Modern public administration
Mppsc Mains Gs Paper 2 Part A Unit 5
Modern public administration is an anti-positivist,anti technical and anti hierarchical reaction against traditional public administration.
- This movement of New Public Administration was initiated by a new generation of researchers mainly in the United States.
- The delegates to the Minnowbrook conference in the US led by eminent scholars and researcher Dwight Waldo came up with a new approach replacing the traditional managerial approach to public administration.
Need for New Public Administration
- During World War II the conditions of political and administrative affairs in the United States was marked by the weakness of the theory of Politics-administration dichotomy in its traditional public administration.
- After World War II a number of nations emerged in the name of third world countries, they were facing a number of problems like poverty, unemployment, nation building, backwardness etc. They needed the Rapid development of their economy, the industrial and agricultural sector. There was a crisis after the Second World War. The Western model( the traditional managerial administration) failed to overcome this crisis in third world Nations.
- It was the period of 1960. This was known as a period of crisis and turmoil in the socio economic aspect of the United States. There was huge unemployment and the traditional public administration was almost given up to resolve these problems.
So as a result in order to respond to these problems a new approach of public administration evolves.The approach was called New Public Administration.
Difference between old and new public administration
| Sr. no. | Traditional | Morden |
| 1. | Structural and Rigid | Flexible and dynamic |
| 2. | focus on principal and maintain the status quo. | change oriented |
| 3. | profit oriented | client oriented |
The modern public administration focuses on –
- Flexibility means it gives less focus on bureaucratic structure.
- It believes in change means public administration will change when socio economic aspects of a nation are changed.
- It is client oriented means public administration is more concerned about service to the people ( your client me common man/ people)
Major Landmark of New Public Administration
- Honey report 1967
- Philadelphia conference 1967
- Minnowbrook conference 1968
- Important Publications
Description
- The Honey report presented by John C Honey identifies four issues of public administration.
- The Philadelphia conference discussed the theoretical and practical aspects of public administration.
- The main purpose of the Minnowbrook conference was to discuss the new theories of Public Administration and to identify how to give more importance to the public part of public administration.
- Important Publications
- Dwight Waldo – Public administration in the time of revolution (1968).
- Dwight Waldo – Public administration in the time of turbulence (1971).
- George Frederickson – New Public Administration (1980).
Dwight Waldo is considered to be the father of New Public Administration.
Anti goals of New Public Administration
- Anti positivist – It means New Public Administration does not accept the definition of public administration as value free and tries to make public administration more flexible and dynamic and properly involved in public policy.
- Anti technical – It means New Public Administration rejects the technical and structural analysis of traditional public administration, and it puts in efforts to implement the human aspect in the study of public administration.
- Anti hierarchical – Hierarchy kills creativity and innovation and brings rigidities.New Public Administration is keen to make Bureaucracy more flexible and more functional.
Goals/ principles of New Public Administration
- Relevance – Traditional public administration has too little interest in contemporary problems and issues. social realities must be taken into consideration i.e people should see changes as relevant meaning thereby that changes should be specific to the needs of the area and the needs of people.
- Social equity – One of the goals of Public Administration is to establish equality in the society. The new public administration thinks that the main goal of Public Administration is to alleviate the economic, social and psychological suffering of the people.
- Change – The new public administration thinks that social integration needs a change, and wants to break the perpetual institutions that are slowly emerging as the centre of power in the society. This new movement of Public Administration is trying to find out how to fight against institutionalism and Bureaucracy in the society.
- Client orientation – Client refers to the citizens. The primary goal of the New Public Administration is to provide satisfactory services to the citizens of the region.
- Values – Value neutrality in the public administration is an impossibility. The values being served through administrative action must be transparent.
Features of New Public Administration
- It is a value based concept which is evitable.
- It is more oriented towards changing reality.
- It is more flexible and dynamic.
- It has more influence in policy making, that can improve quality of working life as well as be more competent to implement such policies.
- It is also more citizen oriented.
- It assures people’s participation in the decision making process of public administration.
