Slajd 1

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The Conceptof Public Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy SupernatInstitute of
Administrative Studies University of Wroclaw
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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.
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The terms administration and public
administration are equivocal ( ambiguous) ones.
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The Concept of Public Administration
Administration
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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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 work-ing towards
common goals. Keith Henderson Administration is
the arrangement of men and materials in the
rational carry-ing out purposes.

• Two essential elements of administration
• collective effort
• common purpose

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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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
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The Concept of Public Administration
Public administration
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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 de-clared 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 govern-ment.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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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 provi-sion 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
carry-ing out the law, as made by legislative
bodies (or other authoritative agents) and
interpreted by the courts, through the process of
organization and mana-gement.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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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
af-fairs, 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
administra-tion 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
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The Concept of Public Administration
In the negative concept, regarding the doctrine
of se-paration of powers, the traditional view
expressed by Ger-man scholars Otto Mayer and
Walter Jellinek was that public administration
(vast remnants) stays outside the legislature
and the judiciary.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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The Concept of Public Administration

• The Constitution of the Republic of Poland
• Art. 10
• The system of government of the Republic of
  Poland shall be based on the separation of and
  balance be-tween the legislative, executive and
  judicial powers.
• Legislative power shall be vested in the Sejm and
  the Senate, executive power shall be vested in
  the Pre-sident 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
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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 Administrationis what I
cannot name.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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The Concept of Public Administration
Polish scholar Janusz Letowski Administration
can be described but not defined.
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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The Concept of Public Administration
David H. Rosenbloom, Robert S. Kravchuk Public
administration is difficult to define. In
part, this is be-cause 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
specializa-tion 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,
engi-neers, accountants, budgeters, policy
analysts, personnel officers, ma-nagers, 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
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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.
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War cemetery. Lest we should dream that we may
die in vain!
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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
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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.
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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, pu-blic administration in a
democracy should serve the peo-ple 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 organisa-tions business and
non-profit ones alike) is the public good (the
public interest).
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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The Concept of Public Administration

• Polish scholar Malgorzata 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 pos-sibility 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 govern-ors of the
  provinces resign
• acting on the basis and within the limits of law
  (a rule applic-able to individuals it is
  allowed to do everything that is not explici-tly
  forbidden is not applicable for public
  administration)
• a continuous and stable operation
• employing mainly professional personnel (in
  particular a cor-ps of civil servants)

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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The Concept of Public Administration

• Janusz Letowski added other characteristics of
  public administration
• a peculiarly monopolistic character
  administration acts alone wi-thin its competence
• undertaking non-commercial activity, not aiming
  at gaining pro-fits, which doesnt mean being
  gratuitous ( done freely, without re-ward or
  payment being expected), sometimes resulting with
  profit (but not only a profit)
• acting on administrative own initiative or on
  request of the in-terested party

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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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.
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The Concept of Public Administration

• 2 / 7
• It is not, however, the case of public
  administration approa-ched in institutional
  terms. Public administration as
• a specific set of authorities and institutions,
• with missions set up in conformity with
  principles of the hori-zontal 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
  administra-tion 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
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The Concept of Public Administration

• 3 / 7
• The absolute monarchies of the 18th century
  lacked however an im-portant 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 / panstwo 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 im-plementation of provisions of
  the statutes and other sources of law.

dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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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 pro-tection of
citizen rights against uncontrolled discretion of
state power, has opened room for the judicial
control of public admi-nistration. 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.
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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 enfor-cement, as
its basic role is providing to the public
neces-sary services in diverse fields of the
governments activity. Public administration is
sometimes defined as an organisa-tional 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.
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The Concept of Public Administration

• 6 / 7
• In the contemporary liberal democratic state,
  based upon lega-lity and market economy, public
  administration belongs to the most important
  elements of the whole system of social
  organi-sation. 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
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The Concept of Public Administration
7 / 7
Political system
Law
Market economy
Public administration
Civil society (citizens)
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat
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The Concept of Public Administration
Polish scholar Jacek Jagielski The principle of
legality, the fundamental principle go-verning
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 strict-ly 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.
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Concluding Remark
If it is dangerous to suppose that government is
always right, it will sooner or later be awkward
for public admini-stration if most people suppose
that it is always wrong. John Kenneth Galbraith
dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat