The concept of Separation of Powers in Public Administration and Difference between Public & Private Administration

1. Difference between Public
and Private Administration
Lecture 2

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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