Public Administration as a discipline is not very old and it is only a hundred years. During these years Public Administration has passed through several phases of development. We can broadly divide the history of Public Administration into the following five periods:-
Period I 1887 – 1926
Period II 1927 - 1937
Period III 1938 - 1947
Period IV 1948 - 1970
Period V 1971 - continuing
Period I (1887 – 1926) Public Administration Dichotomy : The discipline of Public Administration was born in the USA. The credit for initiating as an academic study of Public Administration goes to Woodrow Wilson, who was teaching Political Science at Princeton University and who later became the President of USA. He is regarded as the father of the discipline of Public Administration. In his article entitled “The Study of Administration”, published in 1887, he emphasized the need for studying Public Administration as a discipline apart from politics. This is known as Principle of politic administration dichotomy, i.e., a separation of Politics and Administration. Wilson argued that, “Administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics. The administrative questions are not political questions”. The field of politics is not the field of business, it is removed from ……. & strife of politics.
According to Frank J.Goodnow, politics “has to do with the expression of the state will” while administration “has to do with the execution of these policies.” In short, Goodnow posited the politics-administration dichotomy and he developed the Wilsonian theme further and greater courage and conviction.
Period II (1927 - 1937) Principles of Administration : The central belief of this period was that there are certain ‘principles’ of administration and which is the task of the scholars to discover and applied to increase the efficiency and economy of Public Administration. Scientific management handled the business of administration becomes a slogan. Administrative practitioners and business school join hands to mechanistic aspect of management. They claim that Public Administration is a science. The great depression in the America contributed a lot to the development. These periods were the golden years of ‘principles’ in the history of Public Administration. This was also a period when Public Administration commanded a high degree or respectability and its product were in great demand both in government and business.
Period III (1938 – 1947) Era of challenge : The main theme during this period was the advocacy of ‘Human Relationship Behavioural Approach’ to the study of Public Administration. The idea of administrative dichotomy was rejected. It was argued that Administration cannot be separated from politics because its political nature and role, Administration is not only concern with policy decision but it deals with the policy formulation. Similarly, the principle of Administration was challenge. It was considered as a proverb and naturalistic facilities they criticized due to its depend on formal structure of organization.
