Administration is a term from administratĭo, a Latin word. The first meaning of the concept mentioned in the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy ( RAE) refers to the act and the result of managing (directing, governing, organizing or ordering something).
The public, on the other hand, is what belongs to the State and, therefore, to the community in general. Public is the opposite of private (whose property is held by an individual or a group of people).
The idea of public administration, in this framework, is linked to the management of services provided by the State and the group of state entities that are dedicated to developing these functions. See ABBREVIATIONFINDER.ORG for abbreviations related to Public Administration.
It is important to note that the DEFINITION OF public administration is not precise. In general, it is related to the different public organizations that administer State services. Among these organizations there are also corporations that have legal status.
Managed by the Executive Power, the public administration allows the State to establish a direct link with the neighbors. The people flock to public administration for answers to different problems or concerns.
Sometimes the notion of public administration is used to refer to all state workers. When the public administration is said to be on strike, it is being reported that state agencies will not serve the public since their employees will not carry out their usual tasks. In a similar sense, a salary increase for the public administration implies a salary increase for those who work for the State.
If it is taken as an organic structure, it is possible to affirm that public administration is created by the State itself and that its regulation is in charge of positive law. The concept of positive law, for its part, refers to the group of legal norms that a sovereignty writes, that is, the set of legal creations in charge of the State organ that exercises the legislative function.
As an activity, public administration can also be understood as a public function that establishes the legal order of the Nation. We understand by legal order the group of legal norms that, in a particular time and place, have validity and validity.
It is important to point out that both function and organization are also associated with certain techno-political characters that correspond to various fields of study outside the legal field, such as those of political science and the theory of administrative organization.
Therefore, the concept of public administration depends on the main focuses of study (political, technical or legal) or discipline, since there is no general science that can harmoniously combine the set of approaches and elements that They revolve around public administration.
In the 19th century, the progressive political thinker and author Charles-Jean Baptiste Bonnin, a native of France, formulated a broad and concise definition, which even today serves as a reference to analyze this object of knowledge:
The public administration manages the matters related to the people, actions and assets of the citizen as a participant of the State, as well as his own person, his actions and his assets from the point of view of its repercussion on public order.
Given the complexity and lack of rigidity of this concept, its scope may seem overwhelming at first glance. And is that in addition to the aforementioned characteristics, the public administration also manages and directs the ordinary business of the State. On the other hand, there are those who point out that it is regulated by administrative law and that it is part of the executive power.