PRIVATE AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES

COMPARE AND CONTRAST PUBLIC AND PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION
Public administration is the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work. Public administration
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Public administration is both an academic discipline and a field of practice; the latter is depicted in this picture of US federal public servants at a meeting.
Public administration is the implementation of government policy and an academic discipline that studies this implementation and that prepares civil servants for this work.[1] As a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope" its "fundamental goal...is to advance management and policies so that government can function." [2] Some of the various definitions which have been offered for the term are: "the management of public programs";[3] the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day";[4] and "the study of government decision making, the analysis of the policies themselves, the various inputs that have produced them, and the inputs necessary to produce alternative policies." [5]
Public administration is "centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behavior of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct" [6] Many unelected public servants can be considered to be public administrators, including police officers, municipal budget analysts, HR benefits administrators, city managers, Census analysts, and cabinet secretaries.[citation needed] Public administrators are public servants working in public departments and agencies, at all levels of government.[7]
In the US, civil servants and academics such as Woodrow Wilson promoted American civil service reform in the 1880s, moving public administration into academia.[8] However, "until the mid-20th century and the dissemination of the German sociologist Max Weber's theory of bureaucracy" there was not "much interest in a theory of public administration." [9] The field is multidisciplinary in character; one of the various proposals for public administration's sub-fields sets out five pillars, including human resources, organizational theory, policy analysis and statistics, budgeting, and ethics.[10]
Contents
[hide]
• 1 Definitions
• 2 History
o 2.1 Antiquity to the 19th century
o 2.2 US in the 1940s
 2.2.1 Post-World War II to the 1970s
o 2.3 1980s-1990s
o 2.4 Late 1990s-2000s
• 3 Core branches
• 4 Decision-making models
o 4.1 Niskanen's budget-maximizing
o 4.2 Dunleavy's bureau-shaping
• 5 As an academic field
o 5.1 Comparative public administration
o 5.2 Master's degrees
o 5.3 Doctoral degrees
o 5.4 Notable scholars
• 6 International public administration
• 7 See also
o 7.1 Societies for public administration
• 8 References
• 9 External links
• 10 Suggested reading

[edit] Definitions


Even in the digital age, public servants tend to work with both paper documents and computer files (pictured here is Stephen C. Dunn, Deputy Comptroller for the US Navy)
One scholar claims that "public administration has no generally accepted definition", because the "scope of the subject is so great and so debatable that it is easier to explain than define".[11] Public administration is a field of study (i.e., a discipline) and an occupation. There is much disagreement about whether the study of public administration can properly be called a discipline, largely because of the debate over whether public administration is a subfield of political science of a subfield of administrative science".[12] Scholar Donald Kettl is among those who view public administration "as a subfield within political science".[13]
The North American Industry Classification System definition of the Public Administration (NAICS 91) sector states that public administration "... comprises establishments primarily engaged in activities of a governmental nature, that is, the enactment and judicial interpretation of laws and their pursuant regulations, and the administration of programs based on them". This includes "Legislative activities, taxation, national defence, public order and safety, immigration services, foreign affairs and international assistance, and the administration of government programs are activities that are purely governmental in nature".[14]
[edit] History
[edit] Antiquity to the 19th century
Dating back to Antiquity, Pharaohs, kings and emperors have required pages, treasurers, and tax collectors to administer the practical business of government. Prior to the 19th century, staffing of most public administrations was rife with nepotism, favoritism, and political patronage, which was often referred to as a "spoils system". Public administrators have been the "eyes and ears" of rulers until relatively recently. In medieval times, the abilities to read and write, add and subtract were as dominated by the educated elite as public employment. Consequently, the need for expert civil servants whose ability to read and write formed the basis for developing expertise in such necessary activities as legal record-keeping, paying and feeding armies and levying taxes. As the European Imperialist age progressed and the militarily powers extended their hold over other continents and people, the need for a sophisticated public administration grew.
The eighteenth-century noble, King Frederick William I of Prussia, created professorates in Cameralism in an effort to train a new class of public administrators. The universities of Frankfurt an der Oder and University of Hallewere Prussian institutions emphasizing economic and social disciplines, with the goal of societal reform. Johann Heinrich Gottlob Justi was the most well-known professor of Cameralism. Thus, from a Western European perspective, Classic, Medieval, and Enlightenment-era scholars formed the foundation of the discipline that has come to be called public administration.
Lorenz von Stein, an 1855 German professor from Vienna, is considered the founder of the science of public administration in many parts of the world. In the time of Von Stein, public administration was considered a form of administrative law, but Von Stein believed this concept too restrictive. Von Stein taught that public administration relies on many prestablished disciplines such as sociology, political science, administrative law and public finance. He called public administration an integrating science, and stated that public administrators should be concerned with both theory and practice. He argued that public administration is a science because knowledge is generated and evaluated according to the scientific method.
Modern American public administration is an extension of democratic governance, justified by classic and liberal philosophers of the western world ranging from Aristotle to John Locke[15] to Thomas Jefferson[16][17]


Woodrow Wilson‎
In the United States of America, Woodrow Wilson is considered the father of public administration. He first formally recognized public administration in an 1887 article entitled "The Study of Administration." The future president wrote that "it is the object of administrative study to discover, first, what government can properly and successfully do, and, secondly, how it can do these proper things with the utmost possible efficiency and at the least possible cost either of money or of energy."[18] Wilson was more influential to the science of public administration than Von Stein, primarily due to an article Wilson wrote in 1887 in which he advocated four concepts:
• Separation of politics and administration
• Comparative analysis of political and private organizations
• Improving efficiency with business-like practices and attitudes toward daily operations
• Improving the effectiveness of public service through management and by training civil servants, merit-based assessment
The separation of politics and administration has been the subject of lasting debate. The different perspectives regarding this dichotomy contribute to differentiating characteristics of the suggested generations of public administration.
[edit] US in the 1940s
The separation of politics and administration advocated by Wilson continues to play a significant role in public administration today. However, the dominance of this dichotomy was challenged by second generation scholars, beginning in the 1940s. Luther Gulick's fact-value dichotomy was a key contender for Wilson's proposed politics-administration dichotomy. In place of Wilson's first generation split, Gulick advocated a "seamless web of discretion and interaction".[19]


Luther Gulick (1892–1993) was an expert on public administration.
Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick are two second-generation scholars. Gulick, Urwick, and the new generation of administrators built on the work of contemporary behavioral, administrative, and organizational scholars including Henri Fayol, Fredrick Winslow Taylor, Paul Appleby, Frank Goodnow, and Willam Willoughby. The new generation of organizational theories no longer relied upon logical assumptions and generalizations about human nature like classical and enlightened theorists.
Gulick developed a comprehensive, generic theory of organization that emphasized the scientific method, efficiency, professionalism, structural reform, and executive control. Gulick summarized the duties of administrators with an acronym; POSDCORB, which stands for planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting. Fayol developed a systematic, 14-point, treatment of private management. Second-generation theorists drew upon private management practices for administrative sciences. A single, generic management theory bleeding the borders between the private and the public sector was thought to be possible. With the general theory, the administrative theory could be focused on governmental organizations.
[edit] Post-World War II to the 1970s
The mid-1940s theorists challenged Wilson and Gulick. The politics-administration dichotomy remained the center of criticism. In the 1960s and 1970s, government itself came under fire as ineffective, inefficient, and largely a wasted effort. The costly American intervention in Vietnam along with domestic scandals including the bugging of Democratic party headquarters (the 1974 Watergate scandal) are two examples of self-destructive government behavior that alienated citizens.


