Chapter 3 begins with a discussion about bureaucracy in the context of public administration. The public administration is analyzed by contrasting public and private organizations. Although some scholars feel simple organizational theory serves as an adequate tool for analyzing both types of organizations there are some fundamental differences between the two. The chapter looks at the role of public authority discussing, for example the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits spending on anything not explicitly authorized by the law. This is what requires the government to shutdown, as it did in 2013, when Congress fails to pass a spending measure. In the private sector employees are permitted to do all that is not explicitly forbidden by the law. The contrast between public and private organizations also examines organizational processes and finds quite a number of differences between how the two types of organizations operate.

In discussing what public administration does, the chapter discusses policy execution, policy formation, and administrative responsibility. The goal of administrative responsibility is to administer programs efficiently and ensure that both the process and its results are accountable to elected officials, and ultimately, to the people. This responsibility goes beyond external controls on behavior, such as red tape, and recognizes internalized guides for conduct, such as the loyalty that administrators show to their programs.

The study of public administration in the United States was more or less launched by Woodrow Wilson and Frank J. Goodnow with their ideas of policy and administration occupying separate spheres (policy-administration dichotomy) and this idea reigned from 1900–1926 according to Nicholas Henry. From 1927–1937 students of public administration created clear principals of public administration. The period between 1938–1950 was a rejection of the policy-administration dichotomy and a loss of faith in the principals, 1950–1970 marked years of fitting public administration into political science and placing an emphasis on management, and post- 1970 has brought back a specific focus on public administration again. Woodrow Wilson’s contradictions in his classic article “The Study of Administration” are discussed and analyzed.

Finally the chapter underscores the variety of models that must be used to study complex organizational systems. Simple models cannot possibly embrace all of the aspects of large-scale organization. This must be kept in mind as we continue to study public administration throughout this text.