5 Keys Stages of- Evolution of Public Administration

Table of Contents

The study of public administration has evolved over the past century, with different eras placing emphasis on distinct theories, approaches, and focal points. Though early notions of a strict separation between politics and administration laid the groundwork for the field of public administration, scholars have since sought to better integrate politics and administration in recognition of their interconnected nature. Broadly, the chronology of public administration can be divided into five stages:

1. The politics-administration dichotomy 2. Principles of administration 3. Era of challenge 4. Identity crisis 5. Public policy perspective

This progression reflects public administration’s growth from a fledgling field focused on the bureaucratic hierarchy to an interdisciplinary social science drawing on fields like political science, economics, sociology, and psychology. Through periods of turmoil and reinvention, public administration has matured into a dynamic discipline engaged with complex policy questions.

Looking back at the evolution of public administration provides insight into the field’s historical foundations and changing nature. Tracing major stages in its development contextualises current theories and allows us to anticipate future directions. This overview examines each chronological stage in turn, charting the discipline’s growth and refinement over more than a century.

Evolution of public administration as a discipline

Stage 1: Politics-Administration Dichotomy (1887-1926)

The first stage in the evolution of public administration is known as the politics-administration dichotomy, spanning from 1887 to 1926. This concept originated in an 1887 essay by Woodrow Wilson titled “The Study of Administration,” in which he argued for a separation of politics and administration. Wilson believed that administrative activities should be separate from political activities. He asserted that administration should be run on scientific principles that are autonomous from political influence. Politics, in Wilson’s view, was associated with policy making, while administration was concerned with policy execution. Under the politics-administration dichotomy, elected officials and policymakers handle the political process and make high-level decisions. Meanwhile, non-elected, professional administrators carry out day-to-day operations and implement policies in an apolitical, neutral manner. The dichotomy aims to isolate administrative decisions from the influence of political parties, interest groups, and electoral pressures. This theoretical separation of politics and administration was highly influential in the field’s early development. It established public administration as a science, lending it legitimacy and autonomy from political science. The dichotomy dominated discourse in public administration through the 1920s. However, it later came under scrutiny as an oversimplified and unrealistic representation of government functioning.

Stage 2: Principles of Administration (1927-1937)

This stage was dominated by efforts to identify the principles of public administration. Scholars sought to define the field and establish it as a science by determining its fundamental theoretical principles.

Key contributions include :

  • – W.F. Willoughby’s Principles of Public Administration (1927) which presented ideas like unity of command, hierarchy, accountability, and personnel management.
  • – Leonard D. White’s Introduction to the Study of Public Administration (1926) covered issues such as the separation of policies and administration, executive leadership, personnel management, and so on.
  • – Luther Gulick and L. Urwick’s Papers on the Science of Administration (1937) put forth the POSDCORB acronym – Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, and Budgeting as the key principles of administration.

The principles approach aimed to provide public administration theory distinguishing it from political science and management. However, it was critiqued for overemphasizing rigid, hierarchical principles over adaptability to changing contexts. Still, this stage established public administration’s foundations as a field of administrative science.

Stage 3: Era of Challenge (1938-1947) There began stage 3 in public administration which is known as the era of challenge, the time being 1938 to 1947. It was a Challenge to the previous age, the challenge to the previous state. Challenge would mean the people who are formulators of this phase, are questioning the previous phase, that’s why the challenge. The challenge is that the previous phase had always been talking of all kinds of principles but this phase says that it is not possible just to go through any kind of understanding of an organization just by formulating and following principles there has to be more to it. The Significant publications in the 1940s, Harvard -Simons Administrative Behavior and Robert Dahl’s essay entitled The Science of Public Administration, Three Problems, were actually if one talks of what this phase talks about, these two publications talked of the entire phase in their entirety. Simon argued in his article, The Proverbs of Administration, 1946, that there are no principles of administration. So he’s trashed is essentially the principal phase that there can be nothing called principles in administration. He added that these proverbs were nothing more than general statements based on person-to-person experience and are always lacking in any kind of theoretical formulation or understanding. For instance, Robert Dahl raised a question about the claim of it being a science once more in 1947. Now the quest for principles of administration according to Robert Dahl, was obstructed by three factors.

Firstly , the an unavoidable need for normative factors in public administration due to objective grounds of efficiency that are based on the communication of necessities. Secondly , he spoke against the machine concept of organization because it was found out that principally the previous school just spoke of organization being something like a machine. Thirdly , Dahl criticizes this tendency to generalize and draw universal principles based upon a few examples drawn from narrow countries and times. So Simon and Robert Dahl once said that there is going to be some kind of principle in administration. One is trashing it. On the other hand, the other person was of the opinion that this can never be public administration, this can never be a science because of certain specific factors.

Overall, the Era of Challenge marked an intellectual turning point for the field of public administration. What had previously been accepted wisdom – the clear separation between politics and administration – was now under serious debate and skepticism. This helped lay the groundwork for new theories and philosophies that would emerge in subsequent stages of the evolution of public administration.

 Stage 4: Identity Crisis (1948-1970)

After World War II, the principles-based approach championed by the scholars at the Brownlow Committee began to receive criticism. Public administration struggled to establish its own identity as an academic discipline during this stage. The rigidity of the principles outlined previously failed to account for the complex realities involved in managing large public bureaucracies.Scholars challenged the idea that management principles should be value-neutral. The relevance of private sector practices for public sector management was questioned. Thinkers argued that the unique responsibilities of public administrators demand different principles suited for advancing democracy and the public interest. The politics-administration dichotomy that dominated the field’s early years was heavily critiqued. The intertwined nature of policy making and administration made their clean separation unrealistic in practice. Calls grew for public administration research to become more problem-oriented with direct relevance to the issues facing governments. Overall, the identity crisis of public administration during this period stemmed from the difficulties of applying fixed scientific principles to the ever-changing needs of public bureaucracies. Finding a coherent conceptual framework to guide research and teaching remained elusive. This spurred efforts to redefine the field’s purpose and approach in the following decades.

Stage V-Public Policy Perspective (1971-continuing)

The main theme that has emerged in this final stage of evolution is to ensure that public policy analysis is a central concern. Several fields are demonstrating much interest among public administration scholars, such as policy science, political economy, policy making, policy analysis, etc., which are linked to the field of public administration. With the abandonment of the traditional notion of a politics-administration dichotomy, the public policy approach gained acceptance in administrative analysis. As a result of the separation between politics and administration, Dwight Waldo concluded that the concept had become an “outworn credo”. In the view of Robert T. Golembiewski, there are two basic themes that are woven into the public policy approach stage of the evolution of public administration. The first is the interpenetration of politics and administration at all levels or at a number of different levels, and the second is the programmatic character of every aspect of administration. In general, all of these themes tended to focus attention in public administration on the political or policy-making process as well as on specific public programs or initiatives. By adopting a public policy approach to public administration, public administration has gained social relevance, become more interdisciplinary, and expanded the scope of its activities.

Current Trends

Since the 1970s, there have been several major trends in the evolution of public administration theory and practice:

  • New Public Management – This approach aims to make the public sector more efficient by borrowing management techniques from the private sector. There is a focus on performance management, contracting out services, and increasing competition.
  • Digital Governance – The rise of information technology has led to e-government initiatives, digitization of public services, big data analytics, and new opportunities for public participation. Many governments are utilising technology to be more responsive, transparent, and efficient.
  • Collaborative Governance – There is a greater emphasis on horizontal and vertical collaboration between government agencies, non-profits, private companies, and civic organisations to address complex policy problems. Networks, partnerships, and co-production are becoming more common.
  • Evidence-Based Policy making – Policy decisions are increasingly informed by objective evidence and data analysis. Scientific methods, experimental designs, and impact evaluations are used to determine the effectiveness of public policies and programs.
  • Participatory Governance – Citizens are participating more actively in public administration through means like open government data, crowd sourcing, participatory budgeting, and social audits. The boundaries between administrators and citizens are blurring.
  • Sustainability – Issues like climate change, environmental justice, and social equity have led to greater emphasis on sustainable development approaches in the public sector. Concepts like the triple bottom line (social, environmental, economic) are gaining prominence.

These trends demonstrate public administration’s continuing evolution in response to changing technologies, societal demands, and governance challenges. More innovations will likely emerge in the future as administrators adapt to new realities and priorities.

View of Critiques on Evolution of Public Administration

The chronological evolution of public administration as a discipline has been critiqued in several ways:

  • – The rigid periodization into distinct stages oversimplifies the complex and overlapping development of ideas over time. Key concepts emerged gradually through the interplay of various scholars and practitioners.
  • – There is debate over the significance assigned to certain scholars, institutions, and publications in driving shifts in the field. Some argue individuals and texts have been unduly canonized at the expense of other influences.
  • – The politics-administration dichotomy has been critiqued as an unrealistic separation of policy and administration. Practice shows implementation involves administrative discretion and political influence.
  • – Principles of administration were accused of being vague truisms. The search for universal principles applicable across contexts faced doubts.
  • – Challenges to the field’s scientific aspirations and quantitative techniques arose as the complex realities of public management prompted a rethink. However, some argue the nuances of administration cannot be captured through strict positivist social science.
  • – The public policy orientation has been accused of downplaying important aspects of management, ethics, accountability, and democratic governance in public administration.
  • – Throughout its evolution, the discipline has struggled with Insufficient diversity in perspectives encompassed. Critics point to the dominance of Western and particularly U.S. viewpoints.
  • – Across stages, gaps persist between theory and practice. Administrators feel academic literature does not adequately capture the complex realities they face and offer limited practical guidance.
  • – Calls persist for expanded interdisciplinary engagement to address wicked problems. However, progress remains slow due to disciplinary boundaries and fragmentation.

The critiques highlight areas for improvement and show the chronological narrative alone provides an incomplete picture. More holistic, nuanced perspectives recognizing the field’s ongoing complexity are needed.

 Conclusion

There have been various phases in the development of public administration as a subject since the beginning of the last century. The field began with the politics-administration dichotomy in the late 19th century to establish its legitimacy and its independence from political influences. In the 1930s, the next stage of development involved principles of management and administration. The following decades posed challenges to the principles outlined above, as the complexities of public administration became clear.Public administration underwent an identity crisis after World War II as it sought to define its objectives and direction of travel. It is more recently that public administration has adopted a public policy perspective, in recognition of the fact that administration cannot be divorced from broader societal objectives and political process.

In the future, the interdisciplinary nature of public administration, politics, government, and democratic ideals will continue to be challenging issues. As public servants continue to confront transnational policy issues, the field may become more global. A few transformations have occurred in public administration thanks to new public management reforms, information technology, and big data. Diversity and pragmatism are expected to be the defining elements of tomorrow’s public administration theory and practice. However, the field’s ultimate aim to promote the public good through efficient and responsible governance will be unchanged.

Looking ahead, public administration will likely continue grappling with its interdisciplinary nature, relationship to politics, role in governance, and potential as an instrument for realizing democratic ideals. The field may become more globalized as public servants increasingly confront transnational policy challenges. New public management reforms have already transformed aspects of public administration, while information technology and big data will bring further changes. Rather than a single governing paradigm, diversity, and pragmatism will likely define the future of public administration theory and practice. However, the field’s ultimate concern with promoting the public good through effective and accountable governance will remain unchanged.

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Article contents

Historical development of american public administration.

  • Mordecai Lee Mordecai Lee Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
  • https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.1441
  • Published online: 30 September 2019

The historical development of American public administration has evolved through four eras: clerks, civil service, administrative management, and under siege. During its early years government staffing was very sparse. A gradual thickening of the government workforce occurred during the 1800s, which was the era of clerks. Some were one-person agencies consisting of an elected official with administrative duties; others were patronage appointments by the candidate winning the presidency (or governor or mayor) rewarding supporters with jobs. After the Civil War, Union veterans increasingly populated nonpatronage positions.

The assassination of President Garfield in 1881 by a disappointed office seeker crystalized public dissatisfaction with patronage, whether in Washington or by corrupt urban political machines. In 1883, the U.S. Congress passed a bill to create a merit-based civil service system. This began a second era of American public administration, that of civil servants. The original law only covered about 10% of all federal employees, but it set the precedent for gradual expansion of an apolitical civil service. Presidents came and went, but expert civil servants were unaffected. The rise of civil service also necessitated having employees to oversee them. These apolitical and expert managers led to the new profession of public administration, a development that required not only qualified practitioners but also credentialed faculty to train them.

The 1932 election of Franklin Roosevelt as president triggered a third era, that of administrative management. This was a term used by FDR’s reorganization planning committee partly because it connoted a high-level focus on the president’s managerial needs. The concept encompassed both line and staff roles. Line officials ran bureaus and were accountable to the president. Staff functions, such as budgeting, HR, and planning facilitated effective management.

In the post-FDR decades, especially after the 1960s, there was a gradually growing backlash against his kind of public administration. This became the fourth era, of government employees under siege. The election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 epitomized it. Government was not the solution, he liked to say, government was the problem. Politicians now ran for office against government. Increasingly, the bureaucracy at all levels of government was viewed with hostility, an enemy needing to be controlled and reduced. Bureaucrats became the bad guys in America’s ongoing political narrative. After the election of President Donald Trump, a more ominous term came into use: the deep state. Supposedly, the bureaucracy now had a life of its own and could even destroy a president if it wanted to.

Presumably, a fifth era of American public administration will eventually succeed this age of hostility toward all things governmental. If American history tells us anything, the outlines and themes of the fifth era will likely be surprising and unexpected. Nonetheless, government in a democracy will always need some form of public administration. No matter its precise outline, future public administration will likely retain the core values that government cannot be run like a business, that government’s purpose is to promote the public interest , and that public administration cannot be perfect. Mistakes will always happen, but these can be learning experiences for improvement rather than excuses for increasingly dysfunctional bureaucratic behavior.

  • administrative management
  • Brownlow Committee
  • bureaucracy
  • civil service
  • Executive Office of the President
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • professionalization
  • public administration and culture
  • public administration and policy
  • History and Politics
  • Policy, Administration, and Bureaucracy

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5 Phases of the Evolution of Public Administration

By administration, we mean a concerted effort, so we have to accept that this kind of effort started from the day people learned to live in a social way.

So the idea of public administration evolves from the beginning of civilization. But the evolution of public administration as a separate academic discipline started in the late nineteenth century.

Although public administration emerged in the late nineteenth century as a separate academic discipline, it has its ancient root. Every social system, political system, and economic system can be observed as well as administrative system has existed in society since ancient times.

