Constitution and Public Administration

In the United States，or any other Republics，the federal/central and state/provincial constitutions define the environment of public administration and place constraints on it.First，constitutions fragment power and control over public administration.The separation of powers among legislative，executive and judicial branches in many countries places public administration under three“masters”.It not only provides each branch with somewhat different authority over public administration but may also frustrate coordination among them.Basic political science tells us that chief executives，legislatures，and courts are responsive to different constituencies，political pressures，and time constraints.All three branches have legitimate interests in public administration.However，they often differ with regard to what they think agencies should do and how they ought to do it.Constitutional concerns are important in another way as well.They establish values in the public sector that frequently run counter to the values embodied in private management.Efficiency in government is often subordinated to political principles such as representativeness，accountability，and transparency.Efficiency is also trumped by legalistic considerations like due process.Further，in most of the public sector，there is no genuine equivalent to the profit motive，so central to private enterprise.It is the obligation of the public administrators to consider the public interest as a general guide for their actions.A central issue presented by public administration is assuring that public administrators represent and respond to the interests of the citizenry.The government should provide services and products that could not profitably be offered by private firms.Some of these services and products are referred to as public goods or quasi-public goods.^[2](https://www.daowen.com)