UNIT II- EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC

ADMINISTRATION
Administration is both -an activity as well as
an academic discipline
However, as a field
study it has a brief history.
• Though there is no specific point in history
when the journey of public administration
began ,Woodrow Wilson’s article , ‘The Study
of Administration’, (1887) published in the
Political Science Quarterly, is often taken as
the symbolic beginning of Public
Administration as an academic discipline.
As an academic discipline Public administration
has gone through a number of stages
1. 1887-1926 - politics- administration
Dichotomy
• Separating politics and administration
• Frank J. Goodnow- Politics and administration
in 1900
• Leonard D. White’s ‘Introduction to the Study
of Public Administration’ (1926)
• Distinction between administration and
politics
2. 1927- 1937 - Discovery of the Scientific
Principles
- Attempt to make public administration a science
- In 1927 W.F.Willoughby’s book Principles of
Public Administration
- Frederick Taylor and the principles of scientific
management
- Luther Gulick and Urwick coined seven
principles ‘POSDCORB’ Planning, Organizing,
Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting,
and Budgeting
3. 1938-1947- era of challenge
- Challenged both the first and second stages
- In 1938, Chester I.Barnard in his book ‘The
Functions of the Executive’
• Herbert Simon’s Administrative Behavior: A
study of decision-making processes in
administration organization (1947),
• End of politics administration dichotomy
• PA cannot be made a science
• Importance given to human element and
environment
4. 1948-1968 – Crisis of identity
- Uncertain future of PA
- Neither independent nor with political science
5. 1968-1980 - PA as New Public Administration
• The first Minnowbrook conference sponsored by
Dwight Waldo (1968) ‘new public administration’
- make the study and practice of the discipline
relevant to the demands of society.
- Relevance,values change and client oriented
The Minnowbrook-II Conference New public
management 1988
• another landmark in the evolution of Public
administration. It gave birth to a new approach
called as ‘New Public Management’ (NPM).
• concerned with providing quality services to
citizens;
• decentralized form of governance and
participatory management
• using private sector innovation, resources, and
organizational ideas to improve the public
sector
 3rd minnowbrook conference 2008

• to respond to the new demands of global

human concern.
• Global concerns like terrorism, environment
• Public interest reinforced
• Integration of information technology
• highlighted the importance of being ‘multi-
disciplinary’ in order to understand the
complexities in public administration
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION
• Public administration is governmental
administration concerned with achieving state
purposes.
• Private administration relates to
administration of private/business
organizations which are more concerned with
the achieving of its own purposes.
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PUBLIC AND
PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION
1. Political direction 7. Nature of functions
2. profit motive 8. Efficiency
3. Legal framework 9. Monopolistic and
4. Uniformity of competition
treatment 10. Social prestige
5. Public accountability 11. Social consequence
6. Service and cost 12. Public relations
 SIMILIRATIES BETWEEN PUBLIC AND
PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION
• Both public and business administrators rely
on common techniques relating to planning,
organizing, budgeting, control, coordinating
and like. Both make use of common skills such
as accounts-keeping and maintaining files.
• Hierarchy
• Rules and regulations
• Service