Public Administration Courses Research Articles

Pre-Professional Training in Public Administration

Does the improvement of pre-professional training at an undergraduate college come at the expense of general education in the liberal arts and sciences? Does the introduction of public administration courses and programs threaten the integrity of the political science curriculum? Increasingly, liberal arts colleges have had to address these questions as students have demanded more "practical" training as a part of their undergraduate education. Within political science departments, these questions are usually raised in the context of expanding public administration offerings. In the last few years, at Providence College, we have introduced a new Public Administration Program which has significantly improved our students preparation for public sector employment in a way that is compatible with our general political science curriculum.

The Economist's Dilemma—The Relevance of Development Economics to Public Administration

Summary There is general disillusionment amongst academics concerned with development studies with the results of two decades of sustained attempts to stimulate economic development and economic planning in the developing countries. In recent literature this has been blamed partly on weaknesses in the theory of development economics and the irrelevance of much of economic theory as produced by rich countries, and partly on the failure of economists and planners to understand fully the political and social realities of the poor countries. This mood of pessimism is compared with the perceptions of generalist administrators from the developing countries participating in courses in public administration in the University of Manchester, and their understanding of the currently fashionable policies of self‐reliance and a search for indigenous solutions.Resume Le dilemme de l'économiste: L'utilité de l'économique de développement pour l'administration publiqueIl y a un désenchantement général chez les universitaires spécialisés dans les études sur le développement devant les résultats obtenus au cours de deux décennies d'efforts soutenus pour stimuler le développement économique et la planification de l'économie dans les pays en voie de développement. Selon les ouvrages récemment publiés, la faute en incombe en partie aux faiblesses de la théorie de l'économique de développement et au manque de réalisme d'une grande partie de la théorie économique originaire des pays riches, et en partie aux économistes et planificateurs qui n'ont pas su comprendre les réalités politiques et sociales des pays pauvres. L'auteur compare cette humeur pessimiste avec les façons de voir des administrateurs généralistes des pays en vole de développement participant à des stages sur l'administration publique à l'Université de Manchester, et à leur compréhension des politiques actuellement à la mode d'auto‐suffisance et de recherches de solutions indigènes.Resumen El dilema del economista: La pertinencia de los estudios económicos sobre el desarrollo para la Administración PublicaExiste una desilusión general entre los académicos interesados en los estudios sobre el desarrollo hacia los resultados de dos decenios de tentativas persistentes para estimular el desarrollo económico y la planificación económica en los países en vías de desarrollo. En textos recientes, se ha acusado en parte de esto a las deficiencias de la teoría sobre economía del desarrollo y la incongruencia de bastante de lo que se considere teoría económica, según se ha producido en los países ricos, y en parte al fracaso de los economistas y planificadores en comprender completamente las realidades políticas y sociales de los países pobres. Este pesimismo se compara con las percepciones de administradores generalistas de los países en vías de desarrollo que participan en cursos de administración pública en la universidad de Manchester y su comprensión de las políticas actualmente de moda de autosuficiencia y una búsqueda de las soluciones indígenas.

Organizing a Course in Public Administration

Organizing a Course in Public Administration

A short course in public health administration for senior medical officers

A short course in public health administration for senior medical officers

THE SENIOR COURSE IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Canadian Public AdministrationVolume 8, Issue 1 p. 36-45 THE SENIOR COURSE IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION G. S. Follis, G. S. FollisSearch for more papers by this author G. S. Follis, G. S. FollisSearch for more papers by this author First published: March 1965 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-7121.1965.tb01209.xCitations: 1AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume8, Issue1March 1965Pages 36-45 RelatedInformation

The Introductory Public Administration Course: Approach for the 1960's and Beyond

The Introductory Public Administration Course: Approach for the 1960's and Beyond

Public Administration Course for Overseas Government Servants in the University of Manchester

Public AdministrationVolume 40, Issue 2 p. 207-215 Public Administration Course for Overseas Government Servants in the University of Manchester First published: June 1962 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1962.tb02960.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume40, Issue2June 1962Pages 207-215 RelatedInformation

Courses in Public Administration and Local Government

Courses in Public Administration and Local Government

Bureaucratic Realpolitik and the Teaching of Administration

T HE proliferation of courses in public administration has made it possible to provide training in practically every conceivable phase of the field. The gamut of instruction includes administrative law, personnel techniques, budget operations, planning and housing, correctional administration, human relations, and international administration, to mention only the more common offerings. With each passing year, students completing the college and university sequences in this field represent an increasing level of professional competence in their knowledge and grasp of administrative concepts and techniques. Pleasing as this has been to the academician and to the employing governmental agencies, it should not be permitted to obscure our failure to provide commensurately useful instruction in an equally important aspect of the subject-the art of administrative survival. Only in pure theory is the implementation of governmental policy the sole concern of the administrator. From his point of view, the administrative structure is also the scene of an unending and sometimes desperate battle for personal survival, power, and prestige. In large part, his career depends upon his skill at the game of bureaucratic realpolitik, i.e., his mastery of the administrative version of gets what, when, and how. The public employee who lacks at least an elementary comprehension of the major operational concepts and objectives of administrative realpolitik is professionally handicapped, no matter the measure of his other qualifications. Scanning the literature of American public administration, anyone familiar with the realities of bureaucratic existence is struck by the almost total absence of any dispassionate analysis of the nature and importance of administrative realpolitik. While the scholarly commentators have given increasing recognition and emphasis to the importance of individual motivation in the administrative process, their discussion of realpolitik has been descriptive rather than systematic.' Much has been said about a philosophy of administration2 but the possible relationship between such a philosophy and the practice of realpolitik has been largely ignored. A few novelists have dealt with the subject in a skillful and highly perceptive manner, but the fictional approach is, at best, an inadequate substitute for the systematic dissection and analysis which the academician

