Meaning, Scope and Significance

Public Administration is an aspect of the more general concept of Administration. Therefore, before understanding the meaning of Public Administration, it is important to first understand the meaning of the word Administration.

The English word “administer” is derived from a combination of two Latin words: ad and ministrare, meaning “to serve” or “to manage.” Literally, the term Administration refers to the management of affairs—whether public or private.

Administration Defined

The concept of administration has been defined by various scholars in different ways:

• E.N. Gladden: “Administration is a long and slightly pompous word, but it has a humble meaning. It means to care for or look after people, to manage affairs … a determined action taken in pursuit of a conscious purpose.”

• Felix A. Nigro: “Administration is the organisation and use of men and materials to accomplish a purpose.”

• Herbert A. Simon: “In its broadest sense, administration can be defined as the activities of groups cooperating to accomplish common goals.”

• John A. Veig: “Administration is determined action taken in pursuit of conscious purpose. It is the systematic ordering of affairs and the calculated use of resources, aimed at achieving desired goals at the lowest cost in energy, time, and money.”

• Pfiffener: “Administration is the organisation and direction of human and material resources to achieve desired ends.”

• L.D. White: “The art of administration is the direction, co-ordination, and control of many persons to achieve some objective.”

• Luther Gulick: “Administration has to do with getting things done; with the accomplishment of defined objectives.”

• George E. Berkley: “Administration is a process involving human beings jointly engaged in working towards common goals.”

• Brooks Adams: “Administration is the capacity of co-ordinating many and often conflicting social energies in a single organism, so that they operate as a unity.”

• Keith Henderson: “Administration is the arrangement of men and materials in the rational carrying out of purposes.”

• Ordway Tead: “Administration is a variety of component elements which, together in action, produce a defined task done. It is the direction of people in association to achieve some goal. It is the inclusive process of integrating human efforts so that a desired result is obtained.”
  He further adds: “Administration is the central powerhouse of the motivational impulsion and spirit which makes the institution drive to fulfill its purpose.”

• D. Waldo: “Administration is a type of co-operative human effort that has a high degree of rationality.”

• James McCanny: “Administration is the organization and use of men and materials to accomplish a purpose. It is the specialized vocation of managers who possess the skills of organizing and directing, just as engineers build structures or doctors understand ailments.”

• F.M. Marx: “Administration is a determined action taken in pursuit of a conscious purpose. It is the systematic ordering of affairs and the calculated use of resources aimed at achieving desired goals while preventing contrary outcomes.”

The above definitions make it clear that administration has two essential elements, viz. a collective effort and a common purpose. Thus, administration means a cooperative effort of a group of people in pursuit of a common objective.

Administration is a universal process and occurs in diverse institutional settings. Based on its institutional setting, administration is divided into public administration and private administration. The former refers to the administration which operates in a governmental setting, while the latter refers to the administration which operates in a non-governmental setting, that is, business enterprises.

Public Administration Defined

Public administration is an aspect of the larger field of administration. It exists within a political system for the accomplishment of the goals and objectives formulated by the political decision makers. It is also known as governmental administration because the adjective public in the term public administration means government. Hence, the focus of public administration is on public bureaucracy, that is, the bureaucratic organisation (or administrative organisation) of the government.

Public administration has been defined in various ways by eminent scholars:

• Woodrow Wilson: “Public Administration is detailed and systematic execution of law. Every particular application of law is an act of administration.” He further states, “Administration is the most obvious part of the government; it is the government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most visible side of the government.”

• L.D. White: “Public Administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfilment or enforcement of public policy.”

• Luther Gulick: “Public Administration is that part of the science of administration which has to do with government and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of government is done, though there are obviously problems in connection with the legislative and judicial branches.”

• Simon: “By Public Administration is meant in common usage, the activities of the executive branches of the national, state and local governments.”

• Pfiffner: “Public Administration consists of doing the work of the government whether it be running an X-ray machine in a health laboratory or coining money in the mint… Public Administration consists of getting the work of government done by coordinating the efforts of the people so that they can work together to accomplish their set tasks.”

• E.N. Gladden: “Public Administration is concerned with the administration of the government.”

• H. Walker: “The work which the government does to give effect to a law is called Public Administration.”

• Willoughby: “The term administration may be employed in Political Science in two senses. In its broadest sense, it denotes the work involved in the actual conduct of governmental affairs, regardless of the particular branch of government concerned. It is, thus, quite proper to speak of the administration of the legislative branch of the government, the administration of justice or judicial affairs, or the administration of the executive branch as well as the administration of the affairs of the administrative branch of the government, or the conduct of the affairs of the government generally. In its narrowest sense, it denotes the operations of the administrative branch only. As students of Public Administration we are concerned with the narrowest meaning of the term.”

