(PYQ Mock Answer: Public administration) NPM/Neo-Taylorism

 New Public Management has been branded by certain scholars as `Neo-Taylorism'. Is it a justified comparison? What factors have led to the decline of NPM so soon after its birth? (20 Marks)

New Public Management as a concept emerged to deal with the issues of economy and efficiency in Public Sector Enterprises. The government had to give huge amount of budgetary support to these PSEs and the losses incurred by PSUs resulted in high amounts of fiscal deficit for the government. Hence to promote economy and efficiency in the PSEs, the government decided to adopt the principles followed in private organisations for the PSEs as well. Since Private organisations were mostly following Scientific Management Theory or Taylorism, the government ended up adopting the same for PSEs. The following are the features of NPM, that justify why it can be called Neo-taylorism:

1. Emphasises on implementing scientific management principles to improve performance of PSEs 

2. Emphasises on cost-cutting – economy 

3. Providing responsive services to citizens 

4. Use of information Technology 

5. Emphasises on implementing scientific management principles to improve performance of PSEs 

6. NPM treat citizens as customers and the government considers itself a service provider so that the moral responsibility of bureaucracy is transformed into legal accountability 

7. Developing competition and ensuring performance control 

   

The reason for the decline of NPM so soon after its birth are as follows: 

1. NPM is based on market philosophy wherein market takes into consideration the needs of only those people who can pay for services whereas the needs of those who can't pay are ignored 

2. Government is not there to maximise profits, objective of government is to maximise the welfare of people. It's the responsibility of the government to provide basic needs to people irrespective of the costs involved in it. Even if loss is incurred in the process, Government has to provide those services. 

3. Critics said that NPM might be applicable for developing countries where in citizens can be treated as customers as they can pay for the services. Government can consider itself as service provider like other private sector providers. But applicability of NPM is restricted in developing countries because in developing countries people can't pay for services 

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(PYQ Mock Answer: Public administration) Woodrow Wilson

Q. "Even after 130 years of its publication, Woodrow Wilson's essay 'The Study of Administration' continues to have great relevance even today." Comment. (10 Marks)

Answer:

The essay 'The Study of Administration’ is the reason for the emergence of new discipline of public administration. The following concepts dealt in the essay has great relevance even today 

1. “Politics-Administration dichotomy” rightly brings the dilemma at hand today “How to ensure that the politicians and bureaucrats work in coordination but at the same time how we can avoid politicisation of bureaucracy or bureaucratisation of polity.   
2. The bureaucracies across the world are known for their inefficiency, the essay rightly addresses the need to replicate the economy and efficiency of business into administration.  
3. Comparative approach: with the emergence of Comparative public administration the need is now felt to not to study an administrative system in isolation. This comparative approach ofWilson has been the torch bearer for the field of CPA.
4. Overburdened bureaucrats nowadays prefer more and more to sit in the comforts of their office and hence get disconnected from the people. Wilson’s suggestion to take into consideration the opinions of the public holds relevance in this regard today to overcome this disconnect.

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(PYQ Mock Answer: Public administration) Classical and Human Relation theories

 Q. "What is distinctive about the Classical and Human Relations schools of administration is their complementarily to each other." Analyse. (10 Marks)

Answer: 

Post industrial revolution, organisations were facing problems of economy and efficiency. An organisation is made up structures and people 

Organisation = Structure + People

The classical theories like Scientific management theory, Administrative management theory etc. emphasised on the structural aspects and ignored the human element in the organisation, that is the reason even though these theories were successful, their success was limited. As Hawthorne experiments by Elton Mayo clearly established the importance of the human element in the organisation, Classical theories alone were not enough for enhancing the efficiency of the organisation. 

The human relations theory laid an emphasis on the social and psychological factors in enhancing the efficiency of the organisation but downplayed the importance of structures.  

So from the above it is obvious that Classical theory or human relations theory alone don’t form the complete picture, for enhancing the economy and efficiency of an organisation, both the theories are required together, hence their complementarity can be established. 

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()(PYQ Mock Answer: Public administration) Theories of Leadership

Q.  "Leaders do the right things; managers do them rightly" — (Warren Bennis). Is this distinction by him valid? Explain. (10 Marks)

Answer: 

The concept can be understood through a simple story. There once was a king, he wanted the people to not feel the burden of taxation, hence for the taxes that people paid to the king, people were given wheat. The people never appreciated the king and blamed him for taxing them. The king falls ill and asks his Son (the Prince)to make people appreciate the kings efforts to reduce their burden of taxation. The Prince immediately announces that in lieu of the taxation, instead of wheat only husk would be given, the people suddenly started to appreciate the king. 

The moral of the story is that even though the prince wanted to do the right thing, he did not do it rightly. In the government, the political leaders determine what is right for the people , but the bureaucrats oversee the implementation in the right manner. Hence this distinction drawn between leaders and managers is right. 

