Ch1

1. The Managerial Approach:

 The managerial approach to public administration, which Rosenbloom
connects to, the executive function, emphasizes the management and
organization of public organizations.
 As with Wilson, this view sometimes suggests that management in the public
sector is very much like that in the private sector; that is, it is primarily
concerned with efficiency.
2. The Political Approach:
 The political approach to public administration, related to the legislative
function in government, is more concerned about ensuring constitutional
safeguards, such as those already mentioned.
 Efficiency becomes less a concern than effectiveness or responsiveness.
3. The legal Approach:
 The legal approach to public administration, related to the judicial function,
emphasizes the administrator's role in applying and enforcing the law in
specific situations.
 It is also concerned with the adjudicatory role of public organizations

1. Ambiguity
One difference between government and business
 Lies in the purposes to be served in most businesses; "even those with service
objectives".
 The bottom-line profit is the basic measure of evaluating how good a job the
organization is doing: the performance of individual managers can, in many
cases, be directly measured in terms of their units contribution to the overall
profit of the company.
 This is not true of public or nonprofit agencies, where the objectives of the
organization may be more ambiguous and where making or losing money is
not the main criterion for success or failure.
2. Pluralistic Decision Making:
Second difference between work in the public service and-in business
  Is that the public service, at least in a democratic society, requires that many
groups and individuals have access to the decision process.
 As a result, decisions that might be made rapidly by one individual or a small
group in a business might, in a public or nonprofit organization, require input
from many diverse groups and organizations.
 The pluralistic nature of public decision making has led many business
executives who have worked in the public or nonprofit sectors to comment
that this feature makes public and nonprofit management much more difficult
than management in the private sector.
3. Visibility:
 Managers in public and nonprofit organizations seem to operate with much
greater visibility than their counterparts in industry.
 The public service in ta democratic society is subject to constant scrutiny by
both the press and the public.
 The media seems to cover everything you do, and this may be a mixed blessing.
 On the one hand, media coverage enables the leaders of the organization to
communicate rapidly to external and internal audiences.
 On the other hand, the media's constant scrutiny of policy positions and their
labeling of inconsistencies as weaknesses can be limiting to free discussion of
issues in their formulation stage.

Students come to introductory courses in public administration for many different reasons.
 Many students recognize the vast array of positions in government that require
training in public administration; and hope that the course will provide basic
information and skills that will move them toward careers as public or nonprofit
managers.
These students seek to understand the field of public administration, but also to
sharpen their own skills as potential administrators.
 Other students, whose interests lie in technical fields as wide ranging as
engineering, teaching, natural resources, social work, and the fine arts,
recognize that at some point in their careers their jobs may involve
management in the public sector.
 Other students may have no expectation whatsoever of working in public
agency, but they recognized that as corporate executives, businesspeople or
merely citizens, they are likely to be called upon to interact with those in public
organization.
 Final group of students, a group overlapping any of the previous three, might
simply recognize the importance of public agencies in the governmental process
and the impact of public organizations on their daily lives. They might wish to
 acquire the knowledge and skills that enables them to more effectively analyze
and influence public process.

