Ethics and Public Fundamentals of Public Administration

Question: Discuss about the Ethics and Public Fundamentals of Public Administration. Answer: Introduction Public administration is the execution of policies formulated by the government in the interest of the citizens. In addition, it is also an academic discipline which educates the civil servants about policy implementation and prepares them to work in public services (Hendrickson, 2015). Public administration deals with formulation of various public policies and consists of operations to implement such public policies. Public policies refer to those policies that are framed and enforced for the sole interest of the public (Dunn, 2015). It outlines thorough explanation of all the governmental programs and plans that the constitutional authorities, the bureaucrats, government institutions must prepare and implement for the benefit of the public. There are various types of public policies, which are as follows- substantive, distributive, redistributive, regulatory, technical and financial oriented policies. The importance of these policies lies in the fact that if they are prepared keeping in mind the welfare of the public and is properly implemented then it may help a country to attain great heights. In the absence of a properly formulated public plans and policies, it would fail to cope with the changing society (Frederickson Rohr, 2015). The public administration faces certain constraints while formulating and implementing the public policies that are enumerated as below: Implementation of the policies consumes a lot of time; Corruption leads to delay in the formulation and implementation process; The practice of favoritism by the administrators hinders the implementation process; Insufficient knowledge and expertise; Paucity of funds; The formulation of appropriate public policies and the implementation of the same by the government organizations enhance the growth of the country (Frederickson et al., 2015). In the given case, it is understood that the public regarding the use of American power and the moral behind the war thrashed about Robert McNamara, the Secretary of Defense. The ethical dilemma that McNamara faced was the question of loyalty- loyalty to the American citizens or loyalty to the President. He was the person responsible to rage a futile war in Vietnam. He was also responsible for the loss of ten thousand Americans and more than a million Vietnamese. Initially, McNamara was pleased when the Vietnam War was called as the McNamaras war. However, eventually, as the war continued, he became so disappointed with the massacre that he started to believe that war could never be won. Critics were of the opinion that if McNamara was aware of the fact that the affirmed goals were not achievable, he could have at least voiced his opinions before the President but he chose not to and joined World Bank (Hendrickson, 2015). In his book, he stated that he was aware that the Vietnam War was unwinnable and futile before leaving his office of Defense Secretary; that the Johnson administration lacked sufficient knowledge about the situation. Only if he had announced the same during the war it would have prevented the death of millions of American and Vietnamese. Despite being well aware of the consequences, he allowed to pour American blood and treasure into the ineffective policy, thus serving loyalty to President Johnson. McNamara when, asked if his loyalty to president prevailed over the loyalty to the American citizens, in his defense, he said that every cabinet minister must abide by the president and former cabinet secretaries are not supposed to exercise their citizenship right to complain before the President. However, nothing as such was mentioned in the Constitution and so it is comprehended that during the war, McNamara deliberately chose to sit in his office at World Bank while many other people went to their graves (Henry, 2015). Impact of Vietnam War on the economic progression of the country The Vietnam War had a major impact on both the northern and southern parts of the country. America dropped 8 million high explosive bombs ensuring that Vietnam suffers mass losses. It continued to drop bombs even after the war was over which led to dreadful consequences. The use of a herbicide Agent Orange made them physically impaired. Harmful chemicals, pesticides were sprinkled on the crops to cause food shortage. The war hindered the economic progress of the country. Due to the use of harmful chemicals, crops were damaged and people had to work hard to supply food to the soldiers; export and import of goods was hindered; the US ships encompassed the sea and prohibited the trading of ships (Short, 2014). Conclusion: The adherence to ethical codes is imperative in public administration as it ensures that administrators are formulating policies for the welfare of the citizens. Reference list: Dunn, W. N. (2015).Public policy analysis. Routledge. Frederickson, H. G., Rohr, J. A. (2015).Ethics and public administration. Routledge. Frederickson, H. G., Smith, K. B., Larimer, C. W., Licari, M. (2015).The public administration theory primer. Westview Press. Hendrickson, P. (2015).The living and the dead: Robert McNamara and five lives of a lost war. Vintage. Henry, N. (2015).Public administration and public affairs. Routledge. Short, A. (2014).The origins of the Vietnam war. Routledge.