Essay on Public Administration: History, Goals, and Practicability

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of public administration, tracing its historical roots and evolution, particularly within the context of American bureaucracy. It examines the influence of the British administrative model on the United States and explores the impact of political and cultural environments on public administration design. The essay delves into the philosophical underpinnings, such as Laissez-faire, and discusses the increasing importance of public expenditure and the differences between democratic and autocratic administrative approaches. It also analyzes the structure of American bureaucracy, including its hierarchical organization, the roles of bureaucrats, and the potential for conflicts and ethical concerns. Furthermore, the essay explores the goals of public administration, including efficiency, effectiveness, and equity, while acknowledging the challenges in balancing these objectives. The document concludes by emphasizing the critical role of public administration in modern governance and its impact on a nation's overall development.

Running head: PUBLIC ADMININSTRATION 1
Public Administration
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History of Public Administration
The emergence of administration in America were designed in a similar pattern to that
of Britain. United States derived its institution of administration from Great Britain. The local
governments in the United States were structured in pattern, which resembled more or less
like the seventeenth century English model. The administration at that time was
decentralised, squirearchy dominated and self-governmental. This is why the system was
ready to adapt to the then economic and social situation of the new world. Until this date the
administrative structure of the United States are greatly influenced by the English model
(Dunleavy, 2014). The role of administration in case of a modern state in widely influenced
by the political and the cultural environment which prevails and it is very evident in the way
public administration has been designed. The school of philosophies like Laissez faire, which
existed at the time administration was designed, was of the opinion that the restriction of the
activities of the state were to be minimised (Waldo, 2017). The external protection and police
was reduced to such an extent that the administration was restricted in scope and the
operations were very feeble. Bureaucracy was considered to be the imminent danger and
officialdom the ultimate evil. The government, which were able to deny the wishes of the
public within large limits (Goodnow, 2017). Sometimes the government did not even
arranged for any program, which could create any social development rather contributed to
the notion of the argument which revolved around the non-intervention by the state
(Nabatchi, 2010). The contemporary writers or researchers never presented the administration
as a branch of science. In the present century, the interest in creating a systematic knowledge
on this subject has been initiated. There existed controversies among the political writers
regarding issues like nature of the state, dominative prerogative, popular power and many
others. The main question, which arose from these controversies, were how should law be
administrated with the help of equity, enlightenment and speed (Dahl, 2018). There were

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various significances in case of the twentieth century public administration. The public
expenditure at that time was rapidly increasing, the revenue raised for municipal, national
purposes and state amounted to $2,131,402,000 in the year 1922 where as in 1912 it was $
6,346,332,000. The increase in percentage was accounted to be 198%. The other economic
indicators such as per capital revenue, total net expenditure by the federal government etc.
reached its peak within the year of 1920-22. There were huge differences between the
administrative methods of the democratic and the autocratic government. There were various
methods of administration, which were employed in the hostile nations for controlling the
supply of food and furnish the illustration of both the democratic d autocratic approach to a
particular issue (Shafritz, Borick, Russell & Hyde, 2016).
American Bureaucracy
An organised structure of the public sector comprises of properly defined patterns or
activities in which each series of action is functionally associated with the purpose of the
organisation. In a bureaucratic structure, the series of offices are integrated in which several
privileges and obligations are closely defined with the help of specific rules. The power off
control in such systems are vested upon the authority, which has the controlling power over
the entire system (Stinchcombe, 2017). The authority is the power of control, which is
derived from an acknowledged status which inheres in the offices and not in the particular
person who is given the designation. The ideal and perfect type of such formal organisation in
the bureaucracy. In bureaucracy, there exists a clear cult distinction of the integrated
activities, which are considered to be the activities inherent in the office. The system of
controls, which are practises in the Bureaucratic structure often, exhibit differentiated control
and sanctions, which are clearly stated in the regulation itself (Weber, 2015). The assignment
of roles in the bureaucratic structure are done on the basis of the technical potential and
qualification and are achieved through impersonal and formal procedures. In the hierarchical

