Public administration, the implementation of government policies. Today public administration is often regarded as including also some responsibility for determining the policies and programs of governments. Specifically, it is the planning, organizing, directing, coordinating, and controlling of government operations.
Public administration - Principles, Governance, Policy: Throughout the 20th century the study and practice of public administration was essentially pragmatic and normative rather than theoretical and value free. This may explain why public administration, unlike some social sciences, developed without much concern about an encompassing theory. Not until the mid-20th century and the ...
Public administration - Governance, Bureaucracy, Reforms: Public administration has ancient origins. In antiquity the Egyptians and Greeks organized public affairs by office, and the principal officeholders were regarded as being principally responsible for administering justice, maintaining law and order, and providing plenty. The Romans developed a more sophisticated system under their ...
Public administration - French Bureaucracy, Civil Service, Governance: A fundamental change in the status of the civil servant came about as a result of the French Revolution of 1789. The fall of the ancien régime and the creation of a republic meant that the civil servant was seen as the servant no longer of the king but rather of the state—even though rule by a king or emperor was soon ...
Public administration - Soviet Union, Bureaucracy, Planning: In Russia the Revolution of 1917 swept away the tsarist civil service. The Communist Party at first held that a strong administrative organization was bound to damage the revolution by dampening spontaneity and other revolutionary virtues. But it soon became clear that a regime dedicated to social engineering, economic planning, and ...