Public Administration: Meaning, Nature, 2 Scope, and Significance

Public administration refers to an activity in which the government is involved. So it can be said that the word public administration has got more significance in the background of government functions.

This article will help you to understand the perfect meaning, nature, scope, and significance of public administration. I have explained it in an easy way for a better understanding of you.

Must Read- 5 Phases of The Evolution of Public Administration

Public Administration is the combination of two words that is Public and Administration. Let’s begin with Administration first.

What is Administration?

The administration is a very important part of our life. When you go to the highway, educational institutes, hospitals, etc, you automatically enter the administrative systems.

The word Administration is derived from two Latin words ‘ad’ and ‘ministiare’ which means ‘to serve’, in simple words administration means to look after people or to manage affairs.

L.D White rightly said that administration is a “process, common to all group efforts; public or private; civil or military, large scale or small scale. It is a process of work in a departmental store, a bank, a school, a hotel or a city.”

We all know that man is a social animal. So all the activities of man should be organized and managed. At first, men need organization for achieving their needs and goals, then to manage that organization, it is needed for administration.

So it can be said that Administration is the process of managing the proper coordination of the relevant elements to achieve a specific goal.

Administration can be private or public. Now the questions are which administration is private and which one is public?

What is Private Administration?

Private Administration is the administration that deals with the activities of a household, club, corporation, and private companies. The purpose of private administration may be carried out by an individual or a group. The ultimate goal of a private administration is the maximization of profit.

What is Public Administration?

Public refers to the government so, public administration means governmental administration. In simple language, public administration is the management of governmental affairs and activities.

Must Read- 10 Key Differences Between Public And Private Administration

Definition of Public Administration

In Political Science Quarterly, 1887, the famous line given by Woodrow Wilson is that public administration is a “detailed and systematic execution of public law. Every particular application of general law is an act of administration”.

According to L.D White, Public administration is the activity required for the implementation of public policy.

Felix A. Nigro defines public administration as-

• Co-operative group efforts in a public setting,
• Covers all three branches of the government that is executive,
• The legislative and judicial branches of the government,
• Public administration has an important role to make public policy and its implementation,
• It is also associated with various private groups and provides public services to the people.

According to Luther Gullick, “Public Administration is that part of the science of administration which has to do with Government and thus concern itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of the Government is done.”

In a simple way we can say that public administration is the administration in which public policies are implemented. It is the action part of the government.

From the above definitions you can find that there are two views to define public administration, one is a broader view and the second is a Narrow view.

Broader View

Public administration refers to the activities of all three branches (is executive, legislative, and judicial) of the government. That means in a broader sense public administration deals with all the work processes of the three branches of the government.

The broader view has been taken by Woodrow Wilson, Pfiffner, Marshal Dimock, L.D White, etc.

Narrow View

In the narrow view, Public administration refers to only activities of the executive branches of the government. Gullick, Simon, Willoughby, Fayol, and Ordway Tead discuss public administration as only the activity of the executive branch of the government.

With the predominance of the above views, it can be said that for the people, the implementation of bureaucratic policy outside the party politics of the people’s government is called public administration.

Public Administration also includes such questions such as-

• How are the laws implemented?
• Is Law justifiable or not?
• How are efficient our administrations dealing with those laws?
• To whom public administration is accountable?
• What are the Roles of people in the process of administration?

Nature of Public Administration

In terms of nature, there are also two divergent views on public administration. The first one is the Integral view and the second one is the Managerial view.

Integral View

From this perspective, Public administration refers to all activities from clerical to the managerial activity of the administration. That means the integral view proposes that administration is the sum total of all activities manual, clerical, or managerial.

Simply we can say, all the work processes done by government officials from peons to executive officers are part of public administration.

 L.D White and Woodrow Wilson, Marshal E. Dimock are the main supporters of this view.

Managerial View

In the managerial view, Public administration refers to only the managerial activity of the administration. That means in this view administration constitutes the work of only those people who are performing managerial functions.

Activities of clerical, manual, and also technical departments are excluded from the range of public administration. Luther Gulick, Henry Fayol, and Herbert Simon are the main supporters of the managerial view.

Scope of Public Administration

When we are concerned about the scope of public administration, basically we want to know the major concerns and areas of public administration.

Traditional writers restrict the scope of public administration to only one branch (executive) of the government. But modern administrative thinker extends the scope of public administration to all branches (Executive, Legislature, and Managerial) of the government.

There are also two views on the scope of public administration. These are the

• POSDCORB view and
• Subject Matter view.

POSDCORB View

The POSDCORB view in the scope of public administration is given by the prominent administrative scholar Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick.

According to them every administration has should seven elements. These seven elements are acronym as POSDCORB. Each letter of this acronym implies one element of administration.

They explain these seven elements of administration in the following way-

P- Planning– It is the task of managers of every administration to plan everything that needs to be done and the methods for doing them to accomplish the purpose set for the enterprise.

