Lesson One What Is Public Administration?[1]
Public administration，like many human endeavors，is difficult to define.Nonetheless，we all have a sense of what it is，though we may disagree profoundly about how it should be carried out.In part，this is because public administration covers such a vast amount of activity.Public administrative jobs range from the exploration of outer space to sweeping the streets.Some public administrators are highly educated professionals，who may be at the forefront of their fields of specialization;others possess few skills that differentiate them from the mass of the citizenry.Some public administrators make policies that have a nationwide impact and may benefit millions of people;others have virtually no responsibility for policymaking and simply carry out mundane governmental tasks like word processing，filing，and record keeping.Public administrators are doctors，lawyers，scientists，engineers，accountants，budgeters，policy analysts，personnel officers，managers，clerks，keyboarders，manual laborers，and individuals engaged in a host of other occupations and functions.But knowing what public administrators do does not resolve the problem of defining what public administration is.
At first glance，one might be inclined to ignore the problem of defining public administration.It was pointed out some time ago that any one-paragraph or even one-sentence definition of public administration is bound to prove temporarily mind-paralyzing.This is because public administration as a category is so abstract and varied that it can only be described in vague，general，amorphous，and somewhat competing terms.Yet some attention to definition is important.First，it is necessary to establish the general boundaries and to convey the major concerns of the discipline and practice of public administration.Second，the definition of public administration helps to place the field in a broader political，economic，and social context.Third，consideration of the leading definitions of public administration reveals that there are three distinct underlying approaches to the field.For years the tendency of scholars and practitioners to stress one or another of these approaches has promoted confusion，because each approach tends to emphasize different values，different organizational arrangements，different methods of developing information，and radically distinct views of the individual citizen.
One can find a wide variety of definitions of public administration，but the following are among the most serious and influential efforts to define the field.
1.“Public administration...is the action part of government，the means by which the purposes and goals of government are realized.”
2.“Public administration as a field is mainly concerned with the means for implementing political values.”(https://www.daowen.com)
3.“...Public administration can be best identified with the executive branch of government.”
4.“The process of public administration consists of the actions involved in effecting the intent or desire of a government.It is thus the continuously active，‘business’part of government，concerned with carrying out the law，as made by legislative bodies(or other authoritative agents)and interpreted by the courts，through the processes of organization and management.”
5.Public administration:(a)is a cooperative group effort in a public setting;(b)covers all three branches—executive，legislative，and judicial—and their interrelationships;(c)has an important role in the formulation of public policy，and is thus part of the political process;(d)is different in significant ways from private administration;and(e)is closely associated with numerous private groups and individuals.
What conclusions can be drawn from the variety of definitions of public administration and their myriad nuances?One is that definitions of public administration are indeed mind-paralyzing.Another conclusion is that there is really no such subject as“public administration”，but rather that public administration means different things to different observers and lacks a significant common theoretical or applied meaning.However，this perspective has limited appeal because the problem is certainly not that there is no public administration—we not only know it's there，but also are often acutely aware of its contributions or shortcomings.That we cannot neatly define the substance and process of public administration is hardly an excuse for concluding that the phenomenon is nonexistent，especially at a time when almost every society is seeking to improve its public sector operations.
Ironically，another conclusion that can be drawn from the multiplicity of definitions is that，on the contrary，public administration is everywhere.Some have argued that there is no field or discipline of public administration per se because the study of public administration overlaps a number of other disciplines，including political science，sociology，economics，psychology，and business administration.Although this approach contains a great deal of truth，in practical terms it is unsatisfactory because it leaves us without the ability to analyze coherently a major aspect of contemporary public life—indeed，one that was clearly a central political development of the twentieth century，namely，the emergence of large and powerful governmental agencies.
We conclude that all the previous definitions are helpful.Public administration does involve activity，it is concerned with politics and policymaking，it tends to be concentrated in the executive branch of government，it does differ from private administration，and it is concerned with implementing the law.But we can be much more specific by offering a definition of our own:Public administration is the use of managerial，political，and legal theories and processes to fulfill legislative，executive，and judicial mandates for the provision of governmental regulatory and service functions．There are several points that require further elaboration.