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BCS Written Public Administration study materials
BCS Written Public Administration study resources

BCS Written Public Administration practice questions

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Question 1Public Administration Theory and Principles

Which principle of Max Weber's ideal-type bureaucracy holds that officials exercise authority according to written rules rather than personal whim?

  1. Traditional authority
  2. Charismatic authority
  3. Rational-legal authority Correct answer.
  4. Patrimonial authority

Explanation

Weber distinguished three bases of legitimate domination, and only rational-legal authority rests on impersonal rules, offices, and procedures. Bureaucracy is the administrative form that rational-legal authority takes, so officials obey the rule, not the person. The other types ground obedience in custom or in a leader's exceptional qualities.

Question 2Public Administration Theory and Principles

Woodrow Wilson's essay on administration argued that public administration should be separated from which sphere?

  1. Economics
  2. Politics Correct answer.
  3. Law
  4. Accounting

Explanation

Wilson advanced a politics-administration dichotomy, treating administration as a technical field of execution that should be insulated from partisan struggle. He believed administrative questions were distinct from political ones and could be studied scientifically. Later scholars criticised the split as unrealistic.

Question 3Public Administration Theory and Principles

Frederick Taylor's scientific management is best characterised by which emphasis?

  1. Decentralising authority to street-level staff
  2. Motivating workers through participative decision making
  3. Protecting workers through collective bargaining
  4. Finding the one best way to perform each task through time and motion study Correct answer.

Explanation

Taylorism sought efficiency by standardising tasks, selecting and training workers scientifically, and separating planning from execution. Time and motion study was its signature technique. Participation, collective bargaining, and decentralisation belong to later human-relations and behavioural approaches.

Question 4Public Administration Theory and Principles

In Gulick's POSDCORB acronym, the letter 'S' stands for which managerial function?

  1. Staffing Correct answer.
  2. Span of control
  3. Supervision
  4. Standardisation

Explanation

POSDCORB stands for planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting. Staffing refers to recruiting and managing personnel. The acronym summarises Gulick's view of the chief executive's duties.

Question 5Public Administration Theory and Principles

The Hawthorne studies are chiefly remembered for showing that worker output was influenced by which factor?

  1. The formal chain of command
  2. The physical layout of the factory floor alone
  3. The level of tariff protection on output
  4. Social and psychological conditions of the work group Correct answer.

Explanation

The Hawthorne experiments found that attention, group norms, and informal social relations shaped productivity more than physical conditions such as lighting. This gave rise to the human-relations school. It shifted attention from mechanical efficiency to worker sentiment and group dynamics.

Question 6Public Administration Theory and Principles

According to Herbert Simon, the decision premise that limits the range of alternatives an administrator considers is best described as which concept?

  1. Bounded rationality Correct answer.
  2. Zero-base budgeting
  3. Legal formalism
  4. Perfect competition

Explanation

Simon argued that administrators face cognitive and informational limits, so they satisfice rather than optimise. Bounded rationality captures this constraint on choice. It is central to the behavioural study of administration.

Question 7Public Administration Theory and Principles

The 'iron triangle' in public policy analysis refers to a stable relationship among which three sets of actors?

  1. Court, media, and electorate
  2. Cabinet, civil service, and army
  3. Central bank, treasury, and commercial banks
  4. Agency, legislative committee, and interest group Correct answer.

Explanation

The iron triangle describes mutually reinforcing ties among an administrative agency, the legislative committee that funds and oversees it, and the organised interest group it serves. Each supplies something the others need, which insulates the arrangement from outside scrutiny. It is a subgovernment model of policymaking.

Question 8Public Administration Theory and Principles

Which concept describes the situation in which a public official pursues private gain through the powers of public office?

  1. Corruption Correct answer.
  2. Accountability
  3. Representativeness
  4. Neutral competence

Explanation

Corruption is the abuse of entrusted public authority for private benefit, whether pecuniary or in kind. The other terms describe desirable features of administration rather than its abuse. Anti-corruption machinery aims to detect and deter this behaviour.

Question 9Public Administration Theory and Principles

A ministry creates a new directorate and assigns each unit a clearly defined set of duties with no overlap. Which classical principle is being applied?

