KSLU Solved Question Papers
Political Science (Public Administration)
Previous Year Question Paper with Solution
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) · Sem 4
2019 Jun Examination
munotes.in
Mumbai
B.A. LL.B. (Five Years) Sem 4 Political Science (Public Administration) 2019 Jun Question Paper with Solutions
First published on munotes.in on 21 October 2026.
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Contents
The questions below are the paper as Karnataka State Law University set it at the 2019 Jun examination, in the order it was set.
MarksPage
The Paper as Set
The questions in this volume are the questions asked at the 2019 Jun examination, reproduced as Karnataka State Law University set them, in the order it set them. Long reading passages are shortened to their first and last lines and our summary; the original paper prints them in full. Only the answers are ours. See the original question paper.
Duration 3 hours · Total marks 100 · 13 questions answered
How to use this volume
Solve the paper first, under exam conditions and against the clock. Then read the answers here and mark your own. Reading a solution before attempting the question feels productive and teaches very little, because recognising an answer is not the same as being able to write one.
Q1Define public administration. Explain the scope and importance of public administration.[16]
Answer
For full marks, cover: definitions of public administration grouped into four approaches: the legal (Wilson, 1887; Goodnow, 1900), the managerial (White, 1926; Gulick, 1937), the broad and narrow (Willoughby, 1927) and the political (Appleby, 1945); a working definition; the scope, traced through the stages of the discipline's growth: the politics-administration dichotomy (1887 to 1926), the principles (1927 to 1937), the challenge (1938 to 1950: Barnard, Simon, Waldo), the New Public Administration (1968), the New Public Management and Reinventing Government (1992), and governance (the World Bank, 1989 and 1992), with the fields of study today; the importance, shown through the Indian Constitution's design (the Directive Principles in Articles 38, 46 and 47; Part XIV on the services; the 73rd and 74th Amendments) and through present challenges; a conclusion.
Definitions: four approaches
1. The legal approach. Woodrow Wilson (1887) wrote that "Public administration is detailed and systematic execution of public law. Every particular application of general law is an act of administration." Frank Goodnow (1900) divided government into "the expression of the will of the state" and "the execution of that will". On this view, administration is the carrying out of the law. Its strength is that it ties administration firmly to legality, and its weakness is that it says little about how the work should be managed.
2. The managerial approach. L. D. White (1926) wrote: "Public administration is the management of men and materials in the accomplishment of the purposes of the state." White noted that this definition "emphasizes the managerial phase of administration and minimizes its legalistic and formal aspect". Luther Gulick (1937) described the work of the chief executive as POSDCORB.
3. The broad and narrow approach. W. F. Willoughby (1927) gave two senses. In the broadest, administration "denotes the work involved in the actual conduct of governmental affairs, regardless of the particular branch of government concerned". In the narrowest, it denotes "the operations of the administrative branch only".
4. The political approach. Paul Appleby, in Big Democracy (1945), insisted that "government is politics". Administrators help to make policy and cannot be separated from the political process.
A working definition. Public administration is the organised work of carrying out the laws and policies of the State through public officials and agencies. It works under political direction and public accountability. It also names the study of that work.
Scope: how the discipline grew
The scope of public administration has widened with each stage in the growth of the subject.
1. The politics-administration dichotomy, 1887 to 1926. Wilson held that "administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics. Administrative questions are not political questions." The early scope was the efficient execution of policy made by others. White's textbook of 1926 belongs to this stage.
2. The principles, 1927 to 1937. Willoughby's Principles of Public Administration (1927) and Mooney and Reiley's work (1931, 1939) belong to this stage. So do Gulick and Urwick's Papers on the Science of Administration (1937). All of them tried to state universal principles. The scope became the principles of organisation and management, summed up in POSDCORB.