1. Bureaucracy & Democracy:

Democracy
 Democratic principles assume that the individual is the primary measure of
human value and that the development-of the individual is the primary goal of a
democratic political system.
 Democratic morality suggests that all persons are created equal, that
differences in wealth, status, or position should not give one person or group an
advantage over another.
 Democratic morality emphasizes widespread participation among the citizens in
the making of major decision.
Bureaucracy ‫ ــــ‬included
 The need to bring together the work of many individuals in order to achieve
purposes far beyond the capabilities of any single individual.
 Bureaucratic systems were to be structured hierarchically, with those at the top
having far greater power and than at the bottom.
 Bureaucratic organization generally assumes-that power and authority flow
from-the top of the organization to the bottom rather than the other way
around.
2. Efficiency & Responsiveness
Those in public administration have long wrestled with the issues of politics and
administration, and democracy and bureaucracy, public (and increasingly nonprofit)
managers have begun to experience these tensions more frequently in the day to day
problems they face in terms of efficiency versus responsiveness.
Indeed the two earlier issues seem to have dissolved into the single issue of efficiency
versus responsiveness.
Efficiency
 On the one hand, there is the hope that public and nonprofit organizations will
operate in the most efficient way possible, getting things done quickly and at
the least cost to taxpayers and donors.
Responsiveness
 On the other hand, public managers must be constantly attentive to the
demands of the citizenry, whether those demands are expressed through the
chief executive, through the legislature, or directly.
 The main point, of course, is that in public organizations, you may frequently
encounter difficulties in reconciling efficiency and responsiveness.
A key to resolving the ethical questions raised in situations such as that faced by
john and Carol is
first, understanding the various moral values represented on each side of the
equation
second, engaging in ethical deliberation to arrive at a proper approach to the
problem.

The general skills all managers need to accomplish their work: conceptual, technical, and
human.
1. Conceptual skills:
 The ability to think abstractly, especially in regard to the manager's concept of
the organization, and the ability to see the organization as a whole, how all the
parts or functions work and fit together, and how making a change in one part
will affect other parts.
2. Technical skills:
 An understanding of, and proficiency in, the methods, processes, and
techniques for accomplishing tasks.
Such as the skills of an accountant who can conduct an audit or develop an
income statement.
3. Human skills:
 The capacity to work effectively as a member of a group or the ability to get
others to work together effectively.
Others may be (subordinates, superiors, managers at the same level)

 The management of public programs.

 Persons ranging from the executives level to the supervisory level who are in
charge of particular governmental programs.

 Persons who provide important information about public programs through

research into the operations and impacts of the programs.
 Ch2

There are many of the agencies of government at the federal level:

1. The Executive Office of the President:
 The various administrative bodies located in this office both advise the president
and assist in formulating and implementing national policy.
Such as:
a) The Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
assists the president in preparing the budget, submitting it to
Congress, and administering it.
Also involved in:
- Reviewing the management of various agencies,
- Suggesting changes in structures and procedures,
- Searching out capable executives for service in government.
b) The National Security Council
Is charged with integrating domestic, military and foreign policy.
It is made up of:
- president,
- vice president
- secretaries of state and defense
Is directed by the National Security Adviser.
c) The Council of Economic Advisers
Consists of three economists who develop proposals to
- maintain employment
- production
- purchasing power
- develops a variety of economic reports
2. Cabinet-Level Executive Departments
 These agencies are among the most visible, if not always the largest, of the
federal executive agencies.
There are currently fifteen cabinet-level departments.
Departments of
Defense, Treasury,
Health and Agriculture,
Human Services, Interior,
Housing and Urban Transportation,
Development, Justice,
 Commerce, Energy,
State, Education,
Labor, Veterans Affairs,
and the newest Homeland Security, established by the Homeland Security Act
of 2002.
Several departments, such as Treasury and State, date back to the nation's
founding; others were created by Congress as needed.
3. Independent Agencies, Regulatory Commissions, and Public
Corporations
 A variety of independent agencies have been created intentionally outside the
normal cabinet organization.
Some are engaged in staff functions in support of other agencies
a) The Office of Personnel Management
oversees the federal personnel function
b) The General Services Administration
oversees the government's property
Other agencies have simply not been viewed as appropriate to include in
cabinet-level departments
a) Environmental Protection Agency
b) The Small Business Administration
 These independent agencies are directed by persons appointed by the president
with the confirmation of the Senate
4. Agencies Supporting the Legislature and the Judiciary
 Whereas both the legislative and judicial branches require considerable direct
administrative support for their members (legislative staff, committee staff, and
court administrators).There are also several specific agencies attached to the
legislative branch that are of special significance.
You are probably already familiar with
a) Government Printing Office
b) Library of Congress
c) Government Accountability Office
Its duties have become increasingly important.
Established in 1921 and headed by the Comptroller General.
The GAO is responsible for auditing funds to see that they are properly spent.

