Challenging Times, Challenging Administration: The Role of Public Administration in Producing Social Justice in Ireland by Chris McInerney

Author:Chris McInerney [McInerney, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: European, Political Science, World, Public Affairs & Administration
ISBN: 9781526103321
Google: DG65DwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 20696369
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2014-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

The functions of public administration

According to Barrington (1980: 1) ‘Public administration must be one of the oldest professions. It has acted as the handmaid of government as long as government itself has existed, that is for many thousands of years. Despite its age not a great deal is known about the subject.’ In clarifying what is meant by public administration, Barrington usefully distinguishes between the term ‘the government’ – meaning the ministers who are appointed in accordance with the Constitution and who are charged with governing the country – and ‘government’ which is concerned with ‘the processes by which the “the Government” discharges its duties and responsibilities’. In the cases of the latter, the key actors within ‘the government’ are the elected representatives and of course those who are permanent or otherwise contracted officials (Barrington, 1980). The ‘permanent’ nature of public administration is frequently a source of comment, with Dooney (1976: 12) suggesting that there is something of a paradox in this, in that the civil service is at one and the same time the permanent servant of the state and also the servant of the administration which is for the time being in power. This potentially raises a conundrum for officials should their service obligations to the state in some way come into conflict with their service obligations to the government, as has been discussed in Chapter 1. Barrington (1980: 3) also emphasises that ‘public administration is the system through which politics is transformed into governmental action’, though the relationships involved in this process of transformation are not as linear as might be suggested. While there is a tendency in some quarters to include agencies substantially funded by state resources, such as civil society organisations contracted to provide services, such organisations are not considered here as part of the public administration system.

The nature and scope of the role of public administration is to a large extent related to the role and vision of the state in any given jurisdiction. In the type of minimalist state discussed in Chapter 2 the role of public administration is inevitably limited; whereas in an activist state, its range of functions will broaden, as expectations expand about how the state should act to promote the general welfare and liberties of its citizens. Since independence in 1922, the nature of the state’s involvement in a variety of areas of social, economic and cultural development has evolved and grown in complexity, in the process requiring a parallel shift in the nature and role of its bureaucratic infrastructure. Thus, public administration has played and/or continues to play a central role in:

• providing advice to government on policy alternatives across a range of policy areas;

• implementing policies agreed by government;

• developing the laws which govern the country’s operation and ensuring that these laws are enforced and sanctions are applied against those who breach them;

• supporting the financial management of the state, particularly revenue raising and mobilisation and expenditure elements;

• designing and operating a range of welfare services, such as health, education, housing, social protection etc.

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