Dressing and Personality Development
Personality development helps in the overall development of an individual. An individual’s style of dressing plays an important role in enhancing his/her personality. It is rightly said that “a man is known by his dress and address”. An individual’s dressing sense speaks volumes of his character and personality. You really need to know what you […]
The Process of Corporate Decision Making
Corporate decision making happens at various levels in organizations and can be top down or bottom up. The difference between these two styles of decision making is that the top down decision making is done at the higher levels of the hierarchy and the decisions are passed down the corporate ladder to be implemented. On […]
Risk Management as a Profession
Risk management has evolved from being just a discipline to a full-fledged profession that lots of people are choosing these days. Reason, the discipline has become wider and has assumed manifold dimensions making it a crucial function in organizations these days. No wonder there is an increasing number of universities that offer specialized courses on […]
How Corporates Must Handle the Wave of #MeToo Allegations and Their Fallout
The #MeToo Movement Reaches India and Spreads Worldwide In recent weeks, the #MeToo movement, which encourages women to “speak up” on their harassment at the workplace and end the culture of “silence”, has been all over the place, both in India and the United States. Indeed, this trend of “naming and shaming” the men who […]
Crisis Management Plan
Crisis refers to a sequence of unwanted events leading to major disturbances and uncertainty at the workplace. Crisis is an unexpected event which not only causes harm to the organization but also triggers a feeling of fear and insecurity amongst the individuals. Organizations must be prepared well to face inevitable threats and come out of […]
The study of History is often cited as important to understand the present as well as the future. The study of public administration also cannot be complete without understanding the evolution and progress of civilizations.
The Historical approach to public administration focuses on the administrative systems, process and policies practiced in the past and then try to interpret them relevantly in the context of present times. There are two sides of the coin which the scholars have argued, while this approach may provide rich details regarding what worked and what not in the past but authors like John Pierre and B Guy Peters say that the study of history cannot provide any usable information which can be used now and the students of public administration should not have such misconceived notions. The important point to note is that scholars should know when to revisit the past and when to disassociate from it to draw pertinent theories and conclusions.
The study of history of administration does not become any lesser important even in the light of above contrasting argument. It remains important because developments in society over time and ages have a lasting effect on the quality and quantity of public services delivered.
This approach helps the scholars and students to understand that how the Government adjusted its administration and functioning with changing times and what ramifications it had. The study of the past also provides crucial information regarding why some methods, policies, systems etc were adopted and which needs did they address.
With the importance of historical approach established in studies of public administration, we shall now see what the legal approach to public administration was. Taking the legal route to public administration would venture into the formidable legal structure and organization of public bodies. As the name suggests, this approach associated itself with laws, rules, regulations, codes, official duties etc. It also described the power, limitations and discretionary powers of the authority and judicial decisions. Many countries especially in Europe like Germany, France, Belgium and others have adopted the legal route to study public administration.
It works well for these countries as they have two distinct divisions of laws, the constitutional and the other administrative. The constitutional law mainly dealt with the interrelation of power between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the Government while the administrative part concerns itself with the functioning of the public organizations.
The legal approach throws light on the legal framework in which the public administration operates but excludes other important and informal aspects like sociological and psychological dynamics at play and therefore is considered an incomplete approach by many scholars. However there were many other takers for it and in USA, Frank J Goodnow, was an important advocate of this legal approach.
In his book Politics and Administration he challenges Montesquieu’s theory of separation of power in the book Esprit De Lois which proposed three branches of power; legislative, executive and judiciary but highlighted the independence of judiciary from administrative as the sole recognition of judicial power.
According to Goodnow, this in itself was not sufficient and that extreme form of this theory was incapable of application to any concrete political organization. Goodnow and his further work have greatly influenced the way the American Public Administration shaped up in the later years.
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