It is clear from the archeological finds of the Indus Valley Civilization of ancient India in 2500BC that urban planning and administration were of a very advanced standard at that time.

Ancient Egyptian civilization also shows that the flooding of the Nile was used for irrigation with the help of high pyramids.

According to Confucian ideals, the Hun dynasty in ancient China believed that good people should be hired to do government work.

Renowned European empires such as Greece, Rome, Holy Roman, and Spain were basically administrative empires. These huge empires were governed by laws and governed from a single center, meaning that the administrative side of the government prevailed.

Table of Contents

5 Phases of The evolution of Public Administration as a Discipline

Evolution of Public Administration 5 Phases

Woodrow Wilson’s article “The Study of Administration”, published in 1887, is considered the origin of public administration as a discipline. This article is very important in the history of the emergence and evolution of public administration.

Because Wilson was the first who promote the concept of the ‘Science of Administration’. The word administration is important for the need to increase the organizational and systemic excellence of government functions.

Must Read – Meaning Nature And Scope of Public Administration

It is Wilson’s view of the administration that defines the individual sphere of public administration, and perhaps we can discover the idea of how public administration began to emerge as a separate discipline in the latter half of the nineteenth century.

The evolution of public administration from the end of the nineteenth century to the present has taken place in the following 5 phases.

  • Phase 1- Politics Administration Dichotomy (1887-1926)
  • Phase 2 – Principles of Administration (1927-1937)
  • Phase 3 – Era of Challenges (1938-1947)
  • Phase 4 – Crisis of Identity (1948-1970)
  • Phase 5 – Public Policy Perspective (1971- Onwards)

Phase 1 of the Evolution of Public Administration

Politics administration dichotomy (1887-1926).

Woodrow Wilson’s “ The Study of Administration ” was the first to present the demand for separation (Politics Administration Dichotomy) between politics and administration.

His claim to distinguish between politics and administration was reinforced in the early twentieth century with the publication of Frank Goodnow’s book, “Politics and Administration: A Study in Government” (1900). He is known as the intellectual father of American Public Administration.

The fact that the administration is separate from politics and the administration needs to be given a separate status for the sake of politics is being propagated to the masses at this time.

It is said that while it is the responsibility of politicians to make political decisions, politicians do not have the experience or excellence needed to implement these decisions. Therefore, to implement these policies (decisions) successfully, qualified and trained employees are required. Only the administration can rely on the efficient and sustainable implementation of government policy.

The scholars of this phase have practiced more on the (Locus) basis of public administration. The bureaucratic institution of the government is the mainstay of public administration.

The legislature decides in the discussion what the will is; the judiciary resolves problems in the implementation of that state will or policy; On the other hand, the administration applies that reality with the help of statesmen.

Thus the division between public administration and politics is drawn and this phase is marked as politics-administration dichotomy.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, public administration was recognized as a separate discipline in American universities. At this time the public administration staff had a very close relationship with public administration theorists and researchers.

The New York Bureau of Municipal Research was established in 1906 to make local government work a success, and in 1911 the organization established the first school of public administration known as the Training School for Public Service .

The year 1926 is very important in the theoretical discussion of public administration because this year L D White published his book “Introduction to the Study of public administration”.

This book is considered as the first textbook on public administration and this book highlights the politics-administration dichotomy more clearly.

Phase 2 of the Evolution of Public Administration

Principles of administration (1927-1937).

1927 is considered to be the beginning of the second phase of the evolution of public administration as the book “ Principles of Public Administration ” by W F Willoughby was published in the same year.

 The book is considered the second most important publication in public administration after White’s book.

In this phase of the evolution of public administration, discussions on public administration have been tried as scientific discussions since this time. It is thought that there are a number of scientific principles in the discussion of public administration that need to be disclosed.

If these principles are consciously applied by the administrators in appropriate places, it is possible to increase work efficiency and also develop public administration as a scientific discipline.

Frederick Winslow Taylor’s book Principles of Scientific Management (1911) speaks to the application of four numbers of principles to enhance the efficiency of the organization.

  • The development of a true science of work.
  • The Scientific selection, training, and progressive development of the workman.
  • The close coordination between the science of work and the scientifically selected and trained men.
  • Equal division of work and responsibility

In addition to Taylor, Gantt (Gantt chart), Gilbert (Flow Process chart) and H. Emerson (The Twelve Principles Efficiency) similarly spoke of applying scientific principles to repeat skills in the industry. Overall, these ideas are called scientific management schools.

This phase is basically called the golden age in the history of public administration. Because the aspect of the intellectual practice of public administration peaked at this time.

The writings of several famous administrative theorists help to give a different dimension to public administration.

Author NamesBook NamesYear
Henry FayolGeneral and Industrial Management1916
Mary Parker FolletCreative Experience1928
James D. Mooney and Alan ReileyOnward Industry,
Principles of Organization
1931,
1940
Gullick and UrwickPapers on the Science of Administration1937

Henry Fayol

He gives 14 principles for better outcomes from the administration. These are –

  • Division of Work
  • Authority and responsibility
  • Unity of command
  • Unity of direction
  • Subordination of individual interest to general interest
  • Remuneration
  • Centralization and Decentralization
  • Scalar chain
  • Stability of tenure of personnel
  • Esprit De Corps

Gullick and Urwick

Among the most common principles of administration, Gullick and Urwick’s POSDCORB is particularly noteworthy. This is an acronym for 7 functions of the administration. These are-

  • P- Planning
  • O- Organizing
  • S- Staffing
  • D- Directing
  • CO- Coordinating
  • R- Reporting
  • B- Budgeting

James D. Mooney and Alan Reiley

They also provide four principles for increasing administrative efficiency.

  • Coordination
  • Scalar Process
  • Functional Differentiation
  • Line and Staff

You can see that this phase of public administration focuses only on the increase of efficiency in administrative work.

Mohit Bhattacharya rightly observes that “ The ‘public’ aspect of public administration was virtually dropped at this stage and the focus was almost wholly on efficiency. This stage can be called the stage of orthodoxy, as efforts were underway to delineate firmly the boundaries of a new discipline of management. Public administration merged into the science .”

Phase 3 of the Evolution of Public Administration

The era of challenges (1938-1947).

The way in which public administration has developed over the years with its emphasis on principles has faced some intellectual challenges with the publication of Chester I Barnard’s book “The Functions of the Executive” in 1936.

In this phase of the evolution of public administration, basically, the theoretical concept of public administration is challenged from two perspectives.

First, a new generation of theorists thought that the dividing line between politics and public administration was never possible.

Second, the administrative theories that have been published since 1940 criticize administrative principles. The question arises as to whether there is a universal and ultimate principle in the administration.

In the book “Elements of Public Administration”, edited by F M Marx, all the writers, through their articles, point out the futility of the dividing line between politics and public administration that has been prevalent for so long.

The way in which public administration was portrayed as a value-neutral issue is denied by each of these writers.

A new group has set out to promote the idea that scientific management is not the last word in administration, but that social and environmental factors are an effective force. This group is known as the Human Relations School .

Modern scholars believe that the research that some researchers at Harvard University started on the Hawthorne Plant, initiated by the Western Electric Company in Chicago, started an ideological revolution in administration and organizational theory.

Researchers such as Elton Mayo , and F. J. Rothlisberger concluded from their research that innovation of principles and their application alone do not lead to the improvement of production or production methods.

The human component of management is also important. By human elements, they mean the work environment, the intentions of the director and staff, satisfaction, and so on.

Herbert Simon welcomes the application of scientific ideas in the field of administration and management, but in this case, he considers the principles given by the proponents of scientific management or traditional writers as No more than proverbs.

He presented the Rational Decision Making Model by exposing the ambiguity and inconsistency of the theory of scientific management.

Robert Dahl also (like Simon) believes that it is not a matter of inventing or applying advanced methods or techniques of administration, but of judging the social, historical, sociological, economic and other environmental forces in the social sphere in which the administration is formed.

This is because the impact of this environmental force on the development of the administration is particularly significant.

Dahl also has argued that there are three problems in the scientific theory of public administration (classical theory of administration).

The exclusion of the normative elements from the administrative theory.

There have no human aspects in scientific administrative theories.

Those Theories are only based on a few examples drawn from limited national and historical settings. This proves that classical theories are unscientific in nature.

Phase 4 of the Evolution of Public Administration

Crisis of identity (1948-1970).

The politics and public administration dichotomy and the application of universal principles in the field of public administration have been abandoned by theorists of public administration since the 1950s.

Administrative theorists of this time recognized the relationship of public administration with politics. As a result, public administration became dependent on political science. In this situation, there is confusion about what is the discussion area of public administration.

This is why this phase of public administration is called the crisis of identity in public administration.

To overcome this identity crisis, public administration came to be seen as an interdisciplinary subject.

In this phase, several sub-topics emerge in the subject matter of public administration such as-

Emerging ConceptsContributors
New Human Relations theoryChris Argyris, Douglas McGregor,
Rensis Likert, Warren Bennis.
F.W Riggs and others
Edward Weidner, F.W Riggs
Administrative DevelopmentF.W Riggs

Phase 5 of the Evolution of Public Administration

Public policy perspective (1971- onwards).

Another recent development of the administration is the discussion of public policy perspective.

It gained popularity through pluralistic interpretations, communication theories, and The Science of Muddling through.

The aim of this theory is to establish which social, political and economic, or personal forces are effective in policymaking.

Robert A. Dahl, James Wilson, Charles E. Lindblom, Yehezkel Dror, and Vincent Ostrom, all point out the mutual importance of different forces (social, political and economic, environmental) in policymaking.

During this time, the context of politics has gained special importance in the discussion of public administration. Accusing the conflict between politics and administration as narrow and self-serving, the new writers have identified administration as a problem of political theory. This was mainly in the United States and Europe.

Dwight Waldo, Wallace Sayre, Peter Self, and others have emphasized the concept of administrative public policy. They want to spread the concept that politics is the environment of administration.

They are interested in judging the administration in terms of relevance, values, democracy, and change as much as in politics. This new trend of public administration is known as New Public Administration.

Must-Read – New Public Administration: 4 Major Landmarks, And Principles

It was said that the administration would play a more client-oriented and effective role from the point of view of politics.

It should also be noted that since World War II, the discussion of public administration has been incomprehensible not only in developed countries but also in third-world countries. So the word development administration is significant in administration today.

The third world countries are focused on comparative public administration. The main goal of comparative public administration is to study third-world countries’ public administration and theory-building through comparative analysis.

How much active role the state can play in planning, policy formulation, and policy implementation, how much priority can be given to the policy of public welfare, and public cooperation in administration is considered as the primary goal in development administration.

F. W. Riggs, Donald C. Stone, John D. Montgomery, Edward Weidner, Fredrick C. Mosher, and others who have conducted significant research on development administration.

Thus it can be said that the concept of the development of the science of administration, which began in the last half of the nineteenth century, has become more mature in the latter half of the twentieth century.

New interpretations and analyses have been developed in the field of administration and management by utilizing the advancement of science and technology.

Recent Trends in Public Administration

In the age of globalization, the rise of information technology is having an impact on people’s lives, as well as every part of the system of government.

Because of this advancement, several concepts also have developed in public administration in recent times.

The 1980s and 1990s saw significant changes in the administrative systems of developed nations. From hierarchical, disciplined bureaucratic administration to flexible, transparent, citizen-centric administration is an important aspect of this change.

Naturally, with this in mind, the mentality of studying public administration in a new way can be noticed from the 1990s. The wave of change that was seen in the administrative activities was also felt in the intellectual practice of the administration.

The trends of that new practice in public administration are-

  • Managerialism
  • New Public Management
  • Market-based Public Administration
  • Entrepreneurial Government
  • Governance , Good Governance , and E-Governance
  • Public-Private Partnership (PPP)

From the above discussion on 5 Phases of The Evolution of Public Administration, it can be concluded that when the journey of public administration as an academic discipline began in the late nineteenth century, there was a tendency to separate public administration from politics and make public administration a science as like natural science.

But the great challenge to this division of public administration and politics came in the 1930s. As a result, there is an identity crisis in public administration.

However, in the aftermath of the Second World War, huge changes took place in public administration. This time there is a deep connection between politics and administration. As a result, the concepts like new public administration, development administration, and comparative public administration are developed.

This change lasted until the 1980s. In the post-1980s, ideas such as New Public Management, and governance, took place in public administration to make public administration more transparent.

With the advancement of information technology, digital governance or E-Governance as well as environmental issues (disaster management) has taken place in public administration.

So it is seen that as the age of public administration has increased, its subject matter has become wider and the subject has become more prosperous.

Therefore, research on public administration will continue in the days to come and their development as students of public administration will be one of our main tasks.

Let me share your experience with what you have learned from “ 5 Phases of The Evolution of Public Administration “.

Share this with needful students as much as you can.

  • CHAKRABARTY, BIDYUT KANDPAL PRAKASH CHAND. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD: Theories and Practices . SAGE INDIA, 2012.
  • Laxmikanth, M. Public Administration for the UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Examination . Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd., 2007.
  • Chakrabarty, Bidyut, and Bhattacharya, Mohit.  Public Administration: a Reader . Oxford University Press, 2007.

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23 thoughts on “5 Phases of the Evolution of Public Administration”

Hi.. I’m Ajith from India. It is easy to understand public Administration. And post more concepts like administrative thought, administrative behaviour, organization etc. So it will useful to know more about public Administration.

Thank you, Ajith! I’m glad to know that you found the article useful. We will definitely write a lot more articles on Public Administration. so, Please Stay with Us.

Thank you for breaking down these PA phases. I was struggling to understand it while reading my book, but you made it so much easier! I really appreciate it 🙂

Thank you, Alejandra P! I’m glad to know that you found the article useful.

This article is really helpful. More on the new governance models will be appreciated.

the Article has been of help to my studies as a Public Administration student. kindly highlight more on such topics and theories

Very resourceful

It is Important that to study the development of descipline in the 21st century ??

yes. truly important

Soy profesor e investigador sobre Gerencia desde hace muchos años. En la actualidad trabajo en la Universidad de Ciencias Médicas de La Habana y hasta fecha reciente también en la Universidad de La Habana, donde he quedado como colaborador. Creo que usted ha organizado con mucha habilidad toda esta información. Con su permiso voy a compartirlo con mis residentes de la Especialidad en Administración y con mis doctorantes en el mismo tema. Creo que les va a ser muy útil. Gracias.

gracias por su agradecimiento y estoy muy contento de saber que será de gran ayuda para sus estudiantes. este es el éxito de mis escritos.

