Nature of Public Administration

Nature of Public Administration

Nature primarily refers to some of the defining characteristics which impart an identity to a discipline. There are various views in this regard.

Narrow View v. Broad View- Already Discussed.

Managerial View v. Integral View- Already Discussed.

POSDCORB View v. Subject-Matter View- Already Discussed.

Instrumentalist View v. Discretionist View- The Instrumentalist View believes that public administration is an instrument in the hands of the political class or political community to implement efficiently that which is expressed politically. Under this view, Public Administration lacks autonomy. This view has been challenged by the Discretionist view. Discretionist view is more contemporary and relatively more acceptable.

Discretionist view believes that Public administration is an autonomous system and it is as autonomous as that of the political system. It is not an instrument in the hands of the political community rather it is an instrument of the state. It is as much as an instrument of the state as the political system is an instrument of the state. Thereby, it is responsible for protecting and promoting the public interest or the national interest or constitutional philosophy or social ethos.

Public administration as an Art or a Science- Art basically refers to skill or expertise using which problems are addressed and solved. Thereby, it is something which one can learn and be trained with and using that, one can solve problems. Public administration is the study of government in action. Thus, public administration deals with a large number of problems and issues by using expertise, skill, tools, techniques and sophisticated knowledge such as planning, supervising, commanding, co-ordinating, accounting etc. Hence, there is near unanimity that public administration is an art.

Science is a systematized and objective study of a part of the reality so as to develop understanding and explanations carrying universality and predictability. Thereby, science carries three major characteristics (Value Neutrality, Universality and Predictability). While, this definition is hardly disputable but the nature of its ingredients have been subjected to debate. For e.g. Positivists believe that any study to claim the status of science, it should be able to display the standards and vigour of the physical science. Thereby, they are primarily referring to studies which are absolutely universal and absolutely predictable. But, this is a less acceptable and a minority view.

A number of different theorists such as Karl Popper, Charles Beard and Weber have taken a different view. Popper said that every knowledge is provisional and permanently provisional. This has also been voiced by Royal Society of Science. It says that nothing is final. Popper is trying to emphasize that the principles derived cannot be hundred Percent absolute. Every knowledge is temporarily sustainable and no knowledge is final. No knowledge can be permanently true. No principle can stand the test of time and no principle can be considered to be the final principle for all times to come because every principle is subjected to change. An individual is able to investigate only that much of data which his/her tools and techniques allow him/her to access. Many data and information which are not accessible today might be discovered tomorrow. Thereby, the science refers to a systematized and objective study of a part of the reality to develop principles which are universal and predictable but they are not necessarily absolute i.e. they carry a higher probability of being true and rather than absolute truths. In physical science, the principles carry higher universalism and predictability as compared to the principles in social sciences. This is because the tools and techniques of investigation in physical science are more advanced or more evolved as compared to social sciences where the tools and techniques of investigation are less evolved. As there will be advancement in the tools and techniques of investigation in social sciences, there will be an increase in its predictability and universalism.

A similar type of view has been advanced by Weber. He says that physical science is an objective study of only the objective things. While, on the other hand, social science is an objective study of both, the objective and the subjective things. Thus, if we take this outline, we can say that public administration is a science. Hence, it is both, an art as well as a science.

Public administration as a discipline or a profession- Public administration is a discipline but yet to become a full-fledged profession. It is a profession in making. Discipline refers to an area of study being supported by a repository body of knowledge or a corpus of knowledge and being imparted through various institutions of learning. Public administration has already developed a corpus of knowledge and a vocabulary of its own which consists of a number of concepts, theories, principles, methods methodologies etc. But, there are certain critics to this view. They believe that this corpus of knowledge does not belong to public administration rather it is a bag of borrowings from various other disciplines. But, the scholars of Public administration defend this criticism by saying that public administration being multi-disciplinary uses a number of developments which originally emerged in other disciplines. But, having said so, they have also emphasized that the manner of usage of these concepts, theories, techniques etc. is unique to public administration. Also, specialized courses in public administration are being imparted in various national and international universities. Thus, public administration is a discipline.

A profession carries five basic characters. It is an area of activity which is supported through

a.       A body of knowledge- This criterion is satisfied.

b.      Prolonged education and training- This refers to the formal education and training relating to public administration before anybody becomes a public administrator. It is a very young discipline but the maturity in the vocabulary of public administration has increased by leaps and bounds during the past few years. This shows the potential of public administration to be able to be sustained in practice.

c.      Social responsibility- Public administration is Discretionist by nature. This means that public administration as an activity is involved in protecting and promoting the national interest.

d.      Code of Conduct- The code of Conduct is given by the professional body of the respective profession. Since there is no professional body or association relating to public administration, there is no Code of Conduct as well.

e.       A Professional Body of Association- There is no such association or professional body in case of Public Administration.

Thus, public administration though is a discipline but is not a profession even though it has the potential to become a profession in the future.

Public administration as Political Science- Political Science is the study of state. In fact, Political science is the study of the whole of the state. It has a number of specialized areas of study. One of the areas of study in political science is the study of government in action. Public administration which is the study of government in action is merely a specialized area in the study of political science. Thereby, some scholars argue that public administration cannot be considered as a full or independent discipline. It is at best a half-discipline. But, the proponents of public administration emphasize that Political Science is a very old discipline. It is more than 2200 years old. During this period, it has developed a huge vocabulary. The study of this vocabulary will explain the area of focus of political science. It has been found that this vocabulary is adequate to study the philosophical part of the state but it is not equipped to study the government in action. Thus, public administration with its newly acquired tools and techniques is equipped to deal with the actional part of the state. Thereby, political science deals with technical/philosophical part of the state and the knowledge part of the state is being dealt by public administration.

Public administration as Management Science- The management science studies the various tools and techniques of organizational management. Thereby, in terms of content, it overlaps with the areas of study of public administration. Being an older science, management science has a superior claim over these contents and that puts public administration and its identity at stray. The proponents of Public Administration respond by saying that public administration studies various tools and techniques of management of the organization but studies them in the background of the philosophical concerns of the state. Thus, the study of management science is technical in nature and the study of public administration is philosophical in nature. Thus, public administration more philosophical than management science and technical than political science.

Public administration as Social Science- Social science is the study of society and its various dimensions or aspects. Thereby, it carries some characters.

a.  It is a systematized study based on observation rather than laboratory experimentation.

b.      Its principles as of now are less universal and less predictable.

c.       It deals with not only ‘what is’ but also ‘what ought to be’.

d.      It is a progressive science.

Public administration deals with a part of the society and human interaction i.e. the administrative part or the human interaction within the government. The studies in public administration are not based on laboratory experimentation rather it is carried on in natural condition and by way of observation. Public administration has already developed a large number of principles. These principles are universal and predictable though as compared to the principles of physical science, they are less universal and less predictable. The study of public administration is not only descriptive but also prescriptive or normative. Thus, it deals not only with ‘what is’ but also ‘what ought to be’. Moreover, it is a progressive science because the knowledge and the ideas keep on changing based on new facts and information. Thus, public administration is a social science.

Philosophy of Public administration- Philosophy refers to objective, goal or the end purpose. Philosophy of public administration refers to the objective of public administration. It is a very less researched area. This area has been understood and explored very little. Graham Wallas says that in the age of great society, the role or the job of public administration is to bring about a good society and avoid the coming up of an evil society. The great society refers to the contemporary society which is numerous, grand and complex. Good society refers to a society which has justice, equality, liberty, peace etc. Evil society refers to a society where there is disintegration, violence, exploitation, illiteracy, malnutrition etc. Thus, public administration is Discretionist by nature.