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

For full marks, cover: definitions of public administration (Wilson 1887, Goodnow 1900, White 1926, Willoughby 1927) and a working definition; what "scope" means and the main views of it; the POSDCORB view in full: Luther Gulick's question and answer in Papers on the Science of Administration (1937), written for the Brownlow Committee and adapted from Fayol; the seven elements in Gulick's own words, each with an Indian example; what the view implies (the seven may be organised as separate units around the chief executive); its merits; its criticisms (it ignores subject matter, policy and human relations; it covers only top management; Simon's attack); the subject-matter view and the modern synthesis; a comparison table; a conclusion.

Definitions of public administration

Woodrow Wilson (1887) called administration "government in action". He also wrote: "Public administration is detailed and systematic execution of public law. Every particular application of general law is an act of administration."

What is meant by scope

The scope of public administration means the range of activities it covers and the subjects it studies. Scholars have taken different views. Some take a narrow view of which branches it covers, and some a broad one. Others debate whether it is defined by its common techniques or by its subject matter. The best-known technique-based view is POSDCORB.

The POSDCORB view

Its origin. Luther Gulick was a member of the President's Committee on Administrative Management, the Brownlow Committee, appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt. In his paper "Notes on the Theory of Organization", published in Papers on the Science of Administration (1937), he asked: "What is the work of the chief executive? What does he do?" His answer was: "The answer is POSDCORB."

He explained that POSDCORB "is, of course, a made-up word designed to call attention to the various functional elements of the work of a chief executive". He coined it "because 'administration' and 'management' have lost all specific content". He also acknowledged that his statement was "adapted from the functional analysis elaborated by Henri Fayol".

The seven elements, in Gulick's words

6. Reporting: "keeping those to whom the executive is responsible informed as to what is going on, which thus includes keeping himself and his subordinates informed through records, research and inspection". In India: annual reports of ministries and answers to questions in Parliament.

7. Budgeting: "with all that goes with budgeting in the form of fiscal planning, accounting and control". In India: preparing the Union Budget and controlling expenditure through the Finance Ministry.

What the view implies. Gulick drew a practical conclusion. "If these seven elements may be accepted as the major duties of the chief executive, it follows that they may be separately organized as subdivisions of the executive." He added that "The need for such subdivision depends entirely on the size and complexity of the enterprise." This reasoning supported the Brownlow Committee's call for staff help around the President. That call led to the Executive Office of the President under the Reorganization Act of 1939. In India, the Cabinet Secretariat, the Department of Personnel and the Ministry of Finance perform several of these functions for the government as a whole.

Merits of the POSDCORB view

3. It ignores policy-making. Paul Appleby argued in Big Democracy (1945) that "government is politics" and that administrators help to make policy. POSDCORB treats administration as a set of neutral techniques, as if policy came from elsewhere.

4. It ignores human relations. The Hawthorne studies, begun in 1924, showed that informal groups, morale and motivation shape work. POSDCORB has no place for them.

5. It rests on doubtful principles. Herbert Simon, in "The Proverbs of Administration" (1946), argued that the classical principles were proverbs that contradicted one another. He held that a science of administration must start from the study of decisions, not from lists of functions.

6. It is static. It describes what an executive does, not how the organisation adapts to change, the public and its environment.

The subject-matter view and the synthesis

Against POSDCORB stands the subject-matter view. It holds that the scope of public administration is the substantive services of government: defence, police, health, education, agriculture and the rest. Each has its own knowledge and problems.

Conclusion. Public administration is the organised work of carrying out the laws and policies of the State, in Wilson's phrase "government in action", and the study of that work. Gulick set out the POSDCORB view in 1937 for the Brownlow Committee, adapting it from Fayol. It defines the scope by the seven functions of the chief executive. These are Planning, Organising, Staffing, Directing, Co-ordinating, Reporting and Budgeting. It gave the discipline a clear and universal core and shaped staff organisation around chief executives. But it ignores subject matter, lower levels, policy and human relations, as Appleby, the Hawthorne studies and Simon showed. The modern scope therefore combines POSDCORB's techniques with the substance and setting of each service.