Introduction

Public administration is a newly emerged discipline compare to other social sciences discipline.
Public administration has gained large countless importance science of the emergence of
administrative state . In ancient Greek, Roman and Indian political system gave more importance to
the concept of administration . Kautilayas “Artha sathra” contributed large scale in the
administrative system ,it deals every aspect of the state and it’s realtion to subjects. In a simple
sense public administration is a state machanism . In every political system administrative have
significant role . Public administration is an academic discipline is barely hundred years old.

Meaning of Public Administration:

Public administration is formed by two different terms, public and administration. The term public
Means government which is mainly focus on government activities and actions. Whereas the term
Administration is derived from a Latin word “Administer” which means to serve, too direct, to
Control, to care for or to look after people.

Literally, the term “administration” means Management of public or private affairs. Hence, simply
public administration is known as the
Management of public affairs. It looks after the affairs of the people and provides services to them.
Here the main concern is public administration. Public Administration is the implementation Of
government policy and also an academic discipline that studies this implementation and
Prepares civil servants for working in the public service. As a “field of inquiry with a diverse Scope”
whose fundamental goal is to “advance management and policies so that government can function.
Public administration is “centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and
programs as well as the behavior of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their
conduct". Many unelected public servants can be considered to be public administrators, including
heads of city, county, regional, state and federal departments such as
municipal budget directors, human resources (HR) administrators, city
managers, census managers, state mental health directors, and cabinet secretaries. Public
administrators are public servants working in public departments and agencies, at all levels of
government.

Definition of Public Administration:

1. According to Woodrow Wilson (1887) Public Administration is the detailed a systematic

execution of public law. Every particular application of law is public administration.

2. Public administration is the action part of government, the means by which the purposes
and Goals of government are realized.

-John J. Corson and J.P. Harris

3. Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose of fulfillment
Or enforcement of public policy.

-L.D. White
 4. Public administration is that part ofscience of administration which has to do with
government and thus concerned itself primarily with the executive branch where the work
of government is done through there are obviously problem connection with legislative and
judicial branches.

-Luther Gulick

5. Public administration in all modern nations is identified with the executive branch of
Government. It includes the shaping of policy on the way up, execution of policy after it has
been made, and as a necessary part of the execution, decision making about policy matters
on the way down.

-James W. Fesler and Donald F. Kettl (1996)

6. Public administration is concerned with the management of public programs.

Robert B. Denhardt (1995)

7. Public administration is the use of managerial, political, and legal theories and processes to
fulfil legislative, executive, and judicial governmental mandates for the provision of
regulatory and service functions for the society as a whole or for some segments of it.

-David H. Rosen bloom and Robert S. Kravchuk (1997)

8. Public Administration may be defined as all processes, organizations, and individuals acting
in official positions and roles associated with carrying out laws and other rules adopted or
issued by legislatures, executives, and courts (many activities are also concerned with
formulations of these rules).PA is also a field of academic and community study and
Professional training leading to public service careers at all levels of government.

-Milakovich and Gordon

9. Public administration:

(a) Is the non-political bureaucracy operating in a political system?

(b) Deals with the ends of the state, the sovereign will, the public interest and laws,

(c) Is the business side of government and as such concerned with policy execution, but
it is also concerned with policy making?

(d) Covers all three branches of government, although it ends to be concentrated in the
Executive branch,

(e) Provides regulatory and service functions to the people in order to attain good life,
 (f) Differs significantly from private administration, especially in its emphasis on public
and interdisciplinary in nature as it draws upon other social science like political
science, Economics and sociology.

-S.P. Naidu

10. Public administration:

(a) Is a cooperative group effort in a public setting;

(b) Covers all three branches –executive, legislative, and judicial-and their
interrelationships;

(c) Has an important role in the formulation of public policy, and is thus part of the
political Process;

(d) Is different in significant ways from private administration; and

(e) Is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals

Felix A. Nigro and Lloyd G. Nigro (1989)

Thus, public administration is a cooperative effort of a group of people in pursuit of common

Objective in the process of managing public affairs. Analysis of the above definition includes that
The term public administration has been used in two senses- narrower sense (view of traditional
Writers) and wider sense (view of modern writers). In narrower sense public administration Includes
the activities of only execution.

