Public Administration and the Public Lecture 18 – Administrative Processes in Government

The Public’s Interaction with Public Administration  Every person in the United States is affected by some public administrative actions all of the time. Six main overlapping categories:  Clients and customers – over half of the population has had one direct contact with the government on employment, job training, worker’s compensation, unemployment compensation, public assistance, hospital/ medical care, or retirement benefits.

The Public’s Interaction with Public Administration  Regulatees – vehicular licenses, traffic violations, income taxes, and police matters the four most common.  Participants – Direct public participation.  Litigants – lawsuits against public administrators.  Street-level encounters – Direct interaction with public administrators (police discretion, for example).

The Individual in the Administrative State  Public administration thoroughly permeates American society. Administrative controls have replaced more traditional social controls.  Public administration has tended to be bureaucratically organized despite the NPM’s successes in changing this to some extent.

The Individual in the Administrative State  Bureaucracy is at odds with society because it relies on “rationally organized action,” rather than “social action.

Bureaucracy vs. Society  Precision.  Stability.  Discipline.  Reliability.  Calculability of results.  Formal rationality.  Formalistic impersonality.  Formal equality of treatment.  Justice.  Freedom.  Violence.  Oppression.  Happiness.  Gratification.  Poverty.  Illness.  Death.  Victory.  Love and hate.  Salvation and damnation.

The Individual in the Administrative State  Public administration, bureaucratically organized, tends to be in tension or conflict with society in terms of styles of action, emotional feelings, and overriding concerns.  The differences between societal and bureaucratic values are social interaction versus administrative action; feeling versus doing; and belief, randomness, and emotionalism versus specialized expertise, systemization, and impersonality.

The Individual in the Administrative State  The problem arises when administrative values replace societal values in so many public functions.

The Individual in the Political System  The individual’s role in the political system also undergoes major transformation with the rise of the administrative state. – The difficulty elected officials have controlling and holding accountable administrative agencies. – Popular sovereignty is compromised by the tendency of the public to become subjects of the administrative state. – Democracy and bureaucracy clash.

Democracy versus Bureaucracy  Equality.  Rotation in office.  Freedom.  Pluralism.  Citizen participation.  Openness.  Community.  Legitimacy based on election.  Hierarchy.  Seniority.  Command.  Unity.  Participation based on enterprise.  Secrecy.  Impersonality.  Legitimacy based on expertise.

The Individual in the Economy  The contemporary administrative state also changes the individual’s place in the economic system.  Government inevitably gains greater control over the nation’s economic resources.  Makes individuals dependent on government for their well-being.  The accumulation of wealth in government’s hands gives government more leverage over the individual.

The Public’s Evaluation of Public Administration

 Clients and customers are satisfied. – Surveys are unreliable. – Negative experience lowers expectations, but positive is considered accident. – General taps ideology, specific taps pragmatism.  Regulation is opposed.  Contractors are conflicted.

The Public’s Evaluation of Public Administration

Public Administrative Perspectives on the Public  Traditional managerial approach. – Maximization efficiency, effectiveness, and economy. Result: depersonalization. – Ombudsman. – Cost effectiveness of public-administrator interaction. – Avoid burden shift of costs to public.

Public Administrative Perspectives on the Public  NPM approach. – Public as customers. Surveys and benchmarking from private sector. Downplays utility of traditional political channels. –Clients may not have same preferences as whole public. –Political systems have barriers to majority preferences. How do you identify which customers to satisfy? Identifying customers can be thorny issue.

Public Administrative Perspectives on the Public  NPM approach. – Contractors as partners in service and goods delivery. Shift regulations from rules to guiding principles. Out-sourcing.

Public Administrative Perspectives on the Public  Political approach to the public. – Emphasizes values of representation, responsiveness, and accountability. – Premium on participation. Lack of participation reduces responsiveness and representativeness. Nonparticipation reduces civic obligation. Nonparticipation produces ignorance. Nonparticipation increases alienation. Participation promotes community. Participation promotes legitimacy.

Public Administrative Perspectives on the Public  Political approach to the public. – Direct participation. Public school governance. Agricultural administration. Environmental administration. – Client-centered administration. Advocates for their clients. – Coproduction Joint provision of services by agency and client.

Public Administrative Perspectives on the Public  Political approach to the public. – Public interest groups. Seeking public goods.

Public Administrative Perspectives on the Public  Legal approach to the public. – Seeks to assure individual’s constitutional and statutory rights. Administrative hearings. Street-level contacts. Judicial oversight.

Synthesis  Service. – Transformation from clients to customers.  Therapy. – Requires a more client-oriented, participatory approach.  Regulation. – Traditional managerial perspective influenced by legalistic considerations.

Synthesis  Litigation and street-level encounters. – Informed by values of the legal approach.  Participation. – Dominated by political perspective with some overlay from service and therapy.