Public administration

Public administration is both an academic discipline and a field of practice; the latter is depicted in this picture of U.S. federal public servants at a meeting.

Public administration or public policy and administration is the academic discipline that studies how public policy is created and implemented. It is also the subfield of political science that studies policy processes and the structures, functions, and behavior of public institutions and their relationships with a broader society. The study and application of public administration are founded on the principle that the proper functioning of an organization or institution relies on effective management.

Public administration has been described as "the management of public programs";[1] the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day";[2] the study of government decision-making; the analysis of policies, and the various inputs that have produced them; and the inputs necessary to produce alternative policies.[3]

The mid-twentieth century saw the ascendancy of German sociologist Max Weber's theory of bureaucracy, and with it a substantive interest in the theoretical aspects of public administration. The 1968 Minnowbrook Conference, convened at Syracuse University under the leadership of Dwight Waldo, gave rise to the concept of New Public Administration, a pivotal movement within the discipline today.[4]

  1. ^ Robert and Janet Denhardt. Public Administration: An Action Orientation. 6th Ed. 2009: Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont CA.
  2. ^ Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. The Politics of the Administrative Process. Washington D.C.: CQ Press.
  3. ^ Jerome B. McKinney and Lawrence C. Howard. Public Administration: Balancing Power and Accountability. 2nd Ed. 1998: Praeger Publishing, Westport, CT. p. 62
  4. ^ O'Leary, Rosemary (2011). "Minnowbrook: Tradition, Idea, Spirit, Event, Challenge". Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. 21 (1): i1–i6. Retrieved 2024-02-17.

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