INTERGRATING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION STUDY NOTES
Introduction
Public administration is the organizational structures put in place by the central
government/state to delegate authority to its appointed state officers and civil service
officers; of governing its citizen throughout the country, provide government services,
capture citizen data to prepare legal documents, implement community welfare programs
that bring about societal equality and protect private property legally belonging to its
citizen and retaining public property to the state while maintaining public law and order.
Points of interest
1. Public administration as generic term
2. Public administration as a governmental term
3. Philosophy of Public administration:
Institutional
Protectionist (relative and absolute)
Utilitarian
Theory of justice (basic human rights & social and economic equality)
Approaches to Public administration
a. Formation of Economic entities and Political organizations
b. Philosophical attitudes to public good and Legal approach to community justice
c. Case method reference and Managerial practice in governance
d. Behavioral attitudes in society and Governance Systems for state harmony
e. Empirical versus Normative statistics for decision making
Evolution of Public administration
Stage 1 Politics and administration dichotomy
Stage 2 Principles of administration
Stage 3 Era of change
Stage 4 Crisis of identity
Stage 5 Public policy perspectives
Ferrel Heady’s theories
1. Traditional autocratic bureaucratic system
2. Bureaucratic Elite system
3. Poliarchical comparative system
4. Dominant parity mobilization
5. Communist totalitarian system
Theories of public administration
1. Scientific management
2. F. W. Taylor
Fundamental philosophy
Principles of scientific management
PREPARED BY MR. ANTONY AMBIA Page 1
, Techniques and mechanism of scientific management
Principles of scientific management
Administrative Behavior
1. Components of administrative behavior
a. Administration
b. Management
c. Organization
2. Themes of study in administrative behavior
a. Decision making
b. Motivation
c. Leadership
d. Communication
e. Contract
Justifying the need for integrating information technology to public administration.
Theory of Public choice approach
The Public Choice Approach is basically an application of economics to political science. Its
principal contributors have been micro-economists like Buchanan, Tullock, Niskanen and
Ostrom. It is essentially a state-reducing and market-expanding doctrine, justified by its view that
government decision making is not based on individual citizens’ interests.
The Public Choice Approach is based on the behavioral assumptions that human beings are:-
Individualistic, and
Rational-economic
Meaning, humans in general are utility-maximizers seeking to further their self-interest. In
particular, it is true for actors in the politico-administrative spheres. Thus civil servants are self-
aggrandizing bureaucrats interested only in expanding the activities under their charge, and
increasing their departments’ budgets. Similarly the political leaders are vote seeking politicians,
maximizing their votes for perpetuating their stay in power as their sole end. For this, they go on
recklessly promising more and more programmes to their constituents.
The natural consequence of this is state overload or enlargement of the public sphere. In turn, this
overload has following consequences:-
a. The government machinery becomes unwillingly large. This calls for an increased public
revenue and thereby increases the tax-burden on the citizens. Most of it is spent on
maintaining the government and very little is left for actual provision of goods and services.
b. In the absence of market conditions, there is no compulsion to innovate or raise quality and
reduce costs. The government activities become increasingly bureaucratic, leading to
inefficiency.
c. A large government increases the powers of bureaucracy threatening individual liberty.
d. In the absence of organizational pluralism, a citizen has no freedom of choice. This is anti-
democratic.
Having this built up a case against governments, Public Choice Approach gives the following
prescriptions:-
1. The role of the state needs to be minimized. In particular, no role to be played in the
production and distribution of goods and services, social or economic. As large a sphere of
activities as possible should be handed over to the private sector, operating under the market
mechanism.
PREPARED BY MR. ANTONY AMBIA Page 2
ADMINISTRATION STUDY NOTES
Introduction
Public administration is the organizational structures put in place by the central
government/state to delegate authority to its appointed state officers and civil service
officers; of governing its citizen throughout the country, provide government services,
capture citizen data to prepare legal documents, implement community welfare programs
that bring about societal equality and protect private property legally belonging to its
citizen and retaining public property to the state while maintaining public law and order.
Points of interest
1. Public administration as generic term
2. Public administration as a governmental term
3. Philosophy of Public administration:
Institutional
Protectionist (relative and absolute)
Utilitarian
Theory of justice (basic human rights & social and economic equality)
Approaches to Public administration
a. Formation of Economic entities and Political organizations
b. Philosophical attitudes to public good and Legal approach to community justice
c. Case method reference and Managerial practice in governance
d. Behavioral attitudes in society and Governance Systems for state harmony
e. Empirical versus Normative statistics for decision making
Evolution of Public administration
Stage 1 Politics and administration dichotomy
Stage 2 Principles of administration
Stage 3 Era of change
Stage 4 Crisis of identity
Stage 5 Public policy perspectives
Ferrel Heady’s theories
1. Traditional autocratic bureaucratic system
2. Bureaucratic Elite system
3. Poliarchical comparative system
4. Dominant parity mobilization
5. Communist totalitarian system
Theories of public administration
1. Scientific management
2. F. W. Taylor
Fundamental philosophy
Principles of scientific management
PREPARED BY MR. ANTONY AMBIA Page 1
, Techniques and mechanism of scientific management
Principles of scientific management
Administrative Behavior
1. Components of administrative behavior
a. Administration
b. Management
c. Organization
2. Themes of study in administrative behavior
a. Decision making
b. Motivation
c. Leadership
d. Communication
e. Contract
Justifying the need for integrating information technology to public administration.
Theory of Public choice approach
The Public Choice Approach is basically an application of economics to political science. Its
principal contributors have been micro-economists like Buchanan, Tullock, Niskanen and
Ostrom. It is essentially a state-reducing and market-expanding doctrine, justified by its view that
government decision making is not based on individual citizens’ interests.
The Public Choice Approach is based on the behavioral assumptions that human beings are:-
Individualistic, and
Rational-economic
Meaning, humans in general are utility-maximizers seeking to further their self-interest. In
particular, it is true for actors in the politico-administrative spheres. Thus civil servants are self-
aggrandizing bureaucrats interested only in expanding the activities under their charge, and
increasing their departments’ budgets. Similarly the political leaders are vote seeking politicians,
maximizing their votes for perpetuating their stay in power as their sole end. For this, they go on
recklessly promising more and more programmes to their constituents.
The natural consequence of this is state overload or enlargement of the public sphere. In turn, this
overload has following consequences:-
a. The government machinery becomes unwillingly large. This calls for an increased public
revenue and thereby increases the tax-burden on the citizens. Most of it is spent on
maintaining the government and very little is left for actual provision of goods and services.
b. In the absence of market conditions, there is no compulsion to innovate or raise quality and
reduce costs. The government activities become increasingly bureaucratic, leading to
inefficiency.
c. A large government increases the powers of bureaucracy threatening individual liberty.
d. In the absence of organizational pluralism, a citizen has no freedom of choice. This is anti-
democratic.
Having this built up a case against governments, Public Choice Approach gives the following
prescriptions:-
1. The role of the state needs to be minimized. In particular, no role to be played in the
production and distribution of goods and services, social or economic. As large a sphere of
activities as possible should be handed over to the private sector, operating under the market
mechanism.
PREPARED BY MR. ANTONY AMBIA Page 2
