Question : “Globalisation has transformed the nature and character of State from traditional administrative Welfare State to a Corporate State.” Analyse the changes in the nature of public administration in this context.
(2015)
Answer : Globalization refers to intensified movement of factors of production and ideas across the globe. Though it has been present from ages but it in current parlance it refers to the rise and impact of neo right philosophies with the emphasis on roll back of state and adoption of market based practices in public services delivery.
This along with the failure of big states, maladministration due to lack of competition proper evaluation techniques in public sector has ....
Question : Waldo’s The Administrative State’ provides a fundamental challenge to some of the orthodox premises. Explain.
(2015)
Answer : Dwight waldo’s doctoral dissertation “The Administrative State” was a radical piece of writing which was way ahead of its times and hence ended up challenging the orthodox premises of Public Administration (PA). Waldo’s “Administrative State” was one of the pioneering work in the discipline of Public Administration.
It gave the discipline it’s ‘Public’ character and paved the way for introducing ‘vales’ in administration.
Waldo criticized the following premises of orthodox school of thought in Public Administration:
Challenge to ....
Question : Discuss how the Public Choice Theory promotes the concept of ‘Steering’ and undermines the concept of ‘Rowing’ in visualising efficient and effective administration.
(2015)
Answer : Osborne and Gaebler have suggested the idea of steering rather than rowing under their concept of a catalytic govt as a part of ‘Reinventing Govt’.
Steering denotes the idea of producing goods and services through private players by playing an indicative and facilitatory role instead of carrying out the functions directly and single-handedly.
Public choice theory believes in competition and envisages governance based on choice, Client orientation and deconstruction of state centrality. Rowing refers the Monopoly of ....
Question : “New Public Management and post-New Public Management reforms initiatives have affected the balance between managerial, political, administrative, legal, professional and social accountability.” Analyze.
(2014)
Answer : In 1990’s many new reforms took place like NPM, Public Choice Approach, Good Governance, Citizen Charter, RTI etc.
These reforms questioned accountability to what and accountability to whom, and thus affected the balance of accountability.
Managerial accountability: managerial accountability has been improved by the NPM and other new initiatives. Managers are accountable towards their organizational goals. Contract based service providing and termination of the same if not satisfied the rules remained the basic rules
Political accountability: relationship between ....
Question : What are the implications of the post-structuralist perspective on the discrete aspects of Public Administration, coming from its epistemological positions?
(2014)
Answer : Post structuralist objects the structuralist idea that in principle the world is completely comprehensible through analysis of system and structure. According to structuralist underlying all phenomena are deep structure that shape phenomena. And to understand these phenomena it is necessary to understand these structures.
Stuctralist includes the classical thinkers focus of the PA is to improve structure of the administration and thus improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the administration. Structuralist breaks the situation in different ....
Question : ‘In the globalized Public Administration, hierarchy creates more ethical problems than it solves’.... Comment
(2013)
Answer : Organizations are social inventions for accomplishing goals through group effort. They combine structure and relationship with technology and human beings. The coordination of human activities requires a structure wherein various individuals are fitted. The hierarchic structure acts as power centers which coordinate and control concerted efforts of the organization and direct them towards its goals. It is obvious that coordination among many diverse individuals is not possible without some means of controlling, guiding, and timing ....
Question : ‘New Public Administration may have neither been the savior its enthusiasts promised, nor the devil its critics worried it would be. Discuss.
(2013)
Answer : New Public Administration had a significant impact on the discipline and profession of public administration. An attempt was made to relate public administration with the prevailing socio-economic scenario and the dominant philosophical concerns of the times during Minnowbrook Conferences.
Minnowbrook I Conference, intended to redefine public administration at the then prevailing socio-political and economic scenario. The first Minnowbrook Conference challenged public administration to become proactive with regard to social issues. A key assertion is that NPA ....
Question : What is Administrative elitism? How does it evolve in Public Administration? Elaborate your response with reference to historical examples.
(2013)
Answer : The bureaucratic elite, deeply rooted in the colonial administrative culture, had an exaggerated view of themselves. They suffered from self-importance and arrogance. The achievement of freedom should have resulted in redesigning the whole bureaucratic system so as to make them fit to perform the new tasks. But the political elite hesitated to recast the system.
With the result the bureaucracy which was used by the colonial masters against the freedom fighters was the very game instrument ....