  1. Division of work with unity of command Correct answer.
  2. Delegation of authority
  3. Span of control
  4. Line and staff separation

Explanation

Assigning distinct, non-overlapping duties reflects the division of work, and ensuring each unit answers to one superior reflects unity of command. Both are classical structural principles. Span of control concerns how many subordinates report to one supervisor, not the allocation of duties.

Question 10Public Administration Theory and Principles

A department head must decide quickly on an emergency procurement but lacks complete price data. She chooses the first supplier that meets minimum standards. This behaviour illustrates which concept?

  1. Rational-comprehensive planning
  2. Satisficing Correct answer.
  3. Incrementalism
  4. Optimising

Explanation

Satisficing means selecting an alternative that is good enough rather than the best possible, which is what bounded rationality predicts under time and information constraints. Optimising would require exhaustive comparison of all options. Incrementalism describes small adjustments to existing policy, not a search rule for a single purchase.

Question 11Public Administration Theory and Principles

A civil servant follows the lawful instruction of a minister even though she personally disagrees with the policy. Which norm is she primarily displaying?

  1. Political neutrality Correct answer.
  2. Clientelism
  3. Whistleblowing
  4. Policy entrepreneurship

Explanation

Political neutrality requires officials to serve the government of the day loyally and impartially, regardless of personal preference. It is a cornerstone of the Westminster-style civil service tradition. Whistleblowing and entrepreneurship involve active dissent or advocacy, not loyal execution.

Question 12Public Administration Theory and Principles

A government agency publishes quarterly performance reports and appears before a legislative committee to answer questions. This practice is an example of which form of accountability?

  1. Horizontal accountability to an oversight institution Correct answer.
  2. Judicial review of administrative action
  3. Market accountability through competition
  4. Vertical accountability through elections

Explanation

Horizontal accountability refers to oversight by other state institutions with the authority to scrutinise and sanction, such as legislatures and audit bodies. Elections, by contrast, are the classic mechanism of vertical accountability to citizens. Judicial review is a distinct legal control, not the reporting relationship described.

Question 13Public Administration Theory and Principles

A city government invites residents to a public hearing before finalising a zoning plan. Which value of public participation is most directly served?

  1. Reducing the cost of administration
  2. Enhancing the legitimacy and responsiveness of decisions Correct answer.
  3. Centralising authority in the executive
  4. Increasing the speed of decision making

Explanation

Participation gives affected citizens a voice, which improves the legitimacy of decisions and makes administrators more responsive to local preferences. It typically slows decisions and adds cost rather than reducing them. It also disperses influence rather than centralising it.

Question 14Public Administration Theory and Principles

Which of the following best describes the New Public Management reform agenda?

  1. Restoring strict Weberian hierarchy and procedural control
  2. Expanding central planning and input controls
  3. Abolishing performance measurement in government
  4. Applying market-style incentives and managerial techniques to public organisations Correct answer.

Explanation

New Public Management borrows tools from the private sector, such as performance contracts, competition, and customer orientation, to improve public sector efficiency. It is generally seen as a reaction against rigid bureaucratic control. It therefore favours, rather than abolishes, performance measurement.

Question 15Public Administration Theory and Principles

In the study of representative bureaucracy, passive representation is said to matter because it may lead to which outcome?

  1. Reduced need for legislative oversight
  2. Active representation of group interests in policy decisions Correct answer.
  3. Elimination of bureaucratic discretion
  4. Greater centralisation of personnel systems

Explanation

Passive representation refers to the demographic composition of the bureaucracy mirroring society. The theory holds that shared background may lead officials to act on behalf of that group, which is active representation. The link is contingent rather than automatic, and it does not eliminate discretion.

Question 16Public Administration Theory and Principles

Charles Lindblom's 'muddling through' model characterises policymaking as which kind of process?

  1. Centralised planning by a single rational actor
  2. Comprehensive analysis of all alternatives against ranked goals
  3. Successive limited comparisons among alternatives close to existing policy Correct answer.
  4. Strict application of legal precedent

Explanation

Lindblom argued that policymakers adjust existing practice through small, successive comparisons rather than undertaking exhaustive analysis. He called this disjointed incrementalism, or muddling through. It is a descriptive account of how decisions are actually made under pluralist conditions.

Question 17Public Administration Theory and Principles

A senior official resigns after a scandal and is later appointed to a regulatory board. This revolving-door pattern raises concern chiefly about which issue?

  1. Merit-based recruitment
  2. Fiscal federalism
  3. Administrative decentralisation
  4. Conflict of interest Correct answer.

