QUESTION
Critically analyze any two of these essays on public administration and examine their relevance to Uganda
Procedure
Elaborate a point from the author and relate it to the public administration of Uganda and indicate whether it’s useful /relevant or not. Either agree with the point or not and state the gaps in relation to Uganda. Bring up the gaps from the author’s argument in relation to Uganda’s public administration
Relevance
How is the authors’ article relevant to the public administration of Uganda
Try to define the key terms during the analysis .
Public Service
The notion of a public service was embraced by the city’s governing officials and its administrators by assuming responsibility for the care of the indigent, infirmed, aged, orphaned, starving, dying, and dead (Gawthrop, 1998. 85).
Public service refers to specific arrangement that are imposed to public authorities to the provider of a service so as to ensure that specific requirement that are imposed by authorities on the provider of service to ensure that certain public interest are meant for example water, air rail and road transport systems are meant, (world development report, 2004).
Democracy
In the 1980s and 1990s, across the world, democratic movements have contributed to promoting human rights, liberty, freedom , and democracy in developing countries. Democratic movements have accounted for the historical progress of democracy (Minier, 2001).
According to the article by, Gawthrop, (2009), like the laws of physics, maximum strength is to be found in the process of triangulation. Considered in terms of democratic governance, the triangular linkages of democratic values, virtues, and visions create the essential bond of unity that steers the democratic process toward the common good.
Beetham (1999), defines democracy as a political regime with a high degree of popular control over political decision making, and a high degree of political equality.
According to Vanhanen (2003), democracy means free popular elections to fill positions of power. Brochado and Martins (2005), consider democracy as a system of institutionalized procedure directed to a free political participation and competitiveness. Welzel (2007), defines democracy by constitutional constrain on the power of the state and by popular control over it.
Democracy is an ideal-seeking system that is committed to the common good, the good life, or that state of being where that which is good. This is the ultimate aspiration of democracy. Nonetheless, time and again it has been stated that, short of unremitting anarchy, democracy is the messiest form of government. That is to say, as Richard Stillman so artfully portrays in his article, “The Peculiar ‘Stateless’ Origins of American Public Administration…,” there is nothing tidy, neat, orderly, or confidently predictable about the system of government.
The study also defines democratic movements as public struggles that are explicitly prodemocracy for democratic reforms, direct elections, and political liberalization in which participants express these demands for democracy physically, for instance, by public demonstration (Minier, 2001).
Marshall and Jaggers , (2002). The theoretical basis in the reverse causation from economic growth to country‘s propensity to experience democracy lies in the seminal paper of Lipset (1959), who advocates the idea that prosperity stimulate democracy. This phenomenon has been the nexus of most countries, where economic growth is believed to spur democracy.
Democracy has been associated with both key benefits and some shortcomings in Uganda
So of the benefits include;
The most basic reason why democratic governments may provide services like education to a wider segment of the population than do autocrats involves the different incentives the two types of leader s face. For an autocrat who is interested in remaining in power, regardless of whether he or she is motivated strictly by material benefits or by some broader sense of what is ‘good’ for society, the primary threat to consider is that of being overthrown as a result of a coup, riots, or similar extra-constitutional action.
Although democratic leader will make the final decision, the leader consults the members before making a decision this enhances efficiency in public service delivery
Democratic leadership style also enables the members of the society to feel incontrol of their government since they are involved in decision making.
Africa‘s poor growth record has to do with problems related to its policies and institutions. The idea that governance matters for economic development dates back to Adam Smith (Ndulu & O‘Connel 2008) and was later expanded by new institutional economists led by Douglas North.
I define democratization as a process of political change that moves the political system of any given society towards a system of government that ensures peaceful competitive political participation in an environment that guarantees political and civil liberties. This is a concept that captures the dynamic quality of democratic evolution in any society but especially in developing countries like Uganda.
Beetham (1993:55) notes, at any given moment all societies occupy some point aong a political spectrum that extends from dictatorial rule to democratic rule.
ETHICS
The ethic of structure and the ethic of neutrality are constructs designed to absolve public administrators from the heavy load of ethical responsibility that must be assumed if democracy is to be made viable. Responsibility is the fundamental “silent partner” in democracy’s inherent value set: freedom, equality, justice, and responsibility.
