Public Administration in the United States

Introduction Public administration can be described as the study or a field of practice or occupation. Politically, public administration describes or defines how the various branches of the government strategize and implement policies. Government involvement in the public sector can be either directly on indirect.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on Public Administration in the United States specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More When the government is involved directly, it employs public members to serve as employees for the benefit of the general population, while indirect involvement of the government would be when the government hires private contractors to carry out some of the stipulated public policies. It also involves how public quarter organizations are categorized and managed, how the federal government and the cities, states and towns work hand in hand to attain their development goals in the interest of the people. In legal terms, public administration means the ability to implement legislation in regulating the behaviors of different individuals provide job opportunities, goods and services to the citizens. The American public administration is one among the most admired administration in the world. Many countries seek solution to their administrative problems from gathering facts compiled from the American Public Administration, however this does not mean that America is all perfect in ensuring that the public administration sector is always having smooth endeavors instead they also have challenges that they seek solution to. A Constitution dilemma Public administrators are not only concerned with the management of public policies but also have some influence in the political field which they end up sometimes being dominant in political issues. In America, according to many people’s view is that politics and administration should be totally separated from each other but th is is not the case especially when presently only well organized administrations which are able to cope with the issues generated from all aspects can be seen as survivors and be regarded as the best.Advertising Looking for term paper on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The public officials who have influence in the political arena must be ready to take orders from other leaders who mostly are not bureaucrats especially when they don’t have the knowledge infatuated by selected officials (Friedman 2006). One way of ensuring that an open democracy is preserved and enjoys its freedom is to ensure that the constitution is designed in a way that would enable political leaders to have an effective control over their public servant. These are people who are supposed to understand and be ready to face up problems that arise due to modernity. Economy The economics of a country also counts as a major challen ge in the public administration. The challenging economic background is that the economy and the economy policies of many states are in the process of transition. The economy of a country involves the choices people make. This is the way people tend to choose and make decision depending on the affordability to obtain the resources to satisfy the unlimited human wants and needs. Economics can there for be explained as the human behavior which arises due to shortage means to accomplish given desires. There are many relations between public administration and economics as most areas under public administration are economic in nature. An example is the public finance management of public enterprises economic planning among other fields. The government has always played part in the economic affairs in the interest of socio-economic justice. The government’s participation has greatly and positively impacted on the economic growth of the country as through their involvement, new eco nomic planning strategies are being implemented and processes of new forms of organization (Milakovich Gordon 2008). Power and Performance Power and performance are two principles, which are correlated in the running of a public administration. For example, when it is said that the administrators who are currently at the helm are powerful; it means that they have the capacity to administer as compared to bureaucrats who have power.Advertising We will write a custom term paper sample on Public Administration in the United States specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More According to Milakovich and Gordon (2008), â€Å"ultimately those who are in government must recognize that public service is not an economic construct but a political construct. This means that issues pertaining service improvement need to be looked into keenly and not only the demands of the customers’ matters but also the distribution of power in the society. Th ereby, in the ‘New public service’ provision of quality service to the public is seen as the first step taking action to widen public involvement in the end extending democratic citizenship†. Practices within the public sector provide opportunites to improve levels of customer service to the public and improve the accessibility to government services at lower costs to the citizens (Siedman and Gilmour 1986). The growing demand for a more open, participatory and efficient government One of the greatest challenges, governments face is ensuring that from the formed governments, people have a feeling that the government is for the people and not only of the people by the people. Hence, much consideration should be put when making policy decisions that are set to affect the members of the public. Policies like how the tax should be spent to benefit the members of the public (Hill Hupe 2002). Today many citizens are seeking an opportunity to participate in public affai rs apart from only being involved in national elections that occurs once after 4 to 5 years. According to the highlights made by the United Nations Millennium Declaration, the most effective way of ensuring that values of freedom, equality, environmental protection and shared responsibility is respected is when the public administration of a country is effective and if there is democracy and good governance. The most critical way of ensuring a country achieves its developmental goals is if they realize the importance of having a democratic country with good governance (Putnam 2000). Objectives, like development and poverty eradication, can only be achieved if there is stable democracy for with a democratic state, there is a chance to achieve greater economic targets and there is enough evidence that proves democracy effectively ensures there is redistribution of resources across the state.Advertising Looking for term paper on public administration? