From time to time I get into a debate with people about the respective roles of public policy and public administration. There is a view that the two fields are separate ones and that the more “glamorous” one is public policy. This view holds that you can separate the study of one from the other. This is the silo-based view that results in statements such as “the policy was great but they couldn’t implement it” or “the implementation was well done but the policy did not make sense”. These are the battles one hears between “policy shops” and “operational shops”.
There is another view, which I hold, that the two are inextricably linked and that the public good is best achieved when both are equally considered in achieving government goals and objectives. This means that as we teach the next generation of public servants we should be teaching policy development, risk management, social policy, human resource management, etc.
As I was thinking about this, I remembered one of the classic episodes from “Yes, Minister” about Government Policy. In this clip, Sir Humphrey is called in front of a Parliamentary Committee to answer questions on a government policy. His view is that the Minister answers questions about policy, while the civil service answers questions about administration.
Go to the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIto5mwDLxo
No comments:
Post a Comment