This presentation shows the relation of Public Administration with other disciplines like sociology, psychology, history,law etc. from the academic point of view.

1. This Session Covers...
•PA with political science
•Pa with Economics
•PA with Sociology
•PA with Anthropology
•PA with Law
•PA with Psychology
•Is PA Science or Art?
Relation of PA with Other Social Science

2.  PA can be called as son of PS.
 It’s a must for the students of PA and PS to know
well about the constitution
 Without Knowing good PS one can’t say that he
knows good about PA.
 To play the role of a civil servant one must know
about the country’s constitution,type pf govt and the
purpose of govt.
 According to Plato, “A sound mind lives in a
healthy body”. In order to be a good civil servant
one has to be combined of sound mind and helathy
body.

3.  Scope: Wider vs Narrow
 Theoretical vs Practical
 Abstract vs Concrete
 PS deals with struggles for securing and retaining
power whereas PA concerns itself with the use of power
in realizing the goals of state policies.

4.  Finance is the fuel of the engine of PA.
 Corporation is nothing but a business in public sector.
 Budgeting is dependent on the economy of a country.
 Many areas of study covered in PA are economic in
nature. For instance, Common areas of study are: Public
finance, planning-programming-budgeting-
system(PPBS), economic planning, management of
public enterprises and so on.
 PA is dominated by economic problems such as:
poverty, unemployment, inflation, depression etc.

5.  Economics differ from PA in certain aspects.
 Economics deal with things while PA deals
with management of human affairs in society.
 Economics can be neutral between ends but PA
can’t maintain neutrality all the time. PA is
concerned with values.

6. PA with Sociology
 Sociology is a science of society and PA should remain in
the society.
 Sociology’s scopes are wider than PA.
 PA can also influence the culture of a society.
 PA is also known as bureaucracy and bureaucracy comes
from sociology.
 Max Weber was a sociologist and he mainly gave his
bureaucracy related theory from social point of view.
 Organization, association, alienation all these things are
related with sociology and it also comes in work with PA.
 The most important criteria in analytical sociology is group
and group is also important in PA.

7. Continued...
 Popular topics in PA like bureaucracy, authority,
power, formal and informal organizations, association,
alienation, social change, organizational and cultural
conflicts etc. Resembles to the topics of sociology.
 Sociological theories are widely used in PA. Such as:
Elite theory, positivism, Interpretive theory, action
theory, critical theory etc.
 Change is inevitable in both discipline. “Change is the
most unchangeable thing.

8. Anthropology and PA
 Anthropology shows –
1. Biological aspects of men
2. Socio – cultural aspects of men.
There are 3 parts in socio-cultural anthropology.
1. Ethonology: Science of people and their culture and life
histories of groups irrespective of their degrees of
advancement.
2. Archaeology: The science of what is old in the careers of
humanity, especially as revealed by the excavations of pre-
historical importance.
# Melting pot – creating homogenous mixture
# Research aboout Ethnomethodology, Phenomenology etc.

9. Continued...
3. Linguistics: The study of language in its widest
sense, in every aspect and in all its varieties but with
its main accent on the language of the primitive
people.
Analytical Tools: Race, kinship, brokerage, patron –
client , model.

10. PA with Law
 Parent Law
 Child Law
Delegated Legislation: Laws formulated by the public
administartors. Some powers of parliament members are
delegated to the public administrators to discrete the laws.
• These are minor laws. Constitutional law is the supreme law
of the state.Any law which is contradictory with
constitutional law can’t be accepted.
• When a situation arises the whole matter may not be
described in the supreme law.Then the administraors apply
administrative discretion.
• When civil service holders have different laws than the
general people laws in any country, the country is called
Ádministrative Law Country.’

11. Continued...
 Having different setup of laws is known as
“Droit Administratif” – taken from French
Administration.
 Rule of law, judicial review and many other
realated terms.

12. PA with Psychology
• The 4 themes of psychology which are mainly
related to PA are:
• Personality – The main aspect of Psychology. It is
very important in PA.
• Motivation – Essential in PA. There are several
theories of motivation which are the concerns of PA.
• Perception/cognition – Different perceptions of
different administrators play important role in PA.
• Attitude – Attitude is a major concern of Psychology
and the attitude of administrators effects
administration highly.

13. Is PA Arts or Science
PA as an Art:
 Art is skillful and synthesized practice. Practical skill
applied in producing something beautiful
 E.N. Gladden, “Administration is a distinct activity
calling for specialized knowledge and techniques.”
 PA is definitely an art and it is rarely challenged.
 A successful administration is also a skillfull art.

14. Continued...
PA as a Science:
 Science is of two types: Exact sciences like Physics ,
Chemistry etc. And Inexact sciences like economics,
politics etc.
 Science, in narrower sense a systematizied body of
knowledge characterized by the ability to formulate
accurate general principles on the basis of which results
can largely be predicted. In this sense PA is not a science.
 In wider sense, science is a systematized body of
knowledge deprived from experience and observation. In
this sense PA is a science.

15. Continued...
 Arguments in favour of PA as Science
 Exponent – Charles A. Beard, Luther Gullick.
 Self conscious study, independent field of study.
 PA has developed a set of principles which possess a
fair degree of exactness and certainty.
 PA can be studied by employing scientific methods of
investigation. Besides behiavioral and comparative
methods sophisticated statistical techniques and
computer technologies are also used.

16.  Arguments against PA as a Science:
 Exponent – Herbert Simon, Robert Dahl.
 Principles are mere proverbs. Scientific basis are
questioned and mutually contradictory.
Unscientific principles without universal validity.
 PA isn’t value free, so it can’t be science.
 PA deals with certain aspects of human behavior
which can’t be examined in controlled
experiments in a library setting.
 Influence of cultural factors. Robert Dahl, “PA
can’t claim the status of science, unless it is
studied on a comparative basis.”

17.  To conclude, PA is not exact but inexact
social science. Systematized body of
principles represent science and the ability to
apply the theories correctly is the art of
administration.
 At last, we can say that PA is the science and
art of management.

18. References:
 S. Polinaido – Public Administration. Chapter
6.
 P.B. Rathod – Contemporary Public
Administration.
 Internet.

21. Md. Mahtab Uddin
Dept. of Public Administration, University of
Chittagong.
Session: 2016-17