Thank you for this article. I’m based in South Africa and i’m doing my 3rd year in PA, this should’ve been taught to us in the 1st year.

thanks for your appreciation

Wow you do write useful articles Avijit, keep it up..i love your them.

Do rectify the grammatical errors. It would avoid the confusion. Overall a good read.

Thanks for good article….May you precisely say about FACTORS LED TO DEVELOPMENT OF PA

excellent, keep in touch!! I like it

hope you can site examples of public administration development theories and applications, how it was put into practice, site scenarios etc.

I would like to thank however posted the article, It really helped me understand public administration in a more simpler and simplified manner.

More details on the models of public administration dichotomy will be appreciated

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15.1 Bureaucracy and the Evolution of Public Administration

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Define bureaucracy and bureaucrat
  • Describe the evolution and growth of public administration in the United States
  • Identify the reasons people undertake civil service

Throughout history, both small and large nations have elevated certain types of nonelected workers to positions of relative power within the governmental structure. Collectively, these essential workers are called the bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is an administrative group of nonelected officials charged with carrying out functions connected to a series of policies and programs. In the United States, the bureaucracy began as a very small collection of individuals. Over time, however, it grew to be a major force in political affairs. Indeed, it grew so large that politicians in modern times have ridiculed it to great political advantage. However, the country’s many bureaucrats or civil servants , the individuals who work in the bureaucracy, fill necessary and even instrumental roles in every area of government: from high-level positions in foreign affairs and intelligence collection agencies to clerks and staff in the smallest regulatory agencies. They are hired, or sometimes appointed, for their expertise in carrying out the functions and programs of the government.

WHAT DOES A BUREAUCRACY DO?

Modern society relies on the effective functioning of government to provide public goods, enhance quality of life, and stimulate economic growth. The activities by which government achieves these functions include—but are not limited to—taxation, homeland security, immigration, foreign affairs, and education. The more society grows and the need for government services expands, the more challenging bureaucratic management and public administration becomes. Public administration is both the implementation of public policy in government bureaucracies and the academic study that prepares civil servants for work in those organizations.

The classic version of a bureaucracy is hierarchical and can be described by an organizational chart that outlines the separation of tasks and worker specialization while also establishing a clear unity of command by assigning each employee to only one boss. Moreover, the classic bureaucracy employs a division of labor under which work is separated into smaller tasks assigned to different people or groups. Given this definition, bureaucracy is not unique to government but is also found in the private and nonprofit sectors. That is, almost all organizations are bureaucratic regardless of their scope and size; although public and private organizations differ in some important ways. For example, while private organizations are responsible to a superior authority such as an owner, board of directors, or shareholders, federal governmental organizations answer equally to the president, Congress, the courts, and ultimately the public. The underlying goals of private and public organizations also differ. While private organizations seek to survive by controlling costs, increasing market share, and realizing a profit, public organizations find it more difficult to measure the elusive goal of operating with efficiency and effectiveness.

Link to Learning

To learn more about the practice of public administration and opportunities to get involved in your local community, explore the American Society for Public Administration website.

Bureaucracy may seem like a modern invention, but bureaucrats have served in governments for nearly as long as governments have existed. Archaeologists and historians point to the sometimes elaborate bureaucratic systems of the ancient world, from the Egyptian scribes who recorded inventories to the biblical tax collectors who kept the wheels of government well greased. 1 In Europe, government bureaucracy and its study emerged before democracies did. In contrast, in the United States, a democracy and the Constitution came first, followed by the development of national governmental organizations as needed, and then finally the study of U.S. government bureaucracies and public administration emerged. 2

In fact, the long pedigree of bureaucracy is an enduring testament to the necessity of administrative organization. More recently, modern bureaucratic management emerged in the eighteenth century from Scottish economist Adam Smith’s support for the efficiency of the division of labor and from Welsh reformer Robert Owen’s belief that employees are vital instruments in the functioning of an organization. However, it was not until the mid-1800s that the German scholar Lorenz von Stein argued for public administration as both a theory and a practice since its knowledge is generated and evaluated through the process of gathering evidence. For example, a public administration scholar might gather data to see whether the timing of tax collection during a particular season might lead to higher compliance or returns. Credited with being the father of the science of public administration, von Stein opened the path of administrative enlightenment for other scholars in industrialized nations.

THE ORIGINS OF THE U.S. BUREAUCRACY

In the early U.S. republic, the bureaucracy was quite small. This is understandable since the American Revolution was largely a revolt against executive power and the British imperial administrative order. Nevertheless, while neither the word “bureaucracy” nor its synonyms appear in the text of the Constitution, the document does establish a few broad channels through which the emerging government could develop the necessary bureaucratic administration.

For example, Article II , Section 2, provides the president the power to appoint officers and department heads. In the following section, the president is further empowered to see that the laws are “faithfully executed.” More specifically, Article I , Section 8, empowers Congress to establish a post office, build roads, regulate commerce, coin money, and regulate the value of money. Granting the president and Congress such responsibilities appears to anticipate a bureaucracy of some size. Yet the design of the bureaucracy is not described, and it does not occupy its own section of the Constitution as bureaucracy often does in other countries’ governing documents; the design and form were left to be established in practice.

Under President George Washington , the bureaucracy remained small enough to accomplish only the necessary tasks at hand. 3 Washington’s tenure saw the creation of the Department of State to oversee international issues, the Department of the Treasury to control coinage, and the Department of War to administer the armed forces. The employees within these three departments, in addition to the growing postal service, constituted the major portion of the federal bureaucracy for the first three decades of the republic ( Figure 15.2 ). Two developments, however, contributed to the growth of the bureaucracy well beyond these humble beginnings.

The first development was the rise of centralized party politics in the 1820s. Under President Andrew Jackson, many thousands of party loyalists filled the ranks of the bureaucratic offices around the country. This was the beginning of the spoils system , in which political appointments were transformed into political patronage doled out by the president on the basis of party loyalty. 4 Political patronage is the use of state resources to reward individuals for their political support. The term “spoils” here refers to paid positions in the U.S. government. As the saying goes, “to the victor,” in this case the incoming president, “go the spoils.” It was assumed that government would work far more efficiently if the key federal posts were occupied by those already supportive of the president and his policies. This system served to enforce party loyalty by tying the livelihoods of the party faithful to the success or failure of the party. The number of federal posts the president sought to use as appropriate rewards for supporters swelled over the following decades.

The second development was industrialization, which in the late nineteenth century significantly increased both the population and economic size of the United States. These changes in turn brought about urban growth in a number of places across the East and Midwest. Railroads and telegraph lines drew the country together and increased the potential for federal centralization. The government and its bureaucracy were closely involved in creating concessions for and providing land to the western railways stretching across the plains and beyond the Rocky Mountains. These changes set the groundwork for the regulatory framework that emerged in the early twentieth century.

THE FALL OF POLITICAL PATRONAGE

Patronage had the advantage of putting political loyalty to work by making the government quite responsive to the electorate and keeping election turnout robust because so much was at stake. However, the spoils system also had a number of obvious disadvantages. It was a reciprocal system. Clients who wanted positions in the civil service pledged their political loyalty to a particular patron who then provided them with their desired positions. These arrangements directed the power and resources of government toward perpetuating the reward system. They replaced the system that early presidents like Thomas Jefferson had fostered, in which the country’s intellectual and economic elite rose to the highest levels of the federal bureaucracy based on their relative merit. 5 Criticism of the spoils system grew, especially in the mid-1870s, after numerous scandals rocked the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant ( Figure 15.3 ).

As the negative aspects of political patronage continued to infect bureaucracy in the late nineteenth century, calls for civil service reform grew louder. Those supporting the patronage system held that their positions were well earned; those who condemned it argued that federal legislation was needed to ensure jobs were awarded on the basis of merit. Eventually, after President James Garfield had been assassinated by a disappointed office seeker ( Figure 15.4 ), Congress responded to cries for reform with the Pendleton Act , also called the Civil Service Reform Act of 1883. The act established the Civil Service Commission, a centralized agency charged with ensuring that the federal government’s selection, retention, and promotion practices were based on open, competitive examinations in a merit system . 6 The passage of this law sparked a period of social activism and political reform that continued well into the twentieth century.

As an active member and leader of the Progressive movement, President Woodrow Wilson is often considered the father of U.S. public administration. Born in Virginia and educated in history and political science at Johns Hopkins University, Wilson became a respected intellectual in his fields with an interest in public service and a profound sense of moralism. He was named president of Princeton University, became president of the American Political Science Association, was elected governor of New Jersey, and finally was elected the twenty-eighth president of the United States in 1912.

It was through his educational training and vocational experiences that Wilson began to identify the need for a public administration discipline. He felt it was getting harder to run a constitutional government than to actually frame one. His stance was 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 efficiency. . .” 7 Wilson declared that while politics does set tasks for administration, public administration should be built on a science of management, and political science should be concerned with the way governments are administered. Therefore, administrative activities should be devoid of political manipulations. 8

Wilson advocated separating politics from administration by three key means: making comparative analyses of public and private organizations, improving efficiency with business-like practices, and increasing effectiveness through management and training. Wilson’s point was that while politics should be kept separate from administration, administration should not be insensitive to public opinion. Rather, the bureaucracy should act with a sense of vigor to understand and appreciate public opinion. Still, Wilson acknowledged that the separation of politics from administration was an ideal and not necessarily an achievable reality.

THE BUREAUCRACY COMES OF AGE

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a time of great bureaucratic growth in the United States: The Interstate Commerce Commission was established in 1887, the Federal Reserve Board in 1913, the Federal Trade Commission in 1914, and the Federal Power Commission in 1920.

With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, the United States faced record levels of unemployment and the associated fall into poverty, food shortages, and general desperation. When the Republican president and Congress were not seen as moving aggressively enough to fix the situation, the Democrats won the 1932 election in overwhelming fashion. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress rapidly reorganized the government’s problem-solving efforts into a series of programs designed to revive the economy, stimulate economic development, and generate employment opportunities. In the 1930s, the federal bureaucracy grew with the addition of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect and regulate U.S. banking, the National Labor Relations Board to regulate the way companies could treat their workers, the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the stock market, and the Civil Aeronautics Board to regulate air travel. Additional programs and institutions emerged with the Social Security Administration in 1935 and then, during World War II, various wartime boards and agencies. By 1940, approximately 700,000 U.S. workers were employed in the federal bureaucracy. 9

Under President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s, that number reached 2.2 million, and the federal budget increased to $332 billion. 10 This growth came as a result of what Johnson called his Great Society program, intended to use the power of government to relieve suffering and accomplish social good. The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was designed to help end poverty by creating a Job Corps and a Neighborhood Youth Corps. Volunteers in Service to America was a type of domestic Peace Corps intended to relieve the effects of poverty. Johnson also directed more funding to public education, created Medicare as a national insurance program for the elderly, and raised standards for consumer products.

All of these new programs required bureaucrats to run them, and the national bureaucracy naturally ballooned. Its size became a rallying cry for conservatives, who eventually elected Ronald Reagan president for the express purpose of reducing the bureaucracy. While Reagan was able to work with Congress to reduce some aspects of the federal bureaucracy, he contributed to its expansion in other ways, particularly in his efforts to fight the Cold War. 11 For example, Reagan and Congress increased the defense budget dramatically over the course of the 1980s. 12 After the end of the Cold War and the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, which was an important symbol of East-West conflict during that time, the 1990s brought discussion of a "Peace Dividend"—that is, with the threat of global thermonuclear war significantly reduced, the U.S. could stand to reduce defense spending and direct resources to other areas. 13 However, after a decade of retrenchment in military and defense spending, the 9/11 attacks induced a new era of massive investment in defense and homeland security. Indeed, President Joe Biden's plans to withdraw from Afghanistan come twenty years after the fact. 14

“The Nine Most Terrifying Words in the English Language”

The two periods of increased bureaucratic growth in the United States, the 1930s and the 1960s, accomplished far more than expanding the size of government. They transformed politics in ways that continue to shape political debate today. While the bureaucracies created in these two periods served important purposes, many at that time and even now argue that the expansion came with unacceptable costs, particularly economic costs. The common argument that bureaucratic regulation smothers capitalist innovation was especially powerful in the Cold War environment of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. But as long as voters felt they were benefiting from the bureaucratic expansion, as they typically did, the political winds supported continued growth.

In the 1970s, however, Germany and Japan were thriving economies in positions to compete with U.S. industry. This competition, combined with technological advances and the beginnings of computerization, began to eat away at American prosperity. Factories began to close, wages began to stagnate, inflation climbed, and the future seemed a little less bright. In this environment, tax-paying workers were less likely to support generous welfare programs designed to end poverty. They felt these bureaucratic programs were adding to their misery in order to support unknown others.

In his first and unsuccessful presidential bid in 1976, Ronald Reagan, a skilled politician and governor of California, stoked working-class anxieties by directing voters’ discontent at the bureaucratic dragon he proposed to slay. When he ran again four years later, his criticism of bureaucratic waste in Washington carried him to a landslide victory. While it is debatable whether Reagan actually reduced the size of government, he continued to wield rhetoric about bureaucratic waste to great political advantage. Even as late as 1986, he continued to rail against the Washington bureaucracy ( Figure 15.5 ), once declaring famously that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

Why might people be more sympathetic to bureaucratic growth during periods of prosperity? In what way do modern politicians continue to stir up popular animosity against bureaucracy to political advantage? Is it effective? Why or why not?

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  • Section URL: https://openstax.org/books/american-government-3e/pages/15-1-bureaucracy-and-the-evolution-of-public-administration

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Phases in the Evolution of Public Administration

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Chapter 15: The Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy and the Evolution of Public Administration

Learning objectives.

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Define bureaucracy and bureaucrat
  • Describe the evolution and growth of public administration in the United States
  • Identify the reasons people undertake civil service

Throughout history, both small and large nations have elevated certain types of nonelected workers to positions of relative power within the governmental structure. Collectively, these essential workers are called the bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is an administrative group of nonelected officials charged with carrying out functions connected to a series of policies and programs. In the United States, the bureaucracy began as a very small collection of individuals. Over time, however, it grew to be a major force in political affairs. Indeed, it grew so large that politicians in modern times have ridiculed it to great political advantage. However, the country’s many bureaucrats or civil servants, the individuals who work in the bureaucracy, fill necessary and even instrumental roles in every area of government: from high-level positions in foreign affairs and intelligence collection agencies to clerks and staff in the smallest regulatory agencies. They are hired, or sometimes appointed, for their expertise in carrying out the functions and programs of the government.

WHAT DOES A BUREAUCRACY DO?

