Defining Public Administration

When people think about government, they think of elected officials. The attentive public knows these officials who live in the spotlight but not to public administrators who make governing possible; it generally give them little thought unless it is to critize "government burreaucrats".

We are contact with public administration almost from the moment of birth, when registration requirement are met, and our eartly cannot be disposed without final administrative certificate. Our experiences with public administration become so extensive that our society may be labeled the "administered society".

Various institution are involved in public administration.
Much of policy making-activities of public administration is done by large, specialized govermental agencies (micro administration). Some of them are mostly involved with policy formulation, for example Parliament, or Congress.

But to implement their decision, public administration also requires numerous profit and non profit agencies, banks and hospitals, districts and city governments (macro administration).

Thus, public administration may be defined as a complex political process involving the authoritative implementation of legitimated policy choiches.

Public administration is not as showy as other kinds of politics. Much of its works is quite, small scale, and specialized. Part of the administrative process is even keep secret. The anthonymity of public administration raises fears that government policies are made by people who are not accountable to citizen. Many fears that these so-called faceless bureaucrats subvert the intensions of elected officials. Other see administrators as mere cogs ini machinery of government.

But whether  in negative or positive sense, public administration is policy making. And whether close to the centers of power or at the street level in local agencies, public administrators are policy makers. They are the translators and tailors the governments. If the elected officials are visible to the public, public administrators are anonymous specialist. But without their knowledge, diligence, and creativity, government would be ineffective and inefficient.