Basic Concepts in Public Administration |Slides

Some Basic Concepts in Public Administration

Local government:

Smaller decentralized political and administrative unit within a well-defined geographical area that exercises transferred powers and functions from the central government.
They are administrative offices that are smaller than a state, province or central government.
They are semi-autonomous bodies:
The exercise legal powers by making bye laws
They make their decisions and implement them

 They are established by law  [in Ghana PNDC Law 207 of 1988 and Local Government Act (ACT 462) established the local government units].
There currently 2016 local government units in Ghana.

Decentralization:

The transfer of responsibilities and authority to lower levels of administration within a country
The organization of government activities outside the headquarters of the central government.
It involves the transfer of resources by the central government to its agents outside its central operating unit.
Types of decentralization include:
De-concentration- transfer of responsibilities from headquarters ministries and departments to field staffs.
Devolution- transfer of powers from the central government local government units
Delegation- transfer of responsibilities to non-governmental organizations to act on behalf of central government.
Deregulation or privatization- from government to private sector.

Comparative Public Administration


Study of various administrative system in a comparative fashion across countries.It is the quest for patterns and regularities in administrative action and behavior of administrative system.

Bureaucracy 
The concept refers how administrative execution of legal rules in an organization are organized especially in the public sector.

It is characterized with:
Standard procedure
Formal division of responsibility
Hierarchical and impersonal relationships
Organized to ensure the enforcement of universal rules

Institutions:

Institutions according to Ostrom (1990) are sets of rules which are used to determine who is eligible to make certain decisions in a particular arena.
They determine what;
Actions are allowed or constrained
Procedures are must be followed
Information must be provided
Pay-offs must be assigned to individuals etc

Governance:

Can refer to the way society sets, organizes and manages the rules that guide policy-making and implementation.
It may also be viewed as the traditions and the institutions by which authority in a country is exercised for the common good.
It is a very broad concept that operates at all levels
It covers:
How society selects its leaders
How the leaders are monitored and replaced
the capacity of the government to effectively manage its resources and implement sound policies
the respect of citizens and the state for the institutions that govern economic and social interactions among them etc.

Good Governance

Governance is said to be “good” when it allocates and manages resources to respond to collective problems.
Governance is also said to be “good” when it efficiently provides public goods of necessary quality to its citizens.
Good governance is thus assessed based on the quantity and quality of the goods and services provided by the state to citizens

Civil Service

Refers to civilian career public sector employee working for a government department or agency.
It may also include regional and other sub-state employees
It however varies from one state to the other

Civil Society

It refers to a population organized in associations voluntarily and independent from the state.
It consists of organizations that citizens create and join on their own, without any prompting or interference by government.
It main feature is that it is marked off from the state.
It includes

• interest based groups
• democratic political parties
• unions
•  business associations
• charitable organizations
•  social clubs
• religious and
•  ethnic based groups.

Forms of Government

Authoritarianism
Refers to the system of governance where the form of social control is characterized by strict adherence to the authority of the state or organization.
It normally uses oppression to maintain and enforce control
Fundamental human rights are sometimes abused by the state

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