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UPSC CSE Mains 2019 — Public Administration Questions with Answers
All 56 Public Administration previous-year questions from UPSC CSE Mains 2019, each with the correct answer and a full explanation. Practise them as a free, timed mock test with instant scoring.
Practice Public Administration as a timed test →- Q1.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“Public Administration is constantly being reinvented because it is contextual.” Elaborate.
- Q2.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“Bureau pathology denigrates competence in organization.” Explain.
- Q3.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“If there is ever to be a science of Public Administration it must derive from an understanding of man’s behavior”. Explain.
- Q4.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“Chester Barnard in ‘The Function of the Executive’ injected ‘the social’ in the study of organization. Explain in this context how the executive is expected to play a much greater role than a manager.”
- Q5.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“Delegated legislation has become a strategic tool in the hands of the executive despite its utility.” Comment.
- Q6.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“Governance is neither a paradigm nor a panacea for all the ills of government. It may be a more useful approach when other methods fail in providing public service.” Critically evaluate.
- Q7.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
With the entry of the concept of ‘good governance’ the discipline of Public Administration has shed its statist character. Explain.
- Q8.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Has New Public Management failed in promoting a democratic polity? Analyze in the contexts of individuals as a citizen and individuals as a customer.
- Q9.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“Globalization has constructed the administrative state to save and serve corporate power structure.” Discuss how transnational corporations impact government and public administration in the contemporary era.
- Q10.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“Red light and Green light theories provide contrasting approaches to the role of administrative law.” Which of the two theories will be effective in achieving the objectives of administration law? Justify your choice.
- Q11.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“The advent of the regulatory regimes indicates the demise of the arbitrator state.” Comment.
- Q12.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Contingency theory of organization is founded on the interplay of ‘external fit’ and ‘internal fit’. Discuss.
- Q13.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Mary Parker Follett traced the foundational value of business and enterprise on her way to understand the organism of governmental machinery. Comment.
- Q14.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“Media the Fourth estate is in chains.” Examine the statement in the context of governmental accountability.
- Q15.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Contractualism has became a favorite policy of the neoliberal forces, but now without its share of controversy. Argue.
- Q16.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
The failure to discard its elitist character and west-centric orientation has led to the decline of Comparative Public Administration. Explain.
- Q17.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“Maximum social gain” in public policy making is an attractive goal which is rarely found in practices. Discuss.
- Q18.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
A narrow view of information comes in the way of successful implementation of MIS in organization. Analyze.
- Q19.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Has e-governance led to debureaucratization and decentralization? Assess its impact on bureaucratic inertia.
- Q20.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
“Development dynamics is marked by a dilemma : the concept of development has a built-in participatory orientation but the practice of development has been inherently exclusionary.” Discuss.
- Q21.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
A more effective system of performance appraisal should acknowledge the subjective elements in it and be less obsessed with the objective criteria. Elucidate.
- Q22.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Is William Niskanen’s “Budget Maximising Model” relevant today? Argue.
- Q23.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Performance measurement remains an emerging issue but it is relegated to exclusively monitor and assess the use of funds. In light of the statement discuss various non-financial parameters of performance measurement to evaluate public sector organization.
- Q24.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
The imperatives of administrative ethics are necessarily an antidote to “I was only obeying the orders” argument by public official. Explain.
- Q25.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
Discuss the major areas of change in the Tax-Reforms of the post liberalisation era. How do you justify the importance of the direct Tax reforms in this context?
- Q26.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
In a society marked by social inequity and gender inequality women self-help groups are bound to play a marginal role. Do you agree? Give reasons for your answer.
- Q27.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
In the era of increasing stress on productivity work study provides the road ahead for the administration. Identify the positive attributes of work study in the light of the statement.
- Q28.Public Administration Optional — Paper I
In the absence of a merit-based, fair and objective civil service a more partisan and corrupt government will emerge. Is the statement justified? Give reasons.
- Q29.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
In the text of Arthashastra, ‘the state is neither a police State nor merely a tax gathering State’. Comment.
