Purposes of the Institute of Public Administration
| Published date | 01 January 1936 |
| Date | 01 January 1936 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1936.tb02415.x |
| Author | G. C. Remington |
Purposes
of
the
b.
Institute
of
Public
Administ ration
By
G.
C.
REMINGTON
[Paper read
to
the New
South
Wales
Regiwaul
Grw9
of
the
Iptstitute,
Sydney,
November,
19351
OW
it
is
with
organisation that we are concerned.
I
know the
N
objects set out
in
the constitution are discreetly silent
as
to
this,
but the objects are at best a skeleton, perhaps only a collection of
bones.
It
is
the structure we erect out of these bones, and the flesh
we build on .to them that
will
really count. And we cannot start
intelligently
until
we are agreed on the purposes we
wish
to
fulfil.
So
let
us
start
with pu~poses.
I
am
not very happy with Professor
Leonard White's deiinition
of
public administration as
''
the manage-
ment
of
men and materials
in
the accomplishment
of
the purposes
of the State
";
because
I
am never too sure that
I
can identify
''
the
State"
as
an entity, and
can
such a conception
as
a State have
recognisable purposes for the accomplishment of which men and
materials shall
be
organised and directed?
Should we
distinguish
between purposes
of
the State and the
purposes
of
a
government
for
the time
being
in
power? Governments
have
purposes,
and governments, while they hold office, are the
executive committee of the State. Was the Institute brought into
existence
for
the purpose
of
more efficiently enabling each successive
government
to
carry
out its policy, even if
such
policies are funda-
mentally opposed? Should the Institute seek to encourage you
as
public servants, to be efficient, but entirely disinterested, automatons
who
will
wholeheartedly destroy what you have just created; or
conscientiously neglect today that which yesterday you cherished
?
I
am
drawing
your attention to
these
matters
so
that you
will
appreciate some
of
my difficulties when
I
tried
to
write
this
paper.
Let
us
assume that it is the
aim
of
all
governments to promote
the
means
of
"
the
good
life
":
to increase the well-being of the
people
as
a
whole.
I
do
not
think
that any government would deny that such
is
its
aim.
Though
there may be a good deal
of
difference
of
opinion as
to
the
methods which should
be
adopted in accomplishing
this
end.
30
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