Editing Public administration (section)

{{Short description|Academic discipline; implementation or management of policy}}
{{About|the discipline|the journal|Public Administration (journal)}}
{{See also|Public policy|Political science|Nonprofit management}}
{{Politics sidebar|expanded=Public administration}}

'''Public administration''', or '''public policy and administration''' refers to "the management of public programs",<ref>Robert and Janet Denhardt, ''Public Administration: An Action Orientation''. 6th Ed. 2009: Thomson Wadsworth, Belmont CA.</ref> or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",<ref name="KettlDonald">Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the Administrative Process''. Washington D.C.: CQ Press</ref> and also to the [[academic discipline]] which studies how [[public policy]] is created and implemented.

In an academic context, public administration has been described as the study of government decision-making; the analysis of policies and the various inputs that have produced them; and the inputs necessary to produce alternative policies.<ref>Jerome B. McKinney and Lawrence C. Howard. Public Administration: Balancing Power and Accountability. 2nd Ed. 1998: Praeger Publishing, Westport, CT. p. 62</ref> It is also a subfield of [[political science]] where studies of policy processes and the structures, functions, and behavior of public institutions and their relationships with broader society take place. The study and application of public administration is founded on the principle that the proper functioning of an organization or institution relies on effective management.

The mid-twentieth century saw the rise of German [[Sociology|sociologist]] [[Max Weber]]'s theory of [[bureaucracy]], bringing about a substantive interest in the theoretical aspects of public administration. The 1968 [[Minnowbrook Conference]], which convened at [[Syracuse University]] under the leadership of [[Dwight Waldo]], gave rise to the concept of [[New Public Administration]], a pivotal movement within the discipline today.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://academic.oup.com/jpart/article/21/suppl_1/i1/913462 |access-date=2024-02-17 |title=Minnowbrook: Tradition, Idea, Spirit, Event, Challenge |first=Rosemary |last=O'Leary |journal=Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory |volume=21 |issue=1 |year=2011 |pages=i1–i6|doi=10.1093/jopart/muq066 }}</ref>