UPSC Mains: Public Administration Optional Syllabus

PAPER-I: ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY

1. Introduction:

Meaning, scope and significance of Public Administration syllabus ;  Wilson’s vision of Public Administration;  Evolution of the discipline and its present status;  New Public Administration;  Public Choice approach; Challenges of liberalization, Privatisation, Globalisation;  Good Governance: concept and application;  New Public Management.

2. Administrative Thought:

Scientific Management and Scientific Management movement; Classical Theory; Weber’s bureaucratic model – its critique and post-Weberian Developments; Dynamic Administration (Mary Parker Follett); Human Relations School (Elton Mayo and others); Functions of the Executive (C.I. Barnard); Simon’s decision-making theory; Participative Management (R. Likert, C.Argyris, D.McGregor).

3. Administrative Behaviour:

Process and techniques of decision-making; Communication; Morale; Motivation Theories – content, process and contemporary; Theories of Leadership: Traditional and Modern.

4. Organisations:

Theories – systems, contingency; Structure and forms: Ministries and Departments, Corporations, Companies, Boards and Commissions; Ad hoc and advisory bodies; Headquarters and Field relationships; Regulatory Authorities; Public - Private Partnerships.

5. Accountability and control:

Concepts of accountability and control; Legislative, Executive and Judicial control over administration; Citizen and Administration; Role of media, interest groups, voluntary organizations; Civil society; Citizen’s Charters; Right to Information; Social audit.

6. Administrative Law: 

Meaning, scope and significance; Dicey on Administrative law; Delegated legislation; Administrative Tribunals.

7. Comparative Public Administration:

Historical and sociological factors affecting administrative systems; Administration and politics in different countries; Current status of Comparative Public Administration; Ecology and administration; Riggsian models and their critique.

8. Development Dynamics:

Concept of development; Changing profile of development administration; ‘Anti-development thesis’; Bureaucracy and development; Strong state versus the market debate; Impact of liberalisation on administration in developing countries; Women and development - the self-help group movement.

9. Personnel Administration:

Importance of human resource development; Recruitment, training, career advancement, position classification, discipline, performance appraisal, promotion, pay and service conditions; employer-employee relations, grievance redressal mechanism; Code of conduct; Administrative ethics.

10. Public Policy:

Models of policy-making and their critique; Processes of conceptualisation, planning, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and review and their limitations; State theories and public policy formulation.

11. Techniques of Administrative Improvement:

Organisation and methods, Work study and work management; e-governance and information technology; Management aid tools like network analysis, MIS, PERT, CPM.

12. Financial Administration:

Monetary and fiscal policies;  Public borrowings and public debt Budgets  - types and forms;  Budgetary process;  Financial accountability; Accounts and audit.

PAPER-II: INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE

1. Evolution of Indian Administration:

Kautilya’s Arthashastra; Mughal administration;  Legacy of British rule in politics and administration -  Indianization of public services, revenue administration, district administration, local self-government.

2. Philosophical and Constitutional framework of government:

Salient features and value premises; Constitutionalism; Political culture; Bureaucracy and democracy; Bureaucracy and development.

3. Public Sector Undertakings:

Public sector in modern India; Forms of Public Sector Undertakings; Problems of autonomy, accountability and control; Impact of liberalization and privatization.

4. Union Government and Administration:

Executive, Parliament, Judiciary - structure, functions, work processes; Recent trends;  Intragovernmental relations;  Cabinet Secretariat; Prime Minister’s Office; Central Secretariat; Ministries and Departments; Boards; Commissions; Attached offices; Field organizations.

5. Plans and Priorities:

Machinery of planning;  Role, composition and functions of the Planning Commission and the National Development Council;  ‘Indicative’ planning;  Process of plan formulation at Union and State levels;  Constitutional Amendments (1992) and decentralized planning for economic development and social justice.

6. State Government and Administration:

Union-State administrative, legislative and financial relations;  Role of the Finance Commission;  Governor; Chief Minister; Council of Ministers; Chief Secretary; State Secretariat; Directorates.

7. District Administration since Independence:

Changing role of the Collector; Union-state-local relations; Imperatives of development management and law and order administration; District administration and democratic decentralization.

8. Civil Services:

Constitutional position; Structure, recruitment, training and capacity-building;  Good governance initiatives;  Code of conduct and discipline; Staff associations; Political rights; Grievance redressal mechanism; Civil service neutrality; Civil service activism.

9. Financial Management: 

Budget as a political instrument; Parliamentary control of public expenditure;  Role of finance ministry in monetary and fiscal area;  Accounting techniques; Audit;  Role of Controller General of Accounts and Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

10. Administrative Reforms since Independence:

Major concerns; Important Committees and Commissions; Reforms in financial management and human resource development; Problems of implementation.

11. Rural Development: 

Institutions and agencies since independence; Rural development programmes:  foci and strategies; Decentralization and Panchayati Raj; 73rd Constitutional amendment.

12. Urban Local Government:

Municipal governance:  main features, structures, finance and problem areas;  74th Constitutional Amendment;  Global-local debate; New localism;  Development dynamics, politics and administration with special reference to city management.

13. Law and Order Administration:

British legacy;  National Police Commission; Investigative agencies; Role of central and state agencies including paramilitary forces in maintenance of law and order and countering insurgency and terrorism; Criminalisation of politics and administration;  Police-public relations;  Reforms in Police.

14. Significant issues in Indian Administration:

Values in public service; Regulatory Commissions; National Human Rights Commission; Problems of administration in coalition regimes; Citizen-administration interface; Corruption and administration; Disaster management.