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More However, democracy will not be the only sufficient way of ensuring a state reaches its development goal but also the government institutions that have been put in place should have committed people who will over see the realization of the countries goal. These institutions should have specified, clear and accepted rules that will govern all workers for the benefit of the whole economy. How the public sector performs clearly depends on the people who are associated with them. Public sector will only manage to effectively bring positive changes at both the local and global levels if those working under this sector are skilled people who are dedicated to perform their work and carry out reforms which are effective in the long run. Reforms One other important role of the public administration sector is to guarantee that the social and economic prospects of the society are of date. This can only be achieved if the public sector is committed to constantly change and improve the sector thr ough modernization of the policies for quality public services. The challenging factor is that the government tends to use some concepts that do not help in the improving of the public service sector (Cooper 2004). One way this problem can be dealt with is by having public unions which are active and have the interest to improve the public services to be more relevant and to the needs of the people. There have been a number of reforms that have been incorporated in public administration but only a few of them have positively impacted the sector leading to very little results, too much rhetoric and not enough wise working leaders. The main responsibility of the Public servants is to effectively adopt an effective reform policy. Political leaders should show support to public servants when it comes to passing legislative laws about making changes to marshal reforms affecting the whole government. Most administrative personnel may be faced with some kind of challenge because there are new skills that they are seeking to get from the public, they seek new people who are sufficiently competent to undertake roles especially during the changes in the economic, demographic, and political environment. According to Ciglar (1989), the new shift in paradigm was becoming a challenge to senior administrators because these people needed individuals who portray qualities for strong leadership, imagination and resourcefulness at all levels of government Globalization Globalization has influenced changes in almost every sector of activity of governance undertaken by modern governments. A reorganization and reformation of the basic grounds and practices of public administration have forced governments to re-evaluate their priorities goals and practices. A balance between enhancing the efficiency of public service and controlling the demands and pressure exerted by the forces of globalization has to be reached. Many states have failed to cope with the requirements of globalizatio n in their public sector due to non existence of and in many cases non adherence to ethical code of conduct in public dealings (Denhardt 2007) Globalization describes how a business progresses from the household level to village or town level to the greater regions like the province then national and international organization. The challenge being faced through globalization is that it tends to make a few people benefit from it and at the same time make others loose from it. Many may argue of whether globalizations effects are positive or negative but this judgment may only be passed according to the kind of relationship of those in power positions keeping in mind that there are unequal power relationships between nations, states and groups. Globalization therefore can be termed as either positive or negative to public workers depending on the underlying rules that are present. Professor Farazmand implicitly argues that the challenges of globalization are the major reasons why refor m of the public administration system of a polity must be undertaken (Guy 1995). The impact of globalization is an irreversible and unstoppable process and the dynamics of globalization has led to new studies in the public administration and the only way to solve global problems and challenges is to consider having civil global administration (Kolbert 2006). Decentralization challenge Decentralization can be defined as the transfer of authority or the responsibility for decision making management planning or resource allocation from a central government to the district administrative units in order to be closer to the citizens (Terry 1995). This process allows both the employees and the managers to have freedom to do certain activities, involve themselves in creative works and have some form of authority reducing bureaucracy and provide opportunities for more approvals of actions. Decentralization is a major challenge in public administration especially in the managerial systems whi ch naturally are closely related to the political systems. Often there is a tendency of political systems to use the central authorities to put emphasis on the power and strength of many political players. For this reason they influence the public senior managers as they must work closely with them (those