{Syllabus} Public Administration for UPSC CSE

PAPER – I : Administrative Theory

1. Introduction:

• Meaning, scope and significance of Public Administration; 
• Wilson’s vision of Public Administration; 
• Evolution of the discipline and its present status; 
• New Public Administration; 
• Public Choice approach; 
• Challenges of liberalization, Privatisation , Globalisation; 
• Good Governance: concept and application; 
• New Public Management.

2. Administrative Thought:

• Scientific Management and Scientific Management movement; 
• Classical Theory; 
• Weber’s bureaucratic model – its critique and post-Weberian Developments; 
• Dynamic Administration (Mary Parker Follett); 
• Human Relations School (Elton Mayo and others); 
• Functions of the Executive (C.I. Barnard); 
• Simon’s decision-making theory; 
• Participative Management (R. Likert, C. Argyris, D. McGregor).

3. Administrative Behaviour:

• Process and techniques of decision-making; 
• Communication; 
• Morale; 
• Motivation Theories – content, process and contemporary; 
• Theories of Leadership: Traditional and Modern.

4. Organisations:

• Theories – systems, contingency; 
• Structure and forms: Ministries and Departments, Corporations, Companies, Boards and Commissions; 
• Ad hoc and advisory bodies; 
• Headquarters and Field relationships; 
• Regulatory Authorities; 
• Public - Private Partnerships.

5. Accountability and control:Concepts of accountability and control;

• Legislative, Executive and Judicial control over administration; 
• Citizen and Administration; 
• Role of media, interest groups, voluntary organizations; 
• Civil society; 
• Citizen’s Charters; 
• Right to Information; 
• Social audit.

6. Administrative Law:

• Meaning, scope and significance; 
• Dicey on Administrative law; 
• Delegated legislation; 
• Administrative Tribunals.

7. Comparative Public Administration:

• Historical and sociological factors affecting administrative systems; 
• Administration and politics in different countries; 
• Current status of Comparative Public Administration; 
• Ecology and administration; 
• Riggsian models and their critique.

8. Development Dynamics:

• Concept of development; 
• Changing profile of development administration; 
• ‘Antidevelopment thesis’; 
• Bureaucracy and development; 
• Strong state versus the market debate; 
• Impact of liberalisation on administration in developing countries; 
• Women and development - the self-help group movement.

9. Personnel Administration:

• Importance of human resource development; 
• Recruitment, training, career advancement, position classification, discipline, performance appraisal, promotion, pay and service conditions; 
• Employer-employee relations, grievance redressal mechanism; 
• Code of conduct; 
• Administrative ethics.

10. Public Policy:

• Models of policy-making and their critique; 
• Processes of conceptualisation, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and review and their limitations; 
• State theories and public policy formulation.

11. Techniques of Administrative Improvement:

• Organisation and methods, Work study and work management; 
• E-governance and information technology; 
• Management aid tools like network analysis, MIS, PERT, CPM.

12. Financial Administration:

• Monetary and fiscal policies; 
• Public borrowings and public debt Budgets - types and forms; 
• Budgetary process; 
• Financial accountability; 
• Accounts and audit.

PAPER – II: Indian Administration

1. Evolution of Indian Administration:

• Kautilya’s Arthashastra; 
• Mughal administration; 
• Legacy of British rule in politics and administration - Indianization of public services, revenue administration, district administration, local self-government.

2. Philosophical and Constitutional framework of government:

• Salient features and value premises; 
• Constitutionalism; 
• Political culture; 
• Bureaucracy and democracy; 
• Bureaucracy and development.

3. Public Sector Undertakings:

• Public sector in modern India; 
• Forms of Public Sector Undertakings; 
• Problems of autonomy, accountability and control; 
• Impact of liberalization and privatization.

4. Union Government and Administration:

• Executive, Parliament, Judiciary - structure, functions, work processes; 
• Recent trends; 
• Intragovernmental relations; 
• Cabinet Secretariat; 
• Prime Minister’s Office; 
• Central Secretariat; 
• Ministries and Departments; 
• Boards; 
• Commissions; 
• Attached offices; 
• Field organizations.

5. Plans and Priorities:

• Machinery of planning; 
• Role, composition and functions of the Planning Commission and the National Development Council; 
• ‘Indicative’ planning; 
• Process of plan formulation at Union and State levels; 
• Constitutional Amendments (1992) and decentralized planning for economic development and social justice.

6. State Government and Administration:

• Union-State administrative, legislative and financial relations; 
• Role of the Finance Commission; 
• Governor; 
• Chief Minister; 
• Council of Ministers; 
• Chief Secretary; 
• State Secretariat; 
• Directorates.

7. District Administration since Independence:

• Changing role of the Collector; 
• Union-state-local relations; 
• Imperatives of development management and law and order administration; 
• District administration and democratic decentralization.

8. Civil Services:

• Constitutional position; 
• Structure, recruitment, training and capacity-building; 
• Good governance initiatives; 
• Code of conduct and discipline; 
• Staff associations; 
• Political rights; 
• Grievance redressal mechanism; 
• Civil service neutrality; 
• Civil service activism.

9. Financial Management:

• Budget as a political instrument; 
• Parliamentary control of public expenditure; 
• Role of finance ministry in monetary and fiscal area; 
• Accounting techniques; 
• Audit; 
• Role of Controller General of Accounts and Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

10. Administrative Reforms since Independence:

• Major concerns; 
• Important Committees and Commissions; 
• Reforms in financial management and human resource development; 
• Problems of implementation.

11. Rural Development:

• Institutions and agencies since independence; 
• Rural development programmes: foci and strategies; 
• Decentralization and Panchayati Raj;
• 73rd Constitutional amendment.

12. Urban Local Government:

• Municipal governance: main features, structures, finance and problem areas; 
• 74th Constitutional Amendment; 
• Global-local debate; 
• New localism; 
• Development dynamics, politics and administration with special reference to city management.

13. Law and Order Administration:

• British legacy; 
• National Police Commission; 
• Investigative agencies; 
• Role of central and state agencies including paramilitary forces in maintenance of law and order and countering insurgency and terrorism; 
• Criminalisation of politics and administration; 
• Police-public relations; 
• Reforms in Police.

14. Significant issues in Indian Administration:

• Values in public service; 
• Regulatory Commissions; 
• National Human Rights Commission; 
• Problems of administration in coalition regimes; 
• Citizen-administration interface; 
• Corruption and administration; 
• Disaster management.