In this article you will learn about the Scope of Public Administration in Political Science.
Public Administration : Meaning
Public Administration stands recognised as a separate social discipline and its knowledge is also deemed a necessary component of Political Science. Politics is the process of making, building and implementing authoritative and binding policies, decisions, laws, rewards, punishments and rules. The implementation of these authoritative values is protected and secured by the government through its several departments each of which is headed by a minister (political representative of the people) and a well organised team/group of civil servants which carries out the assigned work of the department. The sum total of the works and activities undertaken by the civil servants (who are also called public servants) for giving effort to public decisions and policies of the government is called Public Administration.
Public Administration is the process by which the policies and decisions of the government are carried out in society. Public Administration is continuously involved in policy-making, decision-making, formulating the goals, planning the work to be done, working with legislature, providing leadership, supervising employees, determining work-methods and procedures, exercising controls and other functions performed by the public servants. Public Administration is the ‘action-part’ of government, i.e., the system by which the purposes and goals of government are archived.
Every society has its own political system, a culture, an economic system and also a public administrative system. The political system consists of relationships and interactions involved in the struggle for the power through which authoritative decisions are made and implemented for the whole society. The economic system consists of all interactions and relations involving money, resources and wealth. The cultural system or culture of the society consists of the values, traditions, beliefs, orientations, symbols, likings and dislikings of the people of the society.
Public Administration is the system of executing public policies as formulated by a competent government or authority. The administrative system of each state is called Public Administration because it is concerned with the people of the society. Some people refer to it as the government administrative. The government of the state carries out all its policies through Public Administration and it is an indispensable aspect of every social system of our times.
Scope of Public Administration
The scope of Public Administration has been discussed in two parts by Walker :
1. Administrative Theory : ‘Administrative Theory’ implies that Public Administration is concerned with the administrative activities of government i.e., its executive, legislature and judicial functions. It included the structure, functions, organisation and methods of all types of authority engaged in administration, whether national, regional or local and whether executive or ordinary. It also includes planning, execution of public action and programming, recruitment and problems connected with research, information and public relations. It also covers control over administration, financial administration and issues and problems of personnel administration.
2. Applied Administration : According to Walker, the sphere of Applied Administrative suggests that Public Administration includes the application of all administrative decisions. Walker has made an attempt to classify the main forms of Applied Administration on the basis of ten principles.
- ‘Political’ - it includes the executive-legislative relationship, politico-administrative activities of the Cabinet, the ministers and official relationships.
- ‘Legislation’ - it involves delegated legislation and preparatory work done by the officials in the drafting of bills for legislative enactments.
- ‘Financial’ - it involves the whole of fiscal administration from the preparation of the budget to its executive.
- ‘Defence’ - it involves military administration.
- ‘Educational’ - it covers all aspects of educational fields and administration.
- ‘Social’ or ‘Social Administrative’ - it includes all administration in the social field such as food, housing, social security and employment.
- ‘Economics’ or ‘Economic Administration’ - it includes all administrative activities in all economic fields i.e., industry, foreign trade, agriculture, trade, business, commerce, public enterprises etc.
- ‘Foreign Administration’ or ‘International Administration’ - it covers foreign administration which includes international cooperation, international agencies for international peace and prosperity, and diplomacy.
- ‘Imperial Administration’ - it covers problems and techniques of imperial domination over other nations.
- ‘Local’ or ‘Local Administration’ - it covers administration of local bodies.
The scope of Public Administration is not only concerned with development of new administrative technologies but also includes the ecological and human aspects of Public Administration. It also gives due importance to the study of the environment in which the administration works. Along with this, it also includes the study of administration of all organisations at various levels of government - local, national and international.
Public Administration is the organised system of affecting public policies which include all aspects of human life in society. As a subject of study, it involves the study of all operations of government concerned with making and implementing of public policies which are designed to protect and secure the desired goals of all round development.
This article on Scope of Public Administration in Political Science is contributed by Dipshikha Anand. If you like LawStudyPoint.com do follow us on our Twitter handle.