3. The challenge, 1938 to 1950. Chester Barnard's The Functions of the Executive (1938) brought in informal organisation and the acceptance of authority. Herbert Simon's "The Proverbs of Administration" (1946) attacked the principles as contradictory, and his Administrative Behavior (1947) made decision-making central. Dwight Waldo's The Administrative State (1948) challenged the separation of politics and administration. The scope widened to human behaviour, decisions and values.
4. The New Public Administration, 1968. At the first Minnowbrook Conference, held from 3 to 7 September 1968, young scholars called for relevance, values, social equity and change. The scope came to include the impact of administration on citizens, especially the disadvantaged.
5. The New Public Management. From the 1980s, governments borrowed business methods: performance targets, contracting out and competition. Osborne and Gaebler's Reinventing Government (1992) called for an "entrepreneurial" government. The scope came to include markets, results and the citizen as customer.
6. Governance. The World Bank's study of Sub-Saharan Africa in 1989 spoke of "a crisis of governance". Its Governance and Development (1992) defined governance as "the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's economic and social resources for development". The scope now includes the partnership of government with markets and civil society, transparency and accountability.
Two views of scope. Throughout these stages, two views competed. The POSDCORB view defined the scope by the common techniques of management, the same in every department. The subject-matter view replied that administration is always the administration of something, such as police, health or education. So the substance of each service belongs to the subject too. The modern scope accepts both: common techniques and the knowledge of each field.
The fields of study today. As a result, public administration now covers organisation, personnel administration and financial administration. It also covers public policy, administrative law and the control of administration, local government and decentralisation, comparative and development administration, and ethics, governance and accountability.
Importance: as the Indian Constitution shows
The Constitution itself shows how much depends on public administration.
1. The Directive Principles. Article 38(1) directs the State to "promote the welfare of the people" by securing a social order based on "justice, social, economic and political". Article 46 directs it to promote "with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people". Article 47 makes it a duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health. None of these duties can be performed without a large and capable administration. Each Directive Principle is, in effect, a programme of administrative work: schools to be run, health centres to be staffed and food to be distributed.
2. Part XIV on the services. The Constitution gives the civil service a secure place. Article 309 provides for recruitment rules, Article 311 protects civil servants against arbitrary dismissal, and Article 312 provides for All India Services. Articles 315 to 323 establish independent Public Service Commissions. A constitution that protects its administrators so carefully treats administration as essential to the republic.
3. Decentralisation. The 73rd and 74th Amendments brought panchayats and municipalities into the constitutional scheme. Panchayats may be given powers over the 29 matters in the Eleventh Schedule and municipalities over the 18 in the Twelfth. Administration now reaches every village and ward.
4. Accountability. The Comptroller and Auditor-General under Articles 148 and 151, ministerial responsibility under Article 75(3), and judicial review keep administration answerable. These checks matter only because administration matters so much.
5. Continuity and nation-building. Governments change, but the administration carries on. At independence, the services held the new State together. Sardar Patel told the Constituent Assembly on 10 October 1949 that without their loyal work in the previous two or three years, "the Union would have collapsed".
6. Development. The Planning Commission, set up on 15 March 1950, guided twelve Five-Year Plans up to 2017. NITI Aayog replaced it on 1 January 2015. Development in India has been, above all, an administrative task.
7. Present challenges. Disasters, epidemics, climate change, digital services and the regulation of new markets have all added to the tasks of public administration. Online delivery of certificates and payments, for example, needs administrators who can design systems as well as run offices. Every new task raises the importance of a capable public service. The welfare of crores of people depends on how well these tasks are done.
Conclusion. Public administration is the organised work of carrying out the laws and policies of the State, under political direction and public accountability. It is also the study of that work. Its definitions range from Wilson's "systematic execution of public law" and White's "management of men and materials" to Willoughby's broad and narrow senses and Appleby's "government is politics". Its scope has grown from the dichotomy and the principles, through the challenge of Barnard, Simon and Waldo. It then took in the New Public Administration, the New Public Management and governance. Its importance is written into the Constitution: in the Directive Principles, in Part XIV on the services, in decentralisation and in accountability. Present challenges only add to it.
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