Public administration and development

Abstract

Public Administration is the study of the activities of government. Where governments accept responsibility for development, public administration is the administration of development. The approach of public administration to development is one of contingency: to ascertain what a situation is in terms of its environment and devise strategic, structural and procedural interventions appropriate to the situation. A contingency approach to public administration fits into a social knowledge paradigm which posits that development happens by capacity building through social learning.