MEANING & SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

PROPOSAL SUBMITTED IN FULFILLMENT OF THE COURSE POLITICAL SCIENCE-III FOR THE

DEGREE B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)

SUBMITTED BY- Aashish Mittal

B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)
ROLL NO. – 1901
SUBMITTED TO – Dr. S.P. Singh
(FACULTY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE)

CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

NYAYANAGAR, MITHAPUR, PATNA
800001
 DECLARATION

I, hereby, proclaim that the work revealed in the B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) Project Report entitled
"Meaning & Scope of Public Administration" submitted at Chanakya National Law University
is a legitimate record of my work did under supervision of Dr. S.P. Singh I have not presented
this work somewhere else for some other degree or recognition. I am completely in charge of
the substance of my venture report.

SIGNATURE OF CANDIDATE

NAME OF CANDIDATE: AASHISH MITTAL

CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am feeling highly elated to work on the project titled “Meaning & Scope of Public
Administration” under the guidance of my faculty of Political Science-III, Dr. S.P. Singh. I am
very grateful to him for his exemplary guidance. I would like to enlighten my readers regarding
this topic and I hope I have tried my best to pave the way for bringing more luminosity to this
topic. I also want to thank all of my friends; without whose cooperation this project was not
possible. And at last I am very much obliged to the God who provided me the potential for the
rigorous research work. At finally yet importantly I would like to thank my parents for the
financial support.

THANK YOU

NAME: Aashish Mittal

ROLL NO: 1901

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 5

2. Definition of public administration: ............................................................................... 7

3. Scope of public administration: .................................................................................... 10

4. Nature of public administration: .................................................................................. 14

5. Conclusion & suggestions .............................................................................................. 17

6. Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 18

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 1. INTRODUCTION

Public administration is formed by two different terms, public and administration. The term
public means government which is mainly focus on government activities and actions. Whereas
the term administration is derived from a Latin word “Administer” which means to serve, too
direct, to control, to care for or to look after people. Literally, the term “administration” means
management of public or private affairs. Hence, simply public administration is known as the
management of public affairs. It looks after the affairs of the people and provides services to
them. Here the main concern is public administration. Public Administration is the
implementation of government policy and also an academic discipline that studies this
implementation and prepares civil servants for working in the public service. As a "field of
inquiry with a diverse scope" whose fundamental goal is to "advance management and policies
so that government can function. Public administration is "centrally concerned with the
organization of government policies and programs as well as the behaviour of officials (usually
non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct". Many unelected public servants can be
considered to be public administrators, including heads of city, county, regional, state and
federal departments such as municipal budget directors, human resources (HR) administrators,
city managers, census managers, state mental health directors, and cabinet secretaries. Public
administrators are public servants working in public departments and agencies, at all levels of
government.

It explains the meaning and characteristics of the discipline of Public Administration. Public
Administration, as an aspect of governmental activity is very old. It is as old as human history.
In European languages, the term Public Administration began to creep in during the
seventeenth century to separate the absolute monarch's administration of public affairs from
his management of his private household. It was a period when church was separated from the
state and the government was superimposed on all other societal institutions within a definite
territory. In every. society there are some activities like maintenance of law and order and
defence which have to be undertaken in public interest. Public Administration as a system of
organisation is mainly concerned with the performance of those activities. Political decision
makers set the goals for the political system. It is the business of Public Administration to work
for the realisation of these goals. At the present stage of man’s evolution, Public Administration

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has proved to be indispensable. The scope of Public Administration has expanded with the rise
of the modem administrative state. Its growing importance in the conduct of human affairs is
evident in the birth of numerous public laws, growth of public profession, accumulation of
huge arms and increasing coverage of taxes and public expenditure. The domain of state
functions is almost all-comprehensive in socialist countries. Even the capitalist states have
expanded their functions under compulsions of welfare considerations. The post-colonial
'third-world' countries have embarked upon Development Administration to speedily bring
about stale sponsored socio-economic reconstruction.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

The methodology used in the project report is the doctrinal method of research.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:

To understand the meaning, nature and scope of Public Administration.

SOURCES OF DATA.

Data collected for the purpose of this particular research is from secondary
sources.

• Secondary Source: - Secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret,

comment upon, analyses, evaluate, summaries, and process primary
sources. It includes newspaper, magazines and books. For the proposal, the
researcher has taken into account books, magazines and journals.

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 2. DEFINITION OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

Simply, the public administration is defined as the study of government affairs. To know the
answer of the questions like, what is public administration, which dimension and scope it
includes, it is necessary to analysis the view and opinion of some scholars of Public
administration. 1

1. Public Administration is the detailed a systematic execution of public law. Every

particular application of law is public administration. -Woodrow Wilson (1887)
2. Public administration is the action part of government, the means by which the purposes
and goals of government are realized. -John J. Corson and J.P. Harris
3. Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose of
fulfilment or enforcement of public policy. -L.D. White
4. Public administration is that part of science of administration which has to do with
government and thus concerned itself primarily with the executive branch where the
work of government is done through there are obviously problem connection with
legislative and judicial branches. -Luther Gulick
5. Public administration in all modern nations is identified with the executive branch of
government. It includes the shaping of policy on the way up, execution of policy after
it has been made, and as a necessary part of the execution, decision making about policy
matters on the way down. -James W. Fesler and Donald F. Kettl (1996)
6. Public administration is concerned with the management of public programs. - Robert
B. Denhardt (1995)
7. 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. -David H. Rosen bloom and Robert S. Kravchuk (1997)
8. Public Administration may be defined as all processes, organizations, and individuals
acting in official positions and roles associated with carrying out laws and other rules
adopted or issued by legislatures, executives, and courts (many activities are also

1
Baker, R.J.S., 1972, Administrative Theory and Public Administration, Hutchinson University Library, London.
Retrieved on 23rd October,2020.
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 concerned with formulations of these rules).PA is also a field of academic and
community study and professional training leading to public service careers at all levels
of government. -Milakovich and Gordon

9. Public administration:
a) Is the non-political bureaucracy operating in a political system?
b) Deals with the ends of the state, the sovereign will, the public interest and laws,
c) Is the business side of government and as such concerned with policy execution,
but it is also concerned with policy making?
d) Covers all three branches of government, although it ends to be concentrated in the
executive branch,
e) Provides regulatory and service functions to the people in order to attain good life,
f) Differs significantly from private administration, especially in its emphasis on
public and interdisciplinary in nature as it draws upon other social science like
political science, economics and sociology.

-S.P. Naidu

10. Public administration:

a) is a cooperative group effort in a public setting;
b) covers all three branches –executive, legislative, and judicial-and their
interrelationships;
c) has an important role in the formulation of public policy, and is thus part of the
political process;
d) is different in significant ways from private administration; and
e) is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals.

-Felix A. Nigro and Lloyd G. Nigro (1989)

Thus, public administration is a cooperative effort of a group of people in pursuit of common

objective in the process of managing public affairs. 2 Analysis of the above definition includes

2
Bhattacharya, Mohit, 1998, New Horizons of Public Administration, Jawahar Publishers & Distributors, New
Delhi. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
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that the term public administration has been used in two senses- narrower sense (view of
traditional writers) and wider sense (view of modern writers). In narrower sense public
administration includes the activities of only execution.

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 3. SCOPE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

Public administration is an evolving applied social science. It is still in the process of evolution.
Hence, the scope of public administration is not completely clear and realized. However, it is
obvious that public administration is an activity done by the human beings for human beings
living in the society. As in the case of its definition there is also argue over the scope of public
administration between the traditional and modern views of the followers.

1 . Traditional view:

The traditional writers restricted the scope of public administration to the executive branch of
government only.3 In narrow sense public administration covers the primarily the organization,
personnel, practices and procedures essential to effective performance of the civilian functions
entrusted to the executive branch of the government.

2 . Modern view:

The modern writers have extended the scope of public administration to all the three branches
of government, according to them; public administration is the whole government in action. In
a democracy all major administrative policies from the legislative in the form of laws and the
legislature also exercise control over administration with the view to see that the policies are
implemented as it intends. The judiciary has the power to restrain public administration from
the unconstitutional, illegal and arbitrary acts.4 Therefore, all three branches of government are
part of the study and practice of public administration.

By the scope of public administration, we mean the major concern of public administration; as
an activity and as a discipline.

3
Bertram, M. Gross, 1964, The Managing of Organisations, The Administrative Struggle, The Free Press of
Glencoe, Collier Macmillan., London. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
4
Baker, R.J.S., 1972, Administrative Theory and Public Administration, Hutchinson University Library, London.
Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
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 i. as an activity

Broadly speaking, Public Administration embraces all the activities of the government. Hence
as an activity the scope of public administration is no less than the scope of state activity 5. In
the modern welfare state people expect many things –a wide variety of services and protection
from the government.

Several writers have defined the scope of public administration in varying terms.
Luther Gulick has given the elements of administration as an activity in the acronym that is
POSDCoRB which means:

• P= Planning,
• O= Organizing
• S= Staffing
• D= Directing
• C= Coordinating
• R= Reporting and
• B= Budgeting.

According to Gulick the POSDCoRB activities are common to all organizations. They are the
common problems of management which are found in different agencies regardless of the
nature of the work they do. POSDCoRB gives unity, certainty, and definiteness and makes the
study more systematic.

This element is not enough as scope of public administration. The scope of public
administration as activity (wider or narrower) depends upon the state activities. In the modern
welfare state (especially in developing countries) people expect many things from the
government.6 Public administration of a welfare state provides a number of welfare and social
security services to the people and public administration has to perform regular activities of
the state as like to take care of private sector and corporate organization as well as activities of

5
Denhardt, Robert B. and Joseph W. Grubbs, 2003, Public Administration: An action Orientation, Fourth Edition,
Thomson (Wadsworth), Canada. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
6
http://egyankosh.ac.in/. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
| P a g e 11
NGO/INGO. Public administration covers every area and activity of government. In this sense
it includes all operations of exploration of outer space to sweeping the streets.

ii. as a discipline

We all know that public administration deals not only with the processes but also with the
substantive matters of administration, such as Defense, Law and Order, Education, Public
Health, Agriculture, Public Works, Social Security, Justice, Welfare, etc. These services

require not only POSDCoRB techniques but also have important specialized techniques of their
own which are not covered by POSDCoRB techniques.

For example, if you take Police Administration it has its own techniques in crime detection,
maintenance of Law and Order, etc., which are much and more vital to efficient police work,
than the formal principles of organization, personnel management, coordination or finance and
it is the same with other services too. 7

Therefore, the study of public administration should deal with both the processes (that is
POSDCoRB techniques and the substantive concerns).

The scope of public administration as a discipline (subject matter); i.e., particular subject of
study in public administration are:

a. Organization

This involves the Structuring of individuals and functions in to productive relationship. It

represents the Static part of the administration. It is called as the anatomy of public
administration.8

7
Bertram, M. Gross, 1964, The Managing of Organisations, The Administrative Struggle, The Free Press of
Glencoe, CollierMacmillan., London. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
8
Pugh, D.S., 1985, Organisation Theory: Selected Readings (Ed), Penguin Books, Middlesex, England. Retrieved
on 23rd October,2020
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 b. Management of Personnel

This is concerned with the direction of individuals and functions to achieve the
predetermined ends. It represents the dynamic aspect of Administration and it may be called
the Physiology of administration.

c. Method and Procedure

This represents the technique of administrating, the process of working, and the law of
administration.

d. Material and supply

This includes the tools with whose help the administrative Work is carried on.

e. Public Finance

This is the material without which Personnel cannot be employed and work cannot be
performed. This is the chief determining factor in public Administration, in fact, in the
whole government, as the efficiency and the prestige of the administration depends upon
it.

f. Administrative Accountability

This is the accountability of the administration both in terms of internal Control as well as
external responsibility to the judiciary, the legislative and the People.

