Definition & Concepts of Public Administration

1. The Concepts
of Public Administration
Lecture 1

2. The Concept of Public Administration
Administration
Luther Gulick
Administration has to do with getting things done; with the accomplishment of defined
objectives.
Dwight Waldo
Administration is a type of co-operative human effort that has a high degree of
rationality.
George E. Berkley
Administration is a process involving human beings jointly engaged in work-ing towards
common goals.
Keith Henderson
Administration is the arrangement of men and materials in the rational carry-ing out
purposes.
Two essential elements of administration:
 collective effort
 common purpose

3. The Concept of Public Administration
Administration is an universal process and occurs in
diverse institutional settings. Based on its institutional
settings, administration is divided into:
 public administration (refers to the administration
which operates in governmental setting)
 private administration (refers to the administration
which operates in non-governmental setting)

4. The Concept of Public Administration
Public Administration
Woodrow Wilson
Public administration is a detailed and systematic execution of law. Every
particular application of law is an act of administration.
Administration is the most obvious part of the government; it is the government
in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most visible part of the
government.
Edgar N. Gladden
Public administration is concerned with the administration of the government.
Leonard D. White
Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the
fulfillment or enforcement of public policy.
Marshall E. Dimock
Public administration is the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy as de-clared
by the competent authorities. It deals with the problems and powers of the
organizations and techniques of management involved in carrying out the law and
policies formulated by the policy-making agencies of government. Public
administration is the law in action. It is the executive side of a govern-ment.

5. The Concept of Public Administration
Felix A. Nigro
Public administration: (1) is a cooperative group effort in a 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 a political process; (4) is different in significant ways from
private administration; and (5) is closely associated with numerous private
groups and individuals in providing services to the community.
David H. Rosenbloom, Robert S. Kravchuk
Public administration is the use of managerial, political, and legal theories and
processes to fulfill legislative, executive, and judicial mandates for the provi-
sion of governmental regulatory and service functions.
Dwight Waldo
Public administration is the art and science of management as applied to the
affairs of the State. […] The process of public administration consists of the
actions involved in effecting the intent or desire of a government. It is thus
the continuously active, business part of government, concerned with carry-
ing out the law, as made by legislative bodies (or other authoritative agents)
and interpreted by the courts, through the process of organization and mana-
gement.

6. The Concept of Public Administration
Luther Gulick
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 government is done, though there are obviously problems in
connections with the legislative and judicial branches.
James W. Davis
Public administration can be best identified with the executive branch of a
government.
William F. Willoughby
The term administration may be employed […] in two senses. In its broadest
sense it denotes the work involved in the actual conduct of governmental af-fairs,
regardless of the particular branch of government concerned. It is, thus, quite
proper to speak of the administration of the legislative branch of the government,
the administration of justice or judicial affairs, or the administra-tion of the
executive branch as well as the administration of the affairs of the administrative
branch of the government, or the conduct of the affairs of the government
generally. In its narrowest sense, it denotes the operations of the administrative
branch only*.
* Author made a distinction between executive power and administrative power and restricted the use of the term
administration to the activities of the administrative branch only. In other words he has given administration the status of a
fourth branch of government.

7. The Concept of Public Administration
In the negative concept, regarding the doctrine of se-
paration of powers, the traditional view expressed by Ger-
man scholars Otto Mayer and Walter Jellinek was that:
public administration („vast remnants”) stays
outside the legislature and the judiciary.

8. The Concept of Public Administration
David H. Rosenbloom, Robert S. Kravchuk
Public administration is difficult to define. In part, this is because public
administration covers such a vast amount of activity. Public administration jobs
range from the exploration of outer space to sweeping the streets.
Some public administrators are highly educated professionals, who may be at
the forefront of their fields of specialization; others possess few skills that
differentiate them from the mass of the citizenry. Some public administrators
make policies that have a nationwide impact and may benefit millions of
people; others have virtually no responsibility for policy making and simply
carry out mundane governmental tasks like word processing, filing, and record
keeping. Public administrators are doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers,
accountants, budgeters, policy analysts, personnel officers, managers, clerks,
keyboarders, manual laborers, and individuals engaged in a host of other
occupations and functions.
Public administration as a category is so abstract and varied that it can only be
described in vague, general, amorphous, and somewhat competing terms.

