Transcript Slajd 1 - Supernat

The Concept
of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Institute of Administrative Studies
University of Wrocław
The Concept of Public Administration
The Bible Revised Standard Version.
The Gospel according to John, 1, 1:
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The terms
administration and public administration
are equivocal (= ambiguous) ones.
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
Luther Gulick
Administration has to do with getting things done; with the accomplishment
of defined objectives.
Dwight Waldo
Administration is a type of co-operative human effort that has a high degree
of rationality.
George E. Berkley
Administration is a process involving human beings jointly engaged in working towards common goals.
Keith Henderson
Administration is the arrangement of men and materials in the rational carrying out purposes.
Two essential elements of administration:
 collective effort
 common purpose
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
Administration is an universal process and occurs in
diverse institutional settings. Based on its institutional
settings, administration is divided into:
public administration (refers to the administration
which operates in governmental setting)

private administration (refers to the administration
which operates in non-governmental setting)

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
Woodrow Wilson
Public administration is a detailed and systematic execution of law. Every
particular application of law is an act of administration. […] Administration is
the most obvious part of the government; it is the government in action; it is
the executive, the operative, the most visible part of the government.
Edgar N. Gladden
Public administration is concerned with the administration of the government.
Leonard D. White
Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose
the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy.
Marshall 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 organizations and techniques of management involved in carrying out the
law 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.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
Felix A. Nigro
Public administration: (1) is a cooperative group effort in a public setting; (2)
covers all three branches – executive, legislative, and judicial – and their
interrelationships; (3) has an important role in the formulation of public policy,
and is thus part of a political process; (4) is different in significant ways from
private administration; and (5) is closely associated with numerous private
groups and individuals in providing services to the community.
David H. Rosenbloom, Robert S. Kravchuk
Public administration is the use of managerial, political, and legal theories and
processes to fulfill legislative, executive, and judicial mandates for the provision of governmental regulatory and service functions.
Dwight Waldo
Public administration is the art and science of management as applied to the
affairs of the State. […] The process of public administration consists of the
actions involved in effecting the intent or desire of a government. It is thus
the continuously active, business part of 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.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
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 connections with the legislative and judicial branches.
James W. Davis
Public administration can be best identified with the executive branch of a
government.
William F. Willoughby
The term administration may be employed […] 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*.
* Author made a distinction between executive power and administrative power and restricted the use of the term
administration to the activities of the administrative branch only. In other words he has given administration the
status of a fourth branch of government.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
In the negative concept, regarding the doctrine of separation of powers, the traditional view expressed by German scholars Otto Mayer and Walter Jellinek was that:
public administration („vast remnants”) stays
outside the legislature and the judiciary.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
The Constitution of the Republic of Poland
Art. 10
1. The system of government of the Republic of Poland
shall be based on the separation of and balance between the legislative, executive and judicial powers.
2. Legislative power shall be vested in the Sejm and the
Senate, executive power shall be vested in the President of the Republic of Poland and the Council of
Ministers, and the judicial power shall be vested in
courts and tribunals.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
German public
administration scholar
Lorenz von Stein,
1815-1890,
one of the first
to acknowledge
that the modern state
is an administrative state:
Administration
is what I cannot name.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
Polish scholar Janusz Łętowski:
Administration can be described but not defined.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
David H. Rosenbloom, Robert S. Kravchuk
Public administration […] is difficult to define. […] In part, this is because public administration covers such a vast amount of activity.
Public administration jobs range from the exploration of outer space to
sweeping the streets. Some public administrators are highly educated
professionals, who may be at the forefront of their fields of specialization; others possess few skills that differentiate them from the mass of
the citizenry. Some public administrators make policies that have a
nationwide impact and may benefit millions of people; others have
virtually no responsibility for policy making and simply carry out
mundane governmental tasks like word processing, filing, and record
keeping. Public administrators are doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, accountants, budgeters, policy analysts, personnel officers, managers, clerks, keyboarders, manual laborers, and individuals engaged
in a host of other occupations and functions.
[…] public administration as a category is so abstract and varied that it
can only be described in vague, general, amorphous, and somewhat
competing terms.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Prison – administrative
establishment / public
undertaking
As of the end of August 2007,
Poland officially declared
90 199 prisoners
(13 374 pre-trial; 76 434 serving
sentences; 391 others; 2 743
prisoners were female),
giving an imprisonment rate
per 100 000 inhabitants
of about 234.
In Australian prisons at 30 June 2008
there were 27 615 prisoners
(sentenced and unsentenced) giving
an imprisonment rate of 169
prisoners per 100 000 adult
population.
War cemetery. Lest we should dream that we may die in vain!
The Concept of Public Administration
German scholar Ingo von Münch:
Von der Wiege bis zur Bahre: Formulare, Formulare.
(From the cradle to the bier: forms, forms).
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
There is, however, a core of diverse
meanings of terms administration and
public administration, linked with the
origin of the word administration.
