Public Administration: Meaning, Principles and Functions

Public administration is the part of government that turns laws and policies into real action for citizens. Every tax collected, road built, school run and licence issued passes through it. This note explains what public administration means, how it began as a subject, the classic principles of organisation, the main types of agencies and the functions it performs in a developing federal country like Nepal.

1. Meaning and scope of public administration

In simple words, public administration is the organisation and management of people and resources to carry out the policies and laws of the government. “Administration” means managing affairs to reach a goal; the word “public” shows that the goal is the welfare of the people and that the work is done by or for the state.

Two broad views explain its meaning:

• Narrow (managerial) view: only the work of the executive branch, and only the managerial work of officials, such as planning, directing and controlling.
• Broad (integral) view: all activities done to fulfil public purposes, including manual, clerical, technical and managerial work, and sometimes the administrative side of the legislature and judiciary.

The scope of public administration is usually described in two ways:

1. POSDCORB view: public administration is about the common managerial tasks of any executive (explained in section 3).
2. Subject-matter view: public administration is about the actual services the state gives, such as education, health, defence, agriculture and foreign affairs.

2. Origin of the discipline and public versus private administration

Public administration as a separate academic subject is usually traced to Woodrow Wilson, who later became President of the United States. In 1887 he published an essay called “The Study of Administration” in the journal Political Science Quarterly. He argued that administration should be studied as a science of its own, that it is the practical execution of public law, and that it should be kept apart from party politics. This idea is called the politics-administration dichotomy. For this reason Wilson is often called the father of public administration as a discipline.

Public and private administration share many tools, such as planning, budgeting and staffing, but they differ in important ways:

3. POSDCORB

Luther Gulick, an American expert in administration, coined the word POSDCORB in 1937 in his paper “Notes on the Theory of Organization”, published in the book Papers on the Science of Administration, which he edited with Lyndall Urwick. Each letter stands for one function of a chief executive:

POSDCORB is useful as a checklist, but critics say it covers only managerial tools and ignores the subject matter of each service.

4. Principles of organisation

Classical writers put forward several principles to make an organisation work smoothly.

• Hierarchy (scalar principle): authority flows step by step from the top to the bottom like a ladder. Orders go down and reports go up through proper channels.
• Unity of command: each employee should receive orders from only one superior. This avoids confusion and conflicting instructions.
• Span of control: the number of subordinates one superior can supervise effectively. It is narrow when the work is complex and wider when the work is routine and similar.
• Delegation: a superior passes part of his or her authority to a subordinate to get work done. Authority can be delegated, but the superior still remains ultimately responsible.
• Coordination: bringing different units and activities together so that they work in harmony towards a common goal, without overlap or gaps.
• Centralisation and decentralisation: in centralisation, decision-making power stays at the top or at the centre. In decentralisation, power is shared with lower levels or local bodies so that decisions are made close to the people. Deconcentration is a mild form in which only work is shifted to field offices of the centre, while devolution transfers real power to elected local governments.

5. Max Weber’s bureaucracy

Max Weber, a German sociologist, gave the classic theory of bureaucracy as an ideal type, meaning a pure model, not a description of any real office. He linked it with legal-rational authority, in which people obey rules and offices, not persons. He compared it with traditional authority (based on custom) and charismatic authority (based on the special qualities of a leader).

Main features of Weberian bureaucracy:

• A clear hierarchy of offices;
• Division of work with fixed duties for each office;
• Work done according to written rules and procedures;
• Impersonality, so that officials treat everyone alike without personal feelings;
• Selection and promotion on the basis of merit and qualifications;
• Full-time career service with a fixed salary;
• Official work kept on written records (files);
• Separation of official property and position from private life.

Critics say bureaucracy can lead to red tape, rigidity and slow decisions, but its stress on rules and merit is still the base of civil services, including Nepal’s.

6. Line, staff and auxiliary agencies

A simple way to remember: line agencies do, staff agencies think and advise, and auxiliary agencies support.

7. Functions of public administration in Nepal

In a developing country like Nepal, public administration has a wider role than just keeping order.

1. Maintaining law and order: protecting life and property, controlling crime and keeping peace, which is the oldest function of the state.
2. Policy implementation: turning the decisions of the legislature and the government into programmes and action.
3. Service delivery: providing everyday services like citizenship, passports, health, education, drinking water and registration.
4. Development administration: planning and carrying out roads, irrigation, electricity and poverty reduction programmes, so that administration becomes an agent of change.
5. Other functions: collecting revenue, protecting poor and marginalised people, and giving expert advice to political leaders.

8. New Public Management

New Public Management (NPM) is a reform idea that grew in the 1980s and 1990s in countries such as Britain and New Zealand. The British scholar Christopher Hood gave the name wide use in his 1991 article “A Public Management for All Seasons?”. NPM tries to make government work more like a well-run business.

Its general features are:

• Focus on results and performance, not only on rules;
• Treating citizens as customers of services;
• Competition, contracting out and use of the private sector;
• Managerial freedom for officials together with performance targets;
• Smaller, cost-effective government and value for money.

9. Federal structure of administration in Nepal

The Constitution of Nepal 2072 created a federal system with three levels of government: federal, provincial and local. Each level has its own elected government and its own administration.

• Federal level: ministries, departments and the federal civil service handle national subjects such as defence, foreign affairs and national policy.
• Provincial level: each province has its own ministries and offices for provincial subjects.
• Local level: rural municipalities and municipalities provide services closest to the people, such as basic schools, local roads and registration of vital events.

The three levels are meant to work on the basis of cooperation, coexistence and coordination. This structure is an example of devolution, because real power is shared with elected provincial and local governments.