Training for Public Administration: A Symposium. I. The Social Sciences and Public Administration

By “The Social Sciences and Public Administration,” the title assigned me by Professor Clokie, I am assuming he meant “Special Teaching in the Social Science Departments of Canadian Universities for Students Contemplating the Civil Service as a Career,” which is both more definitive and (being of eight words or over) even long enough for copyright. It is to “lead off” a symposium on “Training for Public Administration,” a vasty frame of reference indeed, taking in (some might go so far as to think) a course in the great school of Practical Politics itself.Insinuating this role upon me, Professor Clokie pointed out that I had been a long time in the Public Service, and was now a teacher in a university. It is the logic of the redoubtable Pott, Mr. Pickwick's editor-friend, on Chinese metaphysics—an impregnable logic, says Mr. Bernard Shaw. In my case, however, whilst I was undoubtedly in the Service a long time indeed, at Toronto I am only what is called a “Visiting Professor,” i.e., one who lectures merely on what he knows, and can be let out at any time. Moreover, that new flower, the Course in Public Administration, which (again in the search for the particular) seems to represent a fortiori the “special teaching” aforesaid, was unknown in my generation as a student, and late-blooming in my generation as a civil servant. But one must not let one's style be cramped, and today therefore I take it as a sort of text, if only in the grand manner to which educationally speaking so old-fashioned a civil servant is accustomed.

The Universities and the Public Service

The current slump in the number of university students taking courses in public administration suggests that this is a good time to reflect on what form education for the public service should take after the war. It is highly probable that many university students will again undertake to prepare themselves for jobs and careers in government, despite an inevitable reduction in the number of federal employees. Educational assistance to veterans may, in fact, cause a large and sudden increase in the numbers attending colleges and universities with an eye to a government job after graduation. I should like to discuss the kind of education which should be offered such students after the war, whether or not they are veterans. My comments are directed primarily toward undergraduate instruction. The advanced work on administrative theory and problems carried on by graduate faculties and candidates for the Ph.D. is a separate subject.Basically, the problem of education for the public service involves two questions. First, what are the most important demands which the public service makes upon the individual? Second, how can the universities contribute most to developing the qualities needed to meet these demands?The demands which the public service makes upon the individual are many and varied. They cannot all be anticipated in advance; and if they could be, there would not be time in the university to give specific training for meeting all of them. Thus some determination must be made as to the kind of demands that are most important. Such a determination was, in fact, being made before the war by university faculties teaching public administration and political science. Students preparing for the public service were being asked to spend an increasing amount of time in the study of techniques, procedures, and skills currently in use in governmental practice. Most prominent among these were personnel management, budgetary and fiscal administration, accounting, statistics, government procurement practice, office management, and similar subjects.

Value to Students of Courses in Public Administration

Dear Professor —: I cannot at this moment lay my hand on your original letter to Dr. Moulton [president of the Brookings Institution], but as I recall it you expressed your desire to give in the department of political science courses which would prove of value to your students. You were particularly considering extending the work in public administration.I have at one time or another given a good bit of thought to the question of value of courses in political science, and it seems to me we should consider three types of values: (1) cultural, (2) civic, and (3) vocational.Cultural value, I should say, lies in giving the students a broad understanding of the world in which they live. Cultural courses lay a foundation upon which they may build as they go on through life. Such courses in political science should enable them, after formal school days are over, to follow developments, to understand, evaluate, and digest the more worthwhile news reports, magazine articles, and books that appear, and to grow in knowledge and, we hope, in wisdom.

DIPLOMA COURSES IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Australian Journal of Public AdministrationVolume 1, Issue 1 p. 86-90 DIPLOMA COURSES IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION First published: June 1939 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.1939.tb01911.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume1, Issue1June 1939Pages 86-90 RelatedInformation

TRAINING FOR HEALTH EDUCATION AND PUBLICITY

LET us suppose a two-years' course in public health administration. Of this time, thirty-six hours for classroom work in health education and publicity does not seem too much to expect in view of the conviction generally held by public health workers that education of the public is essential to putting over their programs. However, since even thirty-six hours is more time than has yet been devoted to the subject in a public health school, we modestly requisition only this small part of the two years of study, and propose that it be laid out in three courses. Incidentally, of course, an allowance of two hours for preparation would go with every hour of classroom work.