PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

MARIANNE GAIL Z. CARIÑO AB POLITICAL SCIENCE II-B WF 10:30AM-12:00NN 11-12-15

1. What is Public Administration?

The term “public administration” encompasses a complex set of interrelated

concepts, thus a simple definition will not suffice. It draws from many different academic

disciplines, includes a variety of agencies, and is linked closely to several distinct

professions. There are four given definitions to capture the intrinsic richness and subtlety

of the broad phrase “public administration.”

Political. Public administration is what government does. It exists within a

political environment, and it is this political context that makes it “public.” Public

administration is about implementation of the public interest. It is also about doing

collectively what cannot be done as well individually.

Legal. Public administration is law in action in the form of statutes, regulations,

ordinances, codes, etc.

Managerial. The executive nature of public administration enables the public will

to be translated into action by the people responsible for running the public bureaucracy.

Occupational. Public administration includes many occupational fields—

medicine, engineering, social welfare, economics, etc. It is within the framework of each

of these fields that the political, legal, and managerial aspects of public administration

are transformed by public administrators into the work of government.

Source: wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/270/276644/IM.doc
 PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

MARIANNE GAIL Z. CARIÑO AB POLITICAL SCIENCE II-B WF 10:30AM-12:00NN 11-12-15

2. Compare and contrast the new and old public administration

The traditional model of public administration can be characterized as: an

administration under formal control of political leadership, based on a strictly hierarchical

model of bureaucracy, staffed by permanent, neutral officials, motivated only by public

interest serving any governing party equally and not contributing to policy but merely

administrating policies decided by the politicians. The term public administration is

always meant the study of the public sector, in addition to being an activity and a

profession. (Hughes, 1994)

There were challenges to the then old public administration and it was shaken

and influenced by the social turbulence and crisis-ridden period of the sixties. The

evolving discipline of public administration has come to be enriched by the emergence of

what has come to be known as the “New Public Administration Movement” (Basu, 1990)

There are four main characteristics of the new public administration:

Relevance: The traditional public administration has been interested in economy

and efficiency. The New Public Administration movement pointed out that the discipline

had little to say about contemporary problems and issues and was therefore becoming

irrelevant. Management oriented public administration studies were found inadequate

and the demand was to deal explicitly with the political environment and implications of

administrative action. The New Public Administration movement demanded radical

syllabi change to facilitate meaningful studies oriented toward the realities of modern day

public life.

Values: New public administration rejected the value neutral position of

traditional public administration. Value neutrality in public administration was declared

 PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

MARIANNE GAIL Z. CARIÑO AB POLITICAL SCIENCE II-B WF 10:30AM-12:00NN 11-12-15

impossibility and the discipline championed the cause of the disadvantaged sections in

society. The new public administrator should be less ‘generic’ and public, less

descriptive and more prescriptive, less institution oriented and more client impact

oriented, less neutral and more normative.

Social Equity and Social Change. (Dutta, 1990)

The summarized comparison of the old, traditional public administration (TPA)

and the new public management (NPM) are as follows: the organizational structure of

the TPA is hierarchical while in NPM, the structure is that of a network; The normative

order of TPA is command and control while negotiation and persuasion for the NPM.

The values of the TPA are efficiency while efficiency and effectiveness in the NPM. TPA

has a paternalistic role of government while empowering for the NPM. The TPA views

the citizens as citizens while in NPM, they see citizens as customers.

With the emergence of globalization, financial constraints, and rising social

expectations, public administration has to live with many dilemmas. Modern

administration has to deal with the problems of technical complexity, new technology,

transitory professionals who move in and of public organizations with ease, public-

private partnerships, and the meshing of powers in addition to more public demands for

services. The most important of all these developments is the overlapping of powers.

More specifically, the concept of separation of power has gradually eroded into a domain

where the boundaries of state organs- legislature, executive, and judiciary – seem

blurred. This is particularly true in the case of problems such as combating terrorism and

protecting environment. In order to have better understanding of public administration,

there is a need for a new approach that combines the values of traditional public
 PHILIPPINE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

MARIANNE GAIL Z. CARIÑO AB POLITICAL SCIENCE II-B WF 10:30AM-12:00NN 11-12-15

administration and those advocated by the New Public Management (NPM). In other

words, a synthesis of managerial, legal, and political approaches to public administration

is required in addition to accommodating some of the values of New Public

Management.

Sources:

 Amir M. Nasrullah, “From Public Administration to New Public Management: An

Analysis”, Pakistan Journal of Social Sciences 3 (Grace Publications Network, 2005)

 Yorid Ahsan Zia and M. Zeb Khan, “A Comparative Review of Traditional and New

Public Administration and Critique of New Public Management”, The Dialogue Volume 9,

Number 4