Title: Public Administration and the Future
1Public Administration and the Future
- Lecture 19 Administrative Processes in
Government
2Introduction
- Today, public administration stands at a
crossroads. - The immediate problem of American public
administrative practice and theory is to
integrate or sort out the values, structural, and
procedural arrangements associated with the
traditional managerial, political, legal, and new
public management perspectives.
3Complexity Is Here to Stay.
- Contemporary public administration is amazingly
complex and it is become more complicated all the
time.
4Complexity Is Here to Stay.
- Public administrative activities range from trash
collection to space exploration, from regulation
of complex economies to helping economies move
beyond subsistence farming, from biomedical
technologies to census taking. - The essence of public administration is dealing
with relationships among political, economic,
social, ethical, organizational, managerial,
legal, scientific, and technological values and
systems at both the microlevels and macrolevels.
5Dominant Public Administration Will Be Defined by
Politics
- Historically, American public administration has
always been defined by dominant political groups,
parties, or coalitions. - Government by gentlemen.
- Jacksonian Revolution.
- Progressive movement.
- New Deal.
- Administrative Procedure Act of 1946.
- National Performance Review.
6Dominant Public Administration Will Be Defined by
Politics
- The reality that politics have always defined
dominant administrative practice in the United
States is only thinly veiled by reformers
typical claims that their programs for change are
apolitical. - The successful advocacy of major administrative
change in the United States has always been part
of the overall program or vision of those in or
gaining political power.
7Dominant Public Administration Will Be Defined by
Politics
- The New Public Management offers one prospect for
change. - Another prospect is the reassertion of
congressional influence over the administrative
process through the Government Performance and
Results Act of 1993 and the Small Business
Regulatory Enforcement Act of 1996.
8Law Will Continue to Be Central to Public
Administration
- In 1926, Leonard white correctly assumed that
public administration was more concerned with
management than law. - In 2002, the relative importance of law is much
greater and likely to expand.
9Law Will Continue to Be Central to Public
Administration
- A great number of administrative practices and
activities must now be based on and responsive to
constitutional rights and doctrines, especially
due process and equal protection.
10Law Will Continue to Be Central to Public
Administration
- The courts have been deeply involved in the
operation of some administrative institutions and
systems.
11Law Will Continue to Be Central to Public
Administration
- The courts recently have enforced legal rights
when functions are outsourced Added
constitutional constraints on administrative
action Weakened affirmative action Strengthened
eminent domain, freedom of expression,
contractors rights, and barriers to gender
discrimination And strengthened the power of the
states.
12Performance
- The New Public Managements emphasis on
performance is probably a permanent addition to
the mix of public administrations concerns. - Driven by two changes
- Tax and expenditure limitations at state and
local level. - Globalization makes poor performance more of a
liability.
13Performance
- The need for performance is clear, but
prescriptions for it may be inadequate. - GPRA enhances legislative direction, but invites
micromanagement. - NPR promises to do more with less, but may
stretch administrative flexibility to the limit.
14Disaggregation of Public Administration
- Leonard White assumed that public administration
was a single process. - Most modern public administrators would disagree.
- Separation of powers and federalism.
- Generalization versus specialization.
- No coherent paradigm or conceptual framework.
15Decomposition of the Civil Service
- Disaggregation promotes decomposition of the
civil service. - The concepts of a unified federal, state, or
local employers and a unified civil service are
disappearing. - The radical decentralization implemented by the
U.S. Office of Personnel Management in
conjunction with the NPR places agencies in
charge of their own personnel systems.
16Decomposition of the Civil Service
- Many agencies have gained exemption from Title V
of the U.S. Code, the uniform body of law that
regulates federal employment. - Information technology also promotes
decomposition.
17The Changing Face of Management
- NPM is premised on the belief that as a function
management must change. - NPM regards managers as bottlenecks, placing its
faith in empowered employees, private-public
partnerships, and entrepreneurs. - Information technology is already changing the
need for managers and their functions.
18Personal Responsibility
- There is broad agreement that public
administrators should be held responsible for
their actions. - NPM assumes that employees will be held
accountable for results. - Contemporary constitutional law makes public
administrators legally liable for violations of
constitutional rights.
19Personal Responsibility
- Ethics codes demand that public employees avoid
even the implication of impropriety. - External methods of accountability are being
reinforced with the belief that administrators
should have a personal sense of responsibility. - Often generates conflicts with older, traditional
managerial standards.
20A New Administrative Culture
- Whether public administration moves beyond its
current crossroads, it is likely that a new
administrative culture will emerge. - Public administrators of the future will have to
be more at ease with complexity, law, and
flexibility.
21A New Administrative Culture
- They will be performance oriented, have a strong
service ethic, span boundaries, and be adroit at
conflict avoidance and resolution. - The public sector will increasingly manage
without managers.