The costly Vietnam War alienated US citizens from their government (pictured is Operation Linebacker II, a US bombing operation in December 1972)
There was a call by citizens for efficient administration to replace ineffective, wasteful bureaucracy. Public administration would have to distance itself from politics to answer this call and remain effective. Elected officials supported these reforms. The Hoover Commission, chaired by University of Chicago professor Louis Brownlow, to examine reorganization of government. Brownlow subsequently founded the Public Administration Service (PAS) at the university, an organization which has provided consulting services to all levels of government until the 1970s.[citation needed]
[edit] 1980s-1990s
In the late 1980s, yet another generation of public administration theorists began to displace the last. The new theory, which came to be called New Public Management, was proposed by David Osborne and Ted Gaebler in their book Reinventing Government.[20] The new model advocated the use of private sector-style models, organizational ideas and values to improve the efficiency and service-orientation of the public sector. During the Clinton Administration (1992–2000), Vice President Al Gore adopted and reformed federal agencies using NPM approaches. In the 1990s, new public management became prevalent throughout the bureaucracies of the US, the UK and, to a lesser extent, in Canada.
Some modern authors define NPM as a combination of splitting large bureaucracies into smaller, more fragmented agencies, encouraging competition between different public agencies, and encouraging competition between public agencies and private firms and using economic incentives lines (e.g., performance pay for senior executives or user-pay models).[21] NPM treats individuals as "customers" or "clients" (in the private sector sense), rather than as citizens.[22]
Some critics argue that the New Public Management concept of treating people as "customers" rather than "citizens" is an inappropriate borrowing from the private sector model, because businesses see customers are a means to an end (profit), rather than as the proprietors of government (the owners), opposed to merely the customers of a business (the patrons). In New Public Management, people are viewed as economic units not democratic participants. Nevertheless, the model is still widely accepted at all levels of government and in many OECD nations.
[edit] Late 1990s-2000s
In the late 1990s, Janet and Robert Denhardt proposed a new public service model in response to the dominance of NPM.[23] A successor to NPM is digital era governance, focusing on themes of reintegrating government responsibilities, needs-based holism (executing duties in cursive ways), and digitalization (exploiting the transformational capabilities of modern IT and digital storage).One example of this is openforum.com.au, an Australian non-for-profit eDemocracy project which invites politicians, senior public servants, academics, business people and other key stakeholders to engage in high-level policy debate.
Another new public service model is what has been called New Public Governance, an approach which includes a centralization of power; an increased number, role and influence of partisan-political staff; personal-politicization of appointments to the senior public service; and, the assumption that the public service is promiscuously partisan for the government of the day [24]
[edit] Core branches
In academia, the fields of public administration, consists of a number of sub-fields. Scholars have proposed a number of different sets of sub-fields. One of the proposed models uses five "pillars":[25]
• Human resource management is an in-house structure that ensures that public service staffing is done in an unbiased, ethical and values-based manner. The basic functions of the HR system are employee benefits, employee health care, compensation, etc.
• Organizational Theory in Public Administration is the study of the structure of governmental entities and the many particulars inculcated in them.
• Ethics in public administration serves as a normative approach to decision making.
• Policy analysis serves as an empirical approach to decision making.
• Public budgeting is the activity within a government that seeks to allocate scarce resources among unlimited demands.
[edit] Decision-making models

