Importance of Public Administration in Society
Importance of Public Administration in Society

There’s a hugely critical role of public administration in society. From helping the governing structures of society to effectively function and enhancing institutions through bureaucratic principles. Professional authors argued that it’s impossible for any contemporary government organization with characteristics of bureaucracy to exist and function without public administration. The importance of Public Administration in society can be seen as the legislature, judiciary and executive also rely on duties and functions of public administration today to effectively function especially with the increasing dynamic responsibilities of government.

The scope of public administration has been in existence since 200 BC. It became a popular academic discipline in 1887 after Woodrow Wilson, the father of public administration, outlined the significance of this study, and its importance to modern society and the state. During monarch management of building roads, developing countries had a need for major policies to help facilitate control, procedural implementations, and implementation.

Meaning and importance of public administration

Public administration is the implementation of policies on behalf of the government by public servants. Involves determining good policies and government responsibility through management functions (planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling) of government programs.  

In the beginning importance of public administration in society was to improve economic status during the industrial revolution. Sidney and Beatrice Webb during the time when cringing collective bargaining as been important to modern society but could not be separated from public administration and management or the role of human resource. Public administration caused a major shift during the industrial revolution leading to the urbanization of most western countries in the world.

course syllabus for Public Administration
course syllabus for Public Administration

The second phase involved changing the philosophy of public administration from a mere study to an academic discipline, aimed at introducing state intervention. This was later referred to as laissez-fare which was an introduction to modern social welfare. As explained in the course syllabus for Public Administration, later major countries involved in society, revolutionary movements, and organizations, formed alliances together with united nations to generate goals of public administration in society with a mission of spreading across the world.

Importance of public administration in society

It’s an important instrument as noted for making good policies and provision of services. Any society governed by state law needs public administration for making public policies and efficiency in procedures and programs on behalf of the government. Public administration serves the public interest, its importance in society with no profit-making motive, and facilitates equal resources even for poor people. Below are 12 public administration duties, responsibilities and the importance of public administration in society

  1. Public administration ensures adequate availability of services for public interests in different ways to improve the livelihood of people.
  2. Being a basic service rendered to people with the intent to save, public administration takes on projects the private sector avoids.
  3. Provision of free services such as healthcare, disaster management, education, and sensitization to curb diseases
  4. Public administration provides security, and protection of people from being exploited through the maintenance of democratic rule of law and order
  5. The economic, social, and cultural advancement of any country depends on public administration.
  6. The welfare being of developing countries depends on positive public monetary policies to improve economic status.
  7. Government machinery, including three arms of government legislature, judiciary, and executive relies on public administration.
  8. Protecting citizens through defense forces is among the major importance of public administration in society
  9. For any modern state public administration plays an active role in ensuring there’s laissez-fare an important element responsible for maintaining state law.
  10. The modern state needs public administration for the distribution of services and goods on behalf of the government.
  11. Public administration brings efficiency in government to reduce complex responsibilities.
  12. Finally, public administration ensures there’s equal distribution of resources in society to meet the requirements of the growing population.

Conclusion:

It’s been noticed there is an increasing awareness from citizens, countries, and institutions to improve on there functions and responsibilities. Hence today’s functions of public administration have become very complex and dynamic in nature. This is due to demand and changes in social and technological factors. Today, most public institution’s have now adopted elements of public management (NPM) to improve procedure, cutting red tape, putting customers first, improve efficiency and maintain competitive advantage in provision of services . Read on importance of New Public Management to know the significance of this paradigm shift from tradition public administration to adoption of business model of administration.

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