Modern society relies on the effective functioning of government to provide public goods, enhance quality of life, and stimulate economic growth. The activities by which government achieves these functions include—but are not limited to—taxation, homeland security, immigration, foreign affairs, and education. The more society grows and the need for government services expands, the more challenging bureaucratic management and public administration becomes. Public administration is both the implementation of public policy in government bureaucracies and the academic study that prepares civil servants for work in those organizations.

The classic version of a bureaucracy is hierarchical and can be described by an organizational chart that outlines the separation of tasks and worker specialization while also establishing a clear unity of command by assigning each employee to only one boss. Moreover, the classic bureaucracy employs a division of labor under which work is separated into smaller tasks assigned to different people or groups. Given this definition, bureaucracy is not unique to government but is also found in the private and nonprofit sectors. That is, almost all organizations are bureaucratic regardless of their scope and size; although public and private organizations differ in some important ways. For example, while private organizations are responsible to a superior authority such as an owner, board of directors, or shareholders, federal governmental organizations answer equally to the president, Congress, the courts, and ultimately the public. The underlying goals of private and public organizations also differ. While private organizations seek to survive by controlling costs, increasing market share, and realizing a profit, public organizations find it more difficult to measure the elusive goal of operating with efficiency and effectiveness.

Bureaucracy may seem like a modern invention, but bureaucrats have served in governments for nearly as long as governments have existed. Archaeologists and historians point to the sometimes elaborate bureaucratic systems of the ancient world, from the Egyptian scribes who recorded inventories to the biblical tax collectors who kept the wheels of government well greased. [1]

In Europe, government bureaucracy and its study emerged before democracies did. In contrast, in the United States, a democracy and the Constitution came first, followed by the development of national governmental organizations as needed, and then finally the study of U.S. government bureaucracies and public administration emerged. [2]

In fact, the long pedigree of bureaucracy is an enduring testament to the necessity of administrative organization. More recently, modern bureaucratic management emerged in the eighteenth century from Scottish economist Adam Smith’s support for the efficiency of the division of labor and from Welsh reformer Robert Owen’s belief that employees are vital instruments in the functioning of an organization. However, it was not until the mid-1800s that the German scholar Lorenz von Stein argued for public administration as both a theory and a practice since its knowledge is generated and evaluated through the process of gathering evidence. For example, a public administration scholar might gather data to see whether the timing of tax collection during a particular season might lead to higher compliance or returns. Credited with being the father of the science of public administration, von Stein opened the path of administrative enlightenment for other scholars in industrialized nations.

THE ORIGINS OF THE U.S. BUREAUCRACY

In the early U.S. republic, the bureaucracy was quite small. This is understandable since the American Revolution was largely a revolt against executive power and the British imperial administrative order. Nevertheless, while neither the word “bureaucracy” nor its synonyms appear in the text of the Constitution, the document does establish a few broad channels through which the emerging government could develop the necessary bureaucratic administration.

For example, Article II , Section 2, provides the president the power to appoint officers and department heads. In the following section, the president is further empowered to see that the laws are “faithfully executed.” More specifically, Article I , Section 8, empowers Congress to establish a post office, build roads, regulate commerce, coin money, and regulate the value of money. Granting the president and Congress such responsibilities appears to anticipate a bureaucracy of some size. Yet the design of the bureaucracy is not described, and it does not occupy its own section of the Constitution as bureaucracy often does in other countries’ governing documents; the design and form were left to be established in practice.

Under President George Washington , the bureaucracy remained small enough to accomplish only the necessary tasks at hand. [3]

Washington’s tenure saw the creation of the Department of State to oversee international issues, the Department of the Treasury to control coinage, and the Department of War to administer the armed forces. The employees within these three departments, in addition to the growing postal service, constituted the major portion of the federal bureaucracy for the first three decades of the republic ( (Figure) ). Two developments, however, contributed to the growth of the bureaucracy well beyond these humble beginnings.

An illustration of George Washington, Henry Knox, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Edmund Randolph.

The first development was the rise of centralized party politics in the 1820s. Under President Andrew Jackson, many thousands of party loyalists filled the ranks of the bureaucratic offices around the country. This was the beginning of the spoils system, in which political appointments were transformed into political patronage doled out by the president on the basis of party loyalty. [4]

Political patronage is the use of state resources to reward individuals for their political support. The term “spoils” here refers to paid positions in the U.S. government. As the saying goes, “to the victor,” in this case the incoming president, “go the spoils.” It was assumed that government would work far more efficiently if the key federal posts were occupied by those already supportive of the president and his policies. This system served to enforce party loyalty by tying the livelihoods of the party faithful to the success or failure of the party. The number of federal posts the president sought to use as appropriate rewards for supporters swelled over the following decades.

The second development was industrialization, which in the late nineteenth century significantly increased both the population and economic size of the United States. These changes in turn brought about urban growth in a number of places across the East and Midwest. Railroads and telegraph lines drew the country together and increased the potential for federal centralization. The government and its bureaucracy were closely involved in creating concessions for and providing land to the western railways stretching across the plains and beyond the Rocky Mountains. These changes set the groundwork for the regulatory framework that emerged in the early twentieth century.

THE FALL OF POLITICAL PATRONAGE

Patronage had the advantage of putting political loyalty to work by making the government quite responsive to the electorate and keeping election turnout robust because so much was at stake. However, the spoils system also had a number of obvious disadvantages. It was a reciprocal system. Clients who wanted positions in the civil service pledged their political loyalty to a particular patron who then provided them with their desired positions. These arrangements directed the power and resources of government toward perpetuating the reward system. They replaced the system that early presidents like Thomas Jefferson had fostered, in which the country’s intellectual and economic elite rose to the highest levels of the federal bureaucracy based on their relative merit. [5]

Criticism of the spoils system grew, especially in the mid-1870s, after numerous scandals rocked the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant ( (Figure) ).

Image A is an illustration of Ulysses S. Grant being sworn in as President of the United States. Image B is a cartoon featuring a statue of Andrew Jackson riding a pig over a bed of skulls. A plaque on the pedestal reads “To the victors belong the spoils.”

Figure 2. Caption: It was under President Ulysses S. Grant, shown in this engraving being sworn in by Chief Justice Samuel P. Chase at his inauguration in 1873 (a), that the inefficiencies and opportunities for corruption embedded in the spoils system reached their height. Grant was famously loyal to his supporters, a characteristic that—combined with postwar opportunities for corruption—created scandal in his administration. This political cartoon from 1877 (b), nearly half a century after Andrew Jackson was elected president, ridicules the spoils system that was one of his legacies. In it he is shown riding a pig, which is walking over “fraud,” “bribery,” and “spoils” and feeding on “plunder.” (credit a, b: modification of work by the Library of Congress)

As the negative aspects of political patronage continued to infect bureaucracy in the late nineteenth century, calls for civil service reform grew louder. Those supporting the patronage system held that their positions were well earned; those who condemned it argued that federal legislation was needed to ensure jobs were awarded on the basis of merit. Eventually, after President James Garfield had been assassinated by a disappointed office seeker ( (Figure) ), Congress responded to cries for reform with the Pendleton Act , also called the Civil Service Reform Act of 1883. The act established the Civil Service Commission, a centralized agency charged with ensuring that the federal government’s selection, retention, and promotion practices were based on open, competitive examinations in a merit system.

The passage of this law sparked a period of social activism and political reform that continued well into the twentieth century.

A cartoon of Charles J. Guiteau holding a pistol and a piece of paper that says “An office or your life!”

As an active member and leader of the Progressive movement, President Woodrow Wilson is often considered the father of U.S. public administration. Born in Virginia and educated in history and political science at Johns Hopkins University, Wilson became a respected intellectual in his fields with an interest in public service and a profound sense of moralism. He was named president of Princeton University, became president of the American Political Science Association, was elected governor of New Jersey, and finally was elected the twenty-eighth president of the United States in 1912.

It was through his educational training and vocational experiences that Wilson began to identify the need for a public administration discipline. He felt it was getting harder to run a constitutional government than to actually frame one. His stance was 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 efficiency. . .” [6]

Wilson declared that while politics does set tasks for administration, public administration should be built on a science of management, and political science should be concerned with the way governments are administered. Therefore, administrative activities should be devoid of political manipulations. [7]

Wilson advocated separating politics from administration by three key means: making comparative analyses of public and private organizations, improving efficiency with business-like practices, and increasing effectiveness through management and training. Wilson’s point was that while politics should be kept separate from administration, administration should not be insensitive to public opinion. Rather, the bureaucracy should act with a sense of vigor to understand and appreciate public opinion. Still, Wilson acknowledged that the separation of politics from administration was an ideal and not necessarily an achievable reality.

THE BUREAUCRACY COMES OF AGE

The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a time of great bureaucratic growth in the United States: The Interstate Commerce Commission was established in 1887, the Federal Reserve Board in 1913, the Federal Trade Commission in 1914, and the Federal Power Commission in 1920.

With the onset of the Great Depression in 1929, the United States faced record levels of unemployment and the associated fall into poverty, food shortages, and general desperation. When the Republican president and Congress were not seen as moving aggressively enough to fix the situation, the Democrats won the 1932 election in overwhelming fashion. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress rapidly reorganized the government’s problem-solving efforts into a series of programs designed to revive the economy, stimulate economic development, and generate employment opportunities. In the 1930s, the federal bureaucracy grew with the addition of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to protect and regulate U.S. banking, the National Labor Relations Board to regulate the way companies could treat their workers, the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate the stock market, and the Civil Aeronautics Board to regulate air travel. Additional programs and institutions emerged with the Social Security Administration in 1935 and then, during World War II, various wartime boards and agencies. By 1940, approximately 700,000 U.S. workers were employed in the federal bureaucracy. [8]

Under President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s, that number reached 2.2 million, and the federal budget increased to $332 billion. [9]

This growth came as a result of what Johnson called his Great Society program, intended to use the power of government to relieve suffering and accomplish social good. The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was designed to help end poverty by creating a Job Corps and a Neighborhood Youth Corps. Volunteers in Service to America was a type of domestic Peace Corps intended to relieve the effects of poverty. Johnson also directed more funding to public education, created Medicare as a national insurance program for the elderly, and raised standards for consumer products.

All of these new programs required bureaucrats to run them, and the national bureaucracy naturally ballooned. Its size became a rallying cry for conservatives, who eventually elected Ronald Reagan president for the express purpose of reducing the bureaucracy. While Reagan was able to work with Congress to reduce some aspects of the federal bureaucracy, he contributed to its expansion in other ways, particularly in his efforts to fight the Cold War. [10]

For example, Reagan and Congress increased the defense budget dramatically over the course of the 1980s. [11]

The two periods of increased bureaucratic growth in the United States, the 1930s and the 1960s, accomplished far more than expanding the size of government. They transformed politics in ways that continue to shape political debate today. While the bureaucracies created in these two periods served important purposes, many at that time and even now argue that the expansion came with unacceptable costs, particularly economic costs. The common argument that bureaucratic regulation smothers capitalist innovation was especially powerful in the Cold War environment of the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. But as long as voters felt they were benefiting from the bureaucratic expansion, as they typically did, the political winds supported continued growth.

In his first and unsuccessful presidential bid in 1976, Ronald Reagan, a skilled politician and governor of California, stoked working-class anxieties by directing voters’ discontent at the bureaucratic dragon he proposed to slay. When he ran again four years later, his criticism of bureaucratic waste in Washington carried him to a landslide victory. While it is debatable whether Reagan actually reduced the size of government, he continued to wield rhetoric about bureaucratic waste to great political advantage. Even as late as 1986, he continued to rail against the Washington bureaucracy ( ), once declaring famously that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.”

As seen in this 1976 photograph, President Ronald Reagan frequently and intentionally dressed in casual clothing to symbolize his distance from the government machinery he loved to criticize. (credit: Ronald Reagan Library)

During the post-Jacksonian era of the nineteenth century, the common charge against the bureaucracy was that it was overly political and corrupt. This changed in the 1880s as the United States began to create a modern civil service. The civil service grew once again in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration as he expanded government programs to combat the effects of the Great Depression. The most recent criticisms of the federal bureaucracy, notably under Ronald Reagan, emerged following the second great expansion of the federal government under Lyndon B Johnson in the 1960s.

  • For general information on ancient bureaucracies see Amanda Summer. 2012. “The Birth of Bureaucracy”. Archaeology 65, No. 4: 33–39; Clyde Curry Smith. 1977. “The Birth of Bureaucracy”. The Bible Archaeologist 40, No. 1: 24–28; Ronald J. Williams. 1972. “Scribal Training in Ancient Egypt,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 92, No. 2: 214–21. ↵
  • Richard Stillman. 2009. Public Administration: Concepts and Cases. 9th edition. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. ↵
  • For the early origins of the U.S. bureaucracy see Michael Nelson. 1982. “A Short, Ironic History of American National Bureaucracy,” The Journal of Politics 44 No. 3: 747–78. ↵
  • Daniel Walker Howe. 2007. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 334. ↵
  • Jack Ladinsky. 1966. “Review of Status and Kinship in the Higher Civil Service: Standards of Selection in the Administrations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson,” American Sociological Review 31 No. 6: 863–64. ↵
  • Jack Rabin and James S. Bowman. 1984. “Politics and Administration: Woodrow Wilson and American Public Administration,” Public Administration and Public Policy ; 22: 104. ↵
  • For more on President Wilson’s efforts at reform see Kendrick A. Clements. 1998. “Woodrow Wilson and Administrative Reform,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 28 No. 2: 320–36; Larry Walker. 1989. “Woodrow Wilson, Progressive Reform, and Public Administration,” Political Science Quarterly 104, No. 3: 509–25. ↵
  • https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/federal-employment-reports/historical-tables/executive-branch-civilian-employment-since-1940/ (May 15, 2016). ↵
  • https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/data-analysis-documentation/federal-employment-reports/historical-tables/total-government-employment-since-1962 (May 15, 2016). ↵
  • For more on LBJ and the Great Society see: John A. Andrew. 1998. Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society . Chicago: Ivan R Dee; Julian E. Zelizer. 2015. The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society . New York: Penguin Press. ↵
  • John Mikesell. 2014. Fiscal Administration , 9th ed. Boston: Cengage. ↵

American Government Copyright © 2016 by cnxamgov is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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evolution of public administration essay

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Syllabus of Public Administration Paper - I

Administration theory.

