Modern principles of public administration

Ø 1) Make a list of modern principles of public administration covered by this text.

The classical approach to public administration described above probably reached its fullest development in the United States during the 1930s. Since that time, it has also become standard doctrine in many countries through educational and training programs, technical assistance, and the work of international organizations. However, the governments of some countries could not agree with some of its elements. Since that time the study of public administration has greatly developed. It has also become somewhat confused as a result of certain inconsistencies in approach.

The orthodox doctrine rested on the idea that administration was simply the implementation of public policies determined by others. According to this view, administrators should seek maximum efficiency but should be otherwise neutral about values and goals.

However, during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and even more so during World War II, it became evident that many new policies originated within the administration, that policy and value judgments were implicit in most significant administrative decisions, that many administrative officials worked on nothing except policy, and that, insofar as public policies were controversial, such work inevitably involved administrators in politics. The supposed independence of administration from policy and politics seemed to be illusory.

Thus, since the 1930s there has been increasing concern with policy formation and the development of techniques to improve policy decisions. It is evident now that administration cannot be value-free and neutral. But no fully satisfactory substitute has been offered yet. The modern preoccupations are to ensure responsible and responsive policy decisions made by career administrators, and to coordinate their work with the policies of politically elected or appointive officials.

The Great Depression was combated with governmental efforts. At that time new informational devices were introduced, including national income accounting and the examination of gross national product as a major index of economic health. The applied techniques of fiscal and monetary policy have become established specializations of public administration. Economists occupy key posts in the administrations of most nations, and many other administrators must have at least elementary knowledge of the economic effects of government operations. France, Sweden, other Scandinavian nations, Great Britain, and the United States were among the leaders in developing economic planning techniques. Such planning has become a dominating concern of public administration in many of the developing countries.

Quantitative economic measurement is useful, but the value of human life, of freedom from sickness and pain, of safety on the streets, of clean air, and of opportunity for achievement are hardly measurable in monetary terms. Public administration has thus increasingly concerned itself with developing better social quantitative and qualitative indicators - that is, better indexes of the effects of public programs and new techniques of social analysis.

Ø 2) State the main idea of the text.

Ø 3) Write an annotation to the texts “Classical Principles of Public Administration” and “Modern Principles of Public Administration.”