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Managerial, Political and Legal Approaches

Introduction
Public administration lacks coherence because it has number of
complex functions.
So on the whole there are three approaches to view public
administration which emerged out of its functions.
One approach which views public administration consisting of
practices similar to private sector is managerial approach.
Political approach stresses on the publicness of public
administration.
Legal approach emphasizes upon the importance of
sovereignty, constitutions and regulations in public
administration.
Each of these approaches has different way to look at different
values, procedural and structural arrangements, citizen and on
the knowledge development.

The Managerial Approach to Public
Administration
Those who define public administration in managerial
terms tend to minimize the distinctions between
public and private administration.
The managerial approach is further divided into two
main groups i.e. traditional managerial approach and
New Public Management.
Each of these prevail in some organizations.

The Managerial Approach to Public
Administration
Traditional Managerial Approach to Public Administration
The reason given by civil service reformers back in
nineteenth century was to introduce this approach to
combat inefficiency, corruption and emergence of
spoilsmen(political patronage, partisanship).
To make government working apolitical, businesslike
approaches were proposed to be adopted in public sector.
This approach aligned with the politics-administration
dichotomy i.e.re endorsement of the idea given by
Woodrow Wilson.
In other words, this approach was geared towards the
maximization of 3Es. It deemphasized law.




The Managerial Approach to Public
Administration
Organizational Structure
To achieve the values of traditional managerial approach,
bureaucratic structure was identified.
Because, bureaucracy emphasizes upon division of labor which
will increase efficiency.
Specialization will again help employees to become expert in
their own areas, specialization requires coordination and in
bureaucracy, hierarchy serves this purpose.
Hierarchy requires all the functions, duties to be clearly spelled
out i.e. along formalistic lines and this requirement is also
satisfied through bureaucratic arrangement.
Under this setting, position classification according to the
scientific principles and selection of employees on merit and
fitness were the hallmark principles of this approach.


The Managerial Approach to Public
Administration
View of the Individual
Traditional managerial approach promoted the
impersonal view of the individuals regardless of their
status.
Dehumanization was considered as a special to
prevent irrational emotions coming in the way of job
performance.
The focus was that an employee has to adapt to the
machine and not the vice versa.
Clients and victims too have been depersonalized to
promote the values of 3Es.


The Managerial Approach to Public
Administration
Cognitive Approach
The traditional managerial approach focused emphasized
on the scientific method for the development of
knowledge. The approach is deductive
Budgeting
To enhance the values of 3Es, traditional managerial
approach focused on the budgeting system which is cost-
effective.
Decision Making
Under this approach, public administrators should explore
all possible alternatives to choose the one which is cost
effective. This does not favor broad public participation.

New Public Management (NPM)
This approach (emerged in 1990s in US)was also reform
oriented which aims at improving performance in public
sector.
This approach focused on following premises
Result oriented;
Market like approaches for the provision of goods and
services;
Treating citizens and clients like customer;
Government should steer rather than rowing;
Government should be regulated;
Employee empowerment;





New Public Management
Public administration culture should be anti bureaucratic.
Politics-administration dichotomy still prevailed in this
approach.
Organizational Structure
Organizing public agencies like firms in the market
Stress on decentralization, flatter organization and
autonomy.
Team working, use of information system for service
tracking, less distinct boundaries between public agencies
and environment.


New Public Management
View of the Individual
This approach stresses upon customerization.
Customers could be both internal and external.
Cognitive Approach
NPM relies heavily on public choice theory.
It focuses on developing quantitative indicators to measure
performance.
Budgeting
It encourages administrative agencies to generate their own
revenues.
Legislative appropriations should be based on performance,
value for customer.
Enough autonomy in using budgets.

New Public Management
Decision Making
Decision should be based on responsiveness to
customers, performance levels, and cost effectiveness.
And, it should be decentralized.


Political Approach to Public
Administration
Public administration is ultimately a problem in political
theory : the fundamental problem in a democracy is
responsibility to popular control; the responsibility and
responsiveness of the administrative agencies and the
bureaucracies to the elected officials is of central
importance in a government based increasingly on the
exercise of discretionary power by the agencies of
administration (Wallace Sayre).
Public administration has been called as political process
by Appleby and other scholars have focused attention on
the role played by public administrators in policy making.
Unlike managerial approach which emphasizes upon what
ought to be, political approach stresses upon empirical
evidence.
Political approach to public administration stresses upon
the values of representativeness, political responsiveness
and accountability through elected officials to the citizenry.
The political approach to public administration is
frequently in tension with the traditional managerial and
NPM approaches like efficiency effected by sunshine law,
similarly citizen participation and consultation is time
consuming and costly. NPM focusing on results tend to
eliminate accountability mechanisms.

Organizational Structure
The political approach stresses on the pluralism since executive branch
is the microcosm of our society.
The basic rationale behind pluralism within public administration is
that the executive branch is the policy making center of the
government and to counteract every group or segment of the society.
While achieving this end, structure of public administration becomes
politicized and it has been widely denounced as making government
unmanageable, costly and inefficient.
View of the Individual
The political approach to public administration tends to aggregate
individual into a broad social, economic or political group.
As a member of that particular group, individuals are considered as the
targets or beneficiaries of public policies.
Cognitive Approach
Political approach views science as an appropriate way of developing
knowledge.
This approach looks for consensus as a primary technique for gaining
relevant information.
Budgeting
Allocation of budget on political values , not on how money will be
used or best satisfy the needs of the individuals.
The approach to budgeting is incrementalism or decrementalism.
Decision Making
Decision is made on the basis of support/opposition rather than cost-
effectiveness or scientific analysis.
And the second source is opinion of public, interest group or media.
Legal Approach to Public
Administration
It views public administration as applying and enforcing the law in
concrete circumstances.
This approach is derived primarily from three interrelated sources
Administrative law;
Judicialization;
Constitutional law.
Legal approach emphasizes the rule of law. It manifests several values
like procedural due process, substantive rights and equity.
Organizational Structure
Full-fledged judicial trial.
Independent judge might lack technical expertise
To avoid confusions, Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR): Negotiation,
Meditation, Arbitration can be used.




View of Individual
In the light of procedural due process, equity and substantive
rights, it leads to consider each individual as a unique
personality.
Cognitive Approach
The legal approach favors adjudication as a method of
developing knowledge. It is inductive.
Decision Making
This approach follows the principle of precedential
incrementalism
Budgeting
This approach stresses upon constitutional integrity and the
need to protect constitutional rights.

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