  • Introduction: Meaning, scope, and significance of Public Administration, Wilson’s vision of Public Administration, Evolution of the discipline, and its present status. New Public Administration, Public Choice approach; Challenges of liberalization, Privatisation, Globalisation; Good Governance: concept and application; New Public Management.
  • Administrative Thought: Scientific Management and Scientific Management movement; Classical Theory; Weber’s bureaucratic model its critique and post-Weberian Developments; Dynamic Administration (Mary Parker Follett); Human Relations School (Elton Mayo and others); Functions of the Executive (C.I. Barnard); Simon’s decision-making theory; Participative Management (R. Likert, C. Argyris, D. McGregor.)
  • Administrative Behaviour: Process and techniques of decision-making; Communication; Morale; Motivation Theories content, process and contemporary; Theories of Leadership: Traditional and Modern.
  • Organisations: Theories systems, contingency; Structure and forms: Ministries and Departments, Corporations, Companies; Boards and Commissions; Ad hoc, and advisory bodies; Headquarters and Field relationships; Regulatory Authorities; Public-Private Partnerships.
  • Accountability and Control: Concepts of accountability and control; Legislative, Executive, and Judicial control over administration; Citizen and Administration; Role of media, interest groups, voluntary organizations; Civil society; Citizen’s Charters; Right to Information; Social audit.
  • Administrative Law: Meaning, scope, and significance; Dicey on Administrative law; Delegated legislation; Administrative Tribunals.
  • Comparative Public Administration: Historical and sociological factors affecting administrative systems; Administration and politics in different countries; Current status of Comparative Public Administration; Ecology and administration; Riggsian models and their critique.
  • Development Dynamics: Concept of development; Changing profile of development administration; ‘Anti-development thesis’; Bureaucracy and development; Strong state versus the market debate; Impact of liberalisation on administration in developing countries; Women and development the self-help group movement.
  • Personnel Administration: Importance of human resource development; Recruitment, training, career advancement, position classification, discipline, performance appraisal, promotion, Pay and service conditions; employer-employee relations, grievance redressal mechanism; Code of conduct; Administrative ethics.
  • Public Policy: Models of policy-making and their critique; Processes of conceptualisation, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and review, and their limitations; State theories and public policy formulation.
  • Techniques of Administrative Improvement: Organisation and methods, Work study and work management; e-governance and information technology; Management aid tools like network analysis, MIS, PERT, CPM.
  • Financial Administration: Monetary and fiscal policies: Public borrowings and public debt Budgets types and forms; Budgetary process; Financial accountability; Accounts and audit.

Syllabus of Public Administration Paper - II

Indian administration .

  • Evolution of Indian Administration: Kautilya Arthashastra; Mughal administration; Legacy of British rule in politics and administration Indianization of Public services, revenue administration, district Administration, local self Government.
  • Philosophical and Constitutional framework of Government: Salient features and value premises; Constitutionalism; Political culture; Bureaucracy and democracy; Bureaucracy and development.
  • Public Sector Undertakings: Public sector in modern India; Forms of Public Sector Undertakings; Problems of autonomy, accountability and control; Impact of liberalization and privatization.
  • Union Government and Administration: Executive, Parliament, Judiciary-structure, functions, work processes; Recent trends; Intragovernmental relations; Cabinet Secretariat; Prime Minister’s Office; Central Secretariat; Ministries and Departments; Boards; Commissions; Attached offices; Field organizations. 
  • Plans and Priorities: Machinery of planning; Role, composition and functions of the Planning Commission and the National Development Council; ‘Indicative’ planning; Process of plan formulation at Union and State levels; Constitutional Amendments (1992) and decentralized planning for economic development and social justice.
  • State Government and Administration: Union-State administrative, legislative and financial relations; Role of the Finance Commission; Governor; Chief Minister; Council of Ministers; Chief Secretary; State Secretariat; Directorates.
  • District Administration since Independence: Changing role of the Collector; Union-State-local relations; Imperatives of development management and law and order administration; District administration and democratic decentralization.
  • Civil Services: Constitutional position; Structure, recruitment, training, and capacity building; Good governance initiatives; Code of conduct and discipline; Staff associations; Political rights; Grievance redressal mechanism; Civil service neutrality; Civil service activism.
  • Financial Management: Budget as a political instrument; Parliamentary control of public expenditure; Role of finance ministry in the monetary and fiscal area; Accounting techniques; Audit; Role of Controller General of Accounts and Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
  • Administrative Reforms since Independence: Major concerns; Important Committees and Commissions; Reforms in financial management and human resource development; Problems of implementation.
  • Rural Development: Institutions and agencies since independence; Rural development programmes: foci and strategies; Decentralization and Panchayati Raj; 73rd Constitutional amendment.
  • Urban Local Government: Municipal governance: main features, structures, finance and problem areas; 74th Constitutional Amendment; Global-local debate; New localism; Development dynamics, politics and administration with special reference to city management.
  • Law and Order Administration: British legacy; National Police Commission; Investigative agencies; Role of Central and State Agencies including paramilitary forces in maintenance of law and order and countering insurgency and terrorism; Criminalisation of politics and administration; Police-public relations; Reforms in Police.
  • Significant issues in Indian Administration: Values in public service; Regulatory Commissions; National Human Rights Commission; Problems of administration in coalition regimes; Citizen administration interface; Corruption and administration; Disaster management.

Previous Year UPSC Questions

SECTION ‘A’

  • Answer the following in about 150 words each: a). Public administration horizons have been expanding to cater to the complex needs of the citizens in the globalised era. Explain. b). Efficiency, in the specialised sense, is an organisation's capacity to offer effective inducements in sufficient quantity to maintain the equilibrium of the system. Analyse. c). "The process of decisions ......... is largely a technique of narrowing choices." Explain. d). "The judiciary is playing a more positive role in policy formulation, not just in limiting government actions, but also in mandating them." Comment. e). "Citizen Charter's focus is on empowering citizens concerning public service delivery." Analyse.
  • Answer the following: a). Follett firmly advocated for cultivating interdependence and collaboration among individuals as the key to resolving conflicts and establishing more harmonious and all encompassing social structures. Discuss. b). Minnowbrook III emphasised the importance of empirical research in generating valuable insights for public administration and recognized the need to tailor education in the field to different regional contexts. Examine. c). "Public- Private Partnerships (PPPs) have been justified in various ways over time that seek to privatise public services for the profit of private entities." Do you agree?
  • Answer the following: a). "Organization theory is not a single theory with a loosely knit of many approaches to organisational analysis, and it provides different answers to different situations." Comment. b). "Intrinsic motivation in comparison to extrinsic motivation leads to enhanced performance and creativity." Examine. c). "The backlash against Right to information (RTI) by the State hampered the citizen's right to know." Examine and point out the need to amend the RTI Act to provide protection to RTI activists.
  • Answer the following: a). "Reddin model of leadership added third dimension to the existing two basic dimensions leadership identified by Ohio Studies and Blake and Mouton." Elucidate. b). "Two-factor theory entails certain factors in workplace resulting in job satisfaction, while others, if absent, lead to dissatisfaction." Discuss. c). "Subordinate legislation has its drawbacks; this does not negate the fact that it is also quite beneficial." Examine.

SECTION ‘B’