• D. Waldo: “Public Administration is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of the State.” He further observes, “The process of public administration consists of the actions involved in affecting the intent or desire of a government. It is thus the continuously active, ‘business’ part of a government, concerned with carrying out the law as made by legislative bodies (or other authoritative agents) and interpreted by the courts, through the process of organization and management. The field of study—putatively a science or discipline—of public administration focuses upon public administration as a process.”

• M.E. Dimock: “Public Administration is the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy as declared by the competent authorities. It deals with the problems and powers of the organization and techniques of management involved in carrying out the laws and policies formulated by the policy-making agencies of government. Public administration is the law in action. It is the executive side of a government.”

• John A. Veig: “Administration signifies the organisation, personnel, practices and procedures essential to effective performance of civilian functions entrusted to the executive branch of the government.”

• P. McQueen: “Public Administration is administration related to the operations of Government whether central or local.”

• Merson: “The administrator gets things done, and just as the science of politics is an enquiry into the best means whereby the will of the people may be organised for the formulation of policy, so the science of Public Administration is an enquiry as to how policies may best be carried into operation.”

• Corson & Harris: “Public Administration is the action part of the government, the means by which the purposes and goals of the government are realized.”

• F.A. Nigro: “Public Administration (i) is a cooperative group effort in a public setting; (ii) covers all the three branches—executive, legislative and judicial, and their inter-relationship; (iii) has an important role in the formulation of public policy and is thus part of the political process; (iv) is different in significant ways from private administration; and (v) is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community.”

• J.S. Hodgson: “Public Administration comprises all activities of persons or groups in governments or their agencies, whether these organizations are international, regional or local in their scope, to fulfill the purposes of these governments or agencies.”

• James W. Fesler: “Public Administration is policy execution and policy formulation, public administration is bureaucracy and public administration is public.”

• James W. Davis: “Public Administration can be best identified with the executive branch of a government.”

• Frank Goodnow: “Administration includes the function of executing the law as well as the semi-scientific, quasi-judicial and quasi-business or commercial functions.”

• Ridley: “Public Administration is administration in the public sector… It is administration by the state… Public Administration is governmental administration… It is administration by public authorities… Public authorities are authorities which administer according to the rules of public administration. Public administration should be the study of administration, descriptive, theoretical and normative.”

• M. Ruthna Swamy: “When administration has to do with the affairs of a state or minor political institutions like a Municipal or County Council, or District Board, it is called Public Administration.”

• Dimock and Dimock: “Like the study of politics, the study of public administration is a study of what people want through government and how they go about getting it. In addition, administration also emphasizes the methods and procedures of management. Thus, public administration is as much concerned with what government does as it is with how it does it.” They further add, “Public administration is the area of study and practice where law and policy are recommended and carried out.”

• J. Greenwood and D. Wilson: “Public Administration is an activity, a set of institutions and a subject of study.”

• Rosenbloom: “Public Administration does involve activity, it is concerned with politics and policymaking, it tends to be concentrated in the executive branch of government, it does differ from private administration, and it is concerned with implementing law.” He further adds, “Public Administration is the use of managerial, legal and political theories and processes to fulfill legislative, executive and judicial governmental mandates for the provision of regulatory and service functions for the society as a whole or for some segments of it.”

• Eugene McGregor: “The term public administration is reserved to denote the generation of purposive public action whose success depends on reconciling the competing demands of administrative operations, democratic governance and public solving.”

• F.M. Marx: “Public Administration has come to signify primarily the organization, personnel, practices and procedures essential to effective performance of the civilian functions entrusted to the executive branch of government.”

The definitions of public administration reveal that the concept has been interpreted in two distinct senses. In the wider sense, public administration encompasses the activities of all three branches of government—legislative, executive, and judicial. This broader view emphasizes that the formulation, execution, and interpretation of laws are all part of the administrative process. Thinkers like Woodrow Wilson, L.D. White, Marshall Dimock, F.A. Nigro, and Pfiffner supported this perspective, highlighting public administration as a comprehensive activity that runs through the entire machinery of government.

In the narrower sense, public administration is confined to the executive branch alone, where the actual work of government is carried out. This interpretation focuses on administration as an instrument of policy execution, stressing its managerial and operational aspects. Scholars such as Simon, Luther Gulick, Ordway Tead, Fayol, and Willoughby advanced this view.

A noteworthy contribution is by Willoughby, who drew a line between executive power and administrative power, treating administration as a specialized function distinct from the traditional three branches of government. In doing so, he elevated administration to the level of a “fourth branch of government.” This, as Albert Lepawsky observed, represented the most extreme but also the most logical consequence of the politics–administration dichotomy initiated by Woodrow Wilson.

Thus, public administration is seen either as a comprehensive governmental process (wider sense) or as the technical and managerial arm of the executive (narrower sense), with the debate reflecting its dual identity as both a political and a managerial function.