Explanation

Revolving doors between public office and regulated industries create conflicts of interest because personal ties and future employment can bias regulatory decisions. The concern is about impartiality and capture, not about fiscal arrangements or recruitment methods. Cooling-off periods are a common safeguard.

Question 18Public Administration Theory and Principles

Which concept best captures the idea that administrative agencies exercise legislative-like rule-making and judicial-like adjudicative powers?

  1. Federalism
  2. Judicial independence
  3. Separation of powers
  4. Delegated legislation and administrative adjudication Correct answer.

Explanation

Modern agencies often combine rule-making and adjudicative functions delegated by statute, which blurs the classical separation of powers. This combination is justified by expertise and efficiency but raises concerns about procedural fairness. Safeguards include notice-and-comment procedures and appeal rights.

Question 19Public Administration Theory and Principles

A public manager uses a balanced scorecard to track financial, customer, internal-process, and learning measures together. Which principle of performance measurement does this reflect?

  1. Measuring only inputs to control spending
  2. Relying on a single headline indicator for clarity
  3. Ranking staff solely on output volume
  4. Using multiple dimensions to avoid distorting behaviour toward one indicator Correct answer.

Explanation

Multi-dimensional measurement reduces the risk that staff will optimise a single metric at the expense of other goals. The balanced scorecard deliberately combines perspectives so that no one dimension dominates. Single-indicator systems are more vulnerable to gaming.

Question 20Public Administration Theory and Principles

In Elinor Ostrom's work on common-pool resources, which factor is central to explaining successful self-governance?

  1. Central state ownership of all resources
  2. Complete privatisation of the resource
  3. Locally crafted rules with graduated sanctions and monitoring Correct answer.
  4. Absence of any rules governing use

Explanation

Ostrom showed that communities can govern shared resources sustainably through locally adapted rules, monitoring, and graduated sanctions. Her work challenged the assumption that only privatisation or state ownership could prevent overuse. It emphasised polycentric governance and trust.

Question 21Public Administration Theory and Principles

A theory holds that public administrators should actively promote particular substantive values rather than remain neutral instruments. This position is most closely associated with which idea?

  1. Administrative statesmanship and active representational role Correct answer.
  2. Weberian legal-rational neutrality
  3. Scientific management
  4. The politics-administration dichotomy

Explanation

The argument that administrators should exercise independent judgement in pursuit of public values is often framed as administrative statesmanship or an active representational role. It directly challenges the neutrality embedded in the dichotomy and in Weberian bureaucracy. It treats discretion as an opportunity for democratic contribution.

Question 22Public Administration Theory and Principles

Public choice theory applies which set of assumptions to the behaviour of bureaucrats and politicians?

  1. Class conflict as the engine of administrative change
  2. Altruistic service motivation as the dominant driver
  3. Utility maximisation by self-interested actors in political markets Correct answer.
  4. Organic solidarity as the basis of organisational cohesion

Explanation

Public choice theory imports the rational-actor assumption from economics, treating politicians, bureaucrats, and voters as pursuing their own interests within institutional constraints. It predicts budget-maximising behaviour and seeks institutional remedies such as competition and transparency. It is often contrasted with public service motivation theory.

Question 23Public Administration Theory and Principles

The 'principal-agent' problem in public administration arises primarily because of which combination of conditions?

  1. Divergent interests between delegator and delegate plus information asymmetry Correct answer.
  2. Identical preferences between delegator and delegate
  3. Absence of any delegation of authority
  4. Perfect monitoring of all administrative actions

Explanation

Principal-agent problems occur when a principal delegates to an agent whose interests differ and who possesses information the principal lacks. Monitoring and incentive design are the standard responses. If interests were identical or monitoring perfect, the problem would largely disappear.

Question 24Public Administration Theory and Principles

A scholar argues that bureaucratic discretion is unavoidable because statutes cannot anticipate every circumstance, and that accountability must therefore be built through procedural transparency rather than rule specificity alone. This argument most directly engages which debate?

  1. The relative efficiency of public versus private ownership
  2. The merits of scientific management over human relations
  3. The tension between administrative discretion and democratic control Correct answer.
  4. The choice between federal and unitary systems

Explanation

The argument addresses how democratic control can be maintained when administrators must exercise judgement that statutes cannot fully specify. It proposes procedural transparency as an accountability mechanism rather than relying solely on detailed rules. This is the core discretion-versus-control debate in administrative theory.

