Public Administration in the US

 
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Public Administration in the US
In any public administration system, the scope and purpose of leadership are important. The actions and decisions made by the management authorities have impacts on the subjects of leadership in the modern society. This article aims at looking at the concepts discussed by Richard Stillman in his topic the Study of Public Administration in the US. It also looks at the themes of the concepts and the related case study, The Blast in Centralia No. 5 by John Bartlow Martin (Stillman, 2009).
Case Study; the Blast in Centralia No 5; the Disaster No One Stopped
The author, John Barlow Martin, vividly recounts the events that lead to the mining disaster in Centralia or the Illinois killing where one hundred and eleven workers lost their lives. He also highlights the possible causes and the management failures that if not carefully addressed may cause a similar catastrophic impact in our modern societies (Stillman, 2009). The basic facts that contributed to the disaster include the organization’s sensitivity to profit making at the expense of the public safety. From the case study, it is clear that the efforts were made by the workers through mining inspectors to the federal government and the mining union. The main area of concerns was the dust and the gasses that posed a threat of explosions. Coal dust was also a healthy threat as it was toxic. The union once admitted that they were aware of the dangerous situation in the mines but insisted that they badly needed the mines at that time.
Apparently, the state regulatory agencies had a weakness as evidenced by the inadequate law enforcement measures. This is evidenced by the rejection of the recommendations report of the newly appointed mining inspector, Driscoll O. Scanlan, asking the government to clean the dust that could cause the explosion (Stilmann, 2009). This together with other recommendations saw no attention due to ineffective law enforcement process and the bureaucratic systems that delayed the review of the recommendations.
In the three years of advance report on the imminent danger in the mining, the federal agencies in Illinois had powers to enforce the intervention but did not act. The other factor that contributed to the disaster is the federal government and the mining unions complacent to the impending problems. The delays in the implementations of the reports forwarded asking for closure and renovations were as results of the profit-oriented management (). It was further aggravated by an ineffectiveness of the government agencies in law enforcement due to corruption and negligence that is still in practice even in the modern societies.
The aspect of corruption is also apparent especially during when the union filed charges against the mines manager and asking the state to revoke his certificate of competency, all which ended in vain (). The Illinois Department of mining just ignored the distress concerns from the workers and the mining board on the hazards of the mine. Despite the workers launching campaigns to save their lives, t the authorities delayed the implementations until the mine blew up killing one hundred and eleven miners, a disaster out of negligence that was preventable. Finally, the federal government shielded the company in its bureaucratic chains by performing an act of political loyalty and asking a report from the Bureau of Mines on whether the mining operators had complied voluntarily with the recommendations (Stillman, 2009). The result of these tactics denied the victims the justice as the company hide behind the state’s protection.
The Public Administration in the US
The development of the established democratic public administration in the US has an interesting historical background. The evolution of “anti-statism” ideologies in the nineteenth century to the democratic statism in the modern leadership has been influenced by several factors such as the pressure from Europe, the constitution and the political upheavals in the US political calendar. The public administration necessitated the challenges of antistatism reforms in Europe. The European Union was way ahead of the US by adopting their first written constitution in 1887. The reforms had impacts on the Americans desire to clear the oppressive regime of the antistatism including the provisions of democratic constitutions such as courts, trade relations, defense and foreign affairs. The PA in the US thus took a four eras namely POSDCORB Orthodoxy (1926- 1946), Social Science Heterodoxy (1947-1967), the Reassertion Of Democratic Idealism (1968-1988) and finally The Refounding Movement (1989 – to date).
The first era, POSDCORB was an acronym for the management aspects in public administrations. The aspects were planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordination reporting and budgeting. Despite the usefulness of the ideology during the Great Depression, it was found unrealistic, contradictory and value-laden. The next adopted during the Second World War was the Social Science Orthodoxy, which seemed appropriate for the US development in education, space exploration, military, and infrastructure. It introduced important aspects of realism, science and human behaviorisms in public administration. In the next era, the reassertion of democratic idealism, the US faced the immense public outcry against statism and bureaucracy. The reasons for the rejection among the intellectual advancement, and irrelevance in real life challenges included, moral values, ethics, and laws. Finally, The Refounding Movement gave an all-inclusive cluster of public management factors. It included reinventors, the communitarians, the tool makers and the bureaucratic among many other institutions into public administration.