Scope of Public Administration:

Public administration is an evolving applied social science. It is still in the process of evolution.
Hence, the scope of public administration is not completely clear and realized. However, it is obvious
that public administration is an activity done by the human beings for human beings living in the
society. As in the case of its definition there is also argue over the scope of public administration
between the traditional and modern views of the followers.

1 . Traditional view:

The traditional writers restricted the scope of public administration to the executive branch of
Government only. In narrow sense public administration covers the primarily the organization,
Personnel, practices and procedures essential to effective performance of the civilian functions
entrusted to the executive branch of the government.

2 . Modern view:
The modern writers have extended the scope of public administration to all the three branches of
government, according to them; public administration is the whole government in action. In a
democracy all major administrative policies from the legislative in the form of laws and the
Legislature also exercise control over administration with the view to see that the policies are
implemented as it intends. The judiciary has the power to restrain public administration from the
unconstitutional, illegal and arbitrary acts. Therefore, all three branches of government are part of
the study and practice of public administration.By the scope of public administration, we mean the
major concern of public administration; as An activity and as a discipline.

1 . as an activity
Broadly speaking, Public Administration embraces all the activities of the government. Hence As an
activity the scope of public administration is no less than the scope of state activity. In The modern
welfare state people expect many things –a wide variety of services and protection From the
government.Several writers have defined the scope of public administration in varying terms.

Luther Gulick has given the elements of administration as an activity in the acronym that is
POSDCoRB which means:

P= Planning,

O= Organizing

S= Staffing

D= Directing

C= Coordinating

R= Reporting and

B= Budgeting

Planning – Working out in broad outline the things to be done, the methods to be adopted to
accomplish the purpose

Organizing – Establishment of the formal structure of authority through which the work is sub-
divided

Staffing – Means the recruitment and training of the personnel and their conditions of work

Directing – Means making decisions and issuing orders and instructions

Coordinating – Means interrelating the work of various divisions, sections, and other parts of the
organization

Reporting – Means informing the superiors within the agency to whom the executive is responsible
about what is going on.
Budgeting – Means fiscal planning, control, and accounting

According to Gulick the POSDCoRB activities are common to all organizations. They are the Common
problems of management which are found in different agencies regardless of the Nature of the work
they do. POSDCoRB gives unity, certainty, and definiteness and makes the Study more systematic.
This element is not enough as scope of public administration. The scope of public

Administration as activity (wider or narrower) depends upon the state activities. In the modern
Welfare state (especially in developing countries) people expect many things from the Government.
Public administration of a welfare state provides a number of welfare and social Security services to
the people and public administration has to perform regular activities of The state as like to take
care of private sector and corporate organization as well as activities of NGO/INGO. Public
administration covers every area and activity of government. In this sense

It includes all operations of exploration of outer space to sweeping the streets.

2 . as a discipline

We all know that public administration deals not only with the processes but also with the
Substantive matters of administration, such as Defense, Law and Order, Education, Public Health,
Agriculture, Public Works, Social Security, Justice, Welfare, etc. These services require not only
POSDCoRB techniques but also have important specialized techniques of their own which are not
covered by POSDCoRB techniques.
For example, if you take Police Administration it has its own techniques in crime detection,
maintenance of Law and Order, etc., which are much and more vital to efficient police work, than
the formal principles of organization, personnel management, coordination or finance and it is the
same with other services too.
Therefore, the study of public administration should deal with both the processes (that is POSDCoRB
techniques and the substantive concerns).
The scope of public administration as a discipline (subject matter); i.e., particular subject of study in
public administration are:
Public Administration compromises of the following elements
 Organization
 Management of personnel
 Method and procedure.
 Public Finance
 Administrative Accountability
Organization
This involves the Structuring of individuals and functions in to productive relationship. It represents
the Static part of the administration. It is called as the anatomy of public administration.
Management of Personnel
This is concerned with the direction of individuals and functions to achieve the predetermined ends.
It represents the dynamic aspect of Administration and it may be called the Physiology of
administration.
Method and Procedure
This represents the technique of administrating, the process of working, and the law of
administration.
Material and supply
This includes the tools with whose help the administrative Work is carried on.
Public Finance
This is the material without which Personnel cannot be employed and work cannot be performed.
This is the chief determining factor in public Administration, in fact, in the
Whole government, as the efficiency and the prestige of the administration depends upon It.

