(Paper) IAS Mains Previous Years Paper : Public Administration (1987)
IAS Mains Previous Years Paper : Public Administration (1987)
PAPER - I
SECTION A
1. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) ‘The law of Graicunas about the span of relationships in an organisation states a partial truth.’
(b) ‘Contributions of Meslow and Hertzberg have depended our understanding about the State of
morale and motivation of the public servants.’
(c) ‘Whitleyism represents a typical British response to Trade Unionism by public servants.’ /
(d) ‘The distinction between line and staff is a distinction without a difference.’
2. ‘Deductive-nomological and inductive-probabilistic approaches dominate new public administration.’ (Marini) Discuss.
3. (a) Describe the institutional and organizational consequences of delegation of authority.
(b) ‘Scientific Management is a primitive tool for industrial polyarchies.’
(Dahi). Explain.
4. ‘The first stage (in administrative decision-making) is what I call “Intelligence”, the second
represents “Designin” and the last stage is “Choice”. Critically examine
the Sirnonian Model of Rational Decision-Making in administration.
SECTION B
5. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) ‘The financial administration in modern times needs updating administrative cybernetics and
Audit reforms.’
(b) ‘The Judicial Control over administration operates through a system of writs.’
(c) ‘The Droit Administrative violates Diceys basic principles of Rule of Law.’
(d) ‘And therefore Modern Civilization has an unprecedented need of Organization
Development. (OD).
6. Define Public Policy. How does its formulation and implementation involve participation by administrators, voluntary agencies and pressure groups in a democracy?
7. (a) Explain Performance Budgeting and illustrate its need and utility in development
administration.
(b) Distinguish between administrative development and administration of development. In what
way is the former supplementary to the latter in a Prismatic Society?
8. Critically examine the functions of administrative leadership. What role does communication play in
improving the quality of administrative decisions in goal setting and goal getting by public servants?
PAPER - II
SECTION A
1. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) ‘It is not possible to maintain that the administrative system, described in Arthashastra was in
actual existence during the Mouryan period’.
(b) ‘Even though law and order administration is a State subject in the Indian Conmstitution it is
paradoxical that the para-military and other kinds of security forces under the Union
Government have surgeoned in recent years.’
(c) ‘Though the legislature and the executive rule as well as administer, the Civil Servants only
administer and do not rule.’
(d) ‘The poor performance of Public Undertakings in the Core Sectors of Indian economy has
sparked off problems of political accountability and labour participation in management.’
2. Trace the evolution of the system of Public Administration in India from 1858 to 1919, highlighting the major landmarks of this period of administrative history.
3. (a) Examine the inadequacies of machinery for planning to ensure democratic but depoliticized
planning process in Indian federation. How does National Development Council accentuate
or inhibit this process?
(b) ‘The objective and methods of higher Civil service training hardly match with the personnel
policies and man-power planning by government of India.’ Discuss.
4. Discuss the financial and administrative relationships obtaining between the Union and the States in
India. Do you think States have been reduced to a position of glorified municipalities?
SECTION B
5. Comment on any three of the following in not more than 200 words each:
(a) ‘The role of District Collector has changed but not diminished for now he has an additional
function of guiding democratic bodies and has to carry conviction with members of these
democratic institutions.’
(b) ‘The administrative problems of Integrated Rural Development Program include the most
fatal but common cold of public administration — the sheer difficulty of doing ordinary
things.’
(c) ‘The Panchayati Raj bodies do provide an appropriate forum for effecting welfare of Weaker
Sections, including the members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes through decisionmaking
and programme implementation processes at local level.’
(d) ‘Generalism in Civil Service is a powerful bulwark against committed bureaucracy.’
6. What do you understand by ‘Peoples’ participation in administration’? Suggest measures to sensitize administrators to citizen’s grievances and enlist co-operation from voluntary agencies.
7. (a) ‘The role of the Chief Secretary as Principal Co-ordinate in State administration is
comparable with that of the Cabinet Secretary in Union Government.’ Do you agree or not?
Give reasons.
(b) What have you to suggest making legislative control over public administration healthy and
purposeful?
8. ‘The public administration perspective of urban areas has primarily been concerned with the problems of their multiple structures and working relationships in the field.’ Examine the validity of this observation.