9. It is concluded that all the previous definitions are helpful.
Public administration does involve activity, it is concerned
with politics and policy making, it tends to be concentrated
in the executive branch of government, it does differ from
private administration, and it is concerned with
implementing the law.
But the following definition of Rosenbloom is very much
comprehensive:
Public administration is the use of managerial, political, and
legal theories and processes to fulfill legislative, executive,
and judicial mandates for the provision of governmental
regulatory and service functions.
The Concept of Public Administration

10. Public administration differs from private administration in significant ways.
1. The separation of powers places public administration under different
“masters.”
Legislatures possess as much or more constitutional power over
administrative operations. Legislature enacted administrative law to
regulate administrative procedures, including rule making, open
meetings, public participation, and the gathering and release of
information.
The courts also often exercise considerable power and control over public
administration. They help define the legal rights and obligations of
agencies and those of the individuals and groups on which public
administrators act. They define the constitutional rights of public
employees and the nature of their liabilities for breaches of law or the
Constitution.
Difference Between Public Administration & Private Administration

11. Separation of Power creates a fragmentation of authority that is
generally not seen in the private sector. Legal restrictions and
requirements affect private management, but they do not
fragment authority over it in the same way or to the same
extent, nor do they provide so many parties with a legal right
to observe and participate in private firms’ policy decisions
and other affairs.
Further, in most of the public sector, there is no genuine
equivalent to the profit motive so central to private
enterprise.
2. The Public Interest
The governmental obligation to promote the public interest
distinguishes public administration from private management.
The Concept of Public Administration

12. A central issue is assuring that public administrators represent and respond
to the interests of the citizenry.
By contrast, private firms are thought to best serve the general interest by
vigorously pursuing their own economic interests.
3.The Market
A closely related distinction between public and private administration
concerns the market. Public agencies traditionally have not faced free,
competitive markets in which their services or products are sold.
The market is less constraining in the public sector than in the private sector.
The Concept of Public Administration

13. Private firms typically face markets more directly. Under free-market conditions, if
they fail to produce products or services at competitive prices, consumers
take their business elsewhere, and a company’s income declines. Eventually
the noncompetitive private firm will go out of business.
In between the typical public agency and the private firm is a gray area in which
not-for profit organizations and highly regulated industries, such as many
utilities, operate.
Not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) fill an important niche in the economy,
providing services that may not be sustained through market pricing, either
because their clients lack the funds to pay for them, or because the goods
provided have merit but cannot feasibly be provided either by the market
(because they are public or quasi-public goods) or through government
(because the services are provided on the basis of social or religious criteria
that governments must steer clear of).
The Concept of Public Administration

14. 4. Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the concept that government is the ultimate
repository of supreme political power and authority.
It involves a monopoly over the legitimate use of force in the society.
The constitution of Pakistan recognizes that sovereignty over the
entire Universe belongs to Almighty Allah alone, and the
authority to be exercised by the people of Pakistan within the
limits prescribed by Him is a sacred trust.
Public administrators are engaged in the formulation and
implementation of policies that allocate resources, values, and
status in a fashion that is binding on the society as a
whole.
The Concept of Public Administration

15. Private firms also make policies and are engaged in activities that
affect the lives of individuals in the society as a
whole, but unless specifically empowered to use
physical force (as in the case of privately managed
prisons), their policies cannot be enforced through
legitimate coercive physical power.
Rather, the private sector must turn to the public sector’s
courts and police power for the enforcement of contracts.
In sum, any definition of public administration must lay heavy
stress on the public.
Public administration is concerned with administration of the
public interest, it is constrained by constitutions and relatively
unconstrained by market forces, and it is considered a public
trust exercised on behalf of the sovereign.
The Concept of Public Administration

16. Private administration, in contrast, generally has a
narrower concept of the public interest; profit-making
firms are heavily constrained by market forces, not by
constitutions.
Moreover, private administration is not connected to the issue
of sovereignty and is rarely considered to be a public
trust of any kind.
The lines between public and private administration may
become blurred when government contracts out public
functions to not-for-profit organizations or other third parties.
The same is sometimes true when public agencies are run like
corporations. But the private sector is not dominated or
characterized by not-for-profit organizations or firms exclusively
on government contracts, nor is the public sector largely
organized in corporate form. Substantial differences between
the public and private sectors remain, and, importantly, they
promote reliance on different values and processes.
The Concept of Public Administration