From the concept theory of the leadership management in the US, the framework, particularly in the current era of public administration, contradicts the happening in the Illinois mining disaster. The disaster occurred in 1947, the age of Social Science Heterodoxy that emphasized the economic and social conditions of the workers. However, the mining organization unions were less concerned about the working conditions and the social welfare of the workers. The laxity in the response to the complaints is an indication of the negligence that is not desirable in any of the public administration eras.
Gaps between the Theories of the Leadership CA
In dealing with large volumes of cases, the practical situation is different from the theoretical concepts. My goal is to reduce the number cases by increasing numbers of staff. In managing the criminal cases, the major challenge is a relationship in public administration. From the theoretical notion in the PA in the US, the relation, and the workers ethics is reiterated, but nothing is reflective in the case study. In the case study, the mining management authorities had a moral obligation of looking into the impending danger beforehand. The law enforcement authorities had the powers to intervene but did not take any actions as well. The constitution is again not keen in the investigation resulting in the injustice and unfair ruling. In the management of caseworkers, the same shortcoming common in the sense that the investigations may be intentionally interfered resulting in injustice. While the programs are clear on the public management structures and policies, the leaders often overlook these statements to suit themselves and to cover their friends
Secondly, the in the case study, the recommendations were given by the governor but little supervision was done to ensure the implementation is done. To ensure that there are reductions in cases loads, I also intend to increase the months of court order supervision in the cases under investigation. Nevertheless, the police defy the court order duty to ensure supervision of persons and cases under investigation. The caseworkers, on the other hand, display a high level of professional negligence while carrying out the investigations. The accident at the mining at Centralia would have been avoided the reports and the analysis been looked into in time. The selfish interest by the administrative authorities together with the ineffectiveness in the law enforcement authorities became the cause of the disaster (Walters & Garren, 2015). This challenge of selfishness and inefficiency in the court order supervision is one of the major setbacks in my goals to lower the levels of criminal cases. Sometimes the suspect may be under supervision not to communicate with the complainant for security reasons. When this happens, a police officer is assigned the duty of ensuring the court order is supervised. Corrupt police officers may be bribed to allow the suspect to violate the court order and interfere with the investigation in the process. Ultimately the number of cases does not reduce but risks taking another turn. When this happens, as it is common in the modern society, the public security is compromised.
It is also evidenced from the current public management programs in the US, the Re-founding Movement provides for the methods of assessing the organization and the organization’s management through the bureaucratic analysts and tools of governance (Stillman, 2009). However, the accident in the mines occurred as the results of the ineffectiveness of these functional themes. If there were proper analysis on service delivery and governance in the public administration systems, then the accidents wouldn’t have occurred. Similarly, the least effort and the bureaucratic complexions in communication has an effect on the time of conclusion of cases hence the timely remedial of the situation. The last and the most important is the administration of justice in the courts and the judicial systems. From the case study, it was clear that the top individual leaders in the mining departments were responsible for the loss of lives, it is quite unfortunate that that the court shielded them and ordered an investigation on the compliance of the mining operation workers (Walters & Garren, 2015). Such directives are a continuation of delayed justice. In cases management the corrupt bureaucratic systems use the law to cover themselves and end up creating an unjust society.
In conclusion, the public administration has taken significant steps since the independence in the US, the gradual changes in the education, science and technology has led to corresponding lifestyles and working conditions. The public administration theoretical concepts provide sound management leaderships in organizations. However, the bad vices of corruption, selfishness, bureaucratic and social injustices have created a society that deviates from the theoretical values of governance. These vices are a major setback to the public administration and also the problems emanating from negligence in adherence to duties and responsibilities in leadership.
References
Stillman, R. (2009). Public Administration: Concepts And Cases (9th ed.). Boston,MA 02210 USA: WADSWORT CENGAGE Learning.
Walters, C., & Garren, K. (2015). Stillman Concepts Outlines. Fs.huntingdon.edu. Retrieved 26 November 2015, from http://fs.huntingdon.edu/jlewis/syl/PA/306StillmanStudOuts.htm#Stillman, Study of PA

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