Throughout the 20th century the study and practice of public administration was essentially realistic and normative rather than theoretical and value free. This may explain why public administration, unlike some social sciences, developed without much concern about a general theory. Not until the mid-20th century and the dissemination of the German sociologist Max Weber’s theory of bureaucracy1 was there much interest in a theory of public administration. Most subsequent bureaucratic theory, however, was addressed to the private sector, and there was little effort to relate organizational to political theory.

A key principle of public administration has been economy and efficiency – that is, the provision of public services at the minimum cost. This has usually been the stated objective of administrative reform. Despite growing concern about other kinds of values – such as responsiveness to public needs, justice and equal treatment, and citizen involvement in government decisions – efficiency continues to be a major goal.

In its concern with efficiency and improvement, public administration has focused frequently on questions of formal organization. It is generally held that administrative problems can be at least partly corrected by reorganization. Many organizational principles originated with the military, a few from private business. They include, for example: (i) arranging departments, ministries, and agencies on the basis of common or closely related purposes, (ii) grouping like activities in single units and (iii) equating responsibility with authority.

1 Bureaucracy = administration, organization.

(https://www.britannica.com/topic/public-administration. Adaptado)