If there is no willingness to assume a sense of responsibility to make democracy work, there is no democracy. This is one of the key points that America tries to convey to the emerging nations of the world, and it is this point that Stuart Gilman and Carol Lewis examine in their article on the cross-national or global extension of public service ethics.
In political economy, democracy plays a major role in the electoral process and the legislature through the exercise of franchise. Democracy can also not be achieved in isolation in a country but through government spending, taxation, financial deepening, etc which are also functions of economic growth.
The pervasiveness and centrality of ethics in leadership is not confined to military organizations alone. For the past half -century, scholars have realized that the focal elements of effective leadership are comprised of both efficacy and morality/ethics together (Dickson et al., 2001). Recently, Uhl-Bien (2007) chronicled the major ethical scandals of the past decade in some of the largest and most successful North American firms.
Most ethical decisions have extended consequences. This means that decision manager makes does not lead only to first-level consequences. It has continuation in society and has an impact upon others – not only company stakeholders, but also rest of society. It means that unsafe product can have effects on lives of individuals or that pollution affects environmental health.
Most ethical decisions have uncertain consequences. It might seem that ethical decisions in management are free of risk. In some countries there is a common practice paying bribe if you want to receive imported goods. So do you think that after paying a bribe you have your goods received always promptly? It is never clear what consequences will follow from most ethic al choices.
Management ethics is needed to create a cultural environment in the company. However, quite a lot of managers are afraid to implement ethics in the workplace
Ethics is a philosophical term originating from Greek word “ethos” meaning custom or character.
It is concerned with describing and prescribing moral requirements and behaviors, which suggests that there are acceptable and unacceptable ways of behaving that serve as a function of philosophical principles (Minkes, Small, & Chatterjee, 1999).
While (Sims, 1992) defines Ethical behavior as behavior which is morally accepted as “good” and “right” as opposed to “bad” or “wrong” in a given situation.
Ethics is the code of values and moral principles that guides individual or group behaviour with respect to what is right or wrong. Ethical behaviour is both legally and morally acceptable to the larger community (L. K. Trevino, 1986). Ethical dilemmas though, are present in uncertain situations, in which different interests, values, beliefs pertaining to multiple stakeholders are in conflict.
REFERENCES
Trevino, L. K. (1986). Ethical decision making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist model. Academy of management Review, 11(3), 601-617.
Sims, R. R. (1992). The challenge of ethical behavior in organizations. journal of Business Ethics, 11(7), 505-513.
Minkes, A. L., Small, M. W., & Chatterjee, S. R. (1999). Leadership and business ethics: Does it matter? Implications for management. Journal of Business Ethics, 20(4), 327-335.
Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., & McKelvey, B. (2007). Complexity leadership theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. The leadership quarterly, 18(4), 298-318.
Aiello, L. P., Arigg, P. G., & Aiello, L. M. (1995). Reversible leukocoria associated with clinically significant diabetic macular edema. Graefe’s archive for clinical and experimental ophthalmology, 233(1), 54-55.
Kohnert, D. (2008). Does democratic transition in Africa enhance economic performance? The case of Togo. The Case of Togo (August 7, 2008).
Acuña, G., Latrille, E., Béal, C., & Corrieu, G. (1998). Static and dynamic neural network models for estimating biomass concentration during thermophilic lactic acid bacteria batch cultures. Journal of fermentation and bioengineering, 85(6), 615-622.
Minier, J. P., & Peirano, E. (2001). The pdf approach to turbulent polydispersed two-phase flows. Physics Reports, 352(1), 1-214.
Kaksonen, A. H., Riekkola-Vanhanen, M. L., & Puhakka, J. A. (2003). Optimization of metal sulphide precipitation in fluidized-bed treatment of acidic wastewater. Water Research, 37(2), 255-266.
Welzel, C. (2007). Are levels of democracy affected by mass attitudes? Testing attainment and sustainment effects on democracy. International Political Science Review, 28(4), 397-424.
Marshall, M. G., & Jaggers, K. (2002). Polity IV project: Political regime characteristics and transitions, 1800-2002.
