Midterm Flashcards
Political Definition of Public Administration
Public administration is what government does.
Public administration is both direct (Services) and indirect (Private Services).
Public administration is implementing the public interest.
Public administration is doing collectively that which cannot be done so well individually.
Legal Definition of Public Administration
it is both created and bound by an instrument of the law.
Public administration is the law in action.
Public administration is regulation.
Managerial Definition of Public Administration
Public administration is the executive function of government.
Public administration is a management specialty.
Translates public policies into action and is both art and science.
Occupational Definition of Public Administration
It is within the context of these occupational fields that the political, legal, and managerial aspects of public administration are transformed by public administrators into the work of government.
It is an occupational category
Public Policy
A public policy is whatever a government decides to do or not to do. It is what a government does in response to a political issue.
Policy is hierarchical- The broadest, most overarching policy is made at the top. Then increasingly more focused policies must be made at every level on down.
Representative Democracy
People make choices through their elected officials. Judicial- Interpret, Executive- Enforce, Legislative- Create
Three Kinds of Executive Power
Conservative, Executive prerogative, Stewardship
Conservative View of Executive Power
The conservative view maintains that the president, governor, or mayor is an agent of the legislature, and restricted by it.
Executive Prerogative View of Executive Power
The executive prerogative view holds that under certain circumstances, the president possesses extraordinary powers to safeguard the nation, and can go above Congress as needed.
Stewardship View of Executive Power
The stewardship view argues that the president is a trustee of the people and can take any action not forbidden by the Constitution to act on their behalf.
Policy Making Process
Agenda Setting, Decision Making, Implementation, Evaluation, Feedback
Agenda Setting
Down’s Cycle explains the stages of how a public policy appears and disappears on the political agenda.
Alarmed Discovery, Recognition of cost of change, Decline of Public Interest, Post-problem stage, Pre-problem stage… Repeat
Decision Making
Public policymaking is the totality of the processes by which a government decides to deal or not to deal with a particular problem or concern. It is a never-ending process.
Implementation
is the process of putting a government program into effect; it is the total process of translating a legal mandate, whether an executive order or an enacted statute, into appropriate program directives and structures that provide services or create goods.
Evaluation
A program evaluation is the systematic examination of activities undertaken by government to make a determination about their effects, both for the short term and the long range.
Feedback
The public policy cycle comes full circle when evaluative information creates new agenda items for subsequent decisions.
Group Theory
Special interests, not government are the ones who hold power and create social policy
Elites control the process
Government is a group that competes with other groups
Lasswell’s Rational Model
All options and means are considered.
Decisions are the products of structured evaluations.
Major changes can be made on a regular basis.
Decisions tend to be made proactively.
Decisions should be removed from political pressures.
Lindblom’s Incremental Model
Only a few options and means are considered.
Decisions are the products of negotiated settlements.
Changes are made gradually over time.
Decisions tend to be made reactively.
Political considerations are important in determining outcomes.
Organizational cultures and internal and external environments
Organizational Cultures are about the norms, values, symbols, artifacts, and other tangible and intangible things that exert influence upon a group and link it to its environment.
J. Steven Off Organizational Cultural Perspective
Organizational cultures exist.
Each organizational culture is relatively unique.
Organizational culture is a socially constructed concept.
Organizational culture provides its members with a way of understanding and making sense of events and symbols.
Organizational culture, because of its ability to informally approve or disapprove of behavior, can be a powerful tool for guiding organizations.
Machinery of Government
The machinery of government involves all the interconnected structures and processes of government at the federal, state, and local levels.
Executive Office Agencies
The Executive Office of the President is a term that includes top presidential staff agencies which provide advice in a variety of administrative areas.
Executive Departments
Executive departments. The president’s cabinet includes fourteen executive departments that advise the president.
Independent Public Bodies
Governmental Corporations.
Regulatory Commissions.
Hollow State
Hollow state is meant the degree of separation between a government and the services it funds, or joint production of any kind where a governmental agency relies on external entities for service delivery Milward and Provan
State and Local Government Powers
The Constitution does not specifically mention local governments. Hence, their powers are derived from state law. Local government consists of a hierarchy of levels: county, municipal, city, and town governments, and special districts.
Dillon’s Rule
Criteria by state courts that determines the nature and extent of powers granted to local governments. The city charter is a document that spells out the purposes and powers of a municipal corporation.
Brownlow Committee
Reformed the president’s office to expand it, to meet the growing needs of the Executive.
Hoover Commissions
Were set up after World War II to reorganize the federal government and modernize management systems.
National Performance Review
Focused on uncontrollable budget deficits and growing national debt, overly restrictive regulations that resulted in waste in government, lack of public trust, and other complaints.
New Public Management
More Entrepreneurial government
Privatization
Selling government assets, Financing Government Facilities, Private provision of services
Privatization is the process of returning to the private sector property or functions previously owned or performed by government.