This section does not cite any references or sources.
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Given the array of duties public administrators find themselves performing, the professional administrator might refer to a theoretical framework from which he or she might work. Indeed, many public and private administrative scholars have devised and modified decision-making models.
[edit] Niskanen's budget-maximizing
In 1971, Professor William Niskanen proposed a rational choice variation which he called the "budget-maximizing model". He claimed that rational bureaucrats will universally seek to increase the budgets of their units (to enhance their stature), thereby contributing to state growth and increased public expenditure. Niskanen served on President Reagan's Council of Economic Advisors; his model underpinned what has been touted as curtailed public spending and increased privatization. However, budgeted expenditures and the growing deficit during the Reagan administration is evidence of a different reality. A range of pluralist authors have critiqued Niskanen's universalist approach. These scholars have argued that officials tend also to be motivated by considerations of the public interest.
[edit] Dunleavy's bureau-shaping
The bureau-shaping model, a modification of Niskanen, holds that rational bureaucrats only maximize the part of their budget that they spend on their own agency's operations or give to contractors and interest groups. Groups that are able to organize a "flowback" of benefits to senior officials would, according to this theory, receive increased budgetary attention. For instance, rational officials will get no benefit from paying out larger welfare checks to millions of low-income citizens because this does not serve a bureaucrats' goals. Accordingly, one might instead expect a jurisdiction to seek budget increases for defense and security purposes in place of domestic social programming. If we refer back to Reagan once again, Dunleavy's bureau shaping model accounts for the alleged decrease in the "size" of government while spending did not, in fact, decrease. Domestic entitlement programming was financially de-emphasized for military research and personnel.
[edit] As an academic field
See also: Master of Public Administration and Doctor of Public Administration
In the United States, the academic field of public administration draws heavily on political science and administrative law. Some MPA programs include economics courses to give students a background in microeconomic issues (markets, rationing mechanisms, etc) and macroeconomic issues (e.g., national debt). Scholars such as John A. Rohr write of a long history behind the constitutional legitimacy of government bureaucracy. In Europe (notably in Britain and Germany), the divergence of the field from other disciplines can be traced to the 1720s continental university curriculum. Formally, official academic distinctions were made in the 1910s and 1890s, respectively.
The goals of the field of public administration are related to the democratic values of improving equality, justice, security, efficiency, effectiveness of public services usually in a non-profit, non-taxable venue; business administration, on the other hand, is primarily concerned with taxable profit. For a field built on concepts (accountability, governance, decentralization, clientele), these concepts are often ill-defined and typologies often ignore certain aspects of these concepts (Dubois & Fattore 2009).[26]
One minor tradition that the more specific term "public management" refers to ordinary, routine or typical management concerns, in the context of achieving public good. Others argue that "public management" refers to a newer, market-driven perspective on the operation of government. This latter view is often called "new public management" by its advocates. New Public Management represents a reform attempt, aimed at reemphasizing the professional nature of the field[citation needed]. This will replace the academic, moral or disciplinary emphasis. Some theorists advocate a bright line differentiation of the professional field from related academic disciplines like political science and sociology; it remains interdisciplinary in nature.
One public administration scholar, Donald Kettl, argues that "...public administration sits in a disciplinary backwater", because "...[f]or the last generation, scholars have sought to save or replace it with fields of study like implementation, public management, and formal bureaucratic theory".[27] Kettl states that "public administration, as a subfield within political science...is struggling to define its role within the discipline".[28] He notes two problems with public administration: it "has seemed methodologically to lag behind" and "the field’s theoretical work too often seems not to define it"-indeed, "some of the most interesting recent ideas in public administration have come from outside the field".[29]
Public administration theory is the domain in which discussions of the meaning and purpose of government, the role of bureaucracy in supporting democratic governments, budgets, governance, and public affairs takes place. In recent years, public administration theory has periodically connoted a heavy orientation toward critical theory and postmodern philosophical notions of government, governance, and power. However, many public administration scholars support a classic definition of the term emphasizing constitutionality, public service, bureaucratic forms of organization, and hierarchical government.
[edit] Comparative public administration
Comparative public administration is defined as the study of administrative systems in a comparative fashion or the study of public administration in other countries.[30] Another definition for "comparative public administration" is the "quest for patterns and regularities in administrative action and behavior".[31] There have been several issues which have hampered the development of comparative public administration, including: the major differences between Western countries and developing countries; the lack of curriculum on this subfield in public administration programs; and the lack of success in developing theoretical models which can be scientifically tested.[32]
Comparative public administration studies can compare different types of states at the same time, such as religious states vs. secular states or authoritarian states vs. democratic states. Even though public administration systems vary a great deal, there are some common elements which they all share which can be compared, such as the recruitment of bureaucrats and common programs which all governments have (e.g., a taxation regime) and common roles (e.g., rule-making).[33]
[edit] Master's degrees