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(PYQ GS paper III Mock Answer: Science & Tech) - Bose Einstein Statistics

Q. Discuss the work of ‘Bose-Einstein Statistics’ done by Prof. Satyendra Nath Bose and show how it revolutionized the field of Physics. (10 Marks)

Answer:

There are two classes of elementary particles - Fermions and Bosons. The Fermions make up matter while the Bosons make up force. The Bose Einstein statistics gives the basic framework to understand the characteristics and the behaviour of the Bosons. The particles bosons are named after Indian Physicist Prof. Satyendra Nath Bose.

There are four fundamental forces in nature, namely Gravitational force, Electromagnetic force, Weak Nuclear force and strong nuclear force. Each of these forces have an associated force particle or Bosons. It is believed that during Big Bang all these forces existed as one but eventually split up into the 4 different forces. The Bose-Einstein Statistics help us understand the interaction of these Bosons (forces) and hence would enhance our understanding of the origin of the universe. 

One of the mysteries physicists have been trying to solve was how particles acquire mass, and this has resulted in theoretical emergence of the concept of Higgs Bosons (God particles). Recently Peter Higgs was awarded Nobel prize for the discovery of Higgs Bosons, the Higgs bosons belong to the class of particles called as Bosons, that obey the Bose Einstein Statistics.

The Bose Einstein Statistics was a pioneering work in the 5th state of matter, namely the Bose-Einstein Condensates. Hence, from the above we can establish that work of ‘Bose-Einstein Statistics’ done by Prof. Satyendra Nath Bose has revolutionized the field of Physics.

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(PYQ Mock Answer: Public administration) Civil Society Organisation

Q. Civil Society supplements and complements the State. However, its capacity and role depend upon the will of the State. Comment. (15 Marks )

Answer:

Voluntary organisations of the people that is not a part of the state or the market, but exist to promote the interest of the citizens in general or specific section of citizens can be called as civil society organisations. The capacity and role of the civil society is dependent on the will of the state. 

In policy formulation, if the government chooses Group model of public policy making then there is greater scope for the participation of various pressure groups and interest groups in shaping the policies of the government. But if the government prefers the elite mass model of public policy making, then the role of civil society in this aspect is severely curtailed. 

Similarly in Public policy implementation, if the government adopts a bureaucracy centric implementation model then the civil society has no role in the process of public policy implementation. However if the government adopts citizen centric public policy implementation model like Coalition of actors model, then there is a lot of scope for participation of the civil society in the public policy implementation. For example, Swachch Bharat Mission, Mid day meal scheme etc. allowed scope for participation of civil society in the implementation process. 

Similarly in evaluation process, if the government provides no scope for social audit, then Civil society is deprived of the opportunity to evaluate government programs/schemes as well.

Hence the role of civil society is dependent upon the nature of model chosen for public policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. The model chosen by the state rests upon the will of the state, hence we can conclude that the capacity and role of the civil society depend upon the will of the State.

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(PYQ GS paper II Mock Answer: Polity governance) - Citizens Charter

Q. The Citizen’s Charter is an ideal instrument of organisational transparency and accountability, but it has its own limitations. Identify the limitations and suggest measures for greater effectiveness of the Citizen’s Charters. (15 Marks)

Answer:

A Citizens’ Charter is basically a set of commitments made by an organization regarding the standards of service which it delivers. The Citizens’ Charter is an instrument which seeks to make an organization transparent, accountable and citizen friendly.

Limitations of Citizens Charter: 

• The term Citizen’s Charter has become a misnomer because in every govt dept it is prepared by bureaucracy without involving stakeholders. 
• Since it’s a voluntary commitment to implement Citizen’s Charter, these are never taken seriously.
  
• Absence of awareness among citizens esp. in rural areas about Citizen’s Charter.
  
• Citizen’s Charter doesn’t define services & standards in an objective & quantifiable term so that performance can be evaluated. As described by 2nd ARC, Citizen’s Charter are nothing but “pious Statements with noble intentions having no practical significance”.
  
• Performance of bureaucracy in implementation of Citizen’s Charter has no impact on their career advancement. There is no motivation for bureaucracy to implement it.
  
• Most of the Citizen’s Charters are in English language which becomes difficult for people from rural areas to understand it.
  
• Recommendations of Social Audit Committees which help in preparing Citizen’s Charters are only advisory in nature & not taken seriously.
  
• High levels of corruption in implementation as there is no accountability & improper grievance redressal mechanism.
  
• Colonial attitude of bureaucracy due to which it has failed to understand the importance of Citizen’s Charter in empowering of citizens.
  

Measures needed to improve effectiveness of citizens charter:

• Making consultation with citizens mandatory while framing citizens charter. 
• Real time updation of info on the govt websites especially regarding allocation of finances.
  
• Citizen’s Charter can be formulated in vernacular languages.
  
• Citizen’s Charter should clearly specify outlays, time & output.
  
• Quality of services should be defined in objective terms. These should be defined on the basis of global standards. 
• Civil Services Code be amended to include effective implementation of Citizen’s Charter as one of the parameters upon which their career advancement would depend.
  
• Proper accountability & Grievance Redressal Mechanism.
  
• Citizen’s Charter should come under purview of Lokpal.
  
• Proper implementation of Whistleblowers (Protection) Act.
  
• Citizen’s Charter should be further expanded into People’s Charter or Precariat Charter.
  

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