I.

Understanding Public Administration

ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC

There is much to be said about the features or characteristics that describe public administration
as practice and academic discipline . For instance, in delineating the practice of public
administration, Tapales (1994) pointed out that it has a rational and generic meaning. Broadly
defined as a cooperative action administration connotes rationally because the cooperative action
seeks to achieve specific goals. Administration has also generic or universal meaning because it
can happen in any organization, public or private, and in any political system and culture. There
are certain aspects of administration, too, that are common among them. For instance,
recruitment is a technique that is used in both public and private administration and this process
is guided usually by the policy of getting the best minds, talents, and skills in the marked.

As to the modifier public, it refers to a collective, community, all or general. Thus,

administration is for all; the attainment of objective of cooperative human action is meant to
benefit the community and the general population.

The conventional usage of public administration (with emphasis on the word public”) focuses on
the government and its various institutions. We usually connote public administration with
government and what it is doing for people and society. It also means that administration takes
place in or is carried out by government and its arms. This perspective is largely drawn from
general political theory in political science which is the mother discipline of public
administration.

There is also a view that public administration differs across cultures and political systems, that
what may be regarded as public administration in one country may not necessarily be true in
another. The domain of public administration can vary from state to state. What may be
considered as functions and activities of government in one country may not be the same as those
in another. For instance, many countries in Western Europe own and operate their public
transport system. In the Philippines, public transport is generally in the hands of private
companies.

Waldo (1995) cites that cultures accounts for the variation in administration between different
societies. “As the constituent parts of culture vary within a society, or between societies, so does
administration vary as a system of rational cooperative action in that society, or between
societies.
What is Public Administration?

According to Dwight Waldo (1955), public administration has dual usages: as a FIELD of
PRACTICE and as a FIELD of STUDY. It means that public administration is both a
“professional and scholarly discipline” ( Ocampo,1993).

In the first category, the meaning invoked is the activity or process of administering public
affairs and carrying out governmental functions( Waldo,1995). Examples of these activities and
processes that illustrate the practice of public administration are the following: Enacting a law,
making decisions on the best policy concerning the debt issue, formulating the Medium Term
Development Plan, maintaining peace and order, processing of claims, building roads and
bridges, issuance of license, setting standards for environmental protection, providing health and
welfare services.

When referred to as a field of study or discipline , Public administration means “ the systematic
study and improvement of government capacity and practice in forming policies , making
decisions, implementing them, and securing the desired result ( Ocampo,1993). As a scholarly
pursuit . Public administration is concerned with discovering and advancing theoretical and
practical knowledge in the field using scientific methods that other social sciences use, i.e.
empirical studies, case method analysis, surveys, quantitative analysis, etc.

Public administration has become the essential tool of government in the performance of
achieving its functions. It is there wherever the government is needed.

 The following are the common definitions of Public administration:

 Public administration is the organization and management of men and materials
to achieve the purposes of government”.
 The art and science of management as applied to affairs of the state.
 Is cooperative group effort in a public setting.
 Covers all three branches – executive, legislative, and judicial- and their inter –
relationships.
 Has an important role in the formulation of public policy and is, thus, part of the
political process.
 Is more important than, and also different in significant ways from, private
administration.
 (as a field of study and practice, has been much influenced in recent years by the
human –relations approach.)
 Is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing
services to the community.

Terms related in the study of Public administration:

 State- community of persons more or less numerous permanently occupying a
definite portion of territory, having a government of its own, to which the great
number of people render habitual obedience.
Government – embraces the totality of all institutions through which the state
carries out its will.
Administration – refers to the aggregate of those persons in whose hands the
reins of the government are placed for the time being.
It is also a process common to all group effort, public or
private, civil or military, large scale or small scale. It is a process at work in a
department store, a bank, a university or high school, a railroad, a hotel, or a city
government.

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ADMINSTRATION

Another way of defining public administration is to distinguish it from private

administration. Tapales identified four differences.

The often cited difference between public and private administration is goal or mission.
The former is service-oriented and the latter is guided primarily by profits. Another difference
lies in the nature of goods and services they provide. Public administration provides what are
called public goods which can be enjoyed public goods are national defense, streetlights, public
parks, and roads. You might argue that these are funded out of taxpayers money, thus, people
have also paid for them. Correct. But even those who have not paid taxes do benefit from them.
When government provides these goods and service, no one is excluded from benefiting from
them, no one is directly charged for their availment.

Private administration, on the other hand, provides goods and services to those who can
afford to pay for them. Using this as criterion, it is quite selective in whom it is going to deliver
goods and services to. Like, if you want to eat hamburger in the mall, you have to pay for it so
you can enjoy it. This difference is closely related to the goal orientation of public and private
administration.

