1. dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Institute of Administrative Studies University of Wrocław The Concept of Public Administration

2. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Bible Revised Standard Version. The Gospel according to John, 1, 1:

3. The terms administration and public administration are equivocal (= ambiguous) ones.

4. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat

5. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Luther Gulick Administration has to do with getting things done; with the accomplishment of defined objectives. Dwight Waldo Administration is a type of co-operative human effort that has a high degree of rationality. George E. Berkley Administration is a process involving human beings jointly engaged in work- ing towards common goals. Keith Henderson Administration is the arrangement of men and materials in the rational carry- ing out purposes. Two essential elements of administration:  collective effort  common purpose

6. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Administration is an universal process and occurs in diverse institutional settings. Based on its institutional settings, administration is divided into:  public administration (refers to the administration which operates in governmental setting)  private administration (refers to the administration which operates in non-governmental setting)

7. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat

8. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Woodrow Wilson Public administration is a detailed and systematic execution of law. Every particular application of law is an act of administration. […] Administration is the most obvious part of the government; it is the government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most visible part of the government. Edgar N. Gladden Public administration is concerned with the administration of the government. Leonard D. White Public administration consists of all those operations having for their purpose the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy. Marshall E. Dimock Public administration is the fulfillment or enforcement of public policy as de- clared by the competent authorities. It deals with the problems and powers of the organizations and techniques of management involved in carrying out the law and policies formulated by the policy-making agencies of government. Public administration is the law in action. It is the executive side of a govern- ment.

9. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Felix A. Nigro Public administration: (1) is a cooperative group effort in a public setting; (2) covers all three branches – executive, legislative, and judicial – and their interrelationships; (3) has an important role in the formulation of public policy, and is thus part of a political process; (4) is different in significant ways from private administration; and (5) is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals in providing services to the community. David H. Rosenbloom, Robert S. Kravchuk Public administration is the use of managerial, political, and legal theories and processes to fulfill legislative, executive, and judicial mandates for the provi- sion of governmental regulatory and service functions. Dwight Waldo Public administration is the art and science of management as applied to the affairs of the State. […] The process of public administration consists of the actions involved in effecting the intent or desire of a government. It is thus the continuously active, business part of government, concerned with carry- ing out the law, as made by legislative bodies (or other authoritative agents) and interpreted by the courts, through the process of organization and mana- gement.

10. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Luther Gulick Public Administration is that part of the science of administration which has to do with government and thus concerns itself primarily with the executive branch where the work of government is done, though there are obviously problems in connections with the legislative and judicial branches. James W. Davis Public administration can be best identified with the executive branch of a government. William F. Willoughby The term administration may be employed […] in two senses. In its broadest sense it denotes the work involved in the actual conduct of governmental af- fairs, regardless of the particular branch of government concerned. It is, thus, quite proper to speak of the administration of the legislative branch of the government, the administration of justice or judicial affairs, or the administra- tion of the executive branch as well as the administration of the affairs of the administrative branch of the government, or the conduct of the affairs of the government generally. In its narrowest sense, it denotes the operations of the administrative branch only*. * Author made a distinction between executive power and administrative power and restricted the use of the term administration to the activities of the administrative branch only. In other words he has given administration the status of a fourth branch of government.

11. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat In the negative concept, regarding the doctrine of se- paration of powers, the traditional view expressed by Ger- man scholars Otto Mayer and Walter Jellinek was that: public administration („vast remnants”) stays outside the legislature and the judiciary.

12. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat The Constitution of the Republic of Poland Art. 10 1.The system of government of the Republic of Poland shall be based on the separation of and balance be- tween the legislative, executive and judicial powers. 2.Legislative power shall be vested in the Sejm and the Senate, executive power shall be vested in the Pre- sident of the Republic of Poland and the Council of Ministers, and the judicial power shall be vested in courts and tribunals.

13. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat German public administration scholar Lorenz von Stein, 1815-1890, one of the first to acknowledge that the modern state is an administrative state: Administration is what I cannot name.

14. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Polish scholar Janusz Łętowski: Administration can be described but not defined.

15. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat David H. Rosenbloom, Robert S. Kravchuk Public administration […] is difficult to define. […] In part, this is be- cause public administration covers such a vast amount of activity. Public administration jobs range from the exploration of outer space to sweeping the streets. Some public administrators are highly educated professionals, who may be at the forefront of their fields of specializa- tion; others possess few skills that differentiate them from the mass of the citizenry. Some public administrators make policies that have a nationwide impact and may benefit millions of people; others have virtually no responsibility for policy making and simply carry out mundane governmental tasks like word processing, filing, and record keeping. Public administrators are doctors, lawyers, scientists, engi- neers, accountants, budgeters, policy analysts, personnel officers, ma- nagers, clerks, keyboarders, manual laborers, and individuals engaged in a host of other occupations and functions. […] public administration as a category is so abstract and varied that it can only be described in vague, general, amorphous, and somewhat competing terms.

16. Prison – administrative establishment / public undertaking As of the end of August 2007, Poland officially declared 90 199 prisoners (13 374 pre-trial; 76 434 serving sentences; 391 others; 2 743 prisoners were female), giving an imprisonment rate per 100 000 inhabitants of about 234. In Australian prisons at 30 June 2008 there were 27 615 prisoners (sentenced and unsentenced) giving an imprisonment rate of 169 prisoners per 100 000 adult population.