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arrangement of the authorities the activities of the experts are governed purely on the basis of
the generalised abstracts and refers to rules which include the need for the issue of specific
instruction subjected to each of the particular case.
Bureaucracy is a mechanism of a secondary group, which is specifically designed to function
in some specific activities (Weaver & Rockman, 2010). Without the bureaucracy functioning
well these activities could not have been performed satisfactorily just only relying upon the
primary group criterion. The bureaucrats are place in high positions in the bureaucratic
structure. Irrespective of the bureaucrats position in the hierarchy he acts and behaves as a
representative of prestige and power on behalf of entire structure of bureaucracy. There are
various roles, which is vested upon the bureaucrats due to his official role. His designation
provides him with certain authorities, which may create a dominating attitude in him and may
result as an exaggeration of the discrepancies, which exists between his designation within
the hierarchy and that of the public (West, 2016). The bureaucracy can be defined as the
secondary formal group where the normal responses are associated within a network of social
expectation, which are primarily supported or assisted by the right attitude of the member of
the group. Sometimes the groups of members. The group formed under the system of
American bureaucracy is oriented mostly towards the secondary norms but if there arises any
cases of failure to conform to these norms there is a chance that antagonism may arise from
those people who have identified themselves as a legit imitate of the group will give rise to
antagonism. The widespread disapproval have taken place in cases where there was
substitution of personals for impersonal treatments. This system within the structure has
faced widespread disapprovals and are featured with many loopholes or ethical concerns such
as nepotism, favouritism, apple- polishing etc. these sort of ‘ automatic resentments’ are
clearly evident form the conditions and requirements of the bureaucratic structure.

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Bureaucracy is certainly a mechanism of the secondary group and the certain activities which
are which are specific to it cannot be performed at all based on the criterions of the primary
group. The particular behaviour, which runs counter to this, is the emotionalised disapproval.
The emotionalised disapproval is constituted by the functionally important set up of defence,
which have the capability of jeopardising the performance of activities, which are socially
desirable. These are generally viewed as the perception of the individuals on the and the
immediate response, which comes as an immediate response against those persons who are
not complying with the rules of the system. These reactions serves mainly the purpose of
maintaining a balance between the significant and essential structural elements of the
bureaucracy, which assures the need for firming the secondary, formalised relations which
can benefit in preventing the disintegration of the bureaucratic structure. The conflict
between the bureaucratic clients often emerges from the interaction on impersonal terms in
cases where personal treatment is the demand.
Public Administration, Its Goals and Practicability
The public administration is gradually becoming the core of the problem arising in the
modern governmental structure. The legislative body was designed to deal with the
governments major issues of areas of difficulties, which was concerned with judgement on
the political ethics. Public administration is defined to be the management of material and
men in accomplishing the purpose of the nation (Forrer, Kee, Newcomer & Boyer, 2010).
Public administration in academics is defined as the implementation of the policies of the
government. It is the action, which is undertaken by the state purposely to determine the
actions, which are necessary in pursuit of a purpose. It incorporates a systematic order of
affairs and use of appropriate resources. The excellence in all the dimension of a country can
be achieved only if the public administration functions efficiently. The international
competition, which exists in the field of trade and industry, can function well in the presence

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of such system and this is applicable to every facet of the economy. The citizens of a nation
always deserves an administrative system, which maintains honesty and efficiency.
There are in general four pillars of public administration, namely economy, effectiveness,
efficiency and equity (Forrer et al., 2010). Efficiency, equality and equality are not only
important in case of delivering the right service or decision-making but they are equally
significant in running a successful public service administration (Riccucci, 2018). Attaining
the three goals are not always possible in all the aspects associated with public administration
but they are certainly realistic goals. The problems of efficiency are considered to be the main
concern at the present context. The governmental control over all sorts of important interests
has given rise to a situation where productivity of the highest degree is no longer effective.
These three parameters though are required in every aspect but there role in each of the cases
vary from the other parameter and cannot work together at a consistent rate (Bryson, Crosby
& Bloomberg, 2014). To benefit the provision of the public goods they often conflict with
each other, this creates a pressure on the policy maker, and the administrator on deciding
which factor should be given the most preference (Frederickson, Smith, Larimer & Licari,
2015).
The public administration because of the conflict between these three parameters are often
not able achieve its true potentials even if honesty is maintained throughout the process. The
role of administration in the present scenario is greatly affected politics and cultural
environment, which prevents in the nations and often create difficulties in the path of
achieving the desired goals. In general, efficiency in the context of administration is often
linked to productivity and achieve the highest quantity of public good produced with the use
of available resources in the given time (Forrer et al., 2010). Effectiveness on the other
hand is a very obvious thing to be achieved for attaining the desired goal. The last parameter
of equity is the most complicated of all, as it refers to the fair and equitable management of

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all the institution present in the public administration. Maintain all these three is a difficult
task for the public administrators and they need to be careful regarding which mix to use
(Forrer et al., 2010). Productivity, attaining desired goals and every operation related to
public administrated are three main areas where the parameters are placed.

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