who are publically elected and perform political duties) (Caiden 1991). Many politicians see decentralization as a stumbling block in their ways of governing. Most of them fear that once the public administration is decentralized, then their ability to supervise what is taking place and the management of these activities is somehow reduced together with the powers they have for governing the people. In addition, once public organizations are decentralized, they are left with insufficient budgets that they cannot manage with independently and they also face other economic challenges and insufficient tools to act as independent organizations. Steps that should be taken to strengthen our governmental system and our society Many Americans believe that having a democratic government in place will help the nation rise and face up to the many challenges that may come their way. Even with the national political challenges which mainly concerns with the disagreements of what role government plays the Americans are still committed to uphold the principles and practices of democratic governance with the aim of having a striving nation. The United States of America for almost three decades has continued to enjoy the efforts from the growing network of people and organization working relationship to ensure that the set political systems provide a hope of a democratic nation for all Americans. United States boasts of a very strong constitutional framework together with strong governing institutions especially since the elected present Obama took power and had his agenda to ensure that the kind of governance in his era would be one which would be more participatory, collabo rative and open. The American government has to find ways to continue strengthening their government and their society at large. Involving American people in meaningful reflections about key policy questions The government has to involve the members of the public in regular policy deliberations this will be a way to show the public that they are important when they have the opportunity to come together and share their views about a particular policy which is of national significance. However in most cases, the political officials are the ones who set the policies and just present their desires to the citizens not only through the town meetings which are usually occasion but also through carefully designed and evaluated methods of engaging the public to participate in the deliberations of collaborative processes that will allow them to express their views on difficult policy issues and be ready to address the issues (Pollitt Bouckaert 1999). The government can achieve this if they a lso commit in ensuring public participation by sending relevant executive personnel to help the public in planning and also take serious measures once they get the results from the deliberations after a public policy meeting. Also the civil society organizations that are involved with the public engagement should have comprehensive and rigorous impartial process as they conduct the policy meetings. Projects related to the possible policy contexts can be presented to the Whitehouse so that the personnel concerned with the issues has the opportunity to observe the different approaches of the projects adaptations. Open government dialogue â€Å"My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in government.† —President Bar ack Obama, January 21, 2009. Many governments are faced by the challenge of building an open and transparent government especially in their public administration sector. To enhance intelligibility and responsibility in the public administration sector, there is need to employ efficient public analysis based on concrete formal conditions for admittance to information. With an open government, citizens are sure of transparency and adequate information about the government’s activities. An advantage of having an open government is that it encourages government official’s journalists and the public to scrutinize governments work. Presently the re are records have been made available online being for every individual who visits the Whitehouse in an effort to publicly show the public whose voices are being heard during the policy making process (Silverman 1992). In addition by encouraging an open government practice, the members of the public are entitled to easier access to government data as democratizing data ensures that cost to access information is reduced and actions involving fraud and waste are eliminated besides all the above it provides a platform for new job opportunities to improve the living standards of the people. For example the launching of the Data.gov a website that makes it possible for people to access information about economics, healthcare and other information in multiples because they are created in multiple electronic formats. The website offers other advantages like it provides software tools that can be used to track the performance flights and also agencies can use it to make their information available to the public shows transparency practices (Drucker 2001). Encourage public engagement and building skills Capacity for efficient, sustainable and joint participation is needed at both the federal state level and the local levels. Meaningful governance is one which encourages the participation of the public and the public o fficials in matters concerning governance. Necessary skills are needed to take on responsibilities of decentralized political groups. The advantage is the public will be able to exercise their democratic rights by being partners with the government by controlling the resources found in federal state and the local governments. The government is obligated to embrace and incorporate public engagement in the government entities, non profit organizations and other sectors in the private industries. Presently there is a shortage of young people with comprehensive knowledge of civic processes and other government processes which would be of benefit in carrying out democratic deliberations. These