  • Answer the following in about 150 words each : a). " The Constitution of French Republic does not prohibit ministers from being the leader of political party; it is customary that minister should not occupy such a post to ensure impartiality." Explain. b). The ultimate goal of using Management Information System (MIS) is to increase values and Productivity in organisations. Explain. c)."Cost-benefit analysis is of great help to the policy makers in framing policies and providing advice on developing public policy." Examine. d). "Monetary Policy and fiscal policy are different; but both are used to regulate economy." Discuss. e). "Instead of conflicting, the employer-employee relationship should be one of mutual reliance." Explain.
  • Answer the following: a). " The studies in Comparative Public Administration (CPA) got momentum in 1980's and 1990's with a new objective and orientation than its previous counterparts." Critically examine. b). "In explaining the 'development', Weidner made a distinction between change in the output and change in the system itself; and warned that what is growth from one point of view may decline from another." Comment. c). "Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is based on programme efficiency rather than budget history." In the light of this, examine the advantages of ZBB over traditional budgets.
  • Answer the following: a). "Public policy-making is an effort to apply the methods of political analysis to policy areas but has concerns with processes inside the bureaucracy and stakeholders." Discuss. b). "In career advancement, civil servants are necessitated to political superiors and hence the phenomenon poses the challenges to civil service neutrality." Comment. c). "Information Communication Technology (ICT) can harness the power of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to execute the policies more intelligently creating an efficient and effective Government." Examine and identify the challenges.
  • Answer the following: a). "The management of sound public finances used to be the backbone of administrative system; but unfortunately, it has become the prisoner of populist policies." Critically evaluate. b). "Women empowerment is essential for sustainable development; hence it should not be reflected only in programmes but promoting concrete actions to ensure the participation across institutions and communities." Critically examine. c). "Training is not a short affair, rather it is a step-by-step process of developing skills, habits, knowledge and aptitude." Elucidate.
  • Answer the following in about 150 words each: a). “Mughal administrative system was centralised despotism”. Comment. b). “The office of the District Collector admirably survived the changing times from colonialism to the present times”. Comment. c). “The smooth transaction of business in Ministries and Departments depends on the role played by Cabinet Secretariat”. Discuss. d). “The Government of India Act, 1935 is the most important source of Indian constitution”. Identify its features. e). “The Chief Secretary is the chief communication link between the state and central government”. Explain.
  • Answer the following in about 150 words each: a). "Kautliya's Arthashastra is a theoretical work on the state and Statecraft." Comment. b). Critics, sometimes, argue that bureaucracy is an impediment to a nation's development. Analyse. c). “Indicative Planning, is a middle path of planning and market mechanism to ensure coordination between public and private activities.” Explain. d). Is it true that the Finance Commission has been lending Financial strength to the local bodies in India? Argue in favour of your response. e). "Parliamentary democracy in India envisages elected head as the real executive of a State." Discuss.
  • Answer the following: a). "Indian Prime Minister is more empowered than his British counterpart in the Westminster model of democracy." Elucidate. b). Post-amendment period Panchayats have become a platform of competitive politics, but could not emerge as an agency of planning and service delivery. Examine. c). Former Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra observed: "An efficient judiciary is the hallmark of a great nation." Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). India has significantly advanced in its development goals, increased efficiency in the public sector and unlocked innovation in private sector by adopting the approach of building Digital Public Infrastructure. Elucidate. b). "Attempts to prepare unified and holistic plans for the country are complex and full of challenges." Discuss. c). "Excessive political interference in development process has become a cause of concern in achieving national goals. Examine.
  • Answer the following: a). "There shall be Council of Ministers with the Chief Minister at the head to aid and advise the Governor in the exercise of his functions, except......." This constitutional provision is being intensively debated nowadays. Elucidate. b). "There is a need to redefine and realign the functions of the Deputy Commissioner/ District Collector. Elaborate. c). Examine Project Bharatmala-Road to prosperity-launched in 2017.
  • Answer the following in about 150 words each: a). The district training component of Induction Training of IAS officers requires to be revisited. Examine. b). "Mission Antyodaya strives to realise the vision of poverty-free India." Examine. c). The dynamics of coalitions vary with the nature of leadership, political parties and contemporary political conditions. Analyse. d). Computerization of treasuries has revolutionised the accounting and budget planning process, Comment. e). Do you agree that code of ethics and code of conduct for ministers would help in upholding higher standards of their constitutional and ethical conduct? Explain.
  • Answer the following: a). "Civil Service Reforms along with a transparent transfer policy will go a long way in insulating civil servants from undesired political pulls and pressures." Discuss. b). "The withdrawal of AFSPA from Tripura has sent a positive signal across the state and North-Eastern Region." Do you think that now it is an appropriate time to take a more rational policy decision in this matter. c). The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is by far the most significant cleanliness campaign by the Government of India. Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). Accountability of the Executive to the Parliament in the domain of financial administration is secured through CAG reports. Discuss. b). The government response to the Supreme Court's judgement on Police Reforms has been lackadaisical. The reasons are multiple and multidimensional. Discuss. c). Disasters can push the world's poorest deeper into poverty. Do you think that a a comprehensive strategy to deal with such vulnerabilities is required?
  • Answer the following: a). In the context of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission recommendations, evaluate Public-Private Partnership (PPP) as a preferred mode of implementing infrastructural projects. b). In 2011, India ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). Evaluate the existing legal framework for fulfilling this commitment. c). Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission is a cluster-based approach of converging rural development efforts of different departments of the government. Comment.
  • Answer the following in about 150 words each: a). Public Management takes 'what' and 'why' from Public Administration and 'how' from Business Management. Elaborate. b). Every human organisation shall start from System-I and ultimately end up with System-IV. Comment on Likert's statement. c). All tribunals are courts, but all courts are not tribunals. Explain. d). Classical Organisation Theory formed the bedrock for the modern organisation theories. Analyse. e). Interaction between the State and Civil society has hitherto been largely neglected, especially in developing countries. Examine.
  • Answer the following: a). 'The administrative state is the creation of a power to bind us, with rules ... that are not made by legislature.' Discuss the constitutionality of the administrative state and its future. b). Transformational leadership requires high degree of coordination, communication and cooperation. Explain. c). Human relationists postulate that 'what is important to a worker and what influences his/her productivity level may not be the organisational chart but his or her associations with other workers'. Is it more relevant today?
  • Answer the following: a). Barnard posits the zone of indifference as the human condition that animates authority relationships and cooperation in modern organisations. Examine. b). New public service celebrates what is distinctive, important and meaningful about public service. Discuss. c). Strategic communication ought to be an agile management process. Discuss the conceptualization of strategic communication for the government actions.
  • Answer the following: a). 'Leadership is seen as dealing with change, whereas administration is viewed as coping with complexity.' In this context, discuss the contextuality of leadership and administration for the success of organisations. b). Regulatory governance frameworks have become essential building blocks of world society. Discuss their potential and impact in fulfilling the hopes and demands. c). Social auditing is not just saving the money, it creates positive impact on governance. Comment.
  • Answer the following in about 150 words each : a). Development Administration 'embraces the array of new functions assumed by the developing countries'. Explain. b). Policy evaluation contributes fundamentally to sound public governance. Discuss. c). Weber's construct of bureaucracy has served a great heuristic purpose in furthering research in the field of Comparative Public Administration. Do you agree with the statement ? Give reasons. d). Standards are the foundation which do not replace regulations but complement them. Comment. e). 'Outcome budgeting addresses the weaknesses of performance budgeting.' Elaborate.
  • Answer the following: a). 'The more exogenetic the process of diffraction, the more formalistic and heterogenous its prismatic phase; the more endogenetic the less formalistic and heterogenous.' Examine this hypothesis of Riggs. b). The environment and situational conditions under which the government operates have an important bearing on its human resource development practices. Examine. c). 'Lindblom regarded rational decision-making as an unattainable goal.' In the light of the statement, suggest measures to avoid policy failures.
  • Answer the following: a). The results of Washington Consensus were far from optimal for transitional economies. In this background, discuss the change of direction towards post-Washington Consensus. b). A sound budgeting system is one which engenders trust among citizens that the government is listening to their concerns. Elaborate this in the context of budgetary governance. c). Performance problems are rarely caused simply by lack of training and rarely can performance be improved by training alone. Critically analyse the statement.
  • Answer the following: a). The audit function has always been viewed as an integral part of government financial management. Discuss the significance of internal audit in improving the performance of the government sector. b). Most civil service regimes still equate 'Public Sector Ethics' with anti-corruption efforts. Discuss the insufficiency of Ethics-code in this background. c). Failure of Public policies has often been attributed to problems of implementation, while implementors question the policy design. Discuss the contestation.
  • Answer the following: a). “The Indian federal structure is largely symmetric albeit with some asymmetric features”. Examine the status of States and Union Territories through the principle of weighted and differentiated equality in India. b). The Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan is a progressive policy. Analyse. c). “Indicative Planning, is a middle path of planning and market mechanism to ensure coordination between public and private activities.” Explain.
  • Answer the following: a). “The New Economic Reforms during the past three decades have not only reduced the scope of industrial licensing and areas reserved exclusively for Public Sector but also infringed the autonomy of existing public sector undertakings”. Examine. b). “National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Ayog has become super cabinet in formulating the development agenda of our country”. Examine the statement by giving suitable examples. c). Despite the constitutional status, the District planning committees remained a non-entity in preparation and implementation of plans. Discuss.
  • Answer the following: a). “The Indian judicial system has failed to deliver justice expeditiously”. Examine the challenges faced by the judiciary and suggest measures to overcome them. b). Analyse the specific areas of controversies with regard to Union-State financial relations, particularly in the context of one nation - one tax policy. c). Examine the role of central government in adjudication of disputes relating to water of interstate rivers.
  • Answer the following in about 150 words each: a). Examine the lateral entry recruitment in government in the context of Part XIV of the Indian Constitution. b). Examine the role of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in protecting the interests of the investors in securities. c). Citizens charters in India have not succeeded in their objectives in making administrative system citizen centric. Do you agree? Give reasons. d). Following the onset of globalisation, the traditional bureaucratic model appears to have lost its significance. Comment. e). “The financial suitability of the Urban local bodies can become a reality only when they receive their due share of public finances.” Explain
  • Answer the following: a). The recommendations of National Finance Commissions are more norms based than the need based. In the light of this statement analyse the terms of references of 15th National Finance Commission. b). “The objective of Mission Karmyogi is to enhance capacity building of Indian Civil Servants and improve governance.” Discuss. c). Parliamentary control over administration is no substitute for judicial control. Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). In India, for the upliftment of majority of people, governmental intervention remains a central fact of life. Nevertheless, the effective implementation of policies depends on the ethical values of Public Servants. Discuss. b). Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) is today a primary cause of widespread and paralysing unwillingness on the part of government institutions to decide and act. Discuss. c). Do you think that the new localism relegate the spirit of 74th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992?.
  • Answer the following: a). The main objective of Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 is to enable tribal society to assume control over their livelihoods and traditional rights. Critically examine the implementation of the Act. b). The effectiveness of law and order administration depends on cooperative attitudes of people towards police, than bringing reforms in the structure and procedures of law and order machinery. Do you agree? Give reasons. c). Examine the role of Lokpal in ensuring transparency and accountability in Indian administration.
  • Answer the following: a). Governance is about managing self-organizing networks." Elaborate. b). Two-dimensional taxonomy was used by Herbert Simon to describe the degree to which decisions are programmed or non-programmed." Explain. c). Examine the approach of public service motivation as an inducement to bring the desired level of efficiency in public service delivery. d). In theory, the 'civil society organizations' promote cooperation between people and public service organizations, but in practice, their activities restrict the promotion of government programmes. Analyze. e). Fayol and Taylor had different management perspectives, while having similar goals of organizational efficiency. Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). Behavioural approach has been questioned on the basis of its utility in the analysis of administrative problems. Discuss the weaknesses of the 20 approach and the shifts made therein. b). Public administration has been viewed as a socially embedded process of collective relationship, dialogue and action. Examine the statement in light of the consensus achieved in the Third Minnow Brook Conference. c). Public-private partnership phenomenon has been transformed into a type of governance scheme or mechanism. Discuss its capacity to overcome future challenges.
  • Answer the following: a). Integration of different streams of administrative thought to propound a universal administrative theory is hindered by the impact of culture. Critically examine. b). Judicial review, prevention of misuse or abuse of administrative power and provision of suitable remedies are the basic principles of administrative law. Justify as how various organs of the State are able to uphold these principles. c). Regulation is an old but increasingly necessary mode of social coordination and politial intervention into societal processes. Examine it in the context of globalization.
  • Answer the following: a). The new public service model approaches governance on the premises of an active and involved citizenship, wherein the rolc of public officials is to facilitate opportunities for citizens' engagement in governance. Explain. b). Neo-Weberian State involves changing the model of operation of administrative structures into a model focused on meeting citizens' needs. Discuss. c). Nothing in public administration is more important, interesting or mysterious than leadership. Analyze the statement in the context of strategic leadership.
  • Answer the following: a). The approach to the study of administration in its environmental context is especially more useful for developing countries. Comment. b). Gender equality and women's rights have laid down a strong foundation of development. Elaborate. c). Performance appraisal needs to be seen beyond the mere suitability of the official for vertical promotion. Explain. d). It's widely agreed that the government ought to provide the goods that the market fails to provide or does not provide efficiently. Argue. e). MIS has evolved and gone far beyond its traditional advantages due to technological advancements. Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). Emphasis on cost control and reducing public expenditure has diverted the focus of government budgets from the basic objectives of reallocation of resources, bringing economic stability and promoting social equity. Examine. b). In modern context, Riggsian terms have not altogether disappeared, but have emerged in different forms with newer meanings. Discuss. c). A striking feature of economic development is an apparent symbiotic evolution of strong States and strong market economies. Analyze.
  • Answer the following: a). Policy problems are increasingly tending towards being wicked. Discuss the capacity and preparedness of the State to tackle such problems. b). Zero-based budgeting was intended to get away from incrementalism, but cca up being the most incremental of any budgetary approach. Discuss. c). ICT has immense potential to transform governance and empower citizens. Examine.
  • Answer the following: a). The successful attainment of SDGs objectives largely depends upon the wisdom, experience and farsightedness of the actors involved and their willingness to cooperate in the implementation process. Analyze. b). Groups work to elevate issues on the policy agenda or seek to deny other groups the opportunity to place issues. In this background, discuss the role of interest groups in agenda setting in the developing countries. c). Civil servants generally tend to exhibit the values and ethical framework of the political executives under whom they function. Explain.
  • Answer the following: a). The Preamble to the Constitution of India provides a foundational framework of ideals and values for the Indian administration. Discuss. b). Examine the extent to which the ideal of Constitutionalism as 'government by limited powers has been a functional reality in India. c). Red-tapism is a major obstacle to the implementation of 'good governance. Comment. d). The role and status of the Speaker in the parliamentary system have their foundation in the Speaker's stance on neutrality. Comment. e). The Union government develops and practices strategies to administer an increasing number of existing local government services by sidelining local initiatives and discretion. Examine.
  • Answer the following: a). Kautilya envisages protection, welfare and prosperity of the State and its people as the utmost concern of a ruler. In this context, discuss the significance of Kautilya's emphasis on governing, accountability and justice in contemporary India. b). District Collector is the most important functionary in district administration in India. In light of the above statement, discuss the multidimensional responsibilities of District Collector in effecting coordinated developmental administration in India. c). The role of the Governor is of a sagacious counsellor, mediator and arbitrator rather than that of an active politician. In this context, examine the role of the Governor in state politics in India.
  • Answer the following: a). Recruitment is the cornerstone of the whole public personnel structure and it revolves around the problem of attracting the best. Discuss the essential elements of a good recruitment system. b). Traditionally structured administrative systems have outlived their utility. Discuss as how administrative reforms can revamp, restructure and redesign the existing governmental structure to meet the new challenges faced by the Indian administrative set-up. c). The government policy of large-scale privatization of the key sectors of economy may affect India's economic health. Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). As a constitutionally mandated body the Finance Commission stands at the centre of fiscal federalism. Evaluate the role of Finance Commission in ensuring just and equitable resource sharing among the states and the union. b). Recent market approaches to public services present serious challenges to traditional and state-sponsored public service values. Evaluate the statement in the context of Indian administration. c). The increasing criminalization of politics is a major threat to the basic fabric of Indian democracy. Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). No rural development strategy can succeed unless it is complemented by appropriate Panchayati Raj Institutions. Examine the statement. b). NITI Aayog has been constituted to implement the goal of co-operative federalism. Discuss. c). Responsibility and accountability are two major goals of Good Governance. Discuss the statement in the context of lndian administration. d). The Prime Minister's Office has become a powerful institution in itself by virtue of its role in decision-making on strategic issues of utmost importance. Examine the statement. e). Well planned and goal-oriented training programmes arc the backbone of the civil service system in India. Examine the statement.
  • Answer the following: a). Budget proposals in the Parliament/ State Legislatures fail to ensure their effective scrutiny. the factors which constrain effective scrutiny of the budget proposals. b). 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts aimed at making the third tier of government powerful and effective for democratic decentralization. Critically examine the extent to which this goal has been transformed into reality. c). The National Human Rights Commission is handicapped by its jurisdictional limitations of not being able to investigate the cases of violation of human rights by the armed forces. Discuss.
  • Answer the following: a). Contemporary urbanism advocates the integration of diverse modes of urban planning and management concerns. Discuss the above statement in light of urban development in India. b). Rural development programmes are designed to facilitate multifaceted growth of rural poor. Evaluate the role of some key rural development programmes in India in this context. c). Police-public relations in India need to be improved. Suggest measures to strengthen relations between police and public.
  • Answer the following: a). In past two decades India's public policy on Disaster Management has shifted its focus from rescue, relief and rehabilitation efforts to holistic management of disaster. Analyse. b). The institutional legacy of 'well-entrenched state' affected the post-reforms promises in India. Explain the statement in the light of economic reforms in India. c). Do you agree with the view that the civil service in India is losing its neutral and anonymous character? Argue your case.
  • Answer the following: a). "The strength of Public Administration is in its exploration of the complexities and nuances of public policy making and implementation." Discuss. b). Principles of analysis and principles of action were not differentiated in Taylor's scientific management. Comment c). "Arbitrariness in the application of rule of law is a primary cause of poor governance." Discuss. d). Departments, Boards and Commissions as forms of organization are dissimilar in the context of accountability and responsibility." Analyse. e). Administrative man bridges the psychological man and the rational man. Explain.
  • Answer the following: a). The movement towards governance as an organizing concept for public administration and management is because the focus of administration has been shifting from the bureaucratic state to the 'hollow state' and 'third-party government’. Critically examine. b). "Organizations of the future will be organic-adaptive structures but temporary systems." Discuss how Warren Bennis characterises the new form of organization. c). "Productivity is not the result of working conditions but the result of emotional response of workers to work performed." Are Elton Mayo's findings relevant in contemporary organizations?
  • Answer the following: a). Performance information use is a form of organizational behavior that is influenced by an individual job, organizational and environmental factors. Critically analyse. b). New Public Service emphasizes democracy and citizenship as the basis for public administration theory and practice. Elucidate. c). "Accountability under New Public Management has undergone a radical change, although the focus has continued to remain on management." Comment
  • Answer the following: a). "Developments in the field of Administrative Law reflect an increasingly blurred boundary between the state and society, and between justice and administration." Has administrative law become more constitutional than the Constitution itself? Argue. b). “The content and process theories of motivation have the same focus but are different in approaches." Do you agree? Give reasons. c). Thrust on citizen centricity and right based approaches, aim to empower the citizens. In the light of the above, has administrative accountability improved? Justify your argument
  • Answer the following: a). "Comparative Public Administration started with no paradigm of its own and developed nane" Comment b). "Markets, hierarchies and networks represent Modern governing structures in government." Explain. c). Has policy analysis become a major source of legitimation of the status quo in political and social order? Discuss. d). "Fiscal policy should address the issues of inequity, intricacy and obscurantism." Explain. e). "Prevention of misconduct requires institutionalization of ethical values at the political and administrative levels." Justify.
  • Answer the following: a). "Administrative ideas must be seen in the context of the environment in which they develop." In the light of the above statement, examine the influence of New Public Management and Information and Communication Technologies on comparative study of Public Administration. b). Affirmative action in socio-economic development has not altogether eliminated discrimination. Discuss it in the context of women empowerment. c). Have political realities thwarted the move towards evidence-based policy making? Critically examine.
  • Answer the following: a). “Globalization is impacting the context of national policy making. The national policy agenda is becoming international.” Explain. b). "Collaboration and its cognates for public service delivery need to be viewed from the governance lenses." Comment. c). Administrative reform is "an artificial inducement of administrative transformation against resistance." (Gerald Caiden). Identify the nature of resistance and inducements required to overcome it.
  • Answer the following: a). "Disruptive nature of developments in Information Technology has changed the contours of e-governance in the last one decade." Analyse. b). "Performance Management Framework enables a clear line of sight between planning, measuring and monitoring performance." Critically analyse. c). "Objectives of performance budgeting include improving expenditure prioritization, effectiveness and efficiency." Has performance budgeting worked effectively in the governmental system? Argue.
  • Answer the following: a). Mughal administration incorporated a combination of Indian and extra-Indian clement. Discuss. b). There is a constant and continuous collision between bureaucratic values and democratic values which adversely affects development. Do you agree? Elaborate. c). Parliamentary committees are at the deliberative core of parliamentary work which is crucial for refining legislation. Elucidate. d). Considering India's diversity, the planning pattern of 'one-size-fits-all' was discarded in favour of indicative planning. To what extent has it been useful to India? e). Even if all the States combine together, they cannot have their way in decision-making in the GST Council, unless the Union agrees to it. Analyse this in the perspective of federalism in India.
  • Answer the following: a). District administration is the most important unit in governance. Most of the Central and State Government schemes and programmes are directed towards the district administration. In this context, discuss the challenges and problems posed to the district administration. b). The structural part of the Constitution of India is to a large extent derived from the Government of India Act, 1935, whereas its philosophical part has many other sources. Discuss the sources of the philosophical part. c). The public services in India are an evolution of the British Raj. Trace the Indianization of the services.