Pros and Cons of Privatization
Pros- Efficiency Cons- Lack of accountability
Micromanagement
The consequences of government reform has been to unleash a wave of micromanagement in government, where all efforts are heavily scrutinized and any failure penalized.
3 Categories of government
Unitary (power lies in national government, no state government powers)
Federal (shared powers between national and state governments)
Confederation (power with sovereign states—overarching government with treaty powers)
Intergovernmental Relations
It is the political, fiscal, programmatic, and administrative processes by which higher units of government share revenues and other resources with lower units of government, generally accompanied by special conditions that the lower units must satisfy as prerequisites to receiving the assistance.
Marble Cake
The reality is more like a marble cake in which the cooperative relations among, the varying levels of government result in an intermingling – not layering – of facilities.
Benefits of Federalism
It has a greater scope for diversity and experimentation in policy.
The need to debate issues rather than enact them instantly may provide a more considered and viable policy outcome.
It consider the different ethnic or cultural groupings that may predominate in a particular state and wish to pursue a distinct cultural and social policy.
The danger always exists in a large country that a unitary government may be too remote for appropriate democratic participation by regional centers located away from the capital; a federal system encourages regional participation in governance.
The danger exists in the unitary government that the stronger regions, the larger racial groups, or more powerful interests will provide insufficient allowance for the needs of minorities or weaker groups.
Benefits of Unitary Government
This kind of government does not have state governments and all the important power lies with the national government (Denmark, Japan, France, New Zealand).
Confederacy
Power rests with “sovereign” state governments, and an overarching government has some defined powers (EU, Commonwealth of Independent States (former USSR).
Dual Federalism
Separate Governments, Layered Cake
Cooperative Federalism
This the notion that the national, state, and local governments are cooperating, interacting agents, working jointly to solve common problems, rather than conflicting, sometimes hostile competitors pursuing similar or, more likely, conflicting ends
New Federalism
The Republican efforts begun during the Nixon administration to decentralize governmental functions by returning power and responsibility to states.
Creative Federalism
Federal bypassed state governments and gave grants to local governments.
New New Federalism
Attempt at revenue Sharing
Council of Governments
Represents any multi jurisdictional units across governments, to provide for water and affect the region as a whole.
Picket Fence Federalism
Bureaucratic specialists interact constantly with eachother at all government and occupational levels.
Grant
It is an intergovernmental transfer of funds (or other assets). Since long along time, state and local governments have become increasingly dependent upon federal grants for an almost infinite variety of programs.
Public Finance
The theory of fiscal federalism, or multiunit government finance, is one part of the branch applied economic
Public Choice Theory
Public choice theory rejects the welfare economics that arose out of the New Deal.
It questions whether such federal intervention really is the intent of the citizens.
Its exponents feel that governmental action and expenditures should be placed at the lowest level of government (the local level) because at that level more experimentation, competition, and innovation can be achieved. Citizens are better able to compare their taxation to the level of service provided and then vote out irresponsible governments.
Race to the bottom
In such a climate of devolution, it is evident that many state and local governments, depending on the power-elite structure and available resources, have gradually diminished services to their own people, or may have denied services to people not from the state, creating a whole new range of intergovernmental problems.
Ex Oficio
the honor associated with the office – most superficial.
Goodwill
The outward perception of one’s reputation
Public administrators have three specific obligations
Citizens- Moral obligations to the people they serve… Regime- Regime values and the system of government
Constitution- Uphold
Hierarchy of Ethics
Personal morality – sense of right and wrong.
Professional ethics – professional norms.
Organizational ethics – organizational culture.
Social ethics – Social obligation to protect individuals and further the progress of the group.
Administrative Accountability
The Rule of Law: public administrators in a democracy work within the rule of law.
Separation of Powers: the system of administrative accountability is constituted by several elements, including the separation of powers doctrine which provides for checks and balances.
Public Watchdogs: Government is constantly being watched by groups and individuals who hold it accountable, and demand transparency, when officials want to obfuscate. Common ones are:
Whistle Blower
Whistleblowing refers to what happens when an employee decides that obligations to society come before obligations to an organization. Whistleblowing means calling attention to wrongdoing that is occurring within an organization.
Power-Elite Theory
US is ruled by political, military, and business elite whose decisions preempt the democratic process.
Pluralism
Groups compete to preserve traditional democratic values in a mass industrial state
External Environment
in the diversity that constitutes America, local, regional, and national cultures impact the cultures of public organizations and in this way, public administration reflects the overall values of the society.
Internal Environment
the internal culture of an organization is transmitted by socialization/enculturation. The professional groups within the organization influence the organizational culture. The conscious use of symbols through dramaturgy, rituals, and traditions reinforce the organizational culture.
