Public Administration and Public Interest Issues

One of the political functions of public administration is implementing the public interest. Public interest is generally presumed to be commonly accepted good. In ideal world, clear eyes and rational minds are common enough to produce what is commonly good. John Rawls’ veil of ignorance is an example of it. If you are behind a veil and don’t know what group of society you belongs to, you would make the best unbiased decision for common. But in real world, where individuals have political leanings and self-interests, it is really difficult to find a common accepted good. If we live in democracy where the legislative body is determined by votes of citizens that form the society, we should assume that the legislative body will produce public interest disinterestedly by considering constituencies’ preferences. But we know it is nearly impossible. Therefore, it is one the most controversial areas of public administration. Public interest can be observed in two different phases: Decision-making process and implementation. How it will be created and how it is implemented? In my opinion, here is the most important criteria is the time and technology. Time changes perceptions of citizens and administrators. Technology increases the individuals’ access to information and makes it possible analyze the data faster. Today, citizens can reach the information at the decision-making and implementation process easily. This fact changes the attitudes toward public interest faster than the leaders or administrators would change their attitudes on their own consent.

In the classic public administration, the public interest is politically defined and expressed in laws. There was a huge concentration on terms of neutrality, expertise, efficiency, and ...

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...But they should never forget that social equity and fairness weighs more than efficiency and effectiveness. Day by day, the education level of people increases which is good for public dialogue. But in my opinion, the shapers of future will be the qualified leaders with best communication skills and moral values. What we need is today trust. Citizens don’t trust the government. If we as public administrators include the citizens in process, we can increase the mutual trust. Public administrators should show the citizens that they are just citizens as well as others nothing more. It is a truth that citizens are not willing to participate in governance due to lack of their times. The new public service may be too idealistic and not practical. The distinction between good public administrator and incompetent public administrator just lies in with solving this problem.