Emmanuel
A. Turuka
Western Michigan
University
“What is my personal
philosophy of the role of public administrators within the American system of
governance? Support the philosophy with examples reference and logic. How I
believe all public administrators fit into our system of government including
myself”.
The
American public administration arises in a political controversy between
democratic control of the government and competency to achieve government ends.
In other words, American public administration developed from an empirical
approach to manage complex public organizations. Therefore public
administrators have developed from their specific field to take the challenges of
organizations to support for hierarchical coordination as well as expertise in
providing governance of the government. Box (2004) argues
“The
challenge emerges directly from the necessity to improve the capacity to
achieve desired results in a complex system, where government are creators and
shapers but have severe limits on their direct actions” (222)
From the above context I would
like to point out that my personal philosophy of the role of public administrators
within the American system of governance is created in the reference of “body
of knowledge”.
What
does this mean? This means that Public administrators are located at the center
of the community and are required to respond to different activities like;
inquires from the Constitution, policy implementation evaluation and
communication, civil service career, union associations interest groups,
democracy and equity, efficiency and accountability, law and justice judiciary
inspection agencies and budgeting process service provision of development
aid. This means that public administrators must have the ability to analyze
problems carefully and be able to communicate ideas clearly in a logical and
compelling manner. Hence, a good public administrator in the American system of
governance should possess knowledge and skills. By knowledge I refer to the
ability to establish facts, rules, policies and procedures within the
organization. Through knowledge one has information they receive from reading,
while skills reflect abilities gained from learning from others during the
process of work. This is the fundamental basis for a good public administrator
because without knowledge one would fail to provide effective governance.
In the America System of governance the role
of public administrators is to accomplish the public mission of the government.
Leadership from public administrators is necessary because without leadership
there would be no mobilization to accomplish mandated purposes. Logical the government has been set up by the
community through election in return the role of a government in power is to
provide social needs and to and reflect the community values. This leadership
can only be effective if it creates, maintains and enhances public institutions
incorporated within the community. As the result of this demand public
administrators must be efficient by providing quality product services, such as
improving the life of citizens through the implementation of policy which is
directed to them from the government. This improves the life of citizens and
the main aim of the government. Public administrators can help to correct some
of the imperfections in the American system of governance.
The
intrinsic function of the government is to meet the needs of society.
Therefore, public administration is required to assist the government, which is
in power to accomplish its missions. Government exists because it has resources
to translate the citizens’ needs into collective action. By this logic, the
government will continue to be in power for an undetermined period of time if
it is able to meet the most basic expectations of its people. The purpose of
Public Administration is to govern, and thus government and public
administrators have the core to meet responsibilities to the needs of society.
Public
administration plays a key role in public policy making. This shows that public
administrators become a vital source in most of the government’s major
decisions. Therefore, public administrators cannot extricate themselves from
this political interest. In justifying this argument Box (2004) explains
“Public
administrators play important role in the formulation and implementation of
public policy: if they do not value and promote a substantive model of
democracy, the like hood of constructively dealing with pressing public
problems decreases significantly” (p. 254)
Public
administrators’ roles are routinized along the United States Constitution
despite the fact that there is no language about public administration of the
Constitution. According to the Constitution, all administrators are the
president’s subordinates. The Constitution explicitly says that departments’
heads have a responsibility to furnish counsel to the president. The role of
the administrators of local government to federal government have they been
well defined the government has set certain standards of enforcement such as,
Code of Ethics as a means of enhancing the efficiency From this point of view,
the philosophy of the body of knowledge is very important because once you
mislead the president with technical advise or you implement policy without
necessary knowledge you have misled the whole nation. For instance, take the
case of weapon of mass destructions against Iraq and the impact which the
United States is still experiencing to date. From this context I would like to
agree with Simon (1957) who state that,
“The
role of public administration therefore is to help the government to make the
decision correctly according to democratic governance, which the United State’s
system of looking at both the level of choice and level of rule” ( p. 77).
All
these issues justify the importance for administrators to have the combination
of both knowledge and skills in performing their day-to-day duties. This has
also been explained often out by three founding fathers; Hamilton, Jefferson,
and Madison. Hamilton was interested to see administrators focus their
activities efficiently in implementing their roles, while Jefferson believes
that there is a critical need to maximize administrative accountability to the
public at large, and Madison advocated that bureaucracies should balance social
interests to promote consensus stability and representation of the public. If
ones look at all of these ideals in order to achieve and implement all the
ideas well he/she must be knowledgeable and skillfully.
The
role of the Constitution is very important because the law regulates behavior
through either reinforcement of existing social expectation or to encourage
constructive changes. Laws are consistent with the most generally acceptable
societal norms and reflect the collective morality of society.
Efficiency is always offered as
a way to help acquire democratic accountability; the role of the APS Code of
Conduct is a good example of maintaining accountability in all levels of
government organizations. Despite of all this effort yet sometimes things go in
the opposite direction as Box (2004) puts is as a critique “ it is well known
that policy makers and public administrators often do not make effective use of
available knowledge derived from scientific research” (p. 226)
Public
administrators fit into the American system of governance because leadership
from public administrators is necessary. First the elected chief executive can
provide that leadership for only a few as a result of political
responsibilities. Second, leadership from public administrators is important
given that government fails to analyze issues. As the result the only place
where they can bring issues that are vague, conflicting, or fails to provide
enough sources is for the public administrators who have knowledge and skills.
Third, in this are public administrators are important because they are the
ones who provides necessary information to citizens regarding the economy and demographic
information just to mention a few. Being a student of School of Public Affairs
and Administration, and through my Foundation to Public Administration course I
believe that I also fit into the American system of governance, because I have
a body of knowledge necessary to act as a Public Administrator.
Legitimacy
of public administration in the American system of governance is to be found
within the logic of the Constitution.
The philosophy of the body of knowledge in public administration is
geared towards the maximization of effectiveness, efficiency and the prosperity
of the economy. Therefore public administrators are an important aspect of good
governance and for government to fulfill its goals
Reference;
Box R.C. (2004). Public administration and society:
Critical issues in american governance. M.E Sharpe, Inc.
Beckett J., Koenig H.O. (2005). Public
administration and law. M.E Sharpe, Inc.
Simon, H.
(1957). Administrative Behavior: A study of decision-making process in
administrative organization. 2nd ed. New York: Free Press
Wilson W.
(1887) The study of administration. Political Quarterly II (2) 197-222
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