The Knapp-Sanders Building, the home of the School of Government at the University of North Carolina.
As a field, public administration can be compared to business administration, and the master of public administration (MPA) viewed as similar to a master of business administration (MBA) for those wishing to pursue governmental or non-profit careers. An MPA often emphasizes substantially different ethical and sociological criteria that are traditionally secondary to that of profit for business administrators. The MPA is related to similar graduate level government studies including MA programs in public affairs, public policy, and political science. Differences often include program emphases on policy analysis techniques or other topical focuses such as the study of international affairs as opposed to focuses on constitutional issues such as separation of powers, administrative law, problems of governance and power, and participatory democracy.
[edit] Doctoral degrees
There are two types of doctoral degrees in public administration: the Doctor of Public Administration and the Ph.D. in Public Administration. The Doctor of Public Administration (DPA) is an applied-research doctoral degree in the field of public administration, focusing on practice. The DPA requires a dissertation and significant coursework beyond the Masters level. Upon successful completion of the doctoral requirements, the title of "Doctor" is awarded and the post-nominals of D.P.A. are often added. Some universities use the Ph.D. as their doctoral degree in public administration (e.g., Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada).
[edit] Notable scholars
Notable scholars of public administration have come from a range of fields. In the period before public administration existed as its own independent discipline, scholars contributing to the field came from economics, sociology, management, political science, administrative law, and, other related fields. More recently, scholars from public administration and public policy have contributed important studies and theories. For a longer list of academics and theorists, see the List of notable public administration scholars article.
[edit] International public administration
There are several organizations that are active. The oldest is the International Association of Schools and Institutes of Administration (IASIA). Based in Brussels, Belgium, IASIA is an association of organizations and individuals whose activities and interests focus on public administration and management. The activities of its members include education and training of administrators and managers. It is the only worldwide scholarly association in the field of public management.[34] Also the International Committee of the US-based National Association of School of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) has developed a number of relationships around the world. They include sub regional and National forums like CLAD, INPAE and NISPAcee, APSA, ASPA.[35]
The Center for Latin American Administration for Development (CLAD), based in Caracas, Venezuela, this regional network of schools of public administration set up by the governments in Latin America is the oldest in the region.[36] The Institute is a founding member and played a central role in organizing the Inter-American Network of Public Administration Education (INPAE). Created in 2000, this regional network of schools is unique in that it is the only organization to be composed of institutions from North and Latin America and the Caribbean working in public administration and policy analysis. It has more than 49 members from top research schools in various countries throughout the hemisphere.[37]
NISPAcee is a network of experts, scholars and practitioners who work in the field of public administration in Central and Eastern Europe, including the Russian Federation and the Caucasus and Central Asia.[38] The US public administration and political science associations like NASPA, American Political Science Association (APSA)[39] and American Society of Public Administration (ASPA).[40] These organizations have helped to create the fundamental establishment of modern public administration.
[edit] See also

Book:Public administration

Books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.
• Administration (government)
• Administrative law
• Budgeting
• Bureaucracy
• Civil society
• Doctor of Public Administration
• Municipal government
• Politics
• Professional administration
• Public management — focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness of a government
• Public administration theory
• Public policy
• Public policy schools
• Theories of administration
o Max Weber
[edit] Societies for public administration
• American Society for Public Administration
• Chinese Public Administration Society
• Institute for Public Administration in Canada
• Dutch Association for Public Administration
• Royal Institute for Public Administration
• Korea Institute of Public Administration
[edit] References

Constructs such as ibid. and loc. cit. are discouraged by Wikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Please improve this article by replacing them with named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title.

