Public Administration: The Software of Democracy
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Lisa Saye
November 21, 2021
Democracy’s Software © Photo and Title by Lisa Saye
Democracies require sizeable energy even on a slow Tuesday. As such, many democracies, though aged, are more than bits of old parchment rolled up into laws and statutes. Democracies are designed to abolish political franchises within the government. Not by papering over grievances and injustices, but through the efforts, the knowledge, the skills and the abilities of its public administrators. Public administrators know that government cannot function as structures of non-representative artifacts of poor and ineffective management. Public administration is relational and as such, it ensures the survival of democracy.
Public administration is a continuous biography of a government’s efforts at justice and democracy. It is the government’s set of instructions defined through agencies, human capital, equipment and partnerships. Administrators the world over have a familiar sense of duty to their citizens. Democracy is the preparatory sketch or outline of the mechanism by which these administrators deliver the business end of subsidizing equality.
Though practice is necessary, caution must be given to the inclination to over-theorize elements of public administration. By design, public administration is broad in its application, but attempts to fit its aspects under only a few categories limits its practical use in providing public goods. The standard bearer is democracy and its openness to multi-level thinking and representation. When public administrators remember this, they augment the time-tested models of efficiency and balance both coordination and responsibility.
In the best functioning nations, a government organize itself around a fundamental desire to fully represent all of its citizens. Its administrators coordinate that desire within the goals and budgets created to solve its citizens’ problems. Some of that coordination includes private sector and civil society organizations whose reach may be better or more effective as related to a specific public good. The current COVID-19 pandemic has presented many opportunities to rethink coordination, but there is still much to do. The global supply-chain issues are lingering and it will take the creativity of public administrators, private sector individuals, civil society and others to lessen and eliminate the disruption supply issues have caused and will continue to cause.
For public administration to work as the instructions of government, citizens must see government as legitimate. When citizens do not see government as legitimate, no level of public, private or civil society collaboration will convince them otherwise. In these types of discussions, models may or may not work, but what is important is the degree to which governments appropriately represent the sums of their parts. One-sided political franchises decrease government legitimacy because they don’t look out for the whole.
Intergovernmental Relations courses in the discipline of Public Administration allow students and practitioners to see how particular models and governmental structures help to address specific public sector issues. By including program evaluation, questions about fund distribution and questions related to accountability, public administrators reintroduce democratic principles to collaborative management.
When someone thinks about updates, they cannot help but think of their phones or of their computers. For some phones, updates occur five or more times a year and for computers most are ten or more times a year. The updates are software updates and they are designed to help the system operate more smoothly or to protect the data and information inside of the device. Public Administration as democracy’s software is updated as well. Study any country, beginning at its founding or later, and you will see how many times and to what degree the instructions for operating the government have changed, have been eliminated, have been added or have been reformed. You’ll find that many of these adjustments were educational, social, political and economic and were necessary to begin or to continue delivering public services better and more efficiently.
Governments will revisit political outcomes and adjust strategies today and in the near future. New ideas and new ways to address public concerns will come from a variety of circumstances as they always have. Scores of public administrators will contribute to new narratives and new programs by engaging with and learning from the very citizens they are hired or appointed to serve. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us how important we were to ensuring that government was responsive and available for everyone.
Politics is emotional. Government is also. While training and personnel development assist in building stronger democracies, emotional growth is essential as well. Public Administration software is more than the floppy discs of the past or the USB Flash Drives we use today. Software includes our growth and our maturity inside and how far and how useful it is to our citizens.
The copyrighted ‘Democracy’s Software’ image was taken by Lisa Saye in New York City outside the United Nations.
Author: Lisa Saye teaches Applied Research Methods for the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at DePaul University. Saye served as Fulbright Specialist in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and as International Consultant for the United Nations Development Program in The Maldives. Dr. Saye earned her Master’s in Human Resource Management at Troy University and her Doctorate in Public Administration at The University of Alabama. She can be reached by email at [email protected].
