Evolution of Public Administration as a Sub Discipline

Introduction

The word ‘public’ is used in a variety of ways. In this paper however, it means

“Governmental.” Public administration simply means governmental administration that

operates in a political setting. Its focus is specifically on public establishments. The study

and practice of public establishment is called public administration. It encompasses the

management of public agencies that carry out public policies in order to fulfill state purposes in

the public interest. Since government provides services for the people in the public interest, the

administration of governmental affairs is known as public administration. Public administration

can also be seen as the activities of groups cooperating to accomplish the common goals of

resources to achieve some purposes or objectives. An administrator is one who exercises that art.

There are administrators in all human activities. Public Administration is that type of

administration that is carried out in any affair that concerns the government. It has a universal

application irrespective of the system of government practiced by the country. It is the type of

administration that is practiced in all levels of government be it in the central, intermediate or

local levels.

It was born in 1887 as a discipline, not as an activity because as an activity as mentioned in my

introduction, public administration is as old as human existence itself. As a discipline it studies

and analyses the machinery and procedure of government while formulating and implementing

policies and that analysis/study gives birth to new ideas, which are then applied to the activity of