UPSC Mains 2013: Public Administration Paper -1

SECTION A

Q.1. Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words each: 10×5=50

(a) How did traditional public administration ”resolve a fundamentally irresolvable problem-creating an administration strong enough to be effective but not so strong enough to endanger accountability”? 10

(b) The theory of ‘organizational incompetence’ has two separate and distinct faces. Examine Chris Argyris’ views on this. 10

(c) ”In the globalized public administration, hierarchy creates more ethical problems than it solves…”Comment. 10

(d) Public Administration in the neo-liberal era is governed less by instruments of internal accountability and more by those of external accountability. Elaborate. 10

(e) Discuss the view that ”tribunals should have the same degree of independence from the executive as that enjoyed by the Supreme Court and the High Courts, especially for those tribunals that look over the functions of High Courts.”10

Q.2. (a) “New Public Management may have neither been the saviour its enthusiasts promised nor the devil its critics worried it would be.” Discuss. 25

(b) “The design of the physical structure, the anatomy of the organization came first, and was indeed the principal consideration.” 
“An organization is a system of interrelated social behaviours of participants.” 
Analyse these statements and evaluate the contributions of the respective approaches to administration theory. 25

Q.3. (a) “Decisions are not made by ‘organizations’, but by ‘human beings’ behaving as members of organizations.” How do Bernard and Simon conceptualize the relation between the decisions of the individual employee and the organizational authority? 20

(b)”A variety of different organizational arrangements can be used to provide different public goods and services.” Explain the theory underlying this proposition and its potential contribution. 15

(c) What is the nature of psychological contract pursued by organizational management through authority and the employees through exertion of upward influence? 15

Q.4. (a) Structural theory is, by and large, grounded in classical principles of efficiency, effectiveness and productivity. Explain. 25

(b) “Public interest is still inadequate as a ground concept to evaluate public “policy.” Discuss. 25

                                         SECTION B

Q.5. Answer the following questions in not more than 150 words each: 10×5=50

(a) “Comparative Public Administration both resembles and differs from modern organization theory.” Elaborate. 10

(b) “In organizational analysis there is always gender around.” (Gouldner). Argue 10

(c) What is administrative elitism? How does it evolve in public administration? Elaborate your response with reference to historical examples. 10

(d) The success rate of e-government projects in most developing countries is stated to be rather low. Assess the reason. 10

(e) What new models of budgetary capacity and incapacity have emerged after the decline of Planning Programming Budgeting and Zero-based Budgeting? 10

Q.6. (a) “For those who use the euphemism of ‘shared power’ for participation, the appropriate literature for guidance is practical politics, not organization and management.”

“Strong state and strong civil society are the need to develop both participatory democracy and responsive government as mutually reinforcing and supportive.”

Bring out the myths and realities associated with public participation. 20

(b) “….. in most cases …. newly independent states, of the nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America, despite their differences …. are in transition.” 15
(Ferrel Heady). What common features are indicative of characteristics of their administrative patterns (cultures)? 15

(c) “To talk about the regulatory framework is to talk about governance.” Analyse the statement in the context of public-private-partnerships and identify the elements of regulation. 15

Q7. (a) “Economic reforms are a work in progress with the state reluctant to fully relinquish its reins.”Discuss the statement with regard to implementation of economic reforms in India.  15

(b) “The policy process was not structured in the way required by bureaucratic planning.”
“Arguably, incrementalism now stands most in contrast to neo-liberal nationality that impose markets against both gradual change and democratic liberalism.”
Analyse these two statements.  20

(c) Budget allocation involves series of tensions between actors with different backgrounds, orientations and interests and between short-term goals and long term institutional requirements. Discuss.  15

Q8. (a) Read the following instances carefully and suggest what specific perspectives on organizational psychology of motivation would help the concerned organization to reconcile the needs of the following four persons with the needs of the organization: 30

(i) Mr. A comes to his office with clocklike punctuality; does his work with impeccable honesty and integrity; takes order from above gladly; responds well to overtures by peers; but neither mixes with anyone himself nor seeks anyone’s company. What is more, he seems quite happy in his isolation.

(ii) Mr. B is an efficient charge-hand at the welding shop. He is very outgoing and makes friends fast , but falls out with them very fast too. He is however easily pacified when anyone asks him to calm down in the name of the organization.

(iii) Dr. C is completely happy and absorbed when he is teaching in the classes, and does not at all mind when his workload gets heavier and covers new areas. But he gets angry when the finance section raises objections about his medical bills; and is furious that the higher administration is yet to give him full tenure.

(iv) Mr. D is a metallurgist in the forge shop of the steel plant, and has received honours for his innovativeness in modifying conventional alloys. He also paints well and values his painting skills far more than his metallurgy and is extremely unhappy that the company house journal did not finally carry his water sketch on its front cover.
 
(b) Suppose the Government of India is thinking of constructing a dam in a mountain valley girded by forests and inhabited by ethnic communities. What rational techniques of policy analysis should it resort to for coping with likely uncertainties and unforeseen contingencies? 20