UPSC CIVIL SERVICE EXAM FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (OPTIONAL SUBJECT)

Evolution of Public Administration as a Discipline 

Paradigm 6: Government to Governance,  1990 - 

Etymologically,  governance can be traced back to the Greek verb Kubernan ( to pilot or steer) and was used by Plato with regard to how to design a system of rule. The Greek term gave rise to the medieval Latin Gubemarc, which has the same connotation of piloting rule - making or steering . Governance is the institutional capacity of public organizations to provide the public and other goods demanded by a country's citizens or their representatives in an effective,  transparent,  impartial,  and accountable manner, subject to resource constraints (World Bank, 2000). 


Governance is a broader and more fundamental concept than that of government alone . The concern is with the links between parts of the political system as with the institutions themselves.  Problem of modern governance is not so much an insufficiency of instruments relative to the changing on objectives, but rather the degree of incompatibility between objectives. 


Good Governance 
In many countries good governance is very much a current topic,  as part of the agenda of the reform movement.  It is concerned with such issues as corruption, human rights, social justice, equity,  rule of law etc. Universally 'good governance ' raises such issues as: 

• Stakeholders engagement; 
•Transparency;  
•The equalities agenda ( gender, ethic group, age , religion,  etc);
•Ethical and honest behaviour;  
•Accountability;  
• Sustainability. 

The characteristics of 'good governance ':
•An efficient public service;  
•An independent judicial system and legal framework 
• To enforce contracts;  
•The accountable administration of public funds; 
•An independent public auditor,  responsible to a representative legislature;
•Respect for law and human rights at all levels of government; 
•A pluralistic institutional structure; and a free press.


Paradigm 7: The Future  (?) Digital  (e) Governance 
Golembiewski 
The conceptual development of public administration is viewed by him as being encompassed by the four cells of 2×2 MATRIX. Focus refers to the analytical targets of public administration. The " what " witl: which specialists are concerned.  "Locus" refers to the "where" - to the contexts that are conceived to yield the phenomena of interest. Both locus and focus are distinguished as relatively unspecified and relatively specified. 


The contemporary condition of the fields is the results of it having passed through four major stages or phases of conceptual development that differ both in locus and focus. 

Phase :1 The analytic distinction of politics from administration,  interpreted as ideal categories or function of governance, which functions are performed in different institutional loci in varying degrees. 
Phase 2: The concrete distinction of politics from administration, with the former conceived as having a real locus in the interaction between legislatures and high - level members of the executive, and the latter as having a real locus in the bulk of bureaucracy. 
Phase 3: A science of management, which emphasised the isolation and analysis of administrative processes, dynamics, activities, or principles that are seen as universal. 
Phase 4 : The pervasive orientation toward "public policy ",  in which politics and administration commingle and which has an unspecified locus that encompasses the total set of public and private institutions and processes that are policy relevant. 



                           Golembiewski's 2×2 MATRIX 

                                        FOCUS 

Relatively specified                        Relatively Unspecified 
         Phase 1                                      phase 2
     
           FOCUS 
    
        phase 3                                           phase 4
Relatively specified                         Relatively Unspecified 

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