  • Answer the following: a). Does the privatization of key public sector bodies augur well for welfarisin in India? Discuss with suitable illustrations. b). The spirit of democratic values requires that the independence of judiciary remains absolute. It is high time that the All India Judicial Service (AIJS) was created. Elaborate. c). To strengthen the Election Commission of India and its commissioners is the need of the hour. Suggest measures to make it more independent and impartial.
  • Answer the following: a). Examine the National Health Policy in the context of the current pandomia situation, Identify the problems and suggest improvements. b). The Speaker of the State Assembly has assumed a significant role in formations and dissolutions of governmental. Examine under the circumstances of coalition governments with examples. c). At the district level, police functions under the overall supervision and control of the District Magistrate. Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). Political neutrality of civil servants has been regarded as one of the cardinal principles in democratic governments. Is its sanctity being maintained in practice in India? Elucidate. b). Budget is an indicator of financial health of a polity which is reflected in the statement of income and expenditure. Discuss. c). Panchayati Raj Institutions are still plagued by State control and domination of bureaucracy. Argue your case. d). Urban local governance is perpetually afflicted with lack of financial autonomy and starvation of funds. Elaborate. e). There has been a long-standing demand for separation of police investigation from prosecution. Analyze its merits and demerits.
  • Answer the following: a). The office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India stands on the pillar of autonomy. Discuss the major lacunae in the functioning of this constitutional body and also suggest measures for its strengthening. b). Implementation of administrative reforms is humongous and arduous. What lacks the push to realize the changes? c). Immediate post-retirement appointments of high officers of government have become a new trend. Discuss its pros and cons.
  • Answer the following: a). Ward committees in urban local governance have remained more tigers. The ideal of realizing effective people's participation in collaboration with local functionaries is still in the pipeline. Evaluate the gap in the and practice. b). Police need to be made accountable and freed from the grip of politics. It is a big challenge not only for law and order but also for the development of the country. Critically examine. c). Civil servants are trained to follow rules and procedures so much that they become bureaucracy. Do you agree? Justify.
  • Answer the following: a). "There are adequate legal mechanisms to address corruption malpractices in administration, but they have failed to curb the mean to any noticeable degree." In the light of this statement, discuss the efficacy the institution of Lokayukta in Indian States. b). Despite the constitutional provisions for representation, the weaker voice of sections is not having the desired impact in the realms of Panchayati Raya Institutions. Critically examine. c). Ideally citizen-administration interface is supposed to be based on trustworthiness and purposefulness, in reality it is observed to be plagued by suspicion, conflicts, stresses and strains. Do you agree? Elaborate.
  • Answer the following: a). “Public Administration is constantly being reinvented because it is contextual.” Elaborate. b). “Bureau pathology denigrates competence in organization.” Explain. c). “If there is ever to be a science of Public Administration it must derive from an understanding of man’s behavior”. Explain. d). “Chester Barnard in ‘The Function of the Executive’ injected ‘the social’ in the study of organization. Explain in this context how the executive is expected to play a much greater role than a manager.” e). “Delegated legislation has become a strategic tool in the hands of the executive despite its utility.” Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). “Governance is neither a paradigm nor a panacea for all the ills of government. It may be a more useful approach when other methods fail in providing public service.” Critically evaluate. b). With the entry of the concept of ‘good governance’ the discipline of Public Administration has shed its statistical character. Explain. c). Has New Public Management failed in promoting a democratic polity? Analyze in the contexts of individuals as a citizen and individuals as a customer.
  • Answer the following: a). “Globalization has constructed the administrative state to save and serve corporate power structure.” Discuss how transnational corporations impact government and public administration in the contemporary era. b). “Red light and Green light theories provide contrasting approaches to the role of administrative law.” Which of the two theories will be effective in achieving the objectives of administration law? Justify your choice. c). “The advent of the regulatory regimes indicates the demise of the arbitrator state.” Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). Contingency theory of organization is founded on the interplay of ‘external fit’ and ‘internal fit’. Discuss. b). Mary Parker Follett traced the foundational value of business and enterprise on her way to understand the organism of governmental machinery. Comment. c). “Media the Fourth estate is in chains.” Examine the statement in the context of governmental accountability.
  • Answer the following: a). Contractualism has became a favorite policy of the neoliberal forces, but now without its share of controversy. Argue. b). The failure to discard its elitist character and west-centric orientation has led to the decline of Comparative Public Administration. Explain. c). “Maximum social gain” in public policy making is an attractive goal which is rarely found in practices. Discuss. d). A narrow view of information comes in the way of successful implementation of MIS in organization. Analyze. e). Has e-governance led to debureaucratization and decentralization? Assess its impact on bureaucratic inertia.
  • Answer the following: a). “Development dynamics is marked by a dilemma: the concept of development has a built-in participatory orientation but the practice of development has been inherently exclusionary.” Discuss. b). A more effective system of performance appraisal should acknowledge the subjective elements in it and be less obsessed with the objective criteria. Elucidate. c). Is William Niskanen’s “Budget Maximising Model” relevant today? Argue.
  • Answer the following: a). Performance measurement remains an emerging issue but it is relegated to exclusively monitor and assess the use of funds. In light of the statement discuss various non-financial parameters of performance measurement to evaluate public sector organization. b). The imperatives of administrative ethics are necessarily an audile to “I was only obeying the orders” argument by public official. Explain. c). Discuss the major areas of change in the Tax-Reforms of the post liberalisation era. How do you justify the importance of the direct Tax reforms in this context?
  • Answer the following: a). In a society marked by social inequity and gender inequality women self-help groups are bound to play a marginal role. Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer. b). In the era of increasing stress on productivity, work study provides the road ahead for the administration. Identify the positive attributes of work study in the light of the statement. c). In the absence of a merit-based, fair and objective civil service a more partisan and corrupt government will emerge. Is the statement justified? Give reasons.
  • Answer the following: a). In the text of Artha shastra, ‘the state is neither a police State nor merely a tax gathering State’. Comment. b). The economic reforms have significantly infringed the basic values and spirits of the Indian Constitution. Examine. c). Macaulay’s ideas on Indian Civil Service Corresponded to the elite theory of bureaucracy, which continue to persist. Do you agree? Justify. d). There has been an opinion that the ethos of Indian Judicial System continues to be colonial. Suggest measures for raising the level of judicial excellence for achieving speedy justice. e). Various commissions have reiterated the crucial role of the Governor in Indian system of governance, but the successive governments have not heeded to make Governor’s office apolitical. Examine with example.
  • Answer the following: a). Article 356 acts, “very much like the proverbial bolt from the blue…. without giving an opportunity or notices to the State Government to correct its alleged shortcoming”. This phenomenon not only undermines the autonomy of the State Government, but also demeans the statue of the President of India. Critically analyze. b). Public Sector Undertaking were expected to take the Indian economy to the “commanding heights” instead the successive governments have been pushing for disinvestment. Critically examine how the scenario has changed over the years. c). Emerging developmental aspirations of the society necessitate the constitutional amendment to change the present safeguards available to the civil servants. Evaluate the pros and cons of such amendment.
  • Answer the following: a). “Strong PMO is anti-thesis to the feature of collective responsibility of Council of Ministers”. Examine the issues in relation to the position of PMO via-a-vis Council of Ministers in the light of this statement. b). Capacity issues relating to employees have hampered the implementation of several government programmes. Trace the reasons in the context of the provisions of the National Training Policy, 2012. c). The strategy to deal with the non-performing assets of banks may lead to overburdened taxpayers. Examine the role of government to protect the interests of both. The government policy of large-scale privatization of the key sectors of economy may affect India's economic health. Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). Considerable attention has been paid to the restructuring of the administrative systems at the Central and local levels, but very few reforms have been undertaken at the State level. What steps would you suggest to rectify it? b). It is observed that the non-functioning of District Planning Committees is preventing the convergence of rural and urban planning needs. Do you agree? Justify. c). The police-public interface is punctuated with distrust and fear. Suggest how the police can reform their image in the eyes of the public.
  • Answer the following: a). The evidence suggests that the dream of deliberative democracy could not be realized in practice at the grassroot level. Evaluate the impediments in the functioning of Gram Sabha. b). “The RTI has started its journey, but is far from its destination.” In the view of the statement, examine the present status of the RTI movement. c). The concept of new localism arrangement may defeat the very purpose of local self-governance. Do you agree? Justify. d). Effective ‘Performance Management System’ needs to precede ‘taking deadwood out’ from bureaucracy. Comment. e). All weather rural connectivity schemes to even unconnected rural habitations have the potential to transform the rural economy. Do you agree? Justify.
  • Answer the following: a). The office of the District Collector has merely become a bureau for funneling government schemes, collecting statistics and an officer on attendance for unending VIP duties. Critically examine its role in the light of the recommendations of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission. b). Minimal accountability being the dominant norm in the political system, the Lokpal can only be an ideal institution with limited effectiveness. Explain. c). ‘Sevottam Scheme’ had great potential to reform service delivery, but opportunity is frittered away. Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). The National Policy on Disaster Management envisages a paradigm shift from hitherto reactive post-disaster relief centric regime to a more pro-active and enabling environment. Examine the responses of State Governments in this regard. b). Efforts to strengthen State Finance Commissions have faced apathy of State Governments over the years, which has also affected the successive Central Finance Commissions in recommending appropriate fiscal transfers to local bodies. Substantiate the answer with an example. c). Accountability of regulatory bodies would address the problem of over-regulators and help make them truly facilitators. Analyze the present status of regulators and suggest measures to induce accountability in the mechanism.
  • Answer the following: a). ‘NITI Aayog’ has changed the way India strategized for economic development, but its effectiveness is yet to be seen, especially when its financial powers are far less than its predecessor. Analyze. b). Even though the law and order administration is a State subject, it is paradoxical that the Central agencies- NIA or paramilitary forces under the Union Government-have restricted the powers of State Governments. Discuss. c). Performance grants devolved by Finance Commission of India have increased the financial accountability of the local bodies. Elaborate.
  • Answer the following: a). "The scope of the discipline of Public Administration is determined by what an administrative system does." Does it mean that the scope of this discipline is boundaryless? Explain. b). "The concepts of rationality and efficiency are intertwined in the bureaucratic analysis of Max Weber." Comment. c). “New Public Service approach is an improvement over its predecessor, New Public Management." Discuss. d). "A leader is a people's developer" (Napoleon). Which aspects of subordinates' development can be positively influenced by a leader? Discuss. e). “Herbert Simon's book Administrative Behavior presents a synthesis of the classical and behavioural approaches to the study of Public Administration." Explain.
  • Answer the following: a). Dwight Waldo in his book, The Administrative State emphatically mentions that the roots of administrative theory lie in political theory. Critically examine Waldo's contention. b). “The Phenomenological Approach advocated by the New Public Administration has obstructed the path of theory building in Public Administration." Comment. c). Discuss the essential characteristics of public sector-centered and market-centered perspectives in Public Private Partnerships and also compare the two.
  • Answer the following: a). Communication represents the “Nerves of Government" (Karl Deutsch). How can the communication system in the government be made more effective, responsive and motivational? b). "Political and administrative systems have reciprocal relationship.” Discuss. c). "An effective Management Information System (MIS) is the key to successful headquarters-field relationships." Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). “Form of an organisation influences the success of a public enterprise, but the choice of a form has always remained problematic." Discuss the statement in the context of the comparative merits and limitations of departments, corporations, companies and boards. Give illustrations. b). "Chester Barnard's model of 'Contribution-Satisfaction Equilibrium' is still considered a logical model of organisational motivation." Do you agree? Give arguments. c). "The political approach to Public Administration stresses on the values of representativeness, political responsiveness and accountability through elected officials to the citizenry" (David H. Rosenbloom). Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). "The Journey of Administrative Law has moved much beyond A. V. Dicey.” Comment. b). Edward Gibbon, the author of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire remarked: "Corruption, the most infallible symptom of Constitutional liberty." Critically examine this statement. c). To what extent has e-governance made the administrative system more citizen-oriented? Can it (e-governance) be made more participative? d). "The issue of development of women is closely related to the issue of women in development." How can women become equal partners in the process of socio-economic development? e). "The process of administrative development is generally slower than the economic development." How can the speed of administrative development be made faster?
  • Answer the following: a). In order to be development-oriented, bureaucracies need to be innovative, flexible, citizen-centric and result-oriented, but they are slow in imbibing these virtues in a democratic system. Do we need to go beyond the traditional models of bureaucracy and create alternative structures? Elaborate. b). “Administrative values have no value unless they are valued by all stakeholders of the governance system." Comment. c). “Lateral entry is an antidote to the complacency in civil service.” Discuss.
  • Answer the following: a). How does ethnocentrism impact development administration in achieving sustainable goals? Argue with examples. b). “Monetary policy of a country can help or hinder its development process." Discuss. c). "Sound Performance Auditing is impossible without systematic Performance or Outcome Budgeting." Explain the relationship between the two.
  • Answer the following: a). "Administrative systems across the world can be understood only in their respective historical and social contexts." Explain the statement giving examples. b). Currently, administrative training focuses more on improving efficiency than on transforming the attitudes and behaviour of civil servants. What type of training would you suggest to fill this gap? Elaborate. c). "A public policy without the active involvement of people in its formulation, implementation and evaluation is only a facade." How can this anomaly be corrected?
  • Answer the following: a). “A government next-door is the government that matters most for the people.” Discuss the statement with special reference to the values of local government. b). The philosophy of the Westminster model is at odds with the political culture of India.” Critically analyse. c). “The attached offices and subordinate offices are integral to the functioning of the Cabinet Secretariat.” Discuss. d). It is apprehended that lateral entry will lead to politicisation of bureaucracy. Do you agree? Justify e). “Contracting out tasks without effective accountability mechanisms can be counter-productive for effective service delivery." Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). "The market-driven profitability concerns have shaken the foundation of the public sector undertakings.” Do you agree? Give reasons. b). It is argued that the NITI Aayog has broken the edifice of planning into fragments. Comment. c). “Autonomy of civil society is crucial for responsive and effective administration.” Examine the statement
  • Answer the following: a). Critically examine the criteria adopted by the 15th Finance Commission for allocation of resources to States. What have been the major issues of contention since the 10th Finance Commission? b). “In the coalition era with elusive majority of a single party in the State Legislature, the role of the Governor becomes even more challenging." Discuss. c). “Development management advocates self-sustaining customer-friendly institutions at the district level.” Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). Climate change issues pose new challenges for district administration to be proactive.” Elaborate b). “Judicial overreach to a large extent is a consequence of ineffective executive.” Examine. c). "In the transition from the State-led economy to the market economy, India should rely more on 'indicative planning'.” Do you agree? Explain your position.
  • Answer the following: a). “The 'enablers' and 'facilitators' are yet to replace the inspectors' and “controllers' in the civil service in India. Do you agree? Justify. b). “Financial inclusion needs legal backing but it also requires increasing awareness for it to become a reality.” Discuss c). "Gender budgeting requires rethinking beyond allocations to become a powerful tool of gender mainstreaming." Discuss. d). "Social audit has lent a critical edge to the implementation of programmes such as MGNREGA." Comment. e). "The AFSPA debate reveals that the Indian paramilitary forces are caught between the imperatives of national security and protection of human rights.” Discuss.
  • Answer the following: a). "Competency mapping is important for effective allocation of responsibilities to administrators.” Do you think that a generalist administrator can handle all issues as effectively as a specialist Discuss. b). “The recommendations of various commissions on administrative reforms have not made a radical departure from the Paul Appleby Report.” Do you agree? Give reasons. c). "Performance management requires identification of indicators and measures to ensure that goals are achieved efficiently." Discuss.
  • Answer the following: a). “Rural development programmes have failed to effectively address the problems of small and marginal farmers.” Analyse and give suggestions. b). “In the Network Era the TRAI has the challenging task of protecting the Net Neutrality from digital aggression.” Comment. c). “Neighbourhood management provides an appropriate global strategy of dealing with social exclusion in the urban development scenario." Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). "Effective public grievance redressal requires administrative commitment. But process reengineering can help prevent some grievances.” Discuss. b). “Institutional change is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for reducing criminalisation of politics." Examine. c). "The disempowerment and depoliticisation of urban local government has happened in multiple ways.” Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). Even after 130 years of its publication, Woodrow Wilson’s essay “The Study of Administration” continues to have great relevance even today.” Comment b). “What is distinctive about the Classic al and Human Relations Schools of thought administration is their complementarity to each other “. Analyse c). “Conflict is the appearance of differences –the difference of opinions and of interest”. (Mary Parker Follet). Comment d). “Leaders do the right things; managers do them rightfully” – (Warren Bennis). Is this distinction by him valid? Explain. e). “Administrative Law is recognized by its substance rather than its form .” Discuss.
  • Answer the following: a). New Public Management has been branded by certain scholars as ‘Neo-Taylorism’. Is it a justified comparison? What factors led to the decline of NPM as soon after its birth? b). “Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ and Frederick Herzberg’s “Two Factor Theory” have commonalities in the analysis of human motivation.” Comment c). Civil Society supplements and complements the State. However, its capacity and role depend upon the will of the State. Comment
  • Answer the following: a). The Participative Management School of Argyris and Likert advocates democracy within the administrative system. Will this approach be equally useful to developing countries with evolving democracies? b). “Executive position implies a complex morality and requires a high capacity of responsibility” – (Chester Bernand). Comment. c). When the media is controlled by vested interests, how can it control the vested interests in the government? How can the media become more responsible and impartial?
  • Answer the following: a). “With every major transformation in the applied world of Public Administration, the study of Public Administration has grown in scope and intensity.” Discuss the relationship between the evolution of the discipline and profession of Public Administration. b). “Systems Theory” in essence is not a theory, but an approach to the study of administrative phenomena.” Comment. c). The principle of delegated legislation is, I think right, but I was emphasise that it is well for Parliament to keep a watchful and even zealous eye on it at all stages “- (Herbert Morrison) Analyze.
  • Answer the following: a). “Budgeting is a political process” – (Aaron Wildavsky) b). “Development Administration and Administrative Development have a chicken and egg kind of relationship”. -(Riggs). Elaborate c). “Digitalization provides great impetus to E-governance.” Discuss d). “360-degree performance appraisal system is a rational idea, but it involves complex and inauthentic procedures”. How can it be made foolproof? e). “A large public debt forces the adoption of tax and spending policies that result in higher taxes and reduced services.” Analyze.
  • Answer the following: a). “Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization have transformed the nature of development administration.” Discuss. b). Lateral entry of competent experts into the government will promote freshness and innovation, but it can create problems of accountability.” c). “There can be no performance auditing without performance budgeting “.
  • Answer the following: a). “The Riggsian models of Fusion –Prismatic-Diffracted Societies and their administrative systems have been inspired by Max Weber’s typology of Traditional Charismatic Legal-Rational Authorities.” Analyze b). “Bureaucracy has inbuilt limitations to act as the prime catalyst to multi-faceted development in a democratic country”. Analyze this statement with appropriate examples. c). Can we say that statutory audit and social audit are two sides of the same coin? Or are they separate coins with varying values?
  • Answer the following: a). “Various components of Human Resource Management are inter-related.” Discuss. b). “Administrative ethics includes the code of conduct of civil servants, but goes beyond it as well.” Discuss. c). “Off all the processes involved in public policy, implementation is of greatest importance. "Examine the impediments in policy implementation”.
  • Answer the following: a). “Constitutionalism is the foundation of the administrative edifice in India.” Discuss b). “The status and functioning of the Cabinet Secretariat face a stiff challenge from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).” Argue both in favour and against the contention. c). “Effectiveness of local self-government institutions is hampered due to the lack of capacity building of the elected representatives.” Elaborate d). “Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in India face tough competition from the private enterprises and Multi-National Corporations (MNCs).” Explain e). Do you agree that “All India Judicial Service (AIJS) would contribute to timely delivery of justice to the citizens? Argue your case.
  • Answer the following: a). “The market reforms have not infringed the basic structure of the Constitution of India, but have largely compromised the realization of the ideals of social and economic justice.” Comment. b). “The idea of lateral entry into the Civil Services would energies Indian administration.” What are its possible advantages and limitations? c). “Pro-Active Governance and Timely implementation (PRAGATI) is an innovative project of the Union Government.” Discuss its features and modalities.
  • Answer the following: a). “The position of council of ministers in a state is reduced to that of a body of a secretaries in the presence of a domineering of chief minister.” Critically analyse with examples. b). “Indianisation of Public Services is a slow but steady process.” Explain. c). ”Digitalization of land records is a necessary but not sufficient precondition for ensuring transparent district administration.” Explain.
  • Answer the following: a). “Bureaucracy has to make a balance the need for environmental sustainability and developmental imperatives.” Discuss. b). “The chief secretary is often termed as the alter ego of the Chief Minister.” Discuss, with examples, the dynamics of their relationship in State administration. c). ’District Planning Committee (DPC) has been the weakest structure in the local self-government mechanism in India.” Analyze with examples.
  • Answer the following: a). “The institution of Gram Sabha has very little connection with the Gandhian spirit of direct democracy.” Critically examine. b). “There is a need for greater inclusion of technocrats in bureaucracy to ensure effective governance in India.” Do you agree” Elucidate. c). “Civil servants should avoid airing grievances in the media.” In the context, discuss the grievance redressal mechanisms available to the Civil Servants in India. d). Do you think that the Public Service Guarantee Act passed by various State Governments is an extension to the Citizen Charter? Give reasons. e). “The office of the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) is expected to strengthen public financial management in India.“ Discuss its mandate.
  • Answer the following: a). “The Prime Ministers awards for Excellence in Public Administration encourage good governance initiatives.” Discuss some such initiatives by the Civil Servants in this context. b). “Implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) has led to a paradigm shift in the Centre-State relations, both financially and politically.” Analyze with examples. c). “The Right to Information (RTI) has started its journey but is far from its destination.” Comment.
  • Answer the following: a). “Disaster preparedness and management has become an important component of district administration in India.” Discuss with suitable illustrations. b). In view of the contemporary internal scenario should “law and order” be made a part of the Concurrent List of the Constitution of India? Justify your opinion. c). “The image of Indian Police can be improved if its structure and orientations are transformed radically.” Do you agree? Elaborate.
  • Answer the following: a). Discuss, with sustainable examples, the emerging challenges faced by the Regulatory Commission as to the arbitrary agents between the State and the market forces. b). “The ‘policy of non-action’ regarding the institutional mechanisms and legal provisions to eradicate corruption is a feature of Indian Administration.” Critically examine. c). “The Second Administrative Reform Commission (ARC) makes a strong case for the principle of subsidiary.” Elaborate.

