PSEB SS Public Admin flashcards

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

Politics–Administration Dichotomy

Wilson's claim that elected politicians set policy while neutral administrators execute it efficiently; later scholars argue the two are inseparable because administrators exercise discretion and shape policy.

Weberian Bureaucracy

Legal-rational organizational model built on hierarchy, written rules, impersonal merit appointment, career tenure, and recorded files, producing predictability but risking rigidity and ritualism.

POSDCORB

Gulick's acronym for administrative functions: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and budgeting, used to describe the executive's managerial tasks.

Scientific Management

Taylor's approach seeking efficiency through time-and-motion study, standardized tasks, and functional supervision, treating workers as rational units motivated mainly by pay.

Hawthorne Effect

Mayo's findings that workers respond to attention and informal group norms, showing morale and social relations can outweigh formal rules and financial incentives.

New Public Management

Reform doctrine applying market logic to government: performance contracts, competitive tendering, customer orientation, devolved managerial autonomy, and output-based accountability.

New Public Service

Denhardt's model framing administrators as stewards serving citizens, not customers, with accountability through law, professionalism, and democratic dialogue rather than market results.

Public Choice Theory

Approach treating bureaucrats, legislators, and voters as self-interested actors; predicts budget maximization, logrolling, and rent-seeking, and favors competition and constitutional limits.

Span of Control

The number of subordinates reporting to one supervisor; a wide span flattens hierarchy but raises supervisory load, while a narrow span deepens hierarchy.

Line and Staff Agencies

Line units carry out core mission with command authority; staff units advise and control (personnel, finance, legal); mixing the two blurs accountability.

Merit System

Personnel regime based on open competition, position classification, and performance appraisal rather than political loyalty, intended to ensure competence and impartiality.

Spoils System

Patronage practice awarding public posts to political supporters; it trades professional competence for loyalty and increases corruption and administrative turnover.

Civil Service Neutrality

Duty to execute lawful government policy impartially regardless of personal preference, bounded by legality and professional standards rather than partisan loyalty.

Position Classification

Grouping posts by duties, responsibilities, and qualification requirements into grades and classes to set consistent pay and career paths.

Line-Item Budget

Budget format listing inputs by object of expenditure; strong for spending control and legislative oversight but weak at linking money to results.

Zero-Based Budgeting

Budget method re-justifying every activity from zero each cycle through decision packages; improves prioritization but is information-intensive and hard to sustain.

Performance Budgeting

Budget format linking appropriations to measurable outputs and outcomes, shifting legislative debate from inputs to results and program effectiveness.

Incremental Budgeting

Practice of funding last year's base plus a marginal increase; simple and stable but entrenches historical allocations and discourages reallocation.

Audit Institution

Independent supreme audit body examining legality, regularity, and value for money of public spending, reporting to the legislature to strengthen accountability.

Ombudsman

Independent official receiving citizen complaints about administrative decisions, investigating maladministration, and recommending remedies without overturning decisions.

Freedom of Information

Statutory right of public access to government records, with exemptions for privacy, security, and commercial confidentiality; enforces transparency and informed debate.

Whistleblower Protection

Legal safeguards shielding employees who report wrongdoing from retaliation, encouraging disclosure of corruption and mismanagement while setting reporting channels.

Principal–Agent Problem

Situation where officials (agents) pursue interests diverging from elected principals due to information asymmetry; addressed by monitoring, incentives, and transparency.

Red Tape

Burden imposed by excessive rules, forms, and approvals that consume time and resources without adding public value; often a byproduct of control-oriented accountability.

Policy Cycle

Heuristic sequence of agenda setting, formulation, adoption, implementation, evaluation, and termination or succession; stages overlap rather than follow strictly.

Multiple Streams Framework

Kingdon's model where problem, policy, and politics streams couple at an open policy window, typically driven by a focusing event and a policy entrepreneur.

Street-Level Bureaucracy

Lipsky's concept that frontline officials (teachers, police, inspectors) exercise real discretion under pressure, effectively making policy through daily case decisions.

Top-Down Implementation

Model stressing clear statutory goals, hierarchical control, and compliance from the center; criticized for ignoring local context and adaptation.

Bottom-Up Implementation

Model analyzing implementation from frontline actors and networks upward, emphasizing discretion, negotiation, and adaptation to local conditions.

Outputs versus Outcomes

Outputs are activities or services delivered; outcomes are resulting changes in conditions; attribution of outcomes requires comparison groups or experimental designs.

Co-Production

Joint delivery of public services by agencies and citizens or communities, improving responsiveness and trust but raising questions of equity and accountability.

Regulatory Capture

Condition where an agency advances the interests of the industry it regulates due to information dependence, revolving doors, or lobbying, weakening public-interest oversight.