Issues and Dilemmas of Contemporary Public Administration



Issues and Dilemmas of Contemporary Public Administration

Introduction

Public administration is one of the crucial reasons behind the functioning of the government. Public administration is inherent with administrative responsibility and public interest. People in many countries have one basic expectation from the public administrators - they want them to work for the interest of the public and treat them well than to dominate them. This should be given due importance in that it is coming from someone whose lives are affected directly by the public administrators. The paper discusses the concept of public interest and how it relates to public administration. It sheds light on administrative responsibility and discuses ethical obligations that are faced by the public administrators on a daily basis. The recent trend in the privatization of government functions also has the flip side whereby the public interest may be lost.

Public interest

Public interest refers to the welfare of public or the public goodwill. However, it is very difficult to define in explicit terms what exactly constitutes public interest. In public administration, all the policies are designed with public interest at the center. It is also imperative to state that public interest is often confused with self interest. This is one of the major reasons desired changes in the society are not seen. People design policies that benefit them through maneuvering (Finer, 2001). Public has the power to choose their leader for themselves. They make their decisions in the favor of the leader who is most promising and who will make their life better for them. The vote they make is based on their understanding of the best manifesto. The leader who has the fairest record has the highest probability of winning. However, it is poor to note that the same leaders disappoint the public later.

Public interest means that the life of public should become better.

Administrative responsibility

No government can succeed in the long run if it does not pay attention to its administrative responsibilities. Administrative responsibility refers to the responsibility that is restored in any of the government position. Whenever a person assumes power, he also submits his concern to deliver the responsibilities that come with the position (UCDAVIS, 2009). For any democratic government, the administrative efficiency comes from the administrative responsibility. This is true especially in the long run. In this context, the work of Friedrich is worth mentioning who distinguished between 'sense of duty' and 'sense of responsibility'.

Responsibility comes from the fact that a person holding a certain government position is answerable for all the actions taken as a holder of the position. He also stated that responsibility is a subjective term in that the sense of responsibly for two people holding the same position can be different. However, their sense of duty should be essentially similar. However, whether or not the sense of responsibility is sufficient to keep the administrative job nourishing and zealous is a big debate. The responsibility of administration serves as a monitor on the ...