Pub Ad Optional Daily Brief – 11 – September – 2026

Pub Ad PYQ Vault | Day 43 | PYQ (2020)

The discipline of Public Administration has evolved through a number of paradigms. Discuss the major paradigms of Public Administration and their relevance in the contemporary context.

Keyword of the Day | Administrative Pluralism

It refers to the coexistence of multiple actors, institutions, values and sources of authority in the process of governance, rather than administration being controlled exclusively by the hierarchical state bureaucracy.

R.A.W. Rhodes → Governance as Networks – policy is increasingly shaped through interdependent networks of state and non-state actors.

Thinker of the Day | Camilla Stivers

Work – Gender Images in Public Administration, Legitimacy, Accountability, and the Feminization of Public Administration

Views

• Stivers argues that conventional theories of administration often privilege masculine notions of rationality, hierarchy, authority and expertise, while undervaluing care, relationships and democratic participation.

• Traditional public administration historically constructed the administrator around the image of an objective, rational male public actor, while women’s experiences were pushed into the private sphere.

• Activities associated with care, nurturing and community relationships are essential to governance but have historically received less recognition as legitimate administrative work.

• For Stivers, legitimacy should not rest merely on expertise and hierarchical authority. Public administration must also recognise citizens’ experiences, participation and relationships.

Stivers reminds us that an apparently neutral administrative system may reproduce the gendered assumptions of the society in which it operates.