We can conclude that the scope of public administration with the statement of Lewis Meriam:
“Public administration is an instrument with two blades like a pair of scissors.9 One blade may
be knowledge of the field covered by POSDCoRB, the other blade is knowledge of the subject
matter in which these techniques are applied. Both blades must be good to make an effective
tool”. 10

9
http://www.legalservicesindia.com/ Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
10
Pugh, D.S., 1985, Organisation Theory: Selected Readings (Ed), Penguin Books, Middlesex, England
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 4. NATURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

There are two broad views regarding the nature of public administration. The integral view and
the managerial view;

1. The Integral view

According to this view, administration is the sum of total activities- manual, clerical, technical,
managerial etc, which are under taken to realize the objectives. 11 This view believes that public
administration comprises all types of operations undertaken by all persons ranging from the
lowest to the highest in order to implement public policies. Supporter of this views are
Woodrow Wilson, Marshal Dimock, John Piffnner, L.D. White etc. 12

2. Managerial View

According to this view, administration comprises the work of only those people who are
engaged in performing managerial functions in an organization. If we take a managerial view,
public administration focus principally on the planning, organizing, directing, controlling and
coordination of governmental operations. Managerial view believes in getting the things done,
not doing things. Luther Gulick, Henry Fayol, Robert Dhal, Herbert Simon etc support this
view.

Is Public Administration Science or Arts?

At a first glance it seems easier to accept public administration as an art. It is just the
administration of Government affairs and for most part it does not follow the laws of Science
like absence of normative value, predictability of behaviour and universal application. So, does
that mean we cannot list it into a respectable category of scientific subjects?

11
Prasad, D. Ravindra, V.S. Prasad and P. Satyanarayan, 2004, Administrative Thinkers (Ed), Sterling Publishers,
New Delhi. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
12
Bertram, M. Gross, 1964, The Managing of Organisations, The Administrative Struggle, The Free Press of
Glencoe, CollierMacmillan., London. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
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There are many authors who ferociously defended it and argued that public administration as
an area of study is indeed a Science. 13 The earliest of them was Lorenz von Stein an 1855, a
German professor from Vienna who said that public administration is an integrated Science
and viewing it just as administrative laws was a restrictive definition. In modern times,
categorizing public administration as Science found favour with many, the most important one
being the father of American public administration, President Woodrow Wilson. We shall read
more about the Wilsonian view of public administration in the next article, however he mainly
emphasized that the objective of administrative study is to discover what government can
properly and successfully do and how it can do those things with utmost efficiency with least
possible cost of money or energy.

After Wilson another important argument came from Frederick Taylor who wrote a book called
The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) in which he proposed to discover one best
way of doing things/operation and thus save on cost on time and energy. Luther Gulick and L
Urvick collectively published, Papers on the Science of Administration which reaffirmed its
status as a Science. W F Willoughby stated that public administration like Science has
certain fundamental principles which can be generally applied and therefore it is a
Science.

However, there still remain certain aspects to be established before public administration can
be actually and in real terms, be classified as a Science. The places of normative values in
public administration should be clearly defined. More efforts should be put in to understanding
the human nature and dynamics at play in public administration. 14 Lastly, the principles of
public administration should derive references from across the worlds, cultures, type of states
etc. to make them more universal and free of cultural, religious and political biases.

