Public administration is the management of public affairs or the implementation of public
policies. There are 18 definitions of public administration, grouped into four categories: political,
legal, managerial, and occupational. This quartet of definitions expands on the trio of
managerial, political, and legal definitions.
The Chief of State is the ceremonial head of a government, while the Chief Executive is the chief
executive of a government. The American presidency combines the roles of chief of state and
chief executive.
Public administration is what the government does, which is different from private or business
administration. It is a White House chef preparing the menu of a state dinner for a visiting chief
of state, a Department of Agriculture inspector examining beef at a slaughterhouse, and a Food
and Drug Administration scientist determining the number of rodent hairs that food processors
can safely and legally leave in chocolate, popcorn, and peanut butter. It is an astronomer
exploring the furthest reaches of outer space, a CIA agent decoding captured messages from
suspected terrorists, and a sewer crawler seeking to discover what has clogged up a municipal
drain pipe. It is also giving food stamps to the poor, mortgage interest deductions to
homeowners, and hot meals to evacuees of a Gulf Coast hurricane.
Food stamps are a welfare program designed to improve the nutrition of the poor, administered
by the Department of Agriculture and state and local welfare organizations. It provides coupons
(stamps) that can be used to pay for food at many grocery stores. Throughout the world,
government employees do things that affect the daily lives of their citizens, ranging from the
heroic to the mundane. Most of the time, public administrators tend to the public's business, such
as building bridges and highways, collecting garbage, putting out fires, plowing snow, and
providing essential social services. However, in other lands, public employees may torture the
innocent and murder children.
When Amnesty International publishes its annual report on the states that brutalize and violate
the civil rights of its citizens, who do you think does all this brutalizing and violating? It is none
other than the local public administrators! Of course, such nefarious activities are usually
organized within some innocuous-sounding program having to do with "population control" or
"internal security." Modern public relations try to put a friendly face on ancient atrocities.
When Human Rights Watch publishes its annual report on governments that brutalize and violate
their citizens' civil rights, who do you believe is doing all the brutalizing and violating? It is none
other than the local government officials! Of course, such evil actions are frequently planned as
part of a seemingly harmless scheme involving "population control" or "internal security." As a