Question 25Public Administration Theory and Principles

Which critique is most commonly levelled at the politics-administration dichotomy by later scholars?

  1. It overstates the role of expertise in administration
  2. It is empirically unrealistic because administrators inevitably make policy through discretion Correct answer.
  3. It demands too much political activism from civil servants
  4. It ignores the importance of written rules

Explanation

Critics argue that the dichotomy cannot hold in practice because administrators shape policy through rule-making, advice, and discretionary implementation. They also note that separating administration from politics is conceptually difficult in a democracy. The critique is that the model is descriptively false and normatively questionable.

Question 26Public Administration Theory and Principles

Max Weber's ideal-type bureaucracy rests on which form of authority?

  1. Legal-rational authority resting on impersonal rules Correct answer.
  2. Traditional authority resting on inherited custom
  3. Coercive authority resting on physical force
  4. Charismatic authority resting on devotion to a leader

Explanation

Weber distinguished three pure types of legitimate domination: traditional, charismatic and legal-rational. Bureaucracy is the administrative form that corresponds to legal-rational authority, because officials obey impersonal rules and hold office by defined competence rather than personal loyalty. The other types ground administration in custom or in the exceptional qualities of a leader.

Question 27Public Administration Theory and Principles

Woodrow Wilson's essay on administration argued that public administration should be separated from politics primarily so that it could become which of the following?

  1. A field of business-like, efficient management Correct answer.
  2. An instrument of judicial review
  3. A forum for direct citizen deliberation
  4. A vehicle for the governing party's programme

Explanation

Wilson treated administration as a distinct sphere of technical execution that should be run on business principles, with efficiency as its guiding value. Separating it from the strife of politics was meant to insulate management from patronage and partisan turnover. Later scholars criticised the dichotomy as unrealistic, but Wilson's purpose was managerial competence.

Question 28Public Administration Theory and Principles

A city's solid-waste agency sets a target of diverting 60 percent of waste from landfill, then works backwards to decide which collection routes, sorting contracts and public-education campaigns are needed. Which decision approach does this illustrate?

  1. Satisficing under bounded rationality
  2. Garbage-can decision making under ambiguous preferences
  3. Rational-comprehensive planning from desired ends to means Correct answer.
  4. Incremental mutual adjustment among stakeholders

Explanation

Setting a desired end first and then deriving the means to reach it is the defining sequence of the rational-comprehensive model. The agency treats goals as settled and searches for the most effective combination of instruments. Incrementalism and satisficing, by contrast, begin from existing practice and adjust at the margins.

Question 29Public Administration Theory and Principles

In the politics-administration relationship, the principal-agent framing suggests that elected officials face which central difficulty in controlling bureaucrats?

  1. Bureaucrats are appointed by the legislature rather than the executive
  2. Ministers are constitutionally prohibited from issuing directives
  3. Bureaucrats possess policy expertise and information that ministers lack Correct answer.
  4. Bureaucrats are legally barred from exercising any discretion

Explanation

Information asymmetry is the core of the principal-agent problem: the agent knows more about operational realities and technical options than the principal does. Elected officials therefore rely on monitoring, incentives and reporting requirements to align bureaucratic behaviour with political intent. Without such devices, agents may pursue their own preferences or slack.

Question 30Public Administration Theory and Principles

Neo-institutionalist accounts of administrative reform stress that an agency's past choices constrain its later options through which mechanism?

  1. Scientific management, in which tasks are timed and standardised
  2. Budget maximisation, in which agencies always seek larger appropriations
  3. Path dependence, in which earlier commitments raise the cost of switching Correct answer.
  4. Spoils rotation, in which posts change hands after each election

Explanation

Historical institutionalism holds that once an organisation adopts structures, routines and constituencies, the cost of reversing course rises and alternatives narrow. This increasing-returns logic is what makes administrative trajectories sticky. Budget maximisation, patronage rotation and time-and-motion study are separate theories rather than mechanisms of institutional persistence.

Question 31Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Frederick Taylor's scientific management is best characterised by which central aim?

  1. Finding the one best way to perform each task Correct answer.
  2. Securing worker ownership of the enterprise
  3. Replacing hierarchy with informal groups
  4. Broadening worker discretion over methods

Explanation

Taylor sought to raise productivity through time and motion study, standardised tools and methods, selection and training of workers, and a division between planning and execution. The search for the single most efficient method underlay his system of task management.

