1、Toward a New Public AdministrationGeorge Frederickson Present the authors interpretation as it emerged at the Minnowbrook Conference on New Public Administration.Describe how this interpretation and synthesis of new Public Administration relates to the wider world of administrative thought and pract
2、ice.Interpret what new Public Administration means for organization theory and vice versa.The newness is in the way the fabric is woven,not necessarily in the threads that are used,and in arguments as to the proper use of the fabric.What are the threads of public administration?Pursuit of these basi
3、c values:representativeness,politically neutral competence,and executive leadership.A zero-sum game between administrative efficiency and political responsiveness.These gross generalizations fail to account for the wide,often rich,and sometimes subtle variation that rests within.What is New Public A
4、dministration All are employed by public agencies and each specialization or profession has its own substantive set of objectives and therefore its rationale.Public administration is the efficient,economical,and coordinated management of the services.The focus has been on top-level management or the
5、 basic auxiliary staff service.The rationale for Public Administration is always better management.New Public Administration adds social equity to the classic objectives and rationale.Conventional or classic Public Administration seeks to answer either of these questions:(1)How can we offer more or
6、better services with available resources?(2)How can we maintain our level of services while spending less money?New Public Administration adds this question:Does this service enhance social equity?Social Equity Pluralistic government systematically discriminates in favor of established stable bureau
7、cracies and their spcialized minority clientele and against those minorities who lack political and economic resources.A Public Administration which fails to work for changes which try to redress the deprivation of minorities will likely be eventually used to repress these minorities.The procedures
8、of representative democracy presently operates in a way that either fails or only very gradually attempts to reverse systematic discrimination against disadvantaged minorities.Social equity,then,includes activities designed to enhance the political power and economic well-being of these minorities.A
9、 fundamental commitment to social equity means that new Public Administration attempts to come to grips with Dwight Waldos contention that the field has never satisfactorily accommodated the theoretical implications of involvement in“politics”and policy-making.New Public Administration attempts to a
10、nswer it in this way:Administrators are not neutral.They should be committed to both good management and social equity as values,things to be achieved,or rationales.A fundamental commitment to social equity means that new Public Administration is anxiously engaged in change.Simply put,new Public Adm
11、inistration seeks to change those policies and structures that systematically inhabit social equity.This is not seeking change for changes sake,but seeking the changes which would enhance its objectivesgood management,efficiency,economy,and social equity.A commitment to social equity involves attemp
12、ts to find organizational and political forms which exhibit a capacity for continued flexibility or routinized change.New Public Administration seeks not only to carry out legislative mandates as efficiently and economically as possible,but to both influence and execute policies which more generally
13、 improve the quality of life for all.Classic Public Administration emphasizes developing and strengthening institutions which have been designed to deal with social problems.The Public Administration focus,however,has tended to drift from the problem to the institution.New Public Administration is c
14、oncerned less with building institutions and more with designing alternate means of solving public problems.These alternatives will no doubt have some recognizable organizational characteristics and they will need to be built and maintained,but will seek to avoid becoming entrenched,nonresponsible b
15、ureaucracies that become greater public problems than the social situations they were originally designed to improve.New Public Administration advocates what could be best described as“second-generation behavioralism”,which emphasizes the public part of Public Administration.The second-generation be
16、havioralist is less“generic”and more“public”than his forebear,less“descriptive”and more“prescriptive”,less“institution oriented”and more“client-impact oriented”,less“neutral”and more“normative”,and it is hoped,no less scientific.Organization Theory and New Public Administration Understanding of any
17、phenomenon requries separating that phenomenon into parts and examining each part in detail.The new Public Administration calls for a different way of subdividing the phenomenon so as to better understand it:the integrative process;the boundary-exchange process;and the socio-emotional process.The Di
18、stributive Process(1)External distribution.Cost-utility/cost-benefit analysis is the chief technique for attempting to understand the results of the distributive process.Project the likely costs and benefits of alternative programs.Policy-outcomes analysis attempts to determine the basis factors tha
19、t influences or determine policy variation.Equity in the distribution of government services within a jurisdictionThe Distributive Process(2)Internal-organization distribution.There is a need to develop a theory which accounts for the presence of public administrators considerably less willing to ba
20、rgain and more willing to take political and aministrative risks.When public administrators leave the safe harbor of“good management”,what might occur?The integrative process NPA advocates modified hierarchic system means to modify traditional hierarchies A relative tolerance for variation A willing
21、ness to trade increases in involvement and commitment to the organization for possible decreases in efficiency and economy particularly in the short run Two serious problems with the advocacy by NPA of less formal integrative processesA lack of PA specialists who are essentially program buildersInhe
22、rent conflict between higher and lower-level administrators in less formal integrative systemsThe boundary exchange process General relationship between the publicly aministered organization and its reference groups and clients And relationship between levels of government in a federal system.A cons
23、iderably higher client involvement is necessary on the part of these minorities who have not heretofore been involvedThe development of new means by which administrators relate to their legislaturesThe socioemotional process Socioemotional-training techniques will be utilized to aid in the developme
24、nt of decentralized and possibly project-oriented organizational modes.While NPA is committed to wider social equity,the foregoing should make it clear that a more nearly equitable internal organization is also an objective.Conlusions(1)What are the likely results for a practicing public administrat
25、ion working from such a normative base?Classic PA on the basis of its expressed objectives commonmly had the support of businessmen and the articulate and educated upper and upper middle class.If NPA attempts to justify or rationalize its stance on the basis of social equity,it might have to trade s
26、upport from its traditional sources for support from the disadvantaged minorities.NPA might encounter substantial oppsition from elected officials for its fundamental involvement in shaping social policy.Conlusions(2)What are the likely results for a practicing public administration working from suc
27、h a normative base?NPA might well foster a political system in which selected officals speak basically for the majority and for the praviledged minorities while courts and the administrators are spokesmen for disadvantaged minorities.What of NPA and academia?TheoryMethodacademyConlusions(3)What of N
28、PA and academia?Theory:the uniqueness of public organization will be stressed.Internal administrative behaviors center position in pa will be taken by a strong emphasis on the distributive and boundary-exchange process.MethodQuantitatively inclined public organization theorists.Welfare economics(social equity instead of profit)Behaviorally inclined consociated modelAcademyPublic administration.Public service.