O- Organizing- Every organization needs to be well organized. Managers should allocate the task to their employees and other subordinates by the proper techniques.

S- Staffing- Staffing refers to the whole personnel function of bringing in and training the staff and maintaining favorable conditions for work.

D- Directing- It refers to the continuous task of making decisions and embodying them in specific and general order and instructions and also serving as a leader to the enterprise.

CO- Coordinating- It is the important duty of the manager to coordinate between coworkers and executives.

R-Reporting- It is referred to inform every report of the work to the executives.

B- Budgeting- All that goes with budgeting in the form of fiscal planning, accounting and control.

Subject Matter View

Subject matter view in the scope of public administration simply refers to the subject matter of public administration.

M.E Dimock said that “administration is concerned with ‘What’ and ‘How’ of the government. The ‘What’ is the subject matter, the technical knowledge of a field, which enables the administrator to perform his task. The ‘how’ is the technique of management, the principles according to which the cooperative programs are carried to success. Each is indispensable; together they form the synthesis called administration.”   

Public Administration as a discipline consists of several branches or subject matters such as-

• Organizational, Administrative Theories and Behavior
• Public Personnel Administration
• New Public Administration
• Comparative Public Administration
• Development Administration
• Public Policy
• Governance
• Good Governance
• E-Governance
• Corporate Governance
• Social Welfare Administration
• New Public Management

Significance of Public Administration

after the knowing meaning nature and scope of public administration, its time to the significance of public administration. we are influenced by public administration from birth to death.

Public administration plays its role in many ways which makes the public administration more significant to us. It plays an important role-

1. As an Instrument for Providing Service
2. As an Instrument for Implementing the Laws and Policies of the Government
3. As an Instrument for Development and socio-economic change
4. As an Instrument for the Sustainable Development
5. As an Instrument for National Integration
6. As an Instrument for Community Development
7. As an Instrument for Public Safety
8. As a Separate Academic Discipline 

1. As an Instrument for Providing Service

It provides several services to citizens such as education, health, housing, social security, and a lot more. All these services affect every moment of human life. Without public administration, the services provided by the government can never reach the people.

2. As an Instrument for Implementing the Laws and Policies of the Government

It plays a crucial role in the implementation of laws, public policies, and programs made by the government. The government makes laws and policies for the interest of the people. Public administration puts them into reality. 

3. As an Instrument for Development and socio-economic Change

It is also responsible for the nation’s development and it’s socio-economic change. After the second world war, there was a lot of nations emerged. After independence, public administration played a crucial role for their socio-economic development.

For example in India, it played a very important role by implementing the poverty alleviation programs, employment assurance schemes, community development programs, electrification of remote villages, road construction, etc. which has been more conducive to the overall improvement of India.

4. As an Instrument for the Sustainable Development 

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs is called sustainable development.

That means economic development without harming the environment. Administrators are playing a significant role in the protection of the environment. All the environmental issues are solved through public administration.  

5. As an Instrument for National Integration

During the time of crisis, it helps to maintain the national integration. For example, after the partition in India, there was a crisis of national integration, and public administration played a very important role to overcome this situation. It helped in the rehabilitation process of the refugees and integrate the princely states with Indian territory. 

6. As an Instrument for Community Development

Different races and religions live in every country. Therefore, a common policy for all does not apply effectively. Public administration gathers neutral information about each community in the society and based on that information the government makes policies and the public administration applies those policies to that particular community. So public administration also has a leading role in community development.

7. As an Instrument for Public Safety

Above all, it has to admit that it provides us with social security. We can never be safe without public administration. It provides a lot of services that make citizens secure such as fire, police and medical services, and more.

8. As a Separate Academic Discipline 

As time goes by, the importance of public administration to the people is increasing. Now it has become essential to study the administrative system of the government. Therefore for better understanding and its development, public administration as an academic discipline has emerged. Nowadays a lot of universities have prioritized this subject.

Conclusion

In light of the discussion of the meaning nature and scope of public administration, it can be concluded that today, public administration is a very important part of our life. It provides us all the essential services that we need.

The goal of public administration is to protect the public interest and to move forward with it in mind. So public administration is a kind of people-oriented administration and its nature is democratic.

Let me share your experience with what you have learned in “Meaning Nature and Scope of Public Administration”.

Share this with the needful students as much as you can.

References

1. Wilson, Woodrow. The Study of Administration. Academy of Political Science (U.S.), 1987.
2. Chakrabarty, Bidyut, and Bhattacharya, Mohit. Public Administration: a Reader. Oxford University Press, 2007.
3. Nigro, Felix A. Modern Public Administration. Cambridge: Harper Collins Publ, 1989.
4. Chakrabarty, Bidyut. Prakash Chand. Public Administration In A Globalizing World: Theories and Practices. SAGE INDIA, 2012.