Question : How would you trace the development of Public Administration in terms of different paradigms from the politics/administration dichotomy of 1900-1926 to the rise of Public Administration as Public Administration after the formation of the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) in the USA in 1970?
(2012)
Answer : Public administration started to carve out its own space with Wilson’s seminal paper on the study of public administration. Hence started the phase of dichotomy to separate the content for the subject Public Administration from political science. How became more important than What.
Thinkers like Henry try to phase the development in sequential manner with dichotomy being followed by Principles era or Orthodox era which was then followed by Human relations school, Behavioural school, Management era, ....
Question : ‘On a more sophisticated plane public choice is concerned with “Pareto optimality”, or at least with “Pareto improvements”.’ Comment.
(2012)
Answer : Public Choice Theory supports limiting the role of state. It encourages the free market situation with conditions of complete equilibrium and perfect conditions.
Pareto efficient conditions mean those situations in resource allocation where further distribution only make one better with making another worse off.These are similar to John Rawl’s concept of social justice where he talks about conditions where people could be benefitted maximally without affecting the rest.
According to first welfare theorem, free market would lead ....
Question : ‘A crisis of credibility’ in the administrative system can be overcome only by ‘reinventing government’. Comment.
(2011)
Answer : Administrative system the world over is typically characterized with the bureaucratic form of administration which manifests itself in the form of merit-based selection, rationality in decision making among others.
However, the functioning of such system the world over, shows that it is highly top-down, rigid and nepotistic. Besides, it suffers from the disease of red-tapism and rule bound, making it insensitive to the common man needs. Moreover, its inability to cope with the change which has ....
Question : In the evolution of’ the discipline of Public Administration, Minnowbrook Conferences I, II and III reflect the discipline’s re-conceptualisation and its changing values. Elucidate.
(2011)
Answer : There has long been a polemical discussion within the field of Public administration regarding the theoretical basis of the field. Some authors argue that Public Administration is, or used to be a part of political science or management. Other considers Public administration to be a multi-disciplinary area of interest. Academics have long sought to define what public administration is and what it should be. In this direction Minnowbrook three conferences are path breaking and has ....
Question : Whereas Downs’ model is largely dependent on a theory of psychological motivation, Niskanen’s model is framed by neo-classical thinking. In the light of the above, discuss the public choice approach to decision-making.
(2011)
Answer : Public choice approaches to the study of organizations focus on problems of control and responsiveness. Using economic tools of analysis, this brand of research analyzes the pathologies of the administrative state and their implications for organizational performance. The main argument of the Public Choice Approach is that bureaucratic agencies are sufficiently ossified that they require abolishment. This lack of responsiveness to constituency demands, whether it be from elected officials, citizens, or pressure groups, is attributable ....
Question : “The study of administration should start from the base of management rather than the foundation of law.” Explain.
(2010)
Answer : In the United States the managerial approach to public administration grew largely out of civil service reform movement. It is argued that “What civil service demanded was that the business part of the government shall be carried on in a sound businesslike manner.” The idea of `business like` public administration was most self consciously and influentially discussed by Woodrow Wilson in his essay “The Study of Administration. Wilson considered public administration to be a field ....
Question : “New public Management is dead; long live digital era of governance.” Comment.
(2010)
Answer : The ‘‘new public management’’ (NPM) wave in public sector organizational change was founded on themes of disaggregation, competition, and incentivization. Although its effects are still working through in countries new to NPM, this wave has now largely stalled or been reversed in some key ‘‘leading-edge’’ countries. This ebbing chiefly reflects the cumulation of adverse indirect effects on citizens’ capacities for solving social problems because NPM has radically increased institutional and policy complexity. The character of ....
Question : “The field of pub adm is a field of business”. (Woodrow Wilson)
(2009)
Answer : According to Woodrow Wilson, the affairs of public adm are similar to that of business. It implies that the primary concern of business, namely efficiency, economy and effectiveness should also be that of public administration.
Wilson gave the concept of Politics–Administration Dichotomy which espoused the development of public adm as a separate subject of study as distinct from political science. The basic objective of pal-adm dichotomy was to bring efficiency into the working of governmental system ....
Question : “New Public Administration is …….. a revolution or radicalism in words, and (at best) status-quo in skills or technologies.”