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Public Administration: The Software of Democracy
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Lisa Saye
November 21, 2021
Democracy’s Software © Photo and Title by Lisa Saye
Democracies require sizeable energy even on a slow Tuesday. As such, many democracies, though aged, are more than bits of old parchment rolled up into laws and statutes. Democracies are designed to abolish political franchises within the government. Not by papering over grievances and injustices, but through the efforts, the knowledge, the skills and the abilities of its public administrators. Public administrators know that government cannot function as structures of non-representative artifacts of poor and ineffective management. Public administration is relational and as such, it ensures the survival of democracy.
Public administration is a continuous biography of a government’s efforts at justice and democracy. It is the government’s set of instructions defined through agencies, human capital, equipment and partnerships. Administrators the world over have a familiar sense of duty to their citizens. Democracy is the preparatory sketch or outline of the mechanism by which these administrators deliver the business end of subsidizing equality.
Though practice is necessary, caution must be given to the inclination to over-theorize elements of public administration. By design, public administration is broad in its application, but attempts to fit its aspects under only a few categories limits its practical use in providing public goods. The standard bearer is democracy and its openness to multi-level thinking and representation. When public administrators remember this, they augment the time-tested models of efficiency and balance both coordination and responsibility.
In the best functioning nations, a government organize itself around a fundamental desire to fully represent all of its citizens. Its administrators coordinate that desire within the goals and budgets created to solve its citizens’ problems. Some of that coordination includes private sector and civil society organizations whose reach may be better or more effective as related to a specific public good. The current COVID-19 pandemic has presented many opportunities to rethink coordination, but there is still much to do. The global supply-chain issues are lingering and it will take the creativity of public administrators, private sector individuals, civil society and others to lessen and eliminate the disruption supply issues have caused and will continue to cause.
For public administration to work as the instructions of government, citizens must see government as legitimate. When citizens do not see government as legitimate, no level of public, private or civil society collaboration will convince them otherwise. In these types of discussions, models may or may not work, but what is important is the degree to which governments appropriately represent the sums of their parts. One-sided political franchises decrease government legitimacy because they don’t look out for the whole.
Intergovernmental Relations courses in the discipline of Public Administration allow students and practitioners to see how particular models and governmental structures help to address specific public sector issues. By including program evaluation, questions about fund distribution and questions related to accountability, public administrators reintroduce democratic principles to collaborative management.
When someone thinks about updates, they cannot help but think of their phones or of their computers. For some phones, updates occur five or more times a year and for computers most are ten or more times a year. The updates are software updates and they are designed to help the system operate more smoothly or to protect the data and information inside of the device. Public Administration as democracy’s software is updated as well. Study any country, beginning at its founding or later, and you will see how many times and to what degree the instructions for operating the government have changed, have been eliminated, have been added or have been reformed. You’ll find that many of these adjustments were educational, social, political and economic and were necessary to begin or to continue delivering public services better and more efficiently.
Governments will revisit political outcomes and adjust strategies today and in the near future. New ideas and new ways to address public concerns will come from a variety of circumstances as they always have. Scores of public administrators will contribute to new narratives and new programs by engaging with and learning from the very citizens they are hired or appointed to serve. The COVID-19 pandemic showed us how important we were to ensuring that government was responsive and available for everyone.
Politics is emotional. Government is also. While training and personnel development assist in building stronger democracies, emotional growth is essential as well. Public Administration software is more than the floppy discs of the past or the USB Flash Drives we use today. Software includes our growth and our maturity inside and how far and how useful it is to our citizens.
The copyrighted ‘Democracy’s Software’ image was taken by Lisa Saye in New York City outside the United Nations.
Author: Lisa Saye teaches Applied Research Methods for the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at DePaul University. Saye served as Fulbright Specialist in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and as International Consultant for the United Nations Development Program in The Maldives. Dr. Saye earned her Master’s in Human Resource Management at Troy University and her Doctorate in Public Administration at The University of Alabama. She can be reached by email at [email protected].
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