U22952

Posted: September 5th, 2013

U22952

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Introduction

            Public administration is a field that should apply policies that are well responsive to societal needs and should strive to use managerial practices that aim to provide effectiveness and efficiency in its governing. For a system to be operational and beneficial it should be strong and should address those issues of greatest concern to the people it is set for.

Argumentation

            The need for a strong and effective public system is evident in the case of the blast in Centralia No. 5. Here, the administration had set up departments to determine the safety of the mines in the counties and had officials who conducted several investigations. Several reports were written on the safety conditions of the mine with recommendations for improvement and enhancement of the safety but the follow up action based on the recommendations was poor or non-existent leading to the death of 111miners in an explosion that occurred due to mine safety procedures not being followed in the mines (Stillman, 2000). Here, the public administration shows lack of drive in their purpose of safety provision since even after similar persistent reports on the hazardous nature of the mine were brought forward by Scanlan, UMWA Local 52 and Frank Prez no actions were taken against the mining company to compel them to rectify the situation.

These complaints were forwarded to the state mining board and the Illinois department of mines and minerals that were responsible for ensuring that there was maintenance of safety standards in coalmines (Stillman, 2000). If the relevant authorities dealt with the concerns in a timely manner, the blast would have been avoidable and the loss of lives would not have occurred. Hence, if the officials in the concerned departments do their duties in a result-oriented manner putting in mind the safety of individuals rather than their own gratification, then the departments are capable of actually affecting the community they serve in a positive manner that would save lives.

A strong and effective system ensures that the employees do not deviate from the initial purpose of the public service hence leading to reforms being experienced in a timely manner. Another consequence from the failure of the relevant authority’s failure to uphold their duty is the perpetrator going unpunished hence there is injustice on a higher level for the victims. For example in the coalmines, even after the mine managers admitting to have wrongly fired explosives with miners in the mine, the State Mines Board failed to uphold the charges letting him go scot-free. Therefore, if the State had a strong public administrative system, there would be follow up on the case until justice was administered hence compelling the mine industry in general to maintain the required standards.

For a public administrative system to succeed it should be strong. This is because humankind is rigidly unphilosophical and for an administration to succeed in guiding them it needs to be strong and effectively applied (Woodrow, 1887). Especially in the States where there is a mixture of different ethnicities, for the doctrine to become acceptable it must show an understanding of the different minds of the different ethnicities. The administration should show reforms as time passes to stay relevant morally and constitutionally. It should uphold liberty to represent the different persons under its authority for it to be actionable.

Reference

Stillman, R.J. III (2000). Public administration concepts and cases. New York: Houghton Mifflin. U.S. Department of Interior. Print.

Woodrow, W., (Jun 1887). The Study of Administration. Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 2 pp. 197-222 Published by: The Academy of Political Science