Question 32Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

The Hawthorne studies are chiefly remembered for showing that:

  1. Piece-rate pay is the sole motivator
  2. Unionisation reduces productivity
  3. Lighting levels directly determine output
  4. Social and psychological factors shape worker behaviour Correct answer.

Explanation

The experiments at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant found that output responded to attention, group norms and supervision rather than to physical conditions alone. This gave rise to the human relations school and the study of informal organisation.

Question 33Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Henri Fayol's fourteen principles of management were intended primarily as:

  1. A statistical model of productivity
  2. A theory of political sovereignty
  3. A legal code for public servants
  4. A flexible set of guides for managers Correct answer.

Explanation

Fayol presented his principles as administrative guidelines to be applied with judgement rather than as rigid rules. He stressed that the number and use of principles should adapt to circumstances, and he grouped management into planning, organising, commanding, coordinating and controlling.

Question 34Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

In Woodrow Wilson's essay on administration, the central argument is that public administration should be:

  1. Abolished in favour of markets
  2. Subordinated to partisan patronage
  3. Studied as a field separate from politics Correct answer.
  4. Confined to foreign affairs

Explanation

Wilson urged that administration be treated as a distinct object of study, with a politics-administration distinction and merit-based appointment. He argued that government needs a trained, professional administrative capacity to execute the popular will efficiently.

Question 35Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

The classical dichotomy associated with Goodnow and Wilson holds that:

  1. Administration decides policy and politics executes it
  2. Politics decides policy and administration executes it Correct answer.
  3. Both politics and administration are identical
  4. Policy is set by courts alone

Explanation

The dichotomy separates the expression of the popular will, assigned to politics, from the execution of that will, assigned to administration. Later writers challenged the distinction as unrealistic because administrators inevitably exercise discretion over policy.

Question 36Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Which thinker is most associated with the phrase 'POSDCORB' as a summary of the executive function?

  1. Luther Gulick Correct answer.
  2. Herbert Simon
  3. Chester Barnard
  4. Mary Parker Follett

Explanation

Gulick coined POSDCORB to list planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting and budgeting as the work of the chief executive. The acronym became a standard summary of the administrative process in the classical school.

Question 37Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Herbert Simon's attack on classical administrative principles argued mainly that they were:

  1. Derived from Marxist assumptions
  2. Mutually contradictory and not empirically grounded Correct answer.
  3. Based on excessive field research
  4. Too mathematical for practitioners

Explanation

Simon showed that proverbs such as unity of command and span of control can conflict with one another and that they lack a tested basis. He proposed instead a decision-making science of administration built on bounded rationality and satisficing.

Question 38Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

In Simon's terms, 'satisficing' behaviour means that decision-makers:

  1. Randomise choices to avoid bias
  2. Compute the single optimum across all alternatives
  3. Search until they find an option meeting an acceptable standard Correct answer.
  4. Defer all decisions to political superiors

Explanation

Because cognitive limits and incomplete information make exhaustive optimisation impossible, decision-makers set aspiration levels and accept the first satisfactory alternative. Satisficing is thus a realistic model of bounded rationality rather than a failure of will.

Question 39Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Chester Barnard's concept of the 'zone of indifference' refers to:

  1. Tasks that fall outside any job description
  2. Rules that are formally published in a statute
  3. Areas where auditors have no jurisdiction
  4. Orders that subordinates accept without questioning their content Correct answer.

Explanation

Barnard argued that authority is accepted rather than merely imposed, and that subordinates comply unquestioningly within a range of orders they find acceptable. The breadth of that zone depends on inducements, shared purpose and the legitimacy of the order.

Question 40Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Barnard's 'inducements-contributions' analysis explains organisational survival by reference to:

  1. The balance between incentives offered and efforts received Correct answer.
  2. The size of the annual budget
  3. The legal status of the organisation
  4. The number of hierarchical levels

Explanation

Barnard treated organisations as cooperative systems that persist only while the inducements offered to participants are sufficient to elicit their contributions. When the balance fails, participants withdraw cooperation and the system declines.

