Q.In the last two decades, almost all countries of the world have experienced transformations in their ad-ministrative systems.’ Explain this phenomenon with examples from the developed and the developing nations in the context of New Public Management Movement.
Ans : In the world, during 1980’s and 1990’s remarkable changes took place in public sector management in almost all the countries.
- Structurally the change was from rigid, hierarchial and bureaucratic form of public administration to a flexible, market-based form of public administration.
- There was remarkable change in the role of government in society and similarly, there was a change in government-citizenship relationship.
These conditions engineered opportunities for the emergence of a new paradigm in public sector analysis.
The 1990’s saw the emergence of a new model of public sector management. This is called as ‘New Public Management’ or ‘Market-based Public Administration’.
The New Public Management has the following salient features :
- Focus on management and not policy-on performance appraisal and efficiency.
- Desegregation of public bureaucracy into agencies which deal with each other on a user-pay basis.
- Use of quasi-markets and contracting out to faster competition.
- Cost cutting.
- A style of management which emphasizes output targets, limited term contracts, monetary incentives and freedom to manage.
The traditional public administration is based on Weberian/Scientific Management. This model emphasised on structure, work division, power differentiation, centralization and public-private distinction. The whole desigh is like machine, rigid and impersonal.
But the post-Weber model emphasized on public policy-making, implementation and management within the overarching framework of liberal democracy. The new model of public organization has basically been people-oriented as distinguished from traditional structure-oriented.
The new model accepted the decentralization strategy and followed the bottom-up approach. The contemporary view about public organization is not a perfectionist one, as in reality there is no such things as a rigid and pure model of administration.
The New Public Management had emerged out of the Thatcherism (Britian-the first country which initiated the privatization of public enterprises) and Reaganism (in USA) of the 1990s. It represents a synthesis of the public administration and the private administration. It takes what and why from public administration and how from private administration.
The New Public Administration aims at 3E’s — economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The emphasis of New Public Administration is on performance appraisal, managerial autonomy, cost-cutting, output targets, innovation, responsiveness, competence, accountability, market-orientation, contracting out, flexibility, competition, choice, debureaucratization, down-sizing etc.
The New Public Administration emphasizes on the vital role of the “market” as against the ‘State’ as the key regulator of the society and economy. Thus it involves a shift from direct provision of services by government to indirect methods like policy-making, facilitating, contracting, providing information and co-ordinating other actors.
Almost all the countries have experienced the process of privatisaion. Many functions of government are performed by the private sectors. The government has changed from a ‘doer’ of public activites to a ‘distributor’ of public benefits and ‘facilitator’ and ‘promoter’ of change in society and economy.
Public Administration Notes
Q.”Administrative efficiency is enhanced by keeping at a minimum the number of organizational levels through which a matter must pass before it is acted upon”. – (Herbert A. Simon)
Ans: Administrative structure of public or private space is based on hierarchy. The hierarchy is nothing but various levels of organization. In an org
Q.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.Ans. Public choice approach to the study of organizations focus on problems of control and responsiveness. Using economic tools of analysis, this bran
Q. In the evolution of’ the discipline of Public Administration, Minnowbrook Conferences 1,11 and III reflect the discipline’s re-conceptualisation and its changing values. Elucidate. (CSE, 2011)Ans. There has long been a polemical discussion within the field of Public administration regarding the theoretical basis of the field. Some authors a
Q.”The field of pub adm is a field of business”. (Woodrow Wilson)Ans: According to Woodrow Wilson, the affairs of public adm are similar to that of business. It implies that the primary concern of business, namely e
Q.In the last two decades, almost all countries of the world have experienced transformations in their ad-ministrative systems.’ Explain this phenomenon with examples from the developed and the developing nations in the context of New Public Management Movement.Ans : In the world, during 1980’s and 1990’s remarkable changes took place in public sector management in almost all the countries. Structurally t
Q. Calling Woodrow Wilson, the father of Public Administration is doing injustice to equally or even more eminent contributions made prior to him.’ Comment.Ans : Woodrow Wilson is known as the father of Public Administration. His seminal contribution, ‘The Study of Administration’ was published in the
Q. “Kautilya was not only the foremost politico-administrative thinker of ancient India but he was an advo¬cate and preacher of moral values too.” Comment.Ans: The study of administration in India starts with the work of Kautilya. He finally blended the administrative studies with moral values. His work,
Q. “Public and Private administrations are two species of the same genus, but they also have special values and techniques of their own.” Comment.The dichotomy between Public and Private administrations dates back to the starting of administrative studies. .The classical writers held the view th
Q. Democracy and good governance are contradictions in terms. Discuss with examples.Ans: Democracy means popular government and it broadly takes two forms —parliamentary and presidential. These two forms refer to the differences in
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Q. “The inculcation of belief in the real existence of common purpose is an essential executive function.” Comment.Ans: Organisation whether public or private is primarily concerned with co-ordination of all the resources through the process of, planning, organizin
Q.”If public administration is to play a major legitimizing role in governing our complex society, it needs to be more fully conceptualized”. Discuss.Virtually every society today has been experiencing a transformation in its structure and functioning which is the result of collective working of man
Q.”Administrative question are not political questions”. Discuss.Ans: The relationships between politics and public administration have evolved over a period of time. The American statesman right from the beginning
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Q” 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.Answer- The classical writers held the view that public and private administrations are the undifferentiated members of the genus administration. Henr
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