urwick, Henri Fayol, Frederick
Taylor, and others. Frederick Taylor (1856-1915),

7. Public Administration embraces every
area and activity governed by public policy
including the formal processes and
operations through which legislative
exercises its power, the functions of the
courts in the administration of justice and
work of military agencies
(Fritz Morstein Elements of Public Administration (1946 p.6)

8. By established usage, however, public
administration has come to signify
primarily the organization, personnel,
practices and procedures essential to
effective performance of the civilian
functions entrusted to the executive
branch of government
(Fritz Morstein. Elements of Public Administration. 1946 p.6)

9. “Public Administration refers to the activities
of the executive branches of national, state
and local governments; independent boards
and commissions; and certain agencies of a
specialized character, specifically excluded
are judicial and legislative agencies within the
government…”
(Simon, et. al., Public Administration, 1950. emphasis supplied)

10. The emergence of scholars such as, 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.
• Public administration can be defined as a
department in the executive arm of government
responsible for the formulating and implementation
of government policies and programmes.
Fritz Morstein n(1946), Paul H. Appleby (1952)
and Frank Marini (1971)

11. “The composite of all the laws,
regulations, practices, relationships,
codes, and customs that prevail at
any time in any jurisdiction for the
fulfillment and execution of public
policy …”
[Leonard White. Introduction to the Study of Public Administration. (4th ed.
1955. p. 2)]

12. Public Administration
1. is a cooperative group effort in public
setting;
2. Covers all three branches –
executive, legislative, and judicial and
their interrelationships;
3.Has an important role in the
formulation of public policy and is thus
part of political process
(Nigro and Nigro. Modern Public Administration. 1977. p. 18)

13. 4. Is different from significant ways from
private administration; and
5. Is closely associated with numerous
private groups and individuals in
providing services to the community
(Nigro and Nigro. Modern Public Administration. 1977. p. 18)

14. • In the late 1980s, yet another generation of
public administration theorists began to
displace the last. The new theory, which came
to be called New Public, was proposed by
David Osborne and Ted Gaebler in their book
Reinventing Government. The new model
advocated the use of private sector-style
models, organizational ideas and values to
improve the efficiency and service-orientation
of the public sector.

15. Public Administration is the use of
managerial, political and legal theories
and processes to fulfill legislative,
executive, and judicial governmental
mandates for the provision of regulatory
and service functions for the society as a
whole or for some segments of it.
(Rosenbloom. Public Administration: Understanding Management, Politics, and Law in the
Public Sector. 1986. p.6)

16. • Public Administration is a broad – ranging and
amorphous (unstructured) combination of theory
and practice
• Its purpose is to promote a superior understanding
of government and its relationship with the society
it governs, as well as to encourage public policies
more responsive to social needs
• It seeks to institute managerial practices attuned to
effectiveness, efficiency and fulfillment of deeper
human requisites of the citizenry
(Nicolas Henry. Public Administration and Public Affairs. 1989. p. 20)

17. • In the late 1990s, Janet and Robert Denhardt proposed
a new public services model in response to the
dominance of NPM. A successor to NPM is digital era
governance, focusing on themes of reintegrating
government responsibilities, needs-based holism
(executing duties in cursive ways), and digitalization
(exploiting the transformational capabilities of modern
IT and digital storage).
• One example of this is openforum.com.au, an
Australian non-for-pronvites politicians, senior public
servants, academics, business people and other key
stakeholders to engage in high-level policy debate.

18. In 1990s to 2000. New public service model is
what has been called New Public Governance,
an approach which includes a centralization of
power; an increased number, role and influence
of partisan-political staff; personal-politicization of
appointments to the senior public service; and,
the assumption that the public service is
promiscuously partisan for the government of the
day.

19. Reference
Prof. El Thalassinos and Chair Jean Monnet (2012) Public
Administration: Theory and Practice University of Piraeus
Editor, ERSJ, IJEBA
Prof Danilo R. Reyes (2012) The Changing Definitions of
Public Administration. National College of Public Administration
and Governance. University of the Philippines