1. ^ Random House Unabridged Dictionary
2. ^ Handbook of Public Administration. Eds Jack Rabin, W. Bartley Hildreth, and Gerard J. Miller. 1989: Marcel Dekker, NY. p. iii
3. ^ Robert and Janet Denhardt. Public Administration: An Action Orientation. 6th Ed. 2009: Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont CA.
4. ^ Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. The Politics of the Administrative Process. Washington D.C.: CQ Press.
5. ^ Jerome B. McKinney and Lawrence C. Howard. Public Administration: Balancing Power and Accountability. 2nd Ed. 1998: Praeger Publishing, Westport, CT. p. 62
6. ^ UN Economic and Social Council. Committee of Experts on Public Administration. Definition of basic concepts and terminologies in governance and public administration. 2006
7. ^ Ibid
8. ^ Wilson, Woodrow. June, 1887. The Study of Administration, Political Science Quarterly 2.
9. ^ Public administration. (2010) In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved August 18, 2010, from Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.
10. ^ Shafritz, J.M., A.C. Hyde. 2007. Classics of Public Administration. Wadsworth: Boston.
11. ^ Kernaghan, Kenneth. "Public administration" in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Available online at: http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0006540Accessed August 20, 2010.
12. ^ Kernaghan, Kenneth. "Public administration" in The Canadian Encyclopedia. Available online at: http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0006540Accessed August 20, 2010.
13. ^ THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION by Donald F. Kettl. Available online at: http://www.h-net.org/~pubadmin/tfreport/kettl.pdf Accessed on October 25, 2010.
14. ^ Definition Public Administration (NAICS 91). Available online at: http://www.ic.gc.ca/cis-sic/cis-sic.nsf/IDE/cis-sic91defe.html Accessed October 25, 2010
15. ^ Second Treatise on Government
16. ^ Declaration of Independence
17. ^ Ryan, M., Mejia, B., and Georgiev, M. (Ed). 2010. AM Gov 2010. McGraw Hill: New York.
18. ^ Wilson, W. 1887.
19. ^ Fry, Brian R. 1989. Mastering Public Administration; from Max Weber to Dwight Waldo. Chatham, New Jersey: Chatham House Publishers, Inc. page 80
20. ^ Public Administration Review, Vol. 56, No. 3 (May – Jun., 1996), pp. 247–255
21. ^ Patrick Dunleavy, Helen Margetts et al, 'New public management is dead: Long live digital era governance',Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, (July 2006).
22. ^ Diane Stone, (2008) 'Global Public Policy, Transnational Policy Communities and their Networks,' Journal of Policy Sciences.
23. ^ Denhardt , Robert B. and Janet Vinzant Denhardt (2000). "The New Public Service: Serving Rather than Steering." Public Administration Review 60(6)
24. ^ Aucoin, Peter (2008). New Public Management and the Quality of Government: Coping with the New Political Governance in Canada, Conference on "New Public Management and the Quality of Government", SOG and the Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, 13–15 November 2008, p.14.
25. ^ Shafritz and Hyde. 2009.
26. ^ Dubois, Hans F. W.; Fattore, Giovanni (2009). International Journal of Public Administration. 32. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. pp. 704–727. doi:10.1080/01900690902908760. "The field of public administration knows many concepts. By focusing on one such concept, this research shows how definitions can be deceptive..."
27. ^ THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION by Donald F. Kettl. Available online at: http://www.h-net.org/~pubadmin/tfreport/kettl.pdf Accessed on October 25, 2010.
28. ^ THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION by Donald F. Kettl. Available online at: http://www.h-net.org/~pubadmin/tfreport/kettl.pdf Accessed on October 25, 2010.
29. ^ THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION by Donald F. Kettl. Available online at: http://www.h-net.org/~pubadmin/tfreport/kettl.pdf Accessed on October 25, 2010.
30. ^ Haroon A. Khan. Introduction to Public Administration. University Press of America, 2008. P. 33
31. ^ Haroon A. Khan. Introduction to Public Administration. University Press of America, 2008. p. 33
32. ^ Haroon A. Khan. Introduction to Public Administration. University Press of America, 2008 p. 34
33. ^ www.powershow.com/view/.../Comparative_Public_Administratio
34. ^ www.iiasiisa.be/schools/aeacc.htm
35. ^ http://www.GlobalMPA.net
36. ^ http://www.clad.org.ve
37. ^ http://www.ebape.fgv.br/inpae
38. ^ http://www.nispa.sk/_portal/homepage.php
39. ^ http://www.apsanet.org
40. ^ http://www.aspanet.org
Dubois, H.F.W. & Fattore, G. (2009), 'Definitions and typologies in public administration research: the case of decentralization', International Journal of Public Administration, 32(8): pp. 704–727.
[edit] External links
• Gov Monitor: A public administration, policy and public sector website
• Public Administration Theory Network (PAT-Net) : This is an international network of professionals concerned with the advancement of public administration theory.
• United Nations Public Administration Network (UNPAN): A body which aims to establish an Internet-based network that links regional and national institutions devoted to public administration.
[edit] Suggested reading
• Smith, Kevin B. and Licari, Michael J. Public Administration — Power and Politics in the Fourth Branch of Government, ISBN 1-933220-04-X
• White,Jay D. and Guy B. Adams. Research in public administration: reflections on theory and practice‎.1994.
[hide]
v • d • e
Civil Service in the Executive Branch of Government