Question 41Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Mary Parker Follett's recommended way of handling conflict is best described as:

  1. Integration that finds a novel solution meeting both parties' needs Correct answer.
  2. Compromise that splits differences
  3. Domination by the stronger party
  4. Avoidance until the dispute lapses

Explanation

Follett ranked integration above domination and compromise because it generates a solution in which both sides' real desires are satisfied. She saw constructive conflict as potentially creative rather than merely destructive.

Question 42Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Douglas McGregor's Theory Y assumes that employees:

  1. Are motivated only by coercion
  2. Require constant close supervision
  3. Seek responsibility and can exercise self-direction Correct answer.
  4. Dislike work and avoid responsibility

Explanation

Theory Y holds that work can be a source of satisfaction and that people will accept and seek responsibility under suitable conditions. Theory X, by contrast, assumes aversion to work and reliance on control.

Question 43Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

A manager who redesigns jobs to give staff more variety, whole tasks and feedback is applying ideas from:

  1. Taylor's differential piece-rate plan
  2. Gulick's span of control doctrine
  3. Hackman and Oldham's job characteristics model Correct answer.
  4. Weber's legal-rational model

Explanation

Hackman and Oldham linked core job dimensions such as skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback to internal work motivation. Enriching jobs along these dimensions is the practical implication of their model.

Question 44Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Abraham Maslow's need hierarchy places which need at the highest level?

  1. Self-actualisation Correct answer.
  2. Physiological needs
  3. Belongingness
  4. Safety needs

Explanation

Maslow ordered needs from physiological and safety needs through belongingness and esteem to self-actualisation at the summit. The model proposes that lower needs are generally satisfied before higher ones become salient.

Question 45Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Frederick Herzberg's two-factor theory distinguishes hygiene factors from motivators. Which is an example of a motivator?

  1. Salary level
  2. Recognition for achievement Correct answer.
  3. Working conditions
  4. Company policy

Explanation

Herzberg classified achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement and the work itself as motivators that generate satisfaction. Salary, policy, supervision and conditions are hygiene factors whose absence causes dissatisfaction but whose presence does not motivate.

Question 46Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Chris Argyris's critique of formal organisations argued that traditional structures tend to:

  1. Produce frustration by treating adults as dependent children Correct answer.
  2. Guarantee high morale through specialisation
  3. Foster maturity by increasing autonomy
  4. Eliminate all informal relationships

Explanation

Argyris contended that rigid hierarchy, narrow specialisation and directive leadership conflict with the developmental needs of mature adults. The result is apathy, resistance and psychological withdrawal, which he sought to remedy through participative job design.

Question 47Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

Rensis Likert's 'System 4' management style is characterised by:

  1. Consultative decision-making
  2. Exploitative authoritative decision-making
  3. Participative group decision-making Correct answer.
  4. Benevolent authoritative decision-making

Explanation

Likert arranged management systems along a continuum from exploitative authoritative through benevolent authoritative and consultative to participative group. System 4, the participative group model, relies on group decision-making, mutual trust and supportive relations.

Question 48Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

The New Public Management movement is most closely associated with which set of ideas?

  1. Legal formalism and procedural uniformity
  2. Abolition of executive agencies
  3. Managerial autonomy, performance measurement and market-type mechanisms Correct answer.
  4. Central planning, secrecy and input controls

Explanation

New Public Management borrowed private-sector techniques, emphasising decentralised managerial freedom, explicit performance standards, competition and customer orientation. Its advocates argued that these devices improve efficiency and responsiveness in public services.

Question 49Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

A government that sets performance targets, contracts out service delivery and separates policy advice from service provision is applying ideas most associated with:

  1. Human relations theory
  2. Scientific management
  3. New Public Management Correct answer.
  4. Weberian bureaucracy

Explanation

Targets, contracting out and the purchaser-provider split are signature NPM instruments designed to simulate market discipline inside the public sector. They reflect the belief that competition and explicit standards improve performance.

Question 50Administrative Thinkers and Schools of Thought

The New Public Service perspective, associated with Denhardt and Denhardt, argues that the primary role of public administrators is to:

  1. Serve and empower citizens through collaborative governance Correct answer.
  2. Enforce statutory rules without discretion
  3. Maximise agency revenue
  4. Steer citizens like customers toward market choices

Explanation

The Denhardts contrasted the New Public Service with both traditional administration and NPM, stressing service to citizens rather than customer satisfaction, democratic values and shared responsibility. Administrators are expected to help citizens articulate and meet their common interests.