Key Terms of Comparative Public Administration

Comparative Public Administration:

A system of government where different political systems are compared
OR
Comparative Public Administration (CPA) is an applied, intercultural, interdisciplinary,
explanatory field of study which carries out cross-cultural investigations in order to provide
solutions for management problems sooner and develop management technologies further.
Public Administration:
Whatever governments do for good or ill… it is public administration’s political context that
makes it public-that distinguishes it from private or business administration.

Political—Public administration is what government does. It exists within a political

environment, and it is this political context that makes it “public.” Public administration is about
implementation of the public interest. It is also about doing collectively what cannot be done as
well individually.
Legal—The foundations of public administration in the United States are legal ones and are
bound by instruments of law. Public administration is law in action in the form of statutes,
regulations, ordinances, codes, etc.
Managerial—The executive nature of public administration enables the public will to be
translated into action by the people responsible for running the public bureaucracy.
Occupational—Public administration includes many occupational fields—medicine,
engineering, social welfare, economics, etc. It is within the framework of each of these fields that
the political, legal, and managerial aspects of public administration are transformed by public
administrators into the work of government.
Democracy: a means of selecting policymakers and of organizing government so that
policy represents and responds to the public’s preferences.
Elite and class theory: argues that society is divided along class lines and that can upper class
elite rules on the basis of its wealth.
Government: institutions that make public policy for a society.

Gross domestic product: the total value of all goods and services produced annually by the
United States.
Hyper pluralism: argues that too many strong influential groups cripple the government’s
ability to make coherent policy by dividing government and its authority.
Linkage institutions: institutions such as parties, elections, interest groups, and the
media, which provide a linkage between the preferences of citizens and the
government’s policy agenda.
Majority rule: weighing the desires of the majority in choosing among policy alternatives.
Minority rights: protecting the rights and freedoms of the minority in choosing among
policy alternatives.
Pluralist theory: argues that there are many centers of influence in which groups compete
with one another for control over public policy through bargaining and compromise.
Policy agenda: the list of subjects or problems to which people inside and outside
government are paying serious attention at any given time.

Policy impacts: the effects a policy has on people and problems.