Concepts Government agency • Bureaucracy • Bureaucrat • Public administration • Public services • Public policy • Public sector


Terminology Undersecretary • Commissioner • Diplomatic service


International
civil services Australia • Bangladesh • Brazil • Canada • China • European Union • France • Germany (Beamter) • Hong Kong • India • Ireland • Italy • Japan • Malaysia • New Zealand • Nigeria • Northern Ireland • Pakistan • Singapore • Sri Lanka • United Kingdom • United States


Categories Government occupations • Civil service by country


See also: Civil service reform in developing countries • Imperial examination (Ancient China)


Categories: Public administration | Social sciences | Public policy | Subfields of political science | Management science | Management education
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PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION VS. PRIVATE ADMINISTRATION
The overall objective of this research paper is to compare and contrast public administration versus private administration, as well as their similarities and differences. To begin with, I should like to proffer a definition of both private administration and public administration. To a larger extent, it is the belief of this author that there are more similarities than differences when considering private administration versus public administration. At the same time, I will attempt to identify these largely in terms of their similarities and differences. Public administration may apply to a broad variety of services. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, public administration is defined as the body of persons that constitutes the governing authority of a political unit or organization; the officials comprising the governing body of a political unit and constituting the organization as an active agency; and finally, a small group of persons holding simultaneously the principle political objective offices of a nation or other political unit and being responsible for the direction and supervision of public affairs. The Me..
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Most authors differentiate public administration and private administration by educational institutions (public schools vs. private schools). Although it's a good example to provide a comprehensive analysis between the two sectors, I found it not the quintessence for a comparative analysis. Historically, in our country, public schools have a much higher quality education than private schools, and studying economics and public administration, it is not just the nature of bureaucracies, nor the scope of public administration that the case today was reversed. While some authors identified over a dozen factors that differentiates public to private administration, Denhardt only speaks of the three fundamental differences between the two. In this paper, I would elaborate Denhardt's three points since, together with economist Boadway's Difference between Public and Private Sector, I found these as the most undisputable and concrete comparisons.
The most apparent difference between the two sectors is their organizing principles or goal. (Denhardt) While private administration has a definite mission, which is the pursuit of profit or stability or growth of revenues, public administration, on the other hand, has ambiguous purposes. Furthermore, the dilemma in ambiguity of purposes is exacerbated by too many unnecessary and inoperable agencies, with purposes that overlap and bloated bureaucracies. One might say that the goal of public administration is to enact public policies, but the overlapping and the main ambiguity of most of these policies, and the vagueness of the enactment of these policies make public administration's purpose to be more ambiguous. Nevertheless, the fact that public institutions are not profit driven, should not lead us to believe that public sector employees and managers are not concerned about financial matters. As is the case with private companies, public sector units and organizations fight for funding and influence.
Another factor that makes the public sector different from the private is decision making. (Denhradt) In public administration, the decision must be and should be pluralistic. The founding fathers intentionally created a democratic republic where all key decisions are made in politicized environment. This allows for maximum participation: open debate, multiple veto points - a decision making hierarchy where consensus must be achieved at each level, ideally, an informed decision. While private administration's decision-making is much more simple- it's monopolistic or close to monopolistic. This type of decision-making would avoid any conflicts in interest; hence, the goal is clearly defined.