The policy cycle defines the policy process as a cycle of stages and provides a rational
structure for thinking about the policy process in a systematic way.
1. Identifying Problem and Agenda Setting
 The first step in the public policy process where certain problems come to be
viewed as needing action
 Policy development starts with problem definition.
During this stage a problem is identified and examined, and possible solutions
are explored through research and analysis.
 A simple concept of the agenda is a “list of things to do” the term agenda implies
a plan for action and an actors implementing that plan.
 An agenda is a collection of problems, understandings of causes, symbols,
solutions, and other elements of public problems that come to the attention of
members of the public and their governmental official.
 The Agenda setting process is an ongoing competition among issue proponents
to gain the attention of media professionals, the public, and policy elites.
Types of Agenda
a) Macro Agenda (Systemic)
 Includes the widest range of issues that might be considered for action
by government. It refers to all societal problems that requires public
policy attention.
b) Micro Agenda (Institutional / Governmental)
 Includes those issues that are already for consideration of decision
makers, legislatures or courts.
 It refers to the action agenda which is more specific and concrete than
systematic.
 It contains a set of problems that are up for the serious consideration
of decision makers.
2. Policy Formulation
 In this stage more choices have been studied through political and
administrative process, it involves the acceptance or refusal of policies for
dealing with policy problems. So, it is very difficult and complex process, it
includes a wide range of actors whether inside or outside government.
There are two aspects to policy formulation:
a) Analytical Aspect
 All the alternatives based on analysis, it must be conceived and clearly
articulate.
b) Political Aspect
 Based on the best policy solutions are chosen, the policy must be
authorized through a political process.
3. Policy Adoption
  The third stage in the policy making process involves selecting a specific policy
from among alternatives or proposals that have been discussed in the previous
stage.
 In this stage, policy decisions involve action by some official persons or body to
adopt, modify or reject preferred policy alternatives.
 Policy adoption requires substantial cooperation among the three branches of
authority executive, legislative and judicial with the checks and balances that
are designed to prevent tyranny by blocking the accumulation of power by any
one branch.
4. Policy Implementation
 The implementation of the selected option represents a critical aspect of the
policy process. The most crafted policy that is widely accepted by those it
affects can flounder because of improper implementation.
 It is impossible to define an optimal implementation procedure because of the
wide range of socioeconomic circumstances that policies are applied, and the
diversity of policies themselves.
Ten step model of policy implementation can be considered
1. Policies mustn't face insurmountable external constraints.
2. In implementing the policy there must be an adequate time frame and
resources.
3. The implementing agency must have adequate staff and resources to carry
out the policy.
4. The premises of policy and theory must be compatible.
5. Cause and effect relationships in the policy must be direct and uncluttered.
6. Dependency relationships should be kept to a minimum.
7. The basic objectives of the policy need to be agreed upon and understood.
8. Tasks must be specific in an appropriate sequence.
9. Communication and coordination need to be on the same wavelength.
10.There must be compliance among agencies.
5. Policy Evaluation
 The effectiveness of the policy needs to be assessed after the implementation
stages, and steps must be taken to insure that there are resources and means
to maintain a successful policy.
 The definition of evaluation is controversial; evaluation is predicated upon the
opposite idea that good practices and solid results are what really count, it
implies looking backward in order to better directing forward, it is a mechanism
for monitoring, systematizing, and grading government activities and their
results.
  Evaluating policy has both normative and empirical dimensions,
The normative dimension refers to values, beliefs and attitudes of a society as a
whole of a particular groups and individuals in society and of the policy
evaluators themselves; persons of different values and ideologies use different
normative concepts to evaluate policy.
 The purpose of policy evaluation is to determine whether a certain program is
effective, that's, whether it produces the intended results.
 After the evaluation stage, changes in the policy may be introduced, these
changes can expand, reduce, or eliminate the program, but most programs
undergo continuous incremental changes in an effort to make the policy more
effective and more responsive.
There are two types of evaluation
a) Formative Evaluations
 Formative evaluations are done and undertaken in the early stages of
policy process and are intended to inform the policy, so that, some
operationalization implementation of the policy has occurred, but
changes or modifications can still be made.
b) Summative Evaluation
 This is done when a policy is fairly mature or complete, and is intended
to help determine whether to expand, contract, terminate, or continue
the program.

