BCS Written Public Administration flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Politics-Administration Dichotomy

The doctrine that elected officials decide policy while appointed administrators execute it neutrally. It is associated with Wilson and Goodnow and is now treated as an ideal type rather than a description.

POSDCORB

Luther Gulick's acronym for the functions of an executive: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting. It summarizes the classical view of administrative work.

Bounded Rationality

Herbert Simon's concept that decision-makers face limits on information, time, and cognition. They therefore satisfice, choosing the first option that meets an acceptable threshold rather than maximizing.

Hawthorne Effect

The finding from the Hawthorne studies that workers' output changed because they were being observed and given attention, not only because of physical working conditions.

Scientific Management

Frederick Taylor's approach using time-and-motion study, task standardization, and incentive pay to raise industrial efficiency. It treats workers as rational actors motivated by economic reward.

Ideal-Type Bureaucracy

Max Weber's analytical model of rational-legal administration built on hierarchy, written rules, defined jurisdiction, impersonal application, and career officials. It is a benchmark, not a description of real offices.

Bureaucratic Personality

Robert Merton's term for officials who over-conform to rules and procedures, so that means displace organizational goals. Rigidity and defensiveness result from repeated rule-following under supervision.

Iron Law of Oligarchy

Robert Michels' claim that any large organization, including democratic ones, tends toward control by a small leadership group because organization requires expertise and coordination.

Red Tape

Rules and procedures that impose compliance burdens without advancing organizational goals. Researchers measure it by time spent on forms and number of required approvals.

Spoils System

A practice of filling public posts with political supporters rather than by competitive merit. It was the target of the Pendleton Act and of civil service reform generally.

Merit System

A staffing system that selects and promotes public employees based on competitive examination, qualifications, and performance rather than political loyalty. It is meant to protect impartiality and competence.

Pendleton Act

An 1883 United States law that created the Civil Service Commission and extended merit-based appointment to federal posts. It is a landmark in civil service reform.

Civil Service Neutrality

The norm that career officials serve whichever government is in office, give candid advice in private, and avoid public partisan activity. It protects continuity and impartial administration.

Policy Cycle

A heuristic model of policy as stages: agenda setting, formulation, adoption, implementation, evaluation, and termination. It organizes analysis but does not describe a strict sequence.

Incrementalism

Charles Lindblom's model of policy-making as successive limited comparisons. Decision-makers adjust the status quo marginally rather than comprehensively reviewing all alternatives.

Multiple Streams Model

John Kingdon's framework in which problem, policy, and politics streams flow separately. A policy window opens when they couple, often through a focusing event or change in government.

Street-Level Bureaucrats

Frontline officials such as teachers, police, and social workers who exercise discretion in applying policy to individual cases, shaping what policy means in practice.

Good Governance

A normative standard for public decision-making that stresses participation, transparency, accountability, responsiveness, equity, effectiveness, and the rule of law.

Network Governance

A mode of coordination in which state and non-state actors negotiate and share resources through trust and mutual adjustment rather than through hierarchical command.

Hollowing Out of the State

The claim that privatization, delegation, and international commitments shift authority away from central government, reducing its direct capacity to act alone.

Participatory Budgeting

A process in which residents deliberate and vote on part of a public budget. Originating in Porto Alegre, it aims to increase transparency and direct citizen influence.

Prismatic Society

Fred Riggs' model of transitional societies where formal and informal structures overlap. Administrations show formalism, nepotism, and overlapping roles between fused and diffracted types.

State Capacity

The ability of a state to formulate and implement policy, raise revenue, and deliver services. It is often measured by tax-to-GDP ratio and bureaucratic quality.

Results-Based Management

A management approach that sets measurable outputs and outcomes and links budgets, reporting, and accountability to their achievement. It is a core public management reform instrument.

Ultra Vires

Latin for beyond the powers. An administrative act is ultra vires when it exceeds the authority granted by statute, a key ground for judicial review.

Natural Justice

Two procedural rules: hear the other side (audi alteram partem) and no one may judge their own cause (nemo judex in causa sua). Breach makes a decision procedurally unfair.

Legitimate Expectation

A doctrine that a clear promise or settled practice can create an expectation of fair treatment. Public bodies must honour it or justify departing from it.

Wednesbury Unreasonableness

A judicial review standard allowing courts to quash a decision so unreasonable that no reasonable authority could have reached it. It is a high threshold.

Horizontal Accountability

Oversight of public officials by other state institutions such as courts, auditors, ombudsmen, and legislatures, as distinct from electoral accountability to citizens.

Conflict of Interest

A situation where an official's private interest could improperly influence their public duties. Standard responses are disclosure, recusal, and divestment.

Whistleblower Protection

Laws and policies that shield people who report wrongdoing from retaliation such as dismissal or demotion. They encourage disclosure of misconduct inside organizations.

Bangladesh Public Service Commission

A constitutional body that conducts competitive examinations and advises on recruitment to Bangladesh's civil service, aiming to secure merit-based appointments.