18. War cemetery. Lest we should dream that we may die in vain!

19. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat German scholar Ingo von Münch: Von der Wiege bis zur Bahre: Formulare, Formulare. (From the cradle to the bier: forms, forms).

20. There is, however, a core of diverse meanings of terms administration and public administration, linked with the origin of the word administration. Administration has originated from Latin verb ministrare, strengthened by the preposition ad-, meaning „to serve”. Words „minister” and „ministration” also conform that „servant” aspect of the derivatives of ministrare. Therefore, administration always means a certain service or executive activity, carried out with respect to somebody and/or something more important. Administration is an instrument serving to achieve a goal and/or to execute a will of superior. It should not have aims of its own.

21. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Polish scholar Hubert Izdebski: Public administration is an operational instrument in the hands of a political power. Serving the political power, pu- blic administration in a democracy should serve the peo- ple organised in a democratic state. It is, in a sense, an executive of the executive power. Public administration is also „public” in the sense that, in liberal democracy, the only argument for its intervention – as the intervention of the state power – in the affairs of the state's subjects (individuals as well as their organisa- tions: business and non-profit ones alike) is the public good (the public interest).

22. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Polish scholar Małgorzata Stahl: Characteristics of public administration: acting on behalf of the state or another public authority, to which the state has ceded a part of its power (imperium) administrative coercion – performing a function with the pos- sibility of applying public power to enforce decisions political nature (the principle of spoils system developed in the USA), in Poland e.g. when the government is dismissed, the govern- ors of the provinces resign acting on the basis and within the limits of law (a rule applic- able to individuals – „it is allowed to do everything that is not explici- tly forbidden” – is not applicable for public administration) a continuous and stable operation employing mainly professional personnel (in particular a cor- ps of civil servants)

23. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Janusz Łętowski added other characteristics of public administration: a peculiarly monopolistic character: administration acts alone wi- thin its competence undertaking non-commercial activity, not aiming at gaining pro- fits, which doesn’t mean being gratuitous (= done freely, without re- ward or payment being expected), sometimes resulting with profit (but not only a profit) acting on administrative own initiative or on request of the in- terested party

24. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Hubert Izdebski 1 / 7 From the functional point of view, public administration can be defined as an operational function, in any state, independently of the epoch and of the form of government.

25. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat 2 / 7 It is not, however, the case of public administration approa- ched in institutional terms. Public administration as a specific set of authorities and institutions, with missions set up in conformity with principles of the hori- zontal and vertical division of work (constituting the division of administrative tasks and competences) and staffed by professional employees – is a relatively new phenomenon. Although public administra- tion has been developing since late Middle Ages, it was as late as in the Enlightenment period, i.e. in the 18 th century, that it appeared in the form comparable to the contemporary ones.

26. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat 3 / 7 The absolute monarchies of the 18 th century lacked however an im- portant characteristic feature of the contemporary liberal democratic state. They lacked a strict link between public administration and the law, especially administrative law. The contemporary link between public administration and the law consists in the submission of all the executive power, and public administration operating therewithin, to the law. The submission is the most important aspect of: the „rule of law”, the principle which has been developed in England since the Middle Ages, or the „state of law” (Rechtstaat / Etat de droit / Estado de derecho / państwo prawa), the concept introduced in the continental Europe, especially in Germany in the 19 th century, as an overt opposition to Polizeistaat. From that point of view, public administration is an instrument of im- plementation of provisions of the statutes and other sources of law.

27. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat 4 / 7 Such idea, linked with the principle of legality (each action of public administration must have a legal basis), and the pro- tection of citizen rights against uncontrolled discretion of state power, has opened room for the judicial control of public admi- nistration. Art. 7 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland The organs of public authority shall function on the basis of, and within the limits of, the law.

28. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat 5 / 7 When taking into account the importance of the legal factor in organisation and activities of public administration, it should be, nevertheless, borne in mind that public administration may not be a simple bouche de la loi, a kind of machinery of law enfor- cement, as its basic role is providing to the public neces- sary services in diverse fields of the government’s activity. Public administration is sometimes defined as an „organisa- tional activity of the government”. Such activity needs an initiative and certain freedom of action as well, and it cannot be a passive implementation of orders of the law in any way.

29. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat 6 / 7 In the contemporary liberal democratic state, based upon lega- lity and market economy, public administration belongs to the most important elements of the whole system of social organi- sation. The system can be presented – in a simplified way – as composed of several interactive sub-systems, i.e.  political system  market economy  law  public administration each of which having been set within the larger context of civil society.

30. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Political system Law Market economy Public administration 7 / 7 Civil society (citizens)

31. The Concept of Public Administration dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat Polish scholar Jacek Jagielski: The principle of legality, the fundamental principle go- verning the functioning of public administration, derives directly from democratic tenants. This is clearly set forth in the Constitution, which provides that units of public authority must operate only on the basis of law and strict- ly within its bonds (art. 7). This means that every action of public administration has to be explicitly authorized by law. The maxim that „anything which is not forbidden is allowed” does not apply here. Quite to the contrary, only what is specifically provided by law is allowed.

32. Concluding Remark dr. hab. Jerzy Supernat If it is dangerous to suppose that government is always right, it will sooner or later be awkward for public admini- stration if most people suppose that it is always wrong. John Kenneth Galbraith