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CHAPTER TWO: The Nature of Government

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Chapter Summary

Chapter 2 outlines the field of public administration as well as the study of it, that is, the study of government bureaucracy. Since the end of World War II, Americans have demanded far more from their government, thus producing the "era of the administrative state," which was manifested in increases in administrative agencies, government workers, and government spending. Americans view their government as enormous, although during the last two decades it has shrunk slightly more than the governments of most industrialized nations.

This chapter introduces the central principle of administrative responsibility, the efficient administration of programs to ensure that the process and its results are accountable to elected officials and to the people. Administrative responsibility goes beyond such external controls on behavior as government rules and regulations and recognizes such internalized guides to conduct as the loyalty that administrators show to their programs or bosses.

This chapter also examines the meaning and boundaries of the field of public administration and how it has changed over time and adapted to different settings. Public administration suffers an identity crisis and struggles to distinguish itself from private-sector administration. Public administration differs from private-sector administration because public organizations implement law. The two sectors are alike in that they both execute policy, but the public sector differs in the goals to be served, the standards by which it is judged, and its involvement with policy creation. Scholars of public administration believe that policy and administration are intertwined but that the motivations of policymakers and public administrators are very different.