IIIASA: Introduction - Public Administration

The expression ‘Public administration’ has more than one dimension. Firstly, as an activity it is concerned with organized collective effort towards the accomplishment of some common objective like public welfare, development and security etc.
Secondly, in terms of structure, it refer to the whole ensemble of institutions designed and established to carry out various activities of the state and relates to conceptual configuration of various positions of authority and responsibility (hierarchy), procedural rules and regulations, channels of communications etc.
Thirdly, Public administration can be viewed as subject of study or discipline like history,geography,political science ,sociology etc. As a subject it is concerned with the study of what, how and why of the whole government in action.