Public Administration: Henry's Premise (Essay Sample)

Public Administration: Henry’s Premise
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The six paradigms explained by Henry outline a history of the challenges, growth and success the field of Public Administration had to undergo to attain its current recognition as a distinct field of study. Henry believes that the present public administration comprises two paradigms, public administration independence as an individual field of study and practice and the paramount purpose of public administration which is to create and implement social change or social good. Both independence and purpose are essential to survival of public administration and without these two elements, public administration would be ultimately jeopardized. Purpose gives the Public administration field a reason for its existence and independence enables the field make a choice of its destiny. The two paradigms exist harmoniously and are equally important. Henry further asserts that public administration is as prestigious as it was in the 1930’s, and as one journal puts it, public governance is a source of valuable ideas for improvement of corporate governance practice, and the same ideas are applicable to not- for- profit organizations(Henry 2010).
I agree with Henry’s thoughts and premises. A review of the history and foundation of public administration field has given me a high opinion for the field as an independent study. In the past, scholars have revolved the political/administration dichotomy (paradigm 1). They made attempts to make public administration synonymous to political science and management. These attempts endangered the study of public administration. Nevertheless this study overcame the threat and emerged as an exemplary field.
In its early days of its existence, the general opinion was that public administration could not survive without politics. Paradigm 1, political/administration dichotomy was important in ousting this belief and distinguishing the two. Apparently the government has two distinct roles. These are politics and administration. Politics entails policies or expressions of the will of the state whereas administration entails execution of these policies (Shafritz &Hyde, 2012).It is important that this dichotomy was experienced during the great depression period when administrators were in demand. Political dichotomy specifically helped create the need for public administration
During paradigm 3, attempts were made to merge public administration with political science. Confusion arose from paradigm 2 where the principles of public administration were challenged and termed as flawed. As a result, public administration was on the verge of losing its identity. Scholars searched blindly for answers to the extent that the study of public administration in USA lacked any fully comprehensive intelligent framework. (Henry 2010). Political scientists combined the study of public administration with political science to help solve the challenge. The merging of the two did not prove to be successful. As a branch of political science, public administration was not receiving the recognition it deserved for its development. It was rarely or not at all being offered in learning institutions, and journals were rarely producing articles related to public administration. Although political science valuably contributed to the field of political administration, it is evident from the discussion above that the two are quite different and as such ought to be taken as independent disciplines.
As a result of poor attention it was receiving as a branch of political science, public administration was in an attempt to assert its rightful position. This takes us to paradigm 4 where public administration found a new home in Management. Just as in paradigm 3, Public administration once again found itself wandering without identity. Public administration was viewed as a derivative of management. Similarly to the connection of public administration with political science, connection with Management was unsuccessful for Public Administration. Private sector management and public administration have broad differences and apparently should not be considered as one.
Paradigm 1, 3 and 4 validates Henry's belief that independence is important, and public administration should be in a discipline of its own. Paradi...