Public Administration and Law

Law is extremely important to public administration. Because law is a source of democratic principles and it is integral in the activities of governance. Public administration is merely “carrying out the business of government”; public administration is the execution of law. Efficiency, economy, and effectiveness must be sought within the context of statutory authority, limited budgets, personnel rules, and court decrees. Government must be accountable, open, and procedurally fair; government must provide equal protection and equal opportunity as well as promote justice. These democratic values are not merely ethical norms or aspirations, they are fundamental legal imperatives found in the constitutions, statutes, rules, administrative rulings, and court decisions.

Almost a century ago American public administration writings began to focus on administration as management and to shy away from law as the basis for administrative actions. This administration law separation has its origins in Woodrow Wilson’s famous pronouncement that the problem of administration is not how to found a constitution but to run one. Nowadays most administrators recognize that this separation is both artificial and foolhardy.

Law plays an important role in society. It defines relationships between all combinations of individuals, businesses, groups, and governments. Many of these relationships are established from social expectations and enumerated through the common law case-by-case development of legal principles. Many other relationships are now specified in statues and administrative rules. Thus, law provides the foundation for public administrators’ authority to act as well as establishes limits on governmental authority.

Administrators must understand legal and constitutional obligations. For the general public, the old adage that ignorance of the law is no excuse may be adequate. However, more is expected of public servants. They have the duty to know the law and act in a lawful manner.

Administrators, in carrying out law and implementing policy, may interpret law differently from lawyers. In this context, the administrative concern is law in action. There are legal, practical and theoretical aspects of government under the law that public administrators need to understand.

To the public administrator, law is something very positive and concrete. It is his authority. The term public administrators customarily use to describe it is “my mandate”. It is “their” law, and it does three things: tells them what the legislature expects them to accomplish, fixes limits to their authority, and sets forth the substantive and procedural rights of the individual and group. Having a positive view of their mandate, public administrators consider themselves both an interpreter and a builder.

Therefore, law, like administration, is government in action. Law establishes, empowers, structures, and constrains agencies and programs. It mandates procedural, reporting, and transparency requirements. It provides for public participation, representation, and official and agency liability. There is not much agencies can do without reference to legal authority. In the litigious U.S., for example, law is fundamental to a vast array of administrative operations: public sector human resources management; prison, public school, and public health administration; social welfare; regulation; rulemaking; adjudicating; contracting; street-level and other enforcement; use of resources; and more.