The advent of the modern welfare state itself has added, to the changing approach to public
administration. The kind of activities and sphere of works have never been more varied and

13
Sharma, M.P. and B.L. Sardana, 1988, Public Administration in Theory and Practice, Kitab Mahal, New Delhi.
Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
14
Peter Self in his Administrative Theories and Politics. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
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dynamic and there has been a never before interest in actually improving the efficiency of the
government. 15

Subject matter experts like Frederick Taylor have opened ways to exploration,
experimentation, observation, collection of data and analysis based on which principles and
laws can be made.16 There are increasing number of authors like Metcalfe, Fayol, Emerson,
Follett, Mooney, and more recently Drucker etc who have written on the subjects of
administration. In-fact Drucker wrote a book called “The Age of Discontinuity” and one of the
chapters of the book called The Sickness of Government became the basis of the New Public
Management theory popular in 1980s which emphasized the market oriented management of
the public sector.

So, one can safely say that with the changing times and more and more studies carried out in
the field of social sciences, administration and human relations, the subject of public
administration can no longer take the shelter of art and would have to emerge stronger with
relevant and fundamental principles like that of Science. 17

15
Srivastava, Om Prie, 1991, Public Administration and Management, The Broadening Horizons, Volume 1,
Himalaya Publishing House, Delhi. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
16
https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
17
Public administration. (2010) In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 18, 2010, from Encyclopædia
Britannica Online. Retrieved on 23rd October, 2020.
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 5. CONCLUSION & SUGGESTIONS

Access to public information, participation in adopting regulations, RIA and active

participation in the decision-making of the public administration are just four of the most
important examples of open public administration in action. Open public administration comes
in many other forms and includes many other principles that are currently contributing to the
transformation in how public administrations function. In this paper I have limited myself to
these four as they stand alone as extremely important innovations to public administration
operations. Their introduction represents a major change in the way public authorities function.

Transparency, openness and democratic decision-making in particular are on the increase.

What was for a long time the exception is now becoming the rule: citizens are being included
in the public administration's functioning and in the process of taking decisions that will
fundamentally affect society. Open public administration actively engages in pursuing two
important objectives: more democratic and more efficient decision-making in the public
administration. Introducing open public administration often comes up against a range of
problems, such as poorly de- signed consultation processes, which can cause additional costs,
without improving the quality of decisions. Drawing up the actual rules, procedures and
institutions for a particular project or process is therefore vital. 18

The examples given are no panacea that will single-handedly improve the work of a public
administration. Their success de- pends on numerous factors that go hand in hand with the
intro- duction of projects in this field. The quality of legal rules and regulations and the legal
environment itself are just two factors that can essentially influence the functioning of open
public ad- ministration, for good or for bad. Nevertheless, despite the problems that face open
public administration, it remains a momentous challenge for those responsible for its
functioning. Creating an opportunity for democratic decision-making in the public
administration would be an immense but welcome change from existing practice.

18
Prasad, D. Ravindra, V.S. Prasad and P. Satyanarayan, 2004, Administrative Thinkers (Ed), Sterling Publishers,
New Delhi. Retrieved on 23rd October,2020
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6. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Shrestha Tulsi Narayan (2007), Public Administration Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak

Bhandar.
2. Bhatta Bhim Dev (2065) Sarbajanik Prashan ko Adhabhut Siddhanta, America: Shree
Asisdev Bhatta
3. https://www.managementstudyguide.com/
4. Wilson, W. (1887). The study of administration. InR. J. Stillman, II. Public
administration: Concepts and cases, 6-17.
5. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary
6. Denhardt, Robert B. and Joseph W. Grubbs, 2003, Public Administration: An action
Orientation, Fourth Edition, Thomson (Wadsworth), Canada.
7. http://www.markedbyteachers.com/university-degree/social-studies
8. https://www.managementstudyguide.com/public-administration
9. Vincent Wright, Reshaping the State: The Implicationsfor Public Administration, 17
W. EUR. POL. 102, 111-16 (1994).

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