Evolution of Public Administration in Indian Context

Political Science
MOOC on Administration and Public Policy:
Concepts and Theories
Module- 2
Evolution of Public Administration

Evolution of Public Administration
Contents:
1) Evolution
2) Different Phases and Stages of Evolution
3) The Recent Trends in the study of Public
Administration
4)Conclusion

Evolution: The Beginning
• Public administration as an academic
discipline originated and emerged in the USA.
• It was the seminal essay entitled ‘The Study
of Public Administration’ published in the
‘Political Science Quarterly’ in 1887.
• It was written by Woodrow Wilson and that is
considered to be its symbolic beginning as a
field of study.

The Phases
• The evolution of the subject as a specialized field
of study can be studied into five phases
chronologically:
• Stage 1: Politics administration dichotomy (1887-
1926)
• Stage 2: Principles of administration (1927-1937)
• Stage 3: Era of challenge (1938-1947)
• Stage 4: Crises of identity (1948-1970)
• Stage 5: Public policy perspective (1971
onwards)

Stage 1: Politics Administration dichotomy (1887-
1926)
• The first stage of evolution of the discipline was
the manifestation of Woodrow Wilson’s view of
politics - administration dichotomy.
• Functionally, administration was separated from
politics and concerned itself with implementation
of policy decisions taken politically.

Stage 1: Politics Administration dichotomy (1887-1926)
• Beyond this distinction, the institutional locations
of these two functions were differentiated.
• The location of politics was identified as the
legislature .
• The location of administration was accepted as
the executive arm of government, the
bureaucracy.
• There must be a separation between Politics and
Administration.

Stage 2: Principles of administration (1927-1937)
• The second stage of evolution was marked by the
same fervour of reinforcing the Wilsonian view of
public-administration dichotomy.
• It tried to evolve a value-neutral or rather a value
free science of management.
• The Context of Industrial Revolution demanded for
efficiency and higher production which also led to
the development of universal principles of
management.

Era of Principles
• During this time, the structures and processes of
public organizations were put to a serious
rigorous analysis.
• Scientific methods, efficiency and economy of
the organizations were given importance.
• In short, the years 1927-1937 were the golden
years of ‘principles’ in the history of Public
Administration.

Stage 3: Era of challenge (1938-1947)
• The advocates of the principles of administration
began soon to be challenged and the period from
1938 to 1947 .
• The principles and iron cage/mechanistic view of
administration and workers were challenged
during this time.
• The principal challenge came from Human
Relations Theory.

Human Relations Theory
• The famous Hawthorne experiments conducted
by Elton Mayo and his colleagues at the
Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric
Company Harvard Business School in the late 20’s
and early 30’s of the twentieth century shook the
foundation of the scientific management school.
• It demonstrated demonstrating the powerful
influence of social and psychological factors on
the work situation of the industrial workers.

Psychological Man against the Machine
• The stage was also spearheaded by two significant
publications of the 1940s – Herbert Simon’s
Administrative Behaviour and Robert Dahl’s essay
entitled The Science of Public Administration: Three
Problems.
• Dahl spoke against the ‘machine’ concept of
organization and argued that the study of
administration must embrace the whole
psychological man.

Stage 4: Crises of identity (1948-1970)
• This period has been one of crisis of identity for
Public Administration.
• Thus grew a need to reinvent public
administration and lead to a question as to
whether public administration that had been
known as it is till then was relevant anymore.

Rise of New Public Administration
• So, Public Administration, naturally, was in search
of an alternative and the alternative was available
in the form of administrative science.
• Thus was born the concept of Dwight Waldo’s
‘New Public Administration’ from the First
Minnowbrook Conference in 1968.
• Actually, the term New Public Administration
found circulation with two publications in 1971.

Features of the New Public Administration
• Relevance: There had been renewed emphasis on
being relevant to the societal problems.
• Values: New Public Administration brought values
back into the realm of Public Administration.

Main Themes
• Equity: The performance of Public Administration
was to be judged not in terms of growth but it
had to be sensitive to the aspect of equity.
• Change: As opposed to status quo, the new Public
Administration emphasized change.

Stage 5: Public Policy Perspective (1971 onwards)
• Despite the uncertainty and turmoil of the
preceding period, Public Administration did
register progress and entered the 1970s with an
enriched vision.
• At this stage, Public Administration began to draw
on a variety of disciplines such as Political
Science, Sociology and Economics.

Public-Policy Aspect
• The discipline gradually and progressively has
drifted more towards social problem-solving and
has been focusing on the dynamics of
administration.
• In the late 1980s, there was emergence of New
Public Management .
• New Public Management treats individuals as
"customers" or "clients" (in the private sector
sense), rather than as citizens.

Recent Trends
• Public - Private Partnership
• Movement towards political economy:
• New emerging goals of Public Administration:

New Trends
• Human Relations approach in Public
Administration
• People's participation decision making
• These trends have enriched the study of Public
Administration.

Conclusion
• Under Liberalization, Privatization and
Globalization (LPG), the bureaucracy of a country
has to play an open and competitive role.
• Under these new reforms Public Administration
has to play the role of an enabler, collaborator
and facilitator.

Evolution of Public Administration in Indian Context

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