PAHS 011:

POLITICAL SETTING IN
ADMINISTRATION
NATURE AND SCOPE OF POLITICS AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

SAMPSON DANSO,
DEPT. OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
sdanso@ug.edu.gh/dansosampson@gmail.com
 OUTLINE
• Nature and Scope of Politics
• Definition of Politics and their Projections
• Conceptions of Politics
• Nature and Scope of Public Administration
• Definitions of Public Administration and their Projections
• Scope of Public Administration
• Public Administration in the Ghanaian Context
• Differences/Similarities Between Public and Private
Administration
• Revision Questions
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 NATURE AND SCOPE OF POLITICS
• The word politics is widely used and sometimes looses
its meaning. There are two notions of Politics. First as
an ennobling activity and as a dirty activity: it conjures
up images of trouble, disruption and even
violence on the one hand, and deceit, manipulation
and lies on the other (Heywood, 2019).

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NATURE AND SCOPE OF POLITICS
• Etymologically, the word “politics” is derived
from the Greek word “polis” meaning City-
State. From this, politics was conceived as the
affairs of the state. Ancient Greek society was
divided into a collection of independent city-
states, each of which possessed its own system
of government.

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 SOME DEFINITIONS OF POLITICS
• David Easton (1965) defines politics as the authoritative
allocation of values or resources.
• Harold Dwight Laswell (1936) defined politics as who
gets what, when, how.
• Andrew Heywood (2019), politics is that social activity
by which people make, preserve and amend the
general rules under which they live.
• Austin Ranney (1958) refers to politics as the governing
of men.
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 WHAT THESE DEFINITIONS OF
POLITICS PROJECT
• Decision making
• Resource distribution
• Power and authority
• Governance

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 CONCEPTIONS OF POLITICS
• As an art of government:
‘Politics is not a science . . . but an art’, Chancellor
Bismarck is reputed to have told the German Reichstag.
The art Bismarck had in mind was the art of government,
the exercise of control within society through the making
and enforcement of collective decisions (Heywood,
2010).

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CONCEPTIONS OF POLITICS (cont’d)
• As state power (Nnoli, 1986):
This definition assumes that more often than not
politicians may fail to achieve all their stated goals.
For this reason, it is important for them exercise
enormous tact and discretion in the way they do
business. Their actions and words should commensurate
with the power he wields.

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CONCEPTIONS OF POLITICS (cont’d)
• As struggle for power:
Dahl defines Politics as the struggle for and exercise
of power and influence in society (Cited in Nnoli,
1986). According to this definition, individuals in
society contest for power to rule. The struggles
associated with this contestation is what Dahl refers
to as power.

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CONCEPTIONS OF POLITICS (cont’d)
• As who gets what, when and how:
This definition of Politics emphasizes the fact that
politics is all about decisions over the distribution
of state resources. Given that people have
different needs and wants in society as against
scarcity of resources in meeting these needs,
there is the need for a scale of priority to guide
resource allocation; for Lasswell, this is essence of
politics.
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 CONCEPTIONS OF POLITICS (cont’d)
• As authoritative allocation of values or resources:
David Easton’s definition of politics as the authoritative
allocation of values lays emphasis on how values are
allocated. The problem of this definition is that politicians
are perceived as individuals allocating values. They are
better known for the commands and instructions they give
and their obsessing for bargaining. These can hardly be
described as authoritative allocation of values. There is
also the problem of the precise meaning of values.

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CONCEPTIONS OF POLITICS (cont’d)
• As the governing of Men:
Austin Ranney views politics as the process of
governing man in society. He espoused this definition
in his book ‘The Governing of Men.’ According to
him politics exist in the relationship between those
governor/ruler and governed/ruled. This definition
reflects reality to some extent, given that our
contemporary world has governments consisting of
those who govern and those who are governed.
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 NATURE AND SCOPE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
• Public administration is the fusion of two words:
public and administration. The word ‘public’ connotes
that which is connected to government or people; it
also connotes that which is held in common or
concerns all people. The word ‘administration’ can be
traced to two Latin words ‘ad,’ which means ‘to’ and
‘ministrare,’ which means ‘serve.’ Thus, the word
public administration basically means to serve the
public or people.

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 SOME DEFINITIONS OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
• Public Administration is concerned with the management
of public programs (Denhardt, 1995).
• Public Administration is the production of goods and
services designed to serve the needs of citizens-
consumers (Dimock, Dimock and Fox, 1983).
• Public Administration can be portrayed as a wheel of
relationships focused on the implementation of public
policy (Johnson, 1995).
• Public administration is the process of caring, looking
after and managing the affairs of people (Gladden,
1972). 14
 SOME DEFINITIONS OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION (cont’d)
• Public Administration is the involvement of human
actions directed towards some agreed-upon goals
(Simon, 1970).
• Public administration is the ‘detailed and systematic
execution of public law. Every particular application
of general law is an act of administration’ (Wilson
1953: 65–75).
• ‘It is the action part of the government, the means by
which the purposes and goals of government are
realized’ (Corson and Harris 1967: i).
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WHAT THE DEFINITIONS OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION PROJECT
• Policy implementation
• Resource mobilization and distribution
• Production and delivery of services
• Focus in governmental operations.