Public administration is subject not only to public pressures and scrutiny or what Tapales
calls “fishbowl existence” but also to internal legal administrative constraints presented by
government rules and regulations. Pressure are posted as well by political institutions, such as the
legislature and individual political leaders themselves, on the civil servants. This kind of
environment makes the tasks of public administrators more complicated and their discretion and
flexibility more circumscribed than their counterparts in the private sector. This characteristic
distinguishes public administration from private administration (Fry,1989).
According to Caiden (1971), public administration has peculiarities that separate it from other
institutions. First, it is unavoidable. Citizen cannot escape the reach of its authority and have to
deal with it in their daily life. Second, it can compel obedience from the citizens because it has a
legal monopoly of coercive power. The power it enjoys is generally accepted and considered
legitimate by the people and necessary for mainstreaming a stable, civilized, and productive

Third, the activities carried out by public administration have priority. This means that
the activities are important and significant in making the life of citizens better, that these are all
needed in making society a better place to live in. There is an implication here that public
administration must be able to perform its functions with efficacy so that no activities will be
jeopardized. Identifying what activities require priority attention and budget than others will
certainly pose a problem to public administration because resources are scare.

Fourth, having the largest single multipurpose organization, public administration can provide, as
it does, people with a wide range of public services, from issuing birth certificate to pollution
control, granting franchise, maintaining peace and order, vaccinating children, delivering mail,
sweeping the streets, ,maintaining public parks, etc.

Is Public Administration an Art or a Science?

Public administration is both an art and a science. As an art, public administration

involves creativity, leadership, a good sense of judgment or what Waldo (1995)
calls the intangibles in administration. This view is closely allied to the practice of
public administration.
Public administration as a science means that there is a body of knowledge or
theories that can explain or predict certain phenomena or variables in the field of
public administration. The public administration theories and concepts are built
based on empirical research and using systematic methods. These theories can be
used not only to explain but also to improve the art and practice of public
administration.(Bautista, 1990).

Development of Public Administration Study

The practice of public administration is as old as the history of many

nations; it existed in ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.
Administration was present when the leaders of nations built their cities,
constructed massive infrastructure projects, organized huge armies, managed vast
territories, and codified their laws. These human activities however were
considered as part of the political economy, military organization, or religious
activities.

It was not until the seventeenth century when the term “public
administration” came into use. This happened in monarchical Europe when
distinction was made between the king’s administration of public affairs and
management of his private household. Later, as church and state were separated
and government grew to take care of increasingly diverse societal activities,
modern public administration emerged (Caiden,1971).

According to Caiden (1971), the first systematic studies in contemporary

public administration were done in Prussia. These studies, conducted and taught
by professors of cameral sciences, were designed to prepare potential public
officials of Prussia for government service. Cameral sciences covered all
knowledge considered necessary in running an absolutist state. The studies
basically described the formal machinery of government, the work of civil
servants, and the code of conduct expected of public officials. The cameralist
approach to the study of public administration influenced studies elsewhere in
Europe and continued until the twentieth century when it was replaced by
administrative law and legal studies.

In American shores, it is generally accepted that the first call for a

systematic study of public administration was sounded by Woodrow Wilson in
1887 in his famous essay “ The Study of Public Administration “. It called for a
civil service reform in American government, which in the 1880’s languished
under the dilemma of the patronage politics system that characterized the
“Jacksonian” democracy, which essentially perceived government offices and the
appointment of positions therein as largely based on patronage and on political
loyalty. The movement stimulated serious and concerned inquiry into the practice
of public administration and education and training for public service.

The passage of Pendleton Act in 1883 in the United States marked the attempt to
insulate the civil service from partisan politics and spoils system. The merit
system was revived and institutionalized in the American Civil Service.

The following are the major scholarly works directed to the Improvement of
the Bureaucracy
1. New York Municipal Research (1906) which was funded by civic leaders in
New York City reform movement, the bureau conducted and publicized
surveys of governmental agencies and programs and trained persons for public
service careers. Interest in public administration as a field of study and
practice spread across key cities in America. The bureau became a model for
other cities and universities which, subsequently, established their own
research programs and training schools (Nigro and Nigro, 1989).

2. Frank Goodnow: Politics and Administration : A Study in Government(1900)

3. Leonard White: First Textbook in Public Administration” Introduction to the
Study of Public Administration) (1926)

Scholarly work, notably those by frank Goodnow and Leonard D. White, were
published and these contributed to a nascent literature on public
administration. Frank Goodnow in his book Politics and Adminstration: A
study in Government (1990) espoused the functional distinction between
politics and administration. (Caiden,1971). White wrote the first textbook in
public administration introduction to the study of Public Administration
(1926). Its focus was the structure of administrative organization and
government management service such as personnel and financial
administration (Nigro and Nigro,1989).

4. Frederick Taylor’s concept of scientific management fuelled more serious

studies in public administration. The emphasis of scientific management is
studying the organizational structure and process in order to improve the
performance of the organization.

Frederick W. Taylor’s ideas in scientific management or the “one best way”

of carrying out a task greatly influenced the focus of administrative studies, the
studies concentrated on the structure and processes of public agencies and on
improving organizations, procedures and the quality of the public civil servants.
The emphasis on organizational housekeeping was consistent with the demand of
the times for improved civil service.

