Wider Ethical Commitment in Public Administration and Professionalisation of Management

Ques.10. Comment on the importance of sense of Public interest as a wider ethical commitment in Public Administration ?

Ans. Public Administration is done to serve to direct to control and manage welfare to Public Administration needs to be taken care of by all three institutions – Legislature by Policy Formulation, Executive by Policy Implementation and Judiciary by solving policy related disputes. If while doing any of the above functions the sense of public interest is missing then the outcome will definitely be non positive. Ethical commitment is an integral part of Public Administration but in the over populated and diverse democracy like India a sense of Public Interest becomes a necessity. When the numerical strength of the needy and the poor is high then it becomes important specially for legislature and executive to work wholeheartedly and passionately for the poor and this attitude can be developed by imbuing in them a sense  of Public Interest which would automatically incline them towards wider ethical commitment. Not only for poor but also for well to do citizens, providing them proper services is the responsibility of the Government. Presence of corrupt and mean mentality persons in positions of authority can critically ravage the sense of public interest thereby endangering ethical and healthy Public Administration.

So the presence of the sense of public interest in the minds of those who hold positions of authority is of utmost importance in order to ensure the presence of healthy Pub Ad. 

Ques.11. “While professionalization was advocated in the management of government Wilson was well aware of the wider agenda of public administration Mohit Bhattacharya.In the light of above statement evaluate the relevance of Wilson’s ideas in developing countries of 21st century.

Ans. The Politics Administration Dichotomy concept given by Wilson argues for the separation of Politics (formulation of policy) and administration (implementation of policy). Wilson advocated that with non interference from political bosses, administrative officials should do their work in accordance with 3 central concerns of business administration which are economy, efficiency and effectiveness. He feels that if Public Administration would be carried on in a more business like manner using scientific principles it would be more efficient but Wilson was also aware of the fact that Government administration can not be 100% business like.

In developing countries like India substantial number of people are poor and if we are going to provide them services in business like environment they would not be in a position to afford them precisely this is the reason of the recent standoff between World Trade Organization and India over the provisions of Multilateral trade agreement whose business friendly provisions were not conducive to Below poverty line population of our country. Similarly in other developing economies of the 21st century the problem of chronic unemployment, considerable proportion of population being poor, less industrialization etc. are still present. Due to this the Government of these economies has to provide subsidies and free social schemes in order to help the poor populace.

So in these economies Wilson’s ideas have to applied in conjunction with the helpful nature of the Government towards the poor but even in these economies application of Wilson’s idea is very important though to a limited extent as over dependence on government can lead to stagnation in the economy as has happened in Greece few years back.