HEAVY DUTIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 93, 21 April 1939, Page 16

HEAVY DUTIES

STATE LEADERS

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

"An Introduction to Public Administration" was the subject of an interesting public lecture delivered at Victoria. University College this week by Professor L. -M. Lipson, Professor of Political Science and Public Administration. The lecture was the first of a. series on this subject to be delivered weekly at the college by various speakers, including the officers who directly control the administration of the various branches of the Public Service in New Zealand.

"Public administration is nothing new: it is as old as the State itself," said Professor Lipson. "It exists wherever there are laws to be enforced, wherever the State does anything positive affecting people's lives and regulating their actions. But the study of public administration is quite a new branch of political science. It is a--product-of .the twentieth century. How can we reconcile the newness of the-'study with the antiquity of the subject-matter?" Public administration, the speaker explained, had developed in the King's household during the Middle Ages. New administrative activities had to be performed, and only the King had the power to perform them.' At a later stage people began to realise that they must exercise control over the King in his performance of administrative functions. Constitutional control was the problem of the seventeenth century, and the purpose of the revolutions in England. In the nineteenth century developing capitalism-^asserted that the less the State did, the better. This, doctrine would logically reduce public administration to a minimum. But the twentieth century had witnessed the emergence of new functions which the State was necessarily called upon to perform. The police state has given place to the social service state. The''problem of controlling the State was. now coupled with the problem of equipping government with the powers to '■provide services efficiently. The administrative work of the State had increased ! proportionately to its new active and creative role. "Hence the study of public administration has newly emerged in this century," continued the professor. In earlier times political science was principally concerned with questions of philosophy. It studied the purpose arid justification of the State, and the promotion .of the 'good life' for its citizens. In t the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries political science became as closely connected with law as it had been With philosophy. The problem of" control was envisaged in legal terms as a problem of constitutionalism and the protection of individual rights. Today, when the ques-tion-of service has become -paramount, political science is studying the State as a dynamic agent positively affecting the well-being of its citizens." ORGANISATION ASPECT. - Public administration could be studied in two aspects. One was the aspect of organisation. There were certain administrative problems which were common ,to government and to other large-scale organisations. Increasing size, however, itself necessitated an organisation different in kind. Under this aspect of organisation, three types of administrative function could be distinguished. ; There was the function of a department which directly served the public, for example/a department of education or of agriculture. Another function was that of a department which both served arid controlled the former type of agency, such as a treasury department or a public service agency. The third was the function of research into/ problems of government and methods of administration, for example, the National Resources Board in the United States. It was better if these different functions were allocated to distinct agencies. It was bad for research to be mixed with control over other agencies, or control mixed with service. •to .the public.

■ I The problem of personnel was of peculiar significance now that the Civil Service had come to stay. It was strange that the institution of the Civil Service should have been opposed in England on the ground that it was contrary to aristocratic nations, and was opposed in America on the ground that it was contrary to democracy v The Civil Service had three principal divisions, a general clerical division and two others which required advanced, education. One *of these included professional experts trained in a particular scientific skill.' The other was a division of general administration, which presupposed a general education training the faculties of the mind. General administration involved the problems of coordinating, organising, supervising, planning, and inventing. CRUCIAL PROBLEM. Perhaps the crucial administrative problem of modern democracies was that of overhead co-ordination by the chief executive. It was significant that both in Britain and France under cabinet government, and in America under the presidential form, leadership both in legislation and administration was now centred on one person. Were the modern democracies placing too ""great a burden on their Prime Ministers and Presidents? Were modern problems of government too complex to be headed by this one chief executive?

If the management at the top of the machine was inadequate, democracy could not provide the services which the people required. If it failed to provide services, democracy could not survive. The problem of administration and overhead leadership was linked up with the survival of democracy.