Administration has originated from Latin
verb ministrare, strengthened by the
preposition ad-, meaning „to serve”.
Words „minister” and „ministration” also
conform that „servant” aspect of the
derivatives of ministrare.
Therefore, administration always means
a certain service or executive activity,
carried out with respect to somebody
and/or something more important.
Administration is an instrument serving
to achieve a goal and/or to execute a will
of superior. It should not have aims of its
own.
The Concept of Public Administration
Polish scholar Hubert Izdebski:
Public administration is an operational instrument in the
hands of a political power. Serving the political power, public administration in a democracy should serve the people organised in a democratic state. It is, in a sense, an
executive of the executive power.
Public administration is also „public” in the sense that, in
liberal democracy, the only argument for its intervention –
as the intervention of the state power – in the affairs of
the state's subjects (individuals as well as their organisations: business and non-profit ones alike) is the public
good (the public interest).
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
Polish scholar Małgorzata Stahl:
Characteristics of public administration:
acting on behalf of the state or another public authority, to
which the state has ceded a part of its power (imperium)
• administrative coercion – performing a function with the possibility of applying public power to enforce decisions
• political nature (the principle of spoils system developed in the
USA), in Poland e.g. when the government is dismissed, the governors of the provinces resign
• acting on the basis and within the limits of law (a rule applicable to individuals – „it is allowed to do everything that is not explicitly forbidden” – is not applicable for public administration)
• a continuous and stable operation
• employing mainly professional personnel (in particular a corps of civil servants)
•
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
Janusz Łętowski added other characteristics of public administration:
a peculiarly monopolistic character: administration acts alone within its competence
•
undertaking non-commercial activity, not aiming at gaining profits, which doesn’t mean being gratuitous (= done freely, without reward or payment being expected), sometimes resulting with profit
(but not only a profit)
•
acting on administrative own initiative or on request of the interested party
•
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
Hubert Izdebski
1/7
From the functional point of view, public administration can be
defined as an operational function, in any state, independently
of the epoch and of the form of government.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
2/7
It is not, however, the case of public administration approached in institutional terms. Public administration as
•
a specific set of authorities and institutions,
with missions set up in conformity with principles of the horizontal and vertical division of work (constituting the division of
administrative tasks and competences) and
•
•
staffed by professional employees
– is a relatively new phenomenon. Although public administration has been developing since late Middle Ages, it was as late
as in the Enlightenment period, i.e. in the 18th century, that it
appeared in the form comparable to the contemporary ones.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
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The absolute monarchies of the 18th century lacked however an important characteristic feature of the contemporary liberal democratic
state. They lacked a strict link between public administration and the
law, especially administrative law.
The contemporary link between public administration and the law
consists in the submission of all the executive power, and
public administration operating therewithin, to the law. The
submission is the most important aspect of:
• the „rule of law”, the principle which has been developed in England
since the Middle Ages, or
• the „state of law” (Rechtstaat / Etat de droit / Estado de derecho /
państwo prawa), the concept introduced in the continental Europe,
especially in Germany in the 19th century, as an overt opposition to
Polizeistaat.
From that point of view, public administration is an instrument of implementation of provisions of the statutes and other sources of law.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
4/7
Such idea, linked with the principle of legality (each action
of public administration must have a legal basis), and the protection of citizen rights against uncontrolled discretion of state
power, has opened room for the judicial control of public administration.
Art. 7 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland
The organs of public authority shall function on the basis of,
and within the limits of, the law.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
5/7
When taking into account the importance of the legal factor in
organisation and activities of public administration, it should be,
nevertheless, borne in mind that public administration may not
be a simple bouche de la loi, a kind of machinery of law enforcement, as its basic role is providing to the public necessary services in diverse fields of the government’s activity.
Public administration is sometimes defined as an „organisational activity of the government”. Such activity needs an
initiative and certain freedom of action as well, and it cannot be
a passive implementation of orders of the law in any way.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
6/7
In the contemporary liberal democratic state, based upon legality and market economy, public administration belongs to the
most important elements of the whole system of social organisation. The system can be presented – in a simplified way – as
composed of several interactive sub-systems, i.e.




political system
market economy
law
public administration
each of which having been set within the larger context of civil
society.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
7/7
Political system
Law
Public
administration
Market
economy
Civil society (citizens)
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
The Concept of Public Administration
Polish scholar Jacek Jagielski:
The principle of legality, the fundamental principle governing the functioning of public administration, derives
directly from democratic tenants. This is clearly set forth
in the Constitution, which provides that units of public
authority must operate only on the basis of law and strictly within its bonds (art. 7). This means that every action
of public administration has to be explicitly authorized by
law. The maxim that „anything which is not forbidden is
allowed” does not apply here. Quite to the contrary, only
what is specifically provided by law is allowed.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
Concluding Remark
If it is dangerous to suppose that government is always
right, it will sooner or later be awkward for public administration if most people suppose that it is always wrong.
John Kenneth Galbraith
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat