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Summary Understanding Public Administration - de Vries
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Summary Understanding Public Administration1 Introduction: Understanding Public Administration
Every regime, whether it is a religious state, a monarchy, a democracy or a military regime, is in need
of an organization – administrative, advisory and executing – that provides (semi-)public goods
through policies and programmes and ensures that people contribute to that provision through taxes
and/or participative contributions. The growth of governmental outlays and revenues related to GDP
is enormous, and the twentieth century saw extremely dramatic growth.
The public sector is the major employer and largest sector in all states, and in many regions it is also
the largest debtor. Public administration as an academic discipline is centrally concerned with the
organization of government policies and programs as well as the behaviour of officials (usually non-
elected) formally responsible for their conduct.
Defining Public Administration according to Wilson: PA distinguished from the disciplines of politics
and of law, emphasizing that it is a means of putting politics into practice, implementing laws, and
organizing and managing the public sector.
Defining Public Administration according to the latin meaning: serving the public good. PA I the
discipline that studies how the public sector does serve the public good through developing and
implementing public policies and what is needed to conduct this business in an efficient, effective,
legitimate and rational way, in order to optimize serving the public good.
Herbert Simon developed the theory on bounded rationality. Simon challenged the basic economic
assumption that self-interested actors will always try to make optimal choices in terms of the costs
and benefits for themselves. Simon presented an alternative: most people, including public officials,
will settle for decisions that are ‘satisficing’; decisions where the benefits outweigh the costs even
though other choices are more profitable.
Public Administration is a discipline district from political science, law, economics and sociology.
2 Why do governments exist and why study them?
Which public goods are provided as well as how they are provided depends in part on the type of
political regime. Four types of political regimes are distinguished: the palace type (kingdoms), the
temple type (religious states), the club type (interest group dominance) and the forum type
(democracies). Nowadays regimes are more commonly mixed. Al the different types need some
organizational capacity or an administrative apparatus.
State and government
A state is broader than a government in that it consists of a population, a territory, a government and
sovereignty. Government is a part of a state. A state is also typically a nation, and both term are used
here.
The state (or nation)
A nation-state comprises all of its inhabitants, but not all inhabitants are part of its government.
People rarely protest against their nation-state, but they do against their government.
1
,Territory
Although most territories are delineated within nations, in South East Asia the ownership of some
islands is still disputed between sometimes powerful nations.
Population
The population can be defined as a group of persons who live on a commonly shared territory, but
also more specifically as a group of people who share complementary communication habits, at least
part of a common culture and language, have a common understanding of many thing and attach
shared meaning to words. Sometimes belonging to the population depends on where one is born; at
other times the nationality in the passport is the determining factor.
Sovereignty
Most nations are recognized by other nations. This constitutes external sovereignty: independence
and the right to self-government. Internal sovereignty refers to the authority over a territory to rule
and make and enforce laws. Authority refers to a claim of legitimacy by which one’s power or right to
give orders, make decisions and/or enforce obedience is support.
Charismatic authority: sometimes the claim of legitimacy can be found in an individual’s or
organizatoin’s ability to do what is advantageous for the state, be it on the basis of one’s wisdom,
strength, skills, knowledge, past behaviour or even height or body type.
In other cases the claim of legitimacy is based on tradition. In such tradition authority the person
with authority is the anointed leader by virtue of being the heir of a dynasty or by divine command.
Authority does not necessarily have to be assigned to an individual. It can also lie in rules and laws
and it can be based on a position that allows anyone occupying that position to exercise authority
based on that law.
Government
A government, as a constituting element of a nation-state, is defined as the totality of political and
administrative organizations and institutions within that nation, authorized to allocate collectively
binding values and services. The government system plays a crucial role in developing, deciding upon,
executing and enforcing public policies and thus steering a nation’s social-economic development.
Why people transfer authority to government
Nature of humankind: it is in our DNA to organize ourselves and to establish hierarchical relations in
the best interests of all the people involved. This idea suggest that rules will be considered legitimate
as long as they take care of the interests of the ruled.
Social identitiy theory: people need to identify with a group for their self-esteem, and hierarchy and
power within these groups are accepted as long as this contributes to their identity vis-à-vis other
groups.
Social dominance theory: views humans as having a biological drive for social inequality and an
evolutionary past that predisposes them towards hierarchy and competition between groups.
Social justification theory: assumes that individuals need social structures in order to legitimize them.
Individuals want to support the status quo and to see it as being there for good reasons.
2
, Not all problems are individual problems: many problems are shared by groups of individuals.
Collective fear and necessitated group action, including organization and management established to
counter the problems. This collective action often resulted in some form of government because
organization requires leadership. The need for collective action is the most basic reason for an
organization: organizations exist to fulfil purposes that a group of individuals have in common.
The evolution of civilization: increasing population density – more people living together in a small
space – gave rise to more collective problems and conflicts and the need of an authority to solve
those problems and conflicts. Because of cities’ increasing size, functions previously handled within
the family were transferred to non-kinship structures (structural differentiation). Initially
governments built and maintained armies, built city walls to defend the cities from outside threats
ect.
Religious convictions: many believed that states and nations emerged and leaders were chosen
based on divine power. This resulted in a religious state. Their authority was based on divine
command, and the actions of the worldly leader as well as of the population were subject to their
judgement.
Forced on people: forced on people by other people through violent actions or the threat of such
violence. From a historical perspective – and with the benefit of handsight – this reason is perhaps
the most realistic explanation for the emergence of nations, states and governments.
The establishment of governments resulted in organized states. History shows that building
legitimacy solely on brute force is not only unreliable, but it is ultimately detrimental for the
oppressed as well as for those in power. Today, governments still find legitimacy on primarily to
shame five grounds.
The logic of collective action
A government produces public goods, through collectively binding decisions for the benefit of all, to
which all citizens are expected to contribute and from which all citizens benefit. The production of
public goods is highly controversial simply by virtue of the fact that they are public. When a problem
cannot be or is not handled by individuals or groups of individuals themselves, when many
individuals have an interest in the resolution of the problem and when government is expected to
find an efficient and effective solution, the pressure for collective goods provided by the government
increases.
Excludable goods: only the people who pay for them are able to enjoy their benefits.
Non-excludable: public goods. Goods that cannot feasibly be withheld from individuals in a group if
there are others in the group who are able to consume/use them.
Rivalrous: most private goods: one person’s use of them decreases the quantity available for
someone else
Non-rivalrous: public goods. Many people can consume them or use them without diminishing their
value or exhausting their supply.
Public goods require a collective contribution. Everyone is supposed to contribute to the creation and
maintenance of that public good, even if they do not profit form it individually.
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