1. Regulatory Policy
2. Distributive Policy
3. Redistributive Policy
4. Constituent Policy
5. Sources of bureaucratic power

Ch3

1. Dual Federalism
 Historically, the various grant types have been employed in different ways and
in different times. The earliest period in our country’s intergovernmental
history, a period that lasted well into the twentieth century, was characterized
by what has been called dual federalism.
  Both federal and state governments sought to carve out their own spheres of
power and influence during which there was relatively little intergovernmental
cooperation indeed, there was substantial conflict.
 However, some programs cut across the strict divisions of federal, state, and
local responsibility associated with dual federalism.
2. Cooperative Federalism
 If the layer cake was the prevailing image associated with dual federalism, the
marble cake was the image for the period that followed, notable for its
increasing complexity and interdependence.
 As opposed to the conflict and division of the earlier period, the emerging era
of cooperative federalism was characterized by greater sharing of
responsibilities.
Through the middle part of the twentieth century, the structure
of the various grant programs initiated at the federal level
featured:
1. A federal definition of the problem
2. A transfer of funds, primarily to the states (rather than localities).
3. A requirement that plans for use of funds be submitted to the federal
government
4. A requirement for the state matching funds
5. A requirement for federal review and audit of the programs
3. Picket-Fence Federalism
 Pattern of intergovernmental relations in which the horizontal bars represents
levels of government and the vertical slates represents various substantive
fields.

 Grants in which the money can be used for nearly any purpose within a specific
functional field.

 Grants for use in construction or renovation

 Grants requiring that the money may be spent for only a limited purpose,
typically available on competitive basis.

 Grants that provide assistance to persons who meet certain criteria

 Grants that employ a specific division rule to indicate how much money any
given jurisdiction will receive.

 Grants for use in development and operation of specific programs.

 Greater sharing of responsibilities between federal and state governments

 Patterns in which federal and state governments are struggling for power and
influence with little intergovernmental cooperation.

 A term encompassing all the complex and interdependent among those at

various levels of government.

 Pattern of relationships within and among various groups and organizations

working in a single policy area.
The big seven public interest groups
1. Council of State Government
2. National Governors Conference
3. National Conference of State Legislatures
4. National Association of Country Officials
5. National League of Cities
6. U.S. Conference of Mayors
7. International City Management Association
 CH6

 All managers engage in planning. But organization, and indeed entire

governments, engage in more formal planning process, often involving a wide
range of participants and the development of considerable data and other
information.
 Planning typically leads to the development of alternatives courses of action,
and each must be examined to decide which way to go.
 Depending on the level of the problem, process of examining and choosing
among alternatives may involve the manager in either “policy analysis” or
program design” or both.
  Matching organizational objectives and capabilities to the anticipated demands
of the environment to produce a plan of action that will ensure achievement of
objectives.
We can differentiate strategic planning from more familiar long
range planning activities in several ways:
1.
 Long –range planning
primarily concerns establishing goals or performance objectives over a
period of time; it is less concerned with specific steps that must be
undertaken to achieve those goals.
 Strategic planning
implies that a series of action steps will be developed as part of the
planning process and that these steps will guide the organization’s
activities in the immediate future.
2.
 A second way that strategic planning differs from long range
planning is its special attention to environmental complexity.
 The organization is not assumed to exist in a vacuum; rather, both the
organization’s objectives and steps to achieve them are seen in the
context of the resources and constraints presented by the
organization’s environment.

1. Statement of mission
2. Environment analysis
3. Strengths and weaknesses
4. Value of organizational leaders
5. Development of alternative strategic

1. Problem definition
2. Setting objectives and criteria
3. Development alternatives
4. Analyzing various policies
5. Ranking and choice