(2009)
Answer : NPA refers to the modifications & additions of new ideas into the traditional perspective of public administration. NPA emerged as a response to the unresponsive behaviour of American Pub Administration towards the various social problems prevalent in the American society in the decades of 1960s. To make the American adm system responsible & responsive towards various needs & problems of the society, a number of efforts were made and one such effort was the Minnowbrook ....
Question : It is said that “the perspective of pub adm developed over century, with a tradition of urgent of pub institutions & services has received a jolt from the novelty of NPM.”
Bring out the core values, approaches and assumptions of traditional pub adm and show how the NPM has attempted to change or retain them, and to what extent.
(2009)
Answer : Traditional public administration advocates the primacy of state in regulating the public affairs. It envisages the govt. as the sole provider of goods and services and the bureaucracy as the centralized authority to manage the public activities. As bureaucracy is the tool to manage public affairs, hence more emphasis is on rules and regulations. Traditional pub adm emphasized on increased governmental expenditure on public activities without giving any importance to better economic performance, that is ....
Question : ‘Calling Woodrow Wilson, the father of Public Administration is doing injustice to equally or even more eminent contributions made prior to him.’ Comment.
(2008)
Answer : Woodrow Wilson is known as the father of Public Administration. His seminal contribution, ‘The Study of Administration’ was published in the ‘Political Science Quarterly’ in 1887. Even though Wilson contributed immensly to Public Administration, before him number of political scientists and other administrators contributed equally and even more.
Public Administration, as a practice, is as old as civilisation itself. As early as in 5000 B.C. Sumerian priests practised it. The functions included ‘equiping and feeding a ....
Question : ‘In the last two decades, almost all countries of the world have experienced transformations in their administrative systems.’ Explain this phenomenon with examples from the developed and the developing nations in the context of New Public Management Movement.
(2008)
Answer : In the world, during 1980’s and 1990’s remarkable changes took place in public sector management in almost all the countries.
These conditions engineered opportunities for the emergence of a new paradigm in public sector analysis.
The 1990’s saw ....
Question : “Public and Private administrations are two species of the same genus, but they also have special values and techniques of their own.” Comment.
(2007)
Answer : The dichotomy between Public and Private administrations dates back to the starting of administrative studies. The classical writers held the view that public and private administrations are the undifferentiated members of the genus administration. Henri Fayol, for example says that there is only one administrative science which can be applied equally well to public and private sectors. But then no private organization can hold as much as responsibility for public, as a public organization can ....
Question : “Kautilya was not only the foremost politico-administrative thinker of ancient India but he was an advocate and preacher of moral values too.” Comment.
(2007)
Answer : The study of administration in India starts with the work of Kautilya. He finally blended the administrative studies with moral values.
His work, the Arthashastra contains Kautilya’s philosophy of state administration. Promotion of public security and welfare was considered as important aspects of the state policy and the king was responsible for the ‘security’ and ‘welfare’ of the subjects.
This has the great relevance to the contemporary Indian administration. Not only the law confers on the ....
Question : “If public administration is to play a major legitimizing role in governing our complex society, it needs to be more fully conceptualized”. Discuss.
(2006)
Answer : Virtually every society today has been experiencing a transformation in its structure and functioning which is the result of collective working of many factors like industrialization, urbanization, globalisation etc. When the society develops it becomes more complex to administer. For this purpose the public administration also need a change and innovation through conceptualisation to cope up with new challenges.
The world is slowly becoming a unified whole where the ‘nation state’ is no longer effective and ....
Question : “Administrative question are not political questions”. Discuss.
(2005)
Answer : The relationships between politics and public administration have evolved over a period of time. The American statesman right from the beginning of their Republic have observed a difference between policy matters and administrative matters.
This developed into a dichotomy between politics and administration. Although this thesis was finally abandoned after the second World War.
Administration according to Woodrow Wilson lies outside the proper sphere of politics. Administrative question are not political questions.
Although politics sets the ....
Question : Democracy and good governance are contradictions in terms. Discuss with examples.
(2004)
Answer : Democracy means popular government and it broadly takes two forms—parliamentary and presidential. These two forms refer to the differences in the distribution of political resources and in the sharing and exercising of power. It is a government wherein the whole people or some numerous portion of them exercise through deputies periodically elected by themselves the ultimate controlling power which in every constitution must reside somewhere this ultimate power, they must possess in all its completeness.
But ....
