Three Main Approaches to Public Administration

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The three approaches to public administration are political, managerial, and legal.

In the political approach, political authority is divided between a central government and the provincial or state governments. This means that some provinces or states are accorded a substantial measure of constitutional or legal sovereignty, although they still remain subordinates of the central government in certain constitutional or legal respects. The political approach promotes the political values of military strength, economic development, union, and representation. In addition, it is characterized by three central features: state sovereignty, bicameralism, and multiple layers of representation.

State sovereignty means that the states would remain sovereign over important spheres and that more states would be created under the control of the national government. Bicameralism refers to each state being provided with equal representation regardless of the population and also means that the Senate has the authority to ratify treaties and is considered the protector of state sovereignty. Lastly, the multiple layers of representation refer to the direct power that the national government has over its citizens. This means that each citizen has direct representation in the House of Representatives and don’t always have to go through the state governments.

On the other hand, the managerial or administrative decentralization approach refers to the delegation of administrative discretion, authority, and responsibility to administrative units that have jurisdiction over at least one function or program in a sub-national geographic territory. This is evidenced by the presence of a regional or field office for an administrative agency or b...

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...ve heard, it may not be possible to prosecute the nurse as she was just following the home’s policy. In the same manner, it may also not be possible to prosecute the nursing home because such conditions (i.e. not administering CPR) are clearly stated in their policy, and all of their clients understand and are amenable with it. However, in cases like this, I don’t think that the law should be the be-all and end-all of things, that is, I think that mere compliance with the law does not necessarily equate to good management or administration; rather, I believe that good administration should also be guided by moral and ethical guidelines.

References

Rosenbloom, D. H., Kravchuk, R. S. & Clerkin, R. M. (2009). PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

Understanding Management, Politics, and Law in the Public Sector. New York, NY:

McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

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