MSG Team's other articles

11076 Role of Communication and Relationship for a Healthy Organization Culture

The ideologies, principles, rules and policies of an organization form its culture. The ways the employees interact amongst themselves and with others outside the organization contribute to the culture of the workplace. The culture gives an identity to the organization and makes it distinct from others. Communication and relationship play an important role in a […]

9840 Importance of Ethics

Most of us would agree that it is ethics in practice that makes sense; just having it carefully drafted and redrafted in books may not serve the purpose. Of course all of us want businesses to be fair, clean and beneficial to the society. For that to happen, organizations need to abide by ethics or […]

12302 An Important Advice to Future Leaders – Your Organization is only as Strong as the Weakest Link

In this interconnected and integrated business landscape, aspiring leaders would be well advise to follow the simple rule that their organization is as strong as the weakest link and hence, they must ensure that all parts of the complex supply chain that make up their organization are equally strong. We can explain this by use […]

11985 Why Intrinsic Motivation Matters More Now In the Times of the Great Resignation

What is Intrinsic Motivation and how does it tie in with the Great Resignation? Among the different types of motivation, Intrinsic Motivation, or the ability of individuals to motivate themselves according to their inner needs and higher selves, matters more than ever in the present Post Pandemic Times. This is because due to WFH or […]

10780 Non-Profits: Program Evaluation and Monitoring

The need for program evaluation and monitoring Though the non-profits sector is not a sector where each pie of money spent needs to be accounted for under the law, nonetheless, since donor funds are involved, there is a need to evaluate the programs and monitor them for leakages and fraud or even for the simple […]

Search with tags

  • No tags available.

We have read about the dichotomy between the politics and administration. Subsequently, we also read about how the later authors and subject matter experts opposed the earlier dichotomy and insisted that politics and administration cannot be viewed in isolation. In this section let us try to understand the relationship between the politics and administration.

According to the political scientist James Pfiffner, the politics and administration are so closely knit together that it becomes difficult to draw the line where one ends and the other begins. Politics is the study of power which is the latest definition of the term. According to Raymond Aron, politics is the study of authority relations between the individual and groups and the hierarchy power which establishes itself within all numerous and complex communities. As per this definition, since, power is kind of omnipresent, it is safe to assume that it has an important say in the matters of public administration as well.

Another important figure in the field was Dwight Waldo, an American political scientist and a prominent figure in the area of modern public administration. In his book: The administrative state: a study of the political theory of American public administration, he explains an interesting phenomenon regarding the evolution of reforms in civil services in USA. The principal concern of early civil service reformers was not greater administrative efficiency but was cleansing and promoting democracy. The primary issue was not increasing efficiency but was protecting and building moral.

There is no argument regarding the fact that public administration emerged as a discipline of political science, the former deals with the output of the Government machinery and the latter with the input. It can also be put as such that, political science provides the framework within which public administration functions. From the academic perspective, both these subjects share a number of common areas of study like constitutional law, administrative law, delegated legislation, government budgeting and local governments amongst many other. So, a comprehensive understanding of both the subjects is mutually inclusive to each other, to learn one, the other has to be mastered as well.

Another important academic field from which public administration heavily borrows and is deeply influenced is the Sociology. It is a branch of study which deals with social order, change, class, conflict, problems, associations and institutions. According to Marshal Edward Dimock, administration takes place in a social setting and it is the society which determines the pattern of administration. He goes ahead and adds that through an administrative leadership however, the society itself can be changed for good. He says that the job of a public administrator is not mere administration but that of a social engineer who can bring about desirable changes in the society.

In the modern times, the various activities which the society governed and administered itself like community welfare, health, security etc have been taken over by the Government and public administration departments. The social control has been replaced by administrative controls and hence, it makes sense for the public administrators to be in sync with societal goals.

We have constantly been referring to diverse subjects to understand public administration better; the reader is now in a position to understand the relevance, importance and vastness of this subject which has an immediate and direct interaction with us in our everyday lives.

Article Written by

MSG Team

An insightful writer passionate about sharing expertise, trends, and tips, dedicated to inspiring and informing readers through engaging and thoughtful content.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Articles

Comparative Public Administration

MSG Team

The Closed and Open Models of Public Administration

MSG Team

Classical Theory of Public Administration

MSG Team