Question : Give an account of major landmarks in the growth of the discipline of public administration in the 20th century. What are the possible trends in its growth in the first decade of 21st century?
(2003)
Answer : Public administration as an activity has existed in human society from time immemorial, its emergence as a branch of study and learning is rather recent, going back no farther than the closing years of 19th century.
As a field of systematic study, the development of public administration has been only recent. The credit for making a beginning of the academic study of public administration goes to Woodrow Wilson.
The view of the earlier writers like Wilson, Goodnow, ....
Question : The advent of the concept of “roll back of the state” since the 1980’s has been altering the role of Pub. Ad. but certainly not diminishing its central place in human society”. Discuss.
(2003)
Answer : With the ever increasing complexity of Public Administration and its scope, it has become very difficult for the governments to seen the administrative set up. The roll back of state in 1989 a humble concept given by former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has given a great opportunity to shed off its burden but not its responsibility.
The scope of public administration has widened to an extent that the governments has to deploy more and more ....
Question : Describe the evolution of the discipline of public administration with special emphasis on post-1970 developments.
(2002)
Answer : The discipline of public administration, despite the uncertainty and turmoil in the pre-1970s it registered progress and entered the seventies with an enriched vision. Public administration attracted within its fold scholars from various disciplines and thus was becoming truly interdisciplinary in its nature. Indeed of all the social sciences, it is the public administration which is most interdisciplinary. It is focussing its attention more and more on the dynamics of administration. It is also drawing ....
Question : “Though there are certain points of similarity between public and private administration yet no private organization can ever be exactly the same as a public one”. Examine.
(2002)
Answer : The classical writers held the view that public and private administrations are the undifferentiated members of the genus administration. Henri Fayol, for example says that there is only one administrative science which can be applied equally well to public and private sectors. But then no private organization can hold as much as responsibility for public, as public organization can hold.
Both public and business administration rely on common techniques relating to planning, organization, budgeting, delegation, control ....
Question : “The inculcation of belief in the real existence of common purpose is an essential executive function.” Comment.
(2001)
Answer : Organisation whether public or private is primarily concerned with co-ordination of all the resources through the process of, planning, organizing, staffing, commanding and control to achieve the predetermined goals or objectives of an organisation.
Now, in the above paragraph it is clear that any organizations have certain goals and it is this goal which directs the various units of an organization to work for the achievement of these objectives and goals.
Now, it is the top level ....
Question : Minnowbrook conference in U.S.A. identified four features crucial to ‘new public administration’. Explain.
(2001)
Answer : The Minnowbrook conference held in 1968 in U.S.A. was a youth conference and it was this young academic get together which give rise what has come to be known as ‘New Public Administration’. The conference patronage by Dwight Waldo identified four features: (a) Relevance, (b) Values, (c) Equity and Change.
Question : “Publicness” of Public Administration in an ideal democratic government remains the ultimate value in theory and practice.” Elucidate.
(2001)
Answer : Administration is a process formulating policies with collective effort. It is a corporative effort, directed towards the realization of a consciously laid down objective. Public Administration is that species of administration which operates within a specific political setting.
The significance of ‘Publicness’ of public administration is that public administration is concerned with purposes of society as a whole as opposed to groups within it. Public administration is concerned therefore with the purpose of the state.
The state ....
Question : “A science of administration would be a body of formal statements describing invariant relationships between measurable objects, units, or elements. Unquestionably administrative research has produced definite percepts and hypothesises that are applicable to concrete situations.” - (Fritz Morstein Marx)
(2000)
Answer : Coordination implies synchronisation of several activities to achieve pre- determined goals of an organization. In order to achieve coordination other elements of an organization has be proper designed, like there should be clearly defined objectives and purpose of organisation, authority and responsibility of individuals comprised should be clearly defined.
If there activities are clearly stated in an organization and administrator of any department can easily coordinate these activities and achieve the predetermined goals of an organization ....
Question : “… The paradigms of public administration may be understood in terms of locus on focus.” – (Golembiewski) . In the light of the above statement describe the “five-paradigms” of Nicholas Henry about the evolution of the discipline of public administration.
(2000)
Answer : According to Golembiewski, each phase may be distinguished and understood in terms of its locus or focus. ‘LOCUS’ refers directly to the ‘where’, to the context’s that are conceived to yield the phenomena of interest. ‘Focus’ refers to the analytical targets of public administration, the ‘what’ with which specialists are concerned.