people also lack the arts and skills to organize and advocate democracy and help solve problems which are seen as a full participation of an individual democratic right (Tocqueville 2003). Performance and personnel management The American government can use performance information as a key to impro ving the outcomes of selected strategies. This information can be obtained through carrying out evaluations, offering of training and development to its personnel, using any feed back obtained to improve the government’s performance and the most important of all, rewarding performance. Evaluation: this basically is a means of assessing employees’ measure and aptitude in carrying out their work. This further creates a framework for creating training and development programs. Evaluation is mostly centered on assessment of five basic groups of performance which include: 1) communication, 2) interaction, 3) productivity, 4) quality concerns, and 5) job knowledge and skill. Training and development: for better and enhanced performance from personnel, training and development programs are the best option to be utilized and in most case turn up very positive results. But firstly, employee skills have to be assessed so as to determine the appropriate and most suitable program. The training being conducted has to be in line with the government’s needs and goals. Feedback: information obtained from the assessment of government officials must be communicated back so that proper measure can be taken in cases of exemplary service that needs to be rewarded or where there is slack performance and reprimand is necessary. It is also important to communicate back to the employees of the assessment carried out on them. Rewarding performance: this helps in strengthening and making the employees feel appreciated thus the government will be assured of positive outputs all the time. Throwing money at the most valued employees is not advisable but rather the management should be able to get down to actually what motivates employees. Security and privacy The government should be concerned with the security issues of the country especially when factoring in the use of technology to improve the government systems and the society also has a part to play in helping th e government watch over the welfare of its people. For example, the internet which is today one of the cheapest technology to acquire has helped in the economic growth of many government sectors to increase economic growth but as this happens there are also risk factors included while using this technology. We all can access data and information from the internet, hence the government need to implement policies that would only allow those authorized personnel to access various data that concerns the security and good welfare of the people while keeping away the unauthorized personnel. The government should assess all possible risks and develop working policies to solve these problems. Conclusion In the modern world, the public administration systems are becoming more critical in the running of government affairs. These systems have significantly alleviated poverty together with creation of essential wealth manifestation and broad development objectives. Governments should be ready t o adopt a variety of reforms among them; engaging governance initiatives, adoption of performance management application of information technologies and incorporating of anticorruption programs among other necessary reforms. It is worth noting that public administration practice has advanced rapidly over the years as a result of resolution. Among the problems that institutes of public administration should have helped resolve are the problems that were concerned with insisting for bureaucratic cultural change and the benefits that would be attained from the institutional stability, benefits to be attained from managerial flexibility and the sanctity of the rules, and the benefits to be attained from the domestic mandate of the Government of both regional and international obligations and benefits attained from short-term pursuits and long-term strategic concerns. The government can be in a better position to face up new challenges and opportunities experienced during this era if onl y they focus on accountability and results of the laid goals. But the federal governments and agencies are confronted with long standing and substantial challenges and the only solution to these problems is having a system that is driven by performance which will help in building connections between the different existing agencies, levels of government together with the nonprofit organizations and the private sector. If organizations and federal departments goal is to perform well, then they are obligated to have close relationships with other government sectors, the private sector and the non profitable organizations both at local and international levels. The government should also ensure that it instills working practices and do away with those that are ineffective, since the public expects substantial results from the federal government planning strategies. References Caiden, G. (1991). Administrative Reform Comes of Age. Los Angeles: De Gruyter. Ciglar, B. (1989). Trends Affect ing Local Administrators. 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New York: Oxford University Press. Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Fireside Paperbacks. Siedman, H. and Gilmour R. (1986). Politics, Position and Power: From the Positive to the Regulatory State, 4th edition. New York: Oxford University Press. Silverman, J. M. (1992). Public Sector Decentralization: Economic Policy and Terry, L. D. (1995). Leadership of Public Bureaucracies: The Administrator as Conservator. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Tocqueville, A. (2003). Democracy in America and Two Essays on America. New York: Penguin Group. This term paper on Public Administration in the United States was written and submitted by user Jazmin Lott to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.