Defining Public Administration

Webster’s dictionary defines the word public in many senses, both as a noun and an adjective as follows: whole, everyone, people, general, openness, community, etc.

the services carried out by public institutions and the
services carried out by the public and private
enterprises under the control of the public.

The principles of equality,
impartiality, transparency, and justice require
precision in the distribution of these resources.

1. It must be in the public interest.
2. It should be carried out under the principle
of equality and impartiality.
3. It can be local or regional.
4. It is determined by a political decision.
5. It is carried out continuously and regularly.
6. It is free.

Public goods are now divided into pure public goods and impure public goods.

Pure public goods are non-rivalry and nonexcludable goods and services such as justice and
security. For this kind of public goods, there is no
competition in consumption and no one can be
excluded from their benefits and an additional consumer who wants to
benefit from public goods and services does not
create any additional cost 

These decisions can be taken by
the legislative, executive, or judicial organs.

1. It is the executive branch of government
2. It is the formulation and implementation
of public policies
3. It is the field that in many ways is different
from private management
4. It is the production of public goods and
services
5. It is concerned with carrying out laws

Public administration is involved
in the public policy-making process through
parliament, ministries, or consultancies.

The main task of the public administration is
to implement the laws. Public officials thus
ensure public order by applying the rules of law.
This also means that the public administration is
strictly bound by the rules of law and does not
have the freedom to act on its own like the private
administration.

Scholars argue that to understand if public
administration is a profession, it is necessary to
test whether it has certain features of traditional
professions.They list
these features as follows:
1. A collection of academic and practical
knowledge applied for service to the
community.
2. A theoretically measured standard of success
by serving the needs of society rather than
pursuing purely personal gain.
3. A system of control over a professional
practice that regulates the training of new
members and both maintains ethical rules
and enforces proper sanctions.

Management principles such as the chain of command, separation of
duties and powers, specialization, and departmentalization are necessary to establish this order.

Public Administration as Execution

Public Administration as Politics

Public Administration as Legal Action

Public Administration as Profession

Public Administration as Academic Field

Public Administration as Organization

Classical management theorists, such as Henri Fayol (2012), Urwick and Gullick (1937) tried to
establish universal management principles and functions.

Maintaining
open communication channels, preparing
strategic plans, delegating authority,
and motivating employees are some
management techniques that are commonly
used in both the public and the private
sector at different degrees.

Both public
and private administrations are faced
with similar problems. Financial troubles,
recruitment issues, and power sharing
disputes are some general problems that
different forms of administration usually
deal with.

Simon et al. (1991: 8) admits that public
administration differs from private administration
in three aspects as follows:
1. Governmental administration is
bureaucratic; private administration is
business-like.
2. Governmental administration is political;
private administration is non-political.
3. Governmental administration is
characterized by red- tape, private
administration is not.

The concept of “state” comes from the Latin verbs
“stare”, and “status”. This has a static meaning as a
station, position, place; a way of standing, posture;
order, arrangement, or condition.Thus,
the Latin verb suggests that the state cannot be
attributed to the communities that are not settled
and are not located in a certain geographical
area.

Interventionist applications such as the state’s
involvement in the opening of foreign trade
routes, facilitating exports and imports, providing
customs and tax advantages, and establishing
new organizations caused a great increase in the
operations of the public administration compared
to the classical state period.

In this approach, public administration
has been reduced to the position of regulation
and supervision instead of producing services in
many areas