Now, Nicholas Henry has described the five paradigms in the intellectual development of Public Administration, in the following manner:
Paradigms 1 : The politics/Administration Dichotomy, 1900-1926
Paradigms ....
Question : Examine the growth of the discipline of Public Administration as a response to the developing capitalistic system in U.S.A.
(1999)
Answer : The growth of the discipline of Public Administration under capitalistic system in U.S.A. is due to its great diversity in capitalistic economy. Capitalistic system is a political, social and economic system, in which properly, including capital assets, are owned and controlled for the most part by private person. Under capitalism the price mechanism is used as a signaling system, which allocates resources between uses. The extent to which price mechanism is used, the degree of ....
Question : Elaborate the World Bank’s concept of ‘Good Governance’.
(1999)
Answer : The concept of governance and good governance were first used by World Bank in 1992. Good governance would involve role of government only in core, strategic and sovereign functions. This may mean, the government, whose primary business is to govern should govern the least, leaving man, society institution and all else to govern themselves. This is reflected in privatization, corporatisation, contracts out etc.
The World Bank on the past experience has realized that despite technical soundness, ....
Question : “The themes developed at 1988 Minnow-brook conference largely focus on the current and future visions in the field of public administration.” Elucidate.
(1998)
Answer : The Minnowbrook conference was designed to compare and contrast the changing epochs of public administration. During Minnowbrook-I in 1968, the mood of the discipline of public administration was such that it sought to identify values and ethics as the critical issue of 1970s. By contrast, in 1988 the social environment of Minnowbrook-II was markedly different from that of its predecessor. The context of public administration changed in favour of less directly performing government and governance, ....
Question : “As long as the study of Public Administration is not comparative, claim for a ‘science of public administration’ sounds rather hollow.” Explain.
(1998)
Answer : There is a contrast made between Art and Science. It is said that while science is systematic knowledge, art is systematic practice. Practically every social discipline finds itself confronted with the question whether it is or can be a science. The turn of events during and after World War II changed the state of literature on comparative public administration. It became different from the earlier literature on public administration. It is for this reason that ....
Question : “The scope of administration is determined by the scope of government functions which is decided politically.” Comment.
(1998)
Answer : The scope of the subject is ever widening, particularly in parliamentary democracies, where a healthy combination of politicians and administrators is most, urgently needed.
Modern view about public administration is that it is government in action. It is being increasingly realized that with the concept of welfare state becoming more and more popular state is undertaking increasingly more and more responsibilities and this tendency in turn has widened the scope of public administration. It is usually ....
Question : “Centralization inclines towards power and domination. Decentralization, on the other hand, inclines towards competition and self-determination.” Discuss.
(1997)
Answer : Centralization stands for concentration of authority at or near the top; decentralization, on the other hand, denotes dispersal of authority among a number of individual or units. Decentralisation means systematic efforts of top management to delegate as much authority as possible to the lowest levels.
Decentralisation helps to spread decision-making and relieves the management of high work load. More effective and prompt decisions are possible because of the speed and first hand knowledge that decentralization provides. ....
Question : “In the science of administration, whether public or private, the basic ‘good’ is efficiency”. Comment.
(1997)
Answer : The present day theory at business does not concede the public or private. It denies, for example that modern business is run only for profit. Its object too is the provision of service for the people, and no business could make a profit for any length of time unless it served some need of people. The law had placed increasing restrictions on business to ensure that it makes its earning by catering for the socially ....
Question : “The scope of public administration is ever expanding.” Comment.
(1996)
Answer : The scope of public administration is ever widening, particularly in parliamentary democracy, where a healthy combination of politicians and administrator is most urgently needed. One of the views is that its scope includes all governmental activities whereas the other view, is that scope of public administration is confined merely to the execution of the policies. Whereas the former is supported by Woodraw Wilson, Dimock & Pfiffner, Gullick and Merson have supported the other view.
The former ....
Question : A theory of public administration means in our time a theory of politics also.
(1995)
Answer : Among social sciences, Public Administration is most closely related to politics. It is necessary to bear in mind that both politics and administration are certain kinds of activities as well as the names of certain studies and so the relationship between the two must be considered in both the aspects.
Politics is concerned with the rules of accountability and control of administrative power while administration is concerned with the rules of effective work in an organization ....