Administrative Accountability

This is the accountability of the administration both in terms of internal Control as well as External
responsibility to the judiciary, the legislative and the People.

Conclusion of scope

We can conclude that the scope of public administration with the statement of Lewis Meriam:

“Public administration is an instrument with two blades like a pair of scissors. One blade may be
knowledge of the field covered by POSDCoRB, the other blade is knowledge of the subject ed

Matter in which these techniques are applied. Both blades must be good to make an effective Tool”.

Nature of public administration:

There are two broad views regarding the nature of public administration. The integral view and The
managerial view;

1. The Integral view

According to this view, administration is the sum of total activities- manual, clerical, technical,
Managerial etc, which are under taken to realize the objectives. This view believes that public
administration comprises all types of operations undertaken by all persons ranging from the lowest
to the highest in order to implement public policies. Supporter of this views are

Woodrow Wilson, Marshal Dimock, John Piffnner, L.D. White etc.

2. Managerial View

According to this view, administration comprises the work of only those people who are Engaged in
performing managerial functions in an organization. If we take a managerial view, Public
administration focus principally on the planning, organizing, directing, controlling and Coordination
of governmental operations. Managerial view believes in getting the things done, Not doing things.
Luther Gulick, Henry Fayol, Robert Dhal, Herbert Simon etc support this View.

Is Public Administration Science or Arts?

At a first glance it seems easier to accept public administration as an art. It is just the Administration
of Government affairs and for most part it does not follow the laws of Science Like absence of
normative value, predictability of behavior and universal application. So, does that mean we cannot
list it into a respectable category of scientific subjects?

There are many authors who ferociously defended it and argued that public administration as An
area of study is indeed a Science. The earliest of them was Lorenz von Stein an 1855, a German
professor from Vienna who said that public administration is an integrated Science And viewing it
just as administrative laws was a restrictive definition. In modern times, Categorizing public
administration as Science found favor with many, the most important one Being the father of
American public administration, President Woodrow Wilson. We shall read more about the
Wilsonian view of public administration in the next article, however he mainly Emphasized that the
objective of administrative study is to discover what government can properly and successfully do
and how it can do those things with utmost efficiency with least possible cost of money or energy.

After Wilson another important argument came from Frederick Taylor who wrote a book called

The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) in which he proposed to discover one best way of
doing things/operation and thus save on cost on time and energy. Luther Gulick and L. Urvick
collectively published, Papers on the Science of Administration which reaffirmed its status as a
Science.

W F Willoughby stated that public administration like Science has Certain fundamental principles
which can be generally applied and therefore it is a Science.

However, there still remain certain aspects to be established before public administration can be
actually and in real terms, be classified as a Science. The places of normative values in public
administration should be clearly defined. More efforts should be put in to understanding the human
nature and dynamics at play in public administration. Lastly, the principles of public administration
should derive references from across the worlds, cultures, type of states etc. To make them more
universal and free of cultural, religious and political biases.

The advent of the modern welfare state itself has added, to the changing approach to public
administration. The kind of activities and sphere of works have never been more varied and dynamic
and there has been a never before interest in actually improving the efficiency of the
Government.Subject matter experts like Frederick Taylor have opened ways to exploration,
experimentation, observation, collection of data and analysis based on which principles and Laws
can be made.
There are increasing number of authors like Metcalfe, Fayol, Emerson, Follett, Mooney, and more
recently Drucker etc who have written on the subjects of Administration. In-fact Drucker wrote a
book called “The Age of Discontinuity” and one of the Chapters of the book called The Sickness of
Government became the basis of the New Public Management theory popular in 1980s which
emphasized the market oriented management of
The public sector.

So, one can safely say that with the changing times and more and more studies carried out in The
field of social sciences, administration and human relations, the subject of public Administration can
no longer take the shelter of art and would have to emerge stronger with Relevant and fundamental
principles like that of Science.