In the Philippines, the formal introduction of public administration can be

traced to the establishment of the Institute, now College of Public Administration
in the University of the Philippines in 1952 that offered degree programs,
conducted training and executive programs for civil servants, and undertook
research activities and consultancies mostly for the different organizations of the
national government. Since then, other universities and colleges have opened their
respective degree programs in public administration. Today, these academic
institutions have grouped themselves into the Association of Schools for Public
Administration in the Philippines.

New focus and trends

After World War II, a new understanding of public administrative came into
view. Scholar recognized that there was much more to public administrative
than governmental management processes and techniques. Public
administration study branched out to the analysis of organizations as social
systems, focusing on behavior and relationships of people on organizations. In
the analysis of human behavior, public administration applied the knowledge
and insights of social sciences like general psychology, social psychology, and
anthropology.
One important consequences of the expansion of the concept of public
administration was the attention given to the relation between policy and
administration (politics of administration and role of the executive branch in
the political system) and decision making in government. The value
judgement of administrators, goals conflicts, relations with pressure groups
and legislators became a subject of administrative studies. (Nigro and Nigro,
1989) you will recall that this topic was generally left out in the beginning.
Can you explain why?

The emphasis on policy and administrative behavior of public officials would be

renewed when the New Public Administration movement emerged in the U.S in
late 1960’s. the movement, led by young scholars notably II George Frederickson,
was a reaction to the irrelevance of the value-free stance of traditional public
administration to existing disparities in society. New Public Administration called
attention to the impact of public administration on society and people. It
emphasized the principle of social equity.

Approaches to the Study of Public Administration

1. Constitutional – legal- looks at the workings of government from the point of

view of the constitution, legislative enactments, the administrative code,
executive pronouncements, and court decisions and legal opinions.
2. Structural – descriptive – views public administration from the standpoint of
organizational structure, functions, techniques, and procedures. It looks at the
structure of the bureaucracy as an organizational arrangement of component
elements, each performing functions and roles.
3. Institutional approach – It emphasizes the formal relationships among the
three branches of government on the basis of separation of powers theory and
the ways of keeping public administration responsible to the elected branch
and the public as clientele.
4. Behavioural Approach – It aims at relating public administration and policy
with the situational context. It therefore looks into the behaviour of an
individuals within the organization. It believes in consistency and order in the
administrative system which it ascribes primarily to the positive interaction of
human beings in an organization.
5. Systems Approach – Systems idea implies the happy ordering of components
and the integration of functions to achieve organizational goals. Systems
approach hopes to provide instruments that will help administrators identify
and assess problems and come up with appropriate mechanisms to solve them.
The mechanism chosen must consider the service-oriented thrust of the
government as against the profit motive of business enterprise. From the
viewpoint of management, this approach will require the setting –up of a
timetable for accomplishing projects with an in- built schedule of activities
performed by the subsystems.
6. Contingency Approach – Its proponents believe that an organization and the
management of an organization should zero in on the situation because there
is no “best type” of organization structure. What structure is best is that which
is appropriate for a given situation, hence structural variances are to be
expected.

Scope of Philippine Public Administration

1. Governmental activities undertaken to protect society as a whole. This

includes national defense, protective services like police, fire and jail,
education and environment.
2. Government activities designed to provide assistance to economic and social
groups.
3. Government activities undertaken in the exercise of proprietary and corporate
powers. This includes ownership and operation of government-owned or
government controlled enterprises, better known as public enterprises.
 4. Government activities undertaken to regulate business, trade and
manufacturing.

By type of programs, public administration may be classified into the following:

1. External Programs – this includes foreign affairs activities on a government to

government basis : trade promotion and other economic linkages, cultural and
educational exchanges and activities of international organizations, public or private, of
which the Philippines is a member. It also includes the activities of Philippine Overseas
Employment Administration, labor and cultural attaches.
2. Regulatory Programs – these programs are concerned with governmental activities
intended to regulate the operation business enterprises with domestic or foreign capital,
banking activities, practice of professions, quality control of products, standards
specification, price control, and public convenience certification. Some government
entities involved in this type of work are the Securities Exchange Commission, Land
Transportation Commission, Board of Investments, Bureau of Standards and the
Commission for the Regulation of Professions.
3. Service Programs – refers to those activities directly administered by
government which directly affect individuals and groups. Postal service, social
security functions and medicare programs of the Government Service Insurance
System and the Social Security System, PAG – IBIG, puericulture and child care
centers, physical and mental health rehabilitation programs like the services
rendered by the National Mental Hospital and other rehabilitation and reformatory
institutions; also includes most of the services rendered by the different units of
the Department of Social Welfare and Department of Labor and Employment.
4. Development Programs- these programs are generally designed to direct socio –
economic transformation efforts to build self-reliant communities and develop
geographic areas and regions through the formation of development bodies or
authorities( i.e. role of regional, provincial and municipal development councils).
5. Grants – in- Aid Programs – these refer to projects undertaken by government
with subsidy funds, partly or wholly, from external sources like the Overseas
Development Assistance ( ODA) of Japan, Economic Support Fund (ESF) from
the United States, Philippine Aid Program (PAP) and Japan International
Cooperation Agency (JICA).