The visibility of public administrators is another notable difference between public and private sector. While a manager in a private business may work in relative obscurity, the public manager must operate in the public eye. His or her actions are constantly subjected to public scrutiny. (Denhardt) The publicness of the work of the public manager doesn't end in merely carrying out public policy, the public manager has to respond to the demands of the public. Denhardt speaks of the "inevitable tension" between efficiency and responsiveness, the pressure to manage effectively and to be simultaneously responsive to public concerns. This pressure often leaves public organizations in a "no-win" situation, trying to serve a public that demands effective government but balks at paying for it (taxes). The public also demands accountability in government, an assurance that those who formulate, implement and administer public programs will act responsibly.
One quality that makes public sector different from private is in the form of unit analysis. (Boadway) Apart from publicly owned-companies, most public institutions are part of a larger chain of command and control where it is harder to draw a line between the different parts of the system- and where legal frameworks provide little help in this. For instance: public agencies- like research councils or directorates of health- interact closely with ministries as well as subordinate institution and "users". The innovation activities in these institutions are heavily influenced by decisions made above and below the chain of commands. The closest parallel to private sector will be large conglomerates or multinational companies. The complex system of organizations with various (and to some extent conflicting) tasks, is one of the reasons for the inefficiency of public administration. Although, some authors in public administration, such Woodrow Wilson in The Study of Public Administration, where he reiterated that the evolution of public administration together with its complex system and increasing number of bureaucracies is to complement the population growth, but a population with sufficient number of agencies to manage them and with high marginal productivity for each public employee, is better than a bloated bureaucracy with little or zero marginal productivity, and worse, unnecessary and redundant purpose.
Lastly, although political aspect is both apparent in public and private sector, political aspect is more important in the public than in the private sector. Policy decisions normally affect companies directly and indirectly, through laws, regulations and financial support. The public sector is at least formally controlled by elected politicians. The intimate link between this governance dimension and funding of current expenses of the activities implies a very strong link between ownership and control on the one hand and the growth strategies of the subsidiary organizations.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cherry_Lyn_Beldia



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Public Vs. Private Administration Data
By MichelleS, eHow Contributor
updated: November 23, 2010
Public administration encompasses the individuals and processes that carry out laws, rules, and regulations that are issued by legislatures or other elected officials. Private administration refers to the individuals and processes that carry out the manufacturing, marketing, retailing, and providing of goods and services in exchange for payment. Public administration must handle data different from private administrations.
Federal Administration Data
1. The Freedom of Information Act states that federal government data is subject to full or partial disclosure, depending on the type of information and government agency. An individual may request in writing federal administration data and the public administration responsible for that data must provide it within 10 days. However, the data is off limits if it involves national security or personal information.
State and Local Administration Data
2. State and local government enact their own laws regarding public administration data. The main differences between federal, state, and local laws are the time in which the agency must provide data and fees charged.
Private Administration Data
3. The Freedom of Information Act does not apply to private administration data. Individuals do not have the right to obtain information about a private business or industry. Government agencies require private administrations to report certain data, such as earnings, employee demographics, time records, and other law requirements to the specific government entity. However, the public does not have access to that data.
References
• Freedom of Information Act
• Milakovich, Michael, E. and Gordon, George, J. (2004). Public Administration in America. Belmont, CA; Wadsworth/Thomson Learning
Resources
• The Open Government Guide
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