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 THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION
• The scope of public administration is difficult to define
given continuous change in society and environment.
There are as follows:
– Traditional/Narrow view and the Modern/Broad view
– Political school view
– Legalistic view
– Public Weal view
– Market view
– Process view
– Subject matter/Content view
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 THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION (cont’d)
• The traditional view is exclusively concerned with
the execution of policy or the action part of
government or the visible part of government.
Proponents include Herbert Simon, Woodrow
Wilson, Dwight Waldo, Victor Thompson, E. N.
Gladden, Donald W. Smithburg and Richard
Michael Cyert.

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 THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION (cont’d)
• The modern view is concerned all activities
involved in the process of policy formulation and
implementation or study of activities of all three
organs of the state i.e. the executive, legislative,
judiciary and their interdependence. Proponents
include John M. Pfiffner, Marshal E. Dimock, F.
W. Willoughy and Felix A. Nigro.

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 THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION (cont’d)
• Political School view:
– Public administration involves the study of state and
non-state actors and extended to anti-state actors as
well. Proponents include Robert Dahl and David
Easton.

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 THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION (cont’d)
• Legalistic View: Public administration is viewed as
the study of enforcement of law and should confine
to the formulation and implementation. Proponents
include Leonard D. White, Marshall Dimock and
Woodrow Wilson.
– According to L. D. White, public administration means
‘the study of all the operations having for their
purpose or the fulfilment of the public policy.’
– According to Woodrow Wilson, public administration
is the ‘systematic and detailed implementation study
of public law.’
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 THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION (cont’d)
• Public Weal view:
– Public administration is the study activities dealing with
the welfare of the people.
• Process view:
– Public administration is all about the study of generic
and universal tools, techniques, process and principles
of administration. Proponents include Luther Gullick
and Lyndall Urwik. According to Urwik, ‘administration
is administration whether public, non-public, religious or
cultural.’

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 THE SCOPE OF PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION (cont’d)
• Subject-Matter view:
– Public administration should include the study of
subject matter in addition to tools, techniques and
processes because of its multidisciplinary nature.
• Market view:
– Public administration includes the study of both state and
non-state actors like NGOs, private for profit and not for
profit organization that plays a major role in performing
any activity that affects the public that delivers public
goods, that achieves public goals and activities funded out
of public exchequers.
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 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE
GHANAIAN CONTEXT
• In the Ghanaian context, most public administration
activities especially in the realm of policy
implementation occur in the corridors of organizations
listed under Chapter 19 (1) of the 1992 Constitution of
the Republic of Ghana.
• If one expands the scope of public administration to
include the process of policymaking, institutions which
make up the Executive, such as Cabinet and Ministries,
and Parliament are also key in public administration.

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DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PUBLIC
AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION:
Although public administration has its own distinctive
features, some scholars have argued that it shares similar
characteristics with business/private administration. There
are some thinkers who consider that there is no
difference between the two and that the administrative
activities and techniques are similar in all organizations,
private or public. Lyndall Urwick, Mary Parker Follet and
Henri Fayol subscribe to this view.

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 DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION:
According to Fayol, ‘We are no longer confronted
with several administrative sciences but with one
which can be applied equally well to public and
private affairs’. Yet, public administration holds some
distinctive features which set it apart from
private/business administration. Scholars such as Paul
H. Appleby, Herbert A. Simon, and Peter Drucker
have made a distinction between public and private
administration.

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DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PUBLIC
AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION (cont’d)
Difference Similarities
Public Administration Private Administration
The public sector is The primary motive is to Both apply the
managed to provide make and maximize POSDCORB principles:
essential goods and profit planning, organizing,
services and not profit staffing, directing,
oriented. coordinating, reporting
and budgeting
The operational The private Both public and business
environment of the administrator does not administrators mobilize
public administrator is lend himself to strict human and material
regulated by law legalities rather resources to achieve
flexibility. their goals.
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 DIFFERENCES AND SIMILARITIES BETWEEN PUBLIC
AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION (cont’d)
Difference Similarities
Public Administration Private Administration
In the context of Business administrators are It is also argued that both
transparency and not controlled and public and private
accountability, the public scrutinized by agents of administrators tend to
administrator is required by the state unless their operate with the same
law to submit himself to action infringes upon the general principles such as
public scrutiny. Thus, the law. honesty and integrity.
operate in a “goldfish
bowl”
The public administrator The tenure of the business
enjoys a considerable administrator is not
amount of security of necessarily fixed, and
tenure therefore can be
dismissed at any time.
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 REVISION QUESTIONS
• Comment on the view that public administration and
private administration differ to a greater extent rather
than related .
• Examine the nature and scope of public administration.
• Having been lectured on the subject matter of politics
and public administration, what are the projections one
can draw?
• Comment on the view that public administration is all
about the action part of government.

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