Chapter 2 Politics in Public Administration Politics is

Chapter 2 Politics in Public Administration

Politics is concerned with government's use of its legal authority to distribute benefits and costs among members of a society.

What Government Does: The Public Purposes Examples 1 -Protect lives, property, and rights of citizens National defense Antidiscrimination regulations Public health and disease control Police and fire protection 2. Maintain / ensure supply of essential resources. Emergency food supplies Energy aid for poor Water supply 3. Support persons unable to care for themselves. Pensions for retired persons Homes/therapy for disabled Unemployment compensation 4. Promote steady and balanced economic growth. Interest rate regulation Financing for new businesses Employment skills training Transportation facilities Labor/management negotiations

Purposes Examples 5. Promote quality of life and personal opportunity to succeed. Education, early childhood to adult Housing assistance Cultural amenities Recreational facilities 6. Protect natural environment. Conservation of soil and water resources Pollution control Wastes management 7. Promote scientific and technological advancement Subsidies to scientific research Patents for inventions Information dissemination

How Government Organizes to Serve the Public Purposes ? To carry out its mandates, governments organize into departments and agencies with specific legal powers EX. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a mandate to test chemicals currently in use for their effects on human health and the natural environment For these studies it employs a committee of scientists from several National agencies to run whatever tests are necessary and to recommend action to the EPA administrator The agency is then empowered to make rules that carry the force of law that can restrict a chemical use or ban it altogether.

Failures of the Administrative Process Governments do not always succeed in fulfilling these purposes. Administrative shortcomings are also apparent in examples ranging from bacterially or chemically contaminated drinking water to miscalculated unemployment benefits.

The Growth of Government : How and Why? There are many possible explanations for this growth, those are: 1) Factors that make up one category of growth stimulants include industrialization, urbanization, and the rise of technologies that closely link widely dispersed areas. 2) Government programs may also grow from a sense of moral obligation to help the poor and the victims of discrimination.

Public Policy The task of administration is to carry out policies that represent government’s choices of action in a fashion that serves the public purposes

The Cycle of Public Administration

Figure 2 -1 The Wheel of Public Policy

The Tools of Implementation

Table 2 -2 The Essential Tools of Implementation Examples 1. Cash payments to individuals Pensions to retired and disabled persons Support to low-income and unemployed Subsidies to farmers Below-market-rate home and business loans 2. Construction and maintenance of infrastructures Airports, harbors, highways, and streets Mass transit facilities Water and waste treatment facilities Public schools, hospitals, prisons Museums, libraries, sports facilities

3. Provision of services Teaching and counseling Medical and nursing care Delivering mail Public transportation Research and information distribution 4. Regulation of individual and corporate behavior Criminal apprehension and prosecution Restricting use of harmful chemicals Standards for professional practice Land-use zoning and building controls Controls on wages and workplace safety Controls on financial transactions

5. Maintaining capacity to govern Collecting taxes and fees Maintaining own facilities Internal spending controls Hiring and managing personnel Communication within government and to public International diplomacy

Public administration A profession And Many Professions Public administration was defined earlier as the activities of government that determine the supply of goods and services to the public. Let us expand this, in view of the discussion so far in this chapter, into five essential features

First, lawmakers consider the goods and services supplied to be vital to the “common weal, " or public purposes of the nation or community. ü They fear that their loss or mismanagement would gravely damage our lives and property and diminish our opportunities. Second, those who provide these goods and services are accountable to the public or its elected representatives.

Third, this accountability requires a capacity for management: ü ü obtaining and deploying money Personnel Information and , technology for producing these goods and services. Fourth, public administration is based on organizations, primarily governmental ones but also many private associations, from electric utilities to foster homes.

Fifth, because people disagree about how these essential goods and services are distributed, their complaints and demands spark conflict ü Public administration thus becomes political when individuals or groups seek to win and when government organizations use power to apply and enforce their policies.

We can now more fully define public administration as “ The process by which government organizations supply essential goods, services, and regulations, managing resources and resolving conflicts under a mandate of efficiency and fairness, while accounting to the public for both means and outcomes. "

A Sampling of Professions in Government Accountants : Botanists: maintain gardens in public parks, monitor endangered plant species, and experiment with corn genetics. Clergy: conduct religious services and counsel in prisons, hospitals, and the armed forces. Engineers: plan and oversee drainage systems, highway construction, airports, and space flights.

Geologists: locate mineral deposits and seek to forecast earthquakes. Historians: maintain archives and direct museums. International lawyers: advise government on trade, immigration, and military issues.

Librarian's: research issues for government and help children pick out books they are able to read. Mediators help to settle labor management disputes. Pediatricians: care for children in public hospitals and clinics and do research on childhood diseases.

Reading specialists: design public school programs for students with reading disabilities. Systems analysts: set up and manage complex computer and communications networks essential to all units of government. Urban planners: enforce zoning codes and design neighborhood housing rehabilitation programs. Zoologists: manage fish and wildlife sanctuaries and research cattle diseases.

Public Administration Today Specialization and Fragmentation The nature of public administration has changed from clerkship, to profession, to cluster of professions. Despite this specializing and fragmenting of public management, the "generalist' administrator provides a common core. Ø Ø Exercising responsibility for agencies and departments, and making sure that all the specialties act together effectively for the public mission.

Public Administration: A Global Practice Public administration is being transformed by global demands and forces. Those forces include : (1) Economic and technological competition among the different countries compel each country to marshal its resources to increase efficiency and productivity. (2) Each nation must manage its balance of imports and exports for maximum economic health and currency value.

(3) A global governance system of money flows and credit has gradually appeared, tightly linking the governments and private financial institutions of each nation. (4) Governmental relations with multinational corporations and foreign-based investors have proliferated. (5) Public demands have grown for international action to guard the natural environment by controlling toxic wastes

(6) International movement of refugees and immigrants presents challenges of controlling entry- and providing social services. (7) Travel between nations for business, scientific, cultural, educational and pleasure purposes further multiplies interpersonal contacts that require responses by national institutions of all kinds.

(8) Continued efforts by the affluent nations to promote development and relieve distress in the developing countries raise questions of allocation of funds among many worthy causes.