evolution of public administration essay

evolution of public administration essay

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Principles of public administration

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evolution of public administration essay

Throughout the 20th century the study and practice of public administration was essentially pragmatic and normative rather than theoretical and value free. This may explain why public administration, unlike some social sciences, developed without much concern about an encompassing theory. Not until the mid-20th century and the dissemination of the German sociologist Max Weber’s theory of bureaucracy was there much interest in a theory of public administration. Most subsequent bureaucratic theory, however, was addressed to the private sector, and there was little effort to relate organizational to political theory.

A prominent principle of public administration has been economy and efficiency—that is, the provision of public services at the minimum cost. This has usually been the stated objective of administrative reform. Despite growing concern about other kinds of values—such as responsiveness to public needs, justice and equal treatment, and citizen involvement in government decisions—efficiency continues to be a major goal.

In its concern with efficiency and improvement, public administration has focused frequently on questions of formal organization . It is generally held that administrative ills can be at least partly corrected by reorganization. Many organizational principles originated with the military, a few from private business. They include, for example: (1) organizing departments, ministries, and agencies on the basis of common or closely related purposes, (2) grouping like activities in single units, (3) equating responsibility with authority, (4) ensuring unity of command (only one supervisor for each group of employees), (5) limiting the number of subordinates reporting to a single supervisor, (6) differentiating line (operating or end-purpose) activities from staff (advisory, consultative, or support) activities, (7) employing the principle of management by exception (only the unusual problem or case is brought to the top), and (8) having a clear-cut chain of command downward and of responsibility upward.

Some critics have maintained that these and other principles of public administration are useful only as rough criteria for given organizational situations. They believe that organizational problems differ and that the applicability of rules to various situations also differs. Nonetheless, and despite much more sophisticated analyses of organizational behaviour in later decades, such principles as those enumerated above continue to carry force.

Public administration has also laid stress upon personnel. In most countries administrative reform has involved civil service reform. Historically, the direction has been toward “ meritocracy ”—the best individual for each job, competitive examinations for entry, and selection and promotion on the basis of merit. Attention has increasingly been given to factors other than intellectual merit, including personal attitudes, incentives, personality, personal relationships, and collective bargaining .

In addition, the budget has developed as a principal tool in planning future programs, deciding priorities, managing current programs, linking executive with legislature , and developing control and accountability. The contest for control over budgets, particularly in the Western world, began centuries ago and at times was the main relationship between monarchs and their subjects. The modern executive budget system in which the executive recommends, the legislature appropriates, and the executive oversees expenditures originated in 19th-century Britain. In the United States during the 20th century, the budget became the principal vehicle for legislative surveillance of administration, executive control of departments, and departmental control of subordinate programs. It has assumed a similar role in many of the developing countries of the world.

Recent interpretations

The classical approach to public administration described above probably reached its fullest development in the United States during the 1930s, although since that time, through educational and training programs, technical assistance , and the work of international organizations, it has also become standard doctrine in many countries. However, some of its elements have been resisted by governments with British or continental-legal perspectives, and even during the 1930s it was being challenged from several quarters. Since that time study of the subject has greatly developed.

The orthodox doctrine rested on the premise that administration was simply the implementation of public policies determined by others. According to this view, administrators should seek maximum efficiency but should be otherwise neutral about values and goals. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, and even more so during World War II , however, it became increasingly evident that many new policies originated within the administration, that policy and value judgments were implicit in most significant administrative decisions, that many administrative officials worked on nothing except policy, and that, insofar as public policies were controversial, such work inevitably involved administrators in politics. The supposed independence of administration from policy and politics was seen to be illusory. Since the 1930s there has thus been increasing concern with policy formation and the development of techniques to improve policy decisions. Although the concept of a value-free, neutral administration is regarded by many as no longer tenable, no fully satisfactory substitute has been offered. How to ensure that responsible and responsive policy decisions are made by career administrators, and how to coordinate their work with the policies of politically elected or appointive officials, remain key preoccupations, especially in democratic states.

It was with governmental efforts to combat the Depression that new informational devices were introduced, including national income accounting and the scrutiny of gross national product as a major index of economic health. The applied techniques of fiscal and monetary policy have become established specializations of public administration. Economists occupy key posts in the administrations of most nations, and many other administrators must have at least elementary knowledge of the economic implications of government operations. France, Sweden and other Scandinavian nations, Great Britain, and the United States were among the leaders in developing economic planning techniques. Such planning has become a dominating concern of public administration in many of the developing countries.

Integration of Network Game and Opinion Dynamics in the Analysis and Management of Public Opinion Evolution

27 Pages Posted: 23 Aug 2024

National University of Defense Technology

Xiaofeng Liu

Southwest Jiaotong University

Jianbo Yuan

Multiple version icon

Scientifically modeling the evolutionary trends of public opinion and analyzing the effectiveness of opinion management strategies have become central issues in current research on evolutionary of opinion based on social network. This paper first addresses the analysis of public opinion evolution by introducing a Public Opinion Evolution Model (POEM) based on social networks. POEM integrates network game theory and opinion dynamics, combining the strengths of both while accounting for the uncertainty of individual behavior and psychological activity in real-world opinion communication. Secondly, we categorize and model three public opinion management strategies: information blockade, forced intervention, and gradual guidance within the developed framework. Thirdly, through numerical simulations, we analyze the factors influencing the trends of public opinion evolution. Finally, we conduct comparative experiments to assess the implementation effects of different public opinion management strategies and compare the simulation results of POEM with other opinion dynamics models. The experimental results demonstrate that POEM exhibits greater scientific rigor in analyzing the evolutionary trend of public opinion than traditional opinion dynamics models.

Keywords: Network game theory, Opinion dynamics model, Public opinion management, social network, Behavioral simulation

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

National University of Defense Technology ( email )

Changsha Hunan, 410073 China

Southwest Jiaotong University ( email )

No. 111, Sec. North 1, Er-Huan Rd. Chengdu Chengdu, 610031 China

Wen Zhou (Contact Author)

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    Thirdly, through numerical simulations, we analyze the factors influencing the trends of public opinion evolution. Finally, we conduct comparative experiments to assess the implementation effects of different public opinion management strategies and compare the simulation results of POEM with other opinion dynamics models.