B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 4 Political Science (Public Administration) 2017 Dec Question Paper with Solutions

Two schools of thought

The common-core school. Henri Fayol held that management "plays a very important part in the government of undertakings: of all undertakings, large or small, industrial, commercial, political, religious or any other". He added that "All undertakings require planning, organization, command, co-ordination and control". Luther Gulick's POSDCORB (1937) listed seven functions that any chief executive performs, public or private. On this view the two kinds of administration differ only in setting, not in kind.

The difference school. Paul Appleby, in Big Democracy (1945), titled his first chapter "Government Is Different". He found three marks that set government apart: "breadth of scope, impact, and consideration; public accountability; political character". He wrote that "Other institutions, admittedly, are not free from politics, but government is politics."

The sound view takes something from each. The techniques are largely shared, but the setting, purposes and constraints of public administration are different enough to change how those techniques are used.

5. Equality of treatment. Article 14 forbids the State to deny any person equality before the law or to act arbitrarily. A ration shop must serve every eligible card-holder on the same terms. A private shop may give discounts to favoured customers and refuse others.

6. Scale and impact. A government decision on taxes, prices or roads affects millions, often for decades. Appleby's "breadth of scope, impact, and consideration" means that government must weigh every interest. A business serves a defined market and can ignore those outside it.

7. Finance. Public money comes from taxes and borrowing. Article 265 requires authority of law for every tax, and Article 114(3) requires an appropriation by law for every withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund. Spending is audited after the event. A private firm raises and spends its own money as its board decides.

8. Market position. Many public services, such as policing, passports and land records, have no competitor. The citizen cannot go elsewhere. Private firms usually face competition, which pushes them to cut costs and please customers.

The efficiency argument

It is often said that private administration is simply more efficient. W. F. Willoughby (1927) tested this common belief. He traced it to two claims. One was that government work is run by people chosen for political rather than technical reasons. The other was that government lacks the profit motive that drives a business to economise. He accepted that both claims had some force. But he concluded that their influence "is much overestimated". In his view the legislature should act as "the board of directors of the government as an operating organization". It should demand from the administration the same businesslike management that shareholders demand from a company. Merit recruitment, sound organisation and good financial control can make public work efficient. The real difference is that public efficiency must be achieved within the limits of law, equality and accountability.

Why the core differences survive

The convergence has limits. Only government exercises the coercive power of the State: it can tax, arrest, acquire land and punish. Bodies that the government controls are also bound by the fundamental rights. In Ajay Hasia v. Khalid Mujib Sehravardi, AIR 1981 SC 487, a society running an engineering college was held to be "the State" under Article 12. Governments appointed its members, funded it entirely, approved its rules, scrutinised its accounts and could direct it. The test was substance, not form. So whenever government is in control, the public law duties of fairness and equality follow, whatever business methods are used.

Comparison table

Conclusion. Public and private administration share the techniques of management, as Fayol and Gulick showed, but Appleby was right that "Government Is Different". They differ in purpose, legal basis, political direction and accountability. They also differ in equality of treatment, scale of impact, finance, market position, personnel and procedure, and in how success is measured. Willoughby found the claim of private superiority in efficiency "much overestimated". Since the 1980s the line has moved through business methods, partnerships and the transfer of enterprises such as Air India in 2022. Yet the coercive power of the State and the public law duties confirmed in Ajay Hasia keep the core differences alive.