The concept of public administration refers to the set of public sector agencies that are dedicated to administrative tasks and manage other agencies, institutions and entities belonging to the State.
The main objective of the Public Administration is to be able to establish relations between the government (in the form of institutions) and the people. The role of the civil servant (person who works for the public sector) is fundamental.
The concept can be adopted from two perspectives:
- Formal. The Government uses the necessary means to be able to satisfy the common good.
- Material. It is considered according to the management problem.
Another meaning that can be extracted from these two perspectives is that public administration is the skillful management of resources and tasks of officials in order to satisfy the expectations of citizens.
Characteristics of public administration
Some of the characteristics of the Public Administration that define it for what it is and that are very important for it to be identified are the following:
- Existence of human resources: it is the means that establishes relations between the Government and the population (as we have commented previously). The relationships that are established are through officials or administrative personnel (which we have also commented are those who work for the public sector).
- Tax management: the public Administration is dedicated to managing impuestos, duty, rates, etc ... that it acquires from the population, organizations, companies and other economic agents.
- Two key identifying elements: the purpose and objective. That is, they are called to be consummated to achieve the satisfaction of the public interest. Without the Administration, this would not be possible.