The Emergence Of Administration In America And Its Role In Modern State

This midterm is cumulative, meaning you are asked to utilize all of the materials from our first 4 module readings. Before starting your midterm, please review the following. T

? Public administration terminology, concepts and authors should be used frequently
? You will need to provide complete responses to 3 questions, points are noted on each question.
o Page numbers are provided as a guide
? You are required to incorporate 2 citations by authors from the classics book or from scholarly articles in each answer.
o You will lose 5pts per question, if two citations are not added in-text and at the end of your midterm
o You may create one reference list for all of your midterm OR you may create a difference reference list for each quest

Influence of British administration on the United States

The emergence of administration in America were designed in a similar pattern to that of Britain. United States derived its institution of administration from Great Britain. The local governments in the United States were structured in pattern, which resembled more or less like the seventeenth century English model. The administration at that time was decentralised, squirearchy dominated and self-governmental. This is why the system was ready to adapt to the then economic and social situation of the new world. Until this date the administrative structure of the United States are greatly influenced by the English model (Dunleavy, 2014). The role of administration in case of a modern state in widely influenced by the political and the cultural environment which prevails and it is very evident in the way public administration has been designed. The school of philosophies like Laissez faire, which existed at the time administration was designed, was of the opinion that the restriction of the activities of the state were to be minimised (Waldo, 2017). The external protection and police was reduced to such an extent that the administration was restricted in scope and the operations were very feeble. Bureaucracy was considered to be the imminent danger and officialdom the ultimate evil. The government, which were able to deny the wishes of the public within large limits (Goodnow, 2017). Sometimes the government did not even arranged for any program, which could create any social development rather contributed to the notion of the argument which revolved around the non-intervention by the state (Nabatchi, 2010). The contemporary writers or researchers never presented the administration as a branch of science. In the present century, the interest in creating a systematic knowledge on this subject has been initiated. There existed controversies among the political writers regarding issues like nature of the state, dominative prerogative, popular power and many others. The main question, which arose from these controversies, were how should law be administrated with the help of equity, enlightenment and speed (Dahl, 2018). There were various significances in case of the twentieth century public administration. The public expenditure at that time was rapidly increasing, the revenue raised for municipal, national purposes and state amounted to $2,131,402,000 in the year 1922 where as in 1912 it was $ 6,346,332,000. The increase in percentage was accounted to be 198%. The other economic indicators such as per capital revenue, total net expenditure by the federal government etc. reached its peak within the year of 1920-22. There were huge differences between the administrative methods of the democratic and the autocratic government. There were various methods of administration, which were employed in the hostile nations for controlling the supply of food and furnish the illustration of both the democratic d autocratic approach to a particular issue (Shafritz, Borick, Russell & Hyde, 2016).

The role of administration in modern states

An organised structure of the public sector comprises of properly defined patterns or activities in which each series of action is functionally associated with the purpose of the organisation. In a bureaucratic structure, the series of offices are integrated in which several privileges and obligations are closely defined with the help of specific rules. The power off control in such systems are vested upon the authority, which has the controlling power over the entire system (Stinchcombe, 2017).  The authority is the power of control, which is derived from an acknowledged status which inheres in the offices and not in the particular person who is given the designation. The ideal and perfect type of such formal organisation in the bureaucracy. In bureaucracy, there exists a clear cult distinction of the integrated activities, which are considered to be the activities inherent in the office. The system of controls, which are practises in the Bureaucratic structure often, exhibit differentiated control and sanctions, which are clearly stated in the regulation itself (Weber, 2015). The assignment of roles in the bureaucratic structure are done on the basis of the technical potential and qualification and are achieved through impersonal and  formal procedures. In the hierarchical arrangement of the authorities the activities of the experts are governed purely on the basis of the generalised abstracts and refers to rules which include the need for the issue of specific instruction subjected to each of the particular case.

Bureaucracy is a mechanism of a secondary group, which is specifically designed to function in some specific activities (Weaver & Rockman, 2010). Without the bureaucracy functioning well these activities could not have been performed satisfactorily just only relying upon the primary group criterion. The bureaucrats are place in high positions in the bureaucratic structure. Irrespective of the bureaucrats position in the hierarchy he acts and behaves as a representative of prestige and power on behalf of entire structure of bureaucracy. There are various roles, which is vested upon the bureaucrats due to his official role. His designation provides him with certain authorities, which may create a dominating attitude in him and may result as an exaggeration of the discrepancies, which exists between his designation within the hierarchy and that of the public (West, 2016). The bureaucracy can be defined as the secondary formal group where the normal responses are associated within a network of social expectation, which are primarily supported or assisted by the right attitude of the member of the group. Sometimes the groups of members. The group formed under the system of American bureaucracy is oriented mostly towards the secondary norms but if there arises any cases of failure to conform to these norms there is a chance that antagonism may arise from those people who have identified themselves as a legit imitate of the group will give rise to antagonism. The widespread disapproval have taken place in cases where there was substitution of personals for impersonal treatments. This system within the  structure has faced widespread disapprovals and are featured with many loopholes or ethical concerns such as nepotism, favouritism, apple- polishing etc. these sort of ‘ automatic resentments’ are clearly evident form the  conditions and requirements of the bureaucratic structure.

Importance of efficiency, effectiveness, and equity in public administration

Bureaucracy is certainly a mechanism of the secondary group and the certain activities which are which are specific to it cannot be performed at all based on the criterions of the primary group. The particular behaviour, which runs counter to this, is the emotionalised disapproval. The emotionalised disapproval is constituted by the functionally important set up of defence, which have the capability of jeopardising the performance of activities, which are socially desirable. These are generally viewed as the perception of the individuals on the and the immediate response, which comes as an immediate response against those persons who are not complying with the rules of the system. These reactions serves mainly the purpose of maintaining a balance between the significant and essential structural elements of the bureaucracy, which assures the need for firming the secondary, formalised relations which can benefit in preventing the disintegration of the bureaucratic structure. The conflict between the bureaucratic clients often emerges from the interaction on impersonal terms in cases where personal treatment is the demand.

The public administration is gradually becoming the core of the problem arising in the modern governmental structure. The legislative body was designed to deal with the governments major issues of areas of difficulties, which was concerned with judgement on the political ethics. Public administration is defined to be the management of material and men in accomplishing the purpose of the nation (Forrer, Kee, Newcomer & Boyer, 2010).  Public administration in academics is defined as the implementation of the policies of the government. It is the action, which is undertaken by the state purposely to determine the actions, which are necessary in pursuit of a purpose. It incorporates a systematic order of affairs and use of appropriate resources.  The excellence in all the dimension of a country can be achieved only if the public administration functions efficiently. The international competition, which exists in the field of trade and industry, can function well in the presence of such system and this is applicable to every facet of the economy. The citizens of a nation always deserves an administrative system, which maintains honesty and efficiency.

There are in general four pillars of public administration, namely economy, effectiveness, efficiency and equity (Forrer et al., 2010). Efficiency, equality and equality are not only important in case of delivering the right service or decision-making but they are equally significant in running a successful public service administration (Riccucci, 2018). Attaining the three goals are not always possible in all the aspects associated with public administration but they are certainly realistic goals. The problems of efficiency are considered to be the main concern at the present context. The governmental control over all sorts of important interests has given rise to a situation where productivity of the highest degree is no longer effective.  These three parameters though are required in every aspect but there role in each of the cases vary from the other parameter and cannot work together at a consistent rate (Bryson, Crosby & Bloomberg, 2014).  To benefit the provision of the public goods they often conflict with each other, this creates a pressure on the policy maker, and the administrator on deciding which factor should be given the most preference (Frederickson, Smith, Larimer & Licari, 2015).

The public administration because of the conflict between these three parameters are often not able achieve its true potentials even if honesty is maintained throughout the process. The role of administration in the present scenario is greatly affected politics and cultural environment, which prevents in the nations and often create difficulties in the path of achieving the desired goals. In general, efficiency in the context of administration is often linked to productivity and achieve the highest quantity of public good produced with the use of available resources in the given time (Forrer et al., 2010). Effectiveness on the other hand is a very obvious thing to be achieved for attaining the desired goal. The last parameter of equity is the most complicated of all, as it refers to the fair and equitable management of all the institution present in the public administration. Maintain all these three is a difficult task for the public administrators and they need to be careful regarding which mix to use (Forrer et al., 2010).   Productivity, attaining desired goals and every operation related to public administrated are three main areas where the parameters are placed.

References:

Bryson, J. M., Crosby, B. C., & Bloomberg, L. (2014). Public value governance: Moving beyond traditional public administration and the new public management. Public Administration Review, 74(4), 445-456.

Dahl, R. A. (2018). The science of public administration: Three problems. In Democracy, bureaucracy, and the study of administration (pp. 60-76). Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Dunleavy, P. (2014). Democracy, bureaucracy and public choice: Economic approaches in political science. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Forrer, J., Kee, J. E., Newcomer, K. E., & Boyer, E. (2010). Public–private partnerships and the public accountability question. Public Administration Review, 70(3), 475-484.

Frederickson, H. G., Smith, K. B., Larimer, C. W., & Licari, M. J. (2015). The public administration theory primer. London, United Kingdom: Westview Press.

Goodnow, F. J. (2017). Politics and administration: A study in government. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Nabatchi, T. (2010). Addressing the citizenship and democratic deficits: The potential of deliberative democracy for public administration. The American Review of Public Administration, 40(4), 376-399.

Riccucci, N. (2018). Managing Diversity In Public Sector Workforces: Essentials Of Public Policy And Administration Series. Abingdon: Routledge.

Shafritz, J. M., Borick, C., Russell, E. W., & Hyde, A. C. (2016). Introducing public administration. Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Stinchcombe, A. L. (2017). Merton’s theory of social structure. In The idea of social structure (pp. 11-33). Abingdon Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Waldo, D. (2017). The administrative state: A study of the political theory of American public administration. Abingdon Oxfordshire: Routledge.

Weaver, R. K., & Rockman, B. A. (Eds.). (2010). Do institutions matter?: government capabilities in the United States and abroad. London, United Kingdom: Brookings Institution Press.

Weber, M. (2015). Bureaucracy. In Working in America (pp. 29-34). Abingdon Oxfordshire: Routledge.

West, W. F. (2016). Controlling the Bureaucracy: Institutional Constraints in Theory and Practice: Institutional Constraints in Theory and Practice. Abingdon Oxfordshire: Routledge.