In his book, Public Administration in Perspective, Farmer acknowledges the existence of different approaches to public administration and their effect on the same.
The different perspectives to public administration are traditional, business, economic, political, critical theory, post structural, psychoanalytic, neuroscience, feminist among others. These perspectives are correlated by Farmer with public administration functions such as planning and management in order to explain their implications in public administration. An analysis of the post structural, psychoanalytic and neuroscience perspective helps in shedding a light at the author’s main arguments, critiquing these arguments and coming up with questions regarding this issue. Post Structuralism Perspective Post structuralism perspective is a very good match to the modern social experience, which is heterodox. Post structuralism is based on the works of Ferdinand de Saussure who supported different systems. This idea was reinforced by Jacobson together with Levi Strauss who analyzed human culture by analyzing relations among them bringing out the real meaning of structuralism.
All the arguments on post structuralism support the system and structure of public administration. Post structuralism has had marginal effects on the entire field of public administration. This perspective is still the best in xplaining public administration and the paradoxes faced when expounding it clearly (Farmer, 2010). Psychoanalytic Perspective The psychoanalytic perspective looks at both the bounded and rational approach to public administration.
Psychoanalytic perspective claims that rational can prevail through containing the bounded administrative process. This means that psychoanalytic approach is helpful by inform organizational theory, planning and the other field in workplace dynamics. The Neuroscience PerspectiveThere have been notable progresses in the neuroscience perspective especially with technological advancement. This is because what was initially hypothesized has been verified leading to motivation, stereotyping and decision making.
The neuroscience perspective is a catalyst of unifying the social sciences that had been fragmented. Neuroscience perspective has had positive effects in public administration. The Feminist Perspective The feminist perspective is practiced as opposed to being theorized. This perspective is mainly distorted by thinkers who use perspectives that they consider false in order to lay around with people’s imagination. The feminist perspective and its celebration do not depend on anything.
This is what leads to the oppression of women because of what they are when men are not oppressed. One disadvantage of the feminists in public administration is that they fail to see a person’s potential because of viewing this person as an object. Those receiving the services are the ones that suffer as a result of the feminist idea in public administration (Farmer, 2010). Comparisons of the three perspectives A look at the three discussed perspectives shows that the neuroscience perspective has been successful since it does not lead to discrimination. The fruits of this perspective are evident Neuroscience perspective has also led to the integration of other social sciences. Questions The main question is what will be done to ensure that positive implication is realized from these perspectives? Which perspective should be integrated among the discussed perspectives in order to come up with maximum results? In conclusion, there are various perspectives that govern public administration besides the traditional method.
All these perspectives have different implications on the issue depending on how they are taken. Because of this, one of the major questions that need to be asked is whether one approach can be considered supreme when compared to others.
