IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION - Different perspectives

In my previous blog, I have uploaded about IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION - The Practical Concerns. Now we are going to study importance of Public Administration in various perspectives and concerns such as social science perspective, third world perspective, Liberal studies for citizens etc. Lastly, we will look into the Contributions of Public Administration.

A SOCIAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVE

We studied Public Administration as a pragmatic and problem solving discipline( Refer - Importance of Public Administration - The Practical Concerns). Now, we will study the Public Administration as a social science. The importance of public Administration as social science lies in its methodical study of government and in attempts to organize knowledge about governmental structure and operations - in providing scientific explanations(rather than merely solving public problems). In this perspective Administration is seen as a social activity and as academic inquiry to understand the impact of government policies and operations on the society, such as: 

• What kind of society do the policies envisage? 
• To what extent administrative action is 'class' oriented. In other words, how is Public  Administration and what are the immediate and long term effects of governmental action on the social structure, the economy and polity? 

The social science perspective,as a discipline, it borrows from various social science disciplines such as History, Sociology, Economics, etc., in order to "explain" and not just to "prescribe" various governmental organizations and operations.

THE THIRD WORLD PERSPECTIVE

There is a special status for Public Administration in the "Developing World" which aspires for speedy socio-economic development.  These countries heavily rely on the government's initiatives for speedy 'development' which demands an organized and highly responsive Public Administration. 

Government Schemes like MNREGA(rural guaranteed employment generation, in India)  needs to be implemented effectively in order to reduce the poverty.

Such government-sponsored planned development activities or schemes have initiated a new sub-discipline- "Development Administration". The emergence of 'Development Administration' shows the need to study the third world administration and to bring about speedy socio-economic development with government intervention. In countries there are heavy reliance on government's intervention in nation-building and socio-economic reconstruction. Thus Development Administration is a distinct branch of Public Administration, sewing a distinct cause, viz. development.

LIBERAL STUDIES FOR CITIZENSHIP

In a democratic countries, citizens must have the first hand knowledge about government organizations and its activities. As a discipline, Public Administration does contribute to creative citizenship. Governmental literacy is a sine-qua-non of good - citizenship. As a discipline public Administration has ample scope to educate the common citizens about the machinery and procedure of-work in the government. 

CONTRIBUTIONS OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

AS discussed, as government expands its reaches, it has encouraged multi-facet inquiries into governmental activities. Since government touches on almost every conceivable ‘aspect of live in a democratic society, the citizens must have access to information about government and about its organization and pressed into social regulation and citizens' welfare.

RTI-Right to Information Act in India is a classic example of enabling its citizen towards a transparent administration.

The importance of a well-developed discipline of Public Administration lies in its five kinds of major contributions to organized social life :

• Epistemological- (Theory of Knowledge) It is the discipline's capacity to build up a rigorous systematic and scientific body of knowledge about governmental structure and operations. Public Administration - is a study of the government in action in all its aspects, so, it has been striving to collect reliable information and data, analyse administrative structures and operations, and build explanatory theories for enhancing knowledge about administrative practices.

• Technical- It is derived from the Epistemology(discussed above) of the discipline. Since the days of the pioneers like Woodrow Wilson, it has been the endeavor of Public Administration specialists to apply knowledge to actual-public problem solving. With reliable theoretical equipment and on the basis of "clinical" studies of administration situation, the technical consulting capacity of the experts in the discipline has increased considerably. Advising government and solving practical problems in administration are legitimate expectations from Public Administration analysts. 

• Ombudsmanic- The third type of contribution of the discipline can came out of investigative studies of critical sectors of administration. Case studies on citizens' grievances, administrative red tape, corruption, etc. may be widely circulated to familiarize the general public, the press and the legislature about the actual goings-on inside the bureaucracy. By disseminating, knowledge and information, the experts in Public Administration can play a socially useful role akin to the ombudsman institution as established in many countries.

• Liberal Educational- Public Administration as a discipline has the fourth important responsibility to create enlightened citizenship. In a democracy, knowledge of how the government and the administration functions must be universally disseminated. This is what can be called governmental-administrative literacy. Public Administration is the only social science, discipline that, can perform this role of a universal educator of "government and administration" for all the citizens.

• Professional- Public Administration has also served the cause of vocational-ism. The discipline has been greatly useful in training civil servants and equipping students to join the professional stream of practicing administrators. Institutes and schools of Public Administration, Public Affairs and Public Policy Analysis are engaged in the organization of professional courses,

SUMMARY

Today, increasing burden of public duties on government makes us to expect that the days of laissez-faire would return again, a mere daydreaming.  'Development Administration' as a sub-discipline would play a major role in the 'developing' or 'third world' countries, to systematize knowledge about 'development' as well as to facilitate successful and effective governmental intervention in radical socioeconomic 'reconstruction.

In subsequent post and chapters I will explain such terms like Laissez-Faire,Development Administration etc. So, Guys, keep visiting and improve your knowledge and get benefit of my blog.