- Q30.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The economic reforms have significantly infringed the basic values and spirits of the Indian Constitution. Examine.
- Q31.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Macaulay’s ideas on Indian Civil Service corresponded to the elite theory of bureaucracy, which continue to persist. Do you agree? Justify.
- Q32.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
There has been an opinion that the ethos of Indian Judicial System continues to be colonial. Suggest measures for raising the level of judicial excellence for achieving speedy justice.
- Q33.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Various commissions have reiterated the crucial role of the Governor in Indian system of governance, but the successive governments have not heeded to make Governor’s office apolitical. Examine with example.
- Q34.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Article 356 acts, “very much like the proverbial bolt from the blue…. without giving an opportunity or notices to the State Government to correct its alleged shortcoming”. This phenomenon not only undermines the autonomy of the State Government, but also demeans the statue of the President of India. Critically analyze.
- Q35.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Public Sector Undertakings were expected to take the Indian economy to the “commanding heights” instead the successive governments have been pushing for disinvestment. Critically examine how the scenario has changed over the years.
- Q36.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Emerging developmental aspirations of the society necessitate the constitutional amendment to change the present safeguards available to the civil servants. Evaluate the pros and cons of such amendment.
- Q37.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“Strong PMO is anti-thesis to the feature of collective responsibility of Council of Ministers”. Examine the issues in relation to the position of PMO vis-a-vis Council of Ministers in the light of this statement.
- Q38.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Capacity issues relating to employees have hampered the implementation of several government programmes. Trace the reasons in the context of the provisions of the National Training Policy, 2012.
- Q39.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The strategy to deal with the non-performing assets of banks may lead to overburdened taxpayers. Examine the role of government to protect the interests of both. The government policy of large-scale privatization of the key sectors of economy may affect India’s economic health. Comment.
- Q40.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Considerable attention has been paid to the restructuring of the administrative systems at the Central and local levels, but very few reforms have been undertaken at the State level. What steps would you suggest to rectify it?
- Q41.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
It is observed that the non-functioning of District Planning Committees is preventing the convergence of rural and urban planning needs. Do you agree? Justify.
- Q42.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The police-public interface is punctuated with distrust and fear. Suggest how the police can reform their image in the eyes of the public.
- Q43.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The evidence suggests that the dream of deliberative democracy could not be realized in practice at the grassroot level. Evaluate the impediments in the functioning of Gram Sabha.
- Q44.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
“The RTI has started its journey, but is far from its destination.” In the view of the statement, examine the present status of the RTI movement.
- Q45.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The concept of new localism arrangement may defeat the very purpose of local self-governance. Do you agree? Justify.
- Q46.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Effective ‘Performance Management System’ needs to precede ‘taking deadwood out’ from bureaucracy. Comment.
- Q47.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
All weather rural connectivity schemes to even unconnected rural habitations have the potential to transform the rural economy. Do you agree? Justify.
- Q48.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The office of the District Collector has merely become a bureau for funneling government schemes, collecting statistics and an officer on attendance for unending VIP duties. Critically examine its role in the light of the recommendations of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission.
- Q49.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Minimal accountability being the dominant norm in the political system, the Lokpal can only be an ideal institution with limited effectiveness. Explain.
- Q50.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
‘Sevottam Scheme’ had great potential to reform service delivery, but opportunity is frittered away. Comment.
- Q51.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
The National Policy on Disaster Management envisages a paradigm shift from hitherto reactive post-disaster relief centric regime to a more pro-active and enabling environment. Examine the responses of State Governments in this regard.
- Q52.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Efforts to strengthen State Finance Commissions have faced apathy of State Governments over the years, which has also affected the successive Central Finance Commissions in recommending appropriate fiscal transfers to local bodies. Substantiate the answer with an example.
- Q53.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Accountability of regulatory bodies would address the problem of over-regulators and help make them truly facilitators. Analyze the present status of regulators and suggest measures to induce accountability in the mechanism.
- Q54.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
‘NITI Aayog’ has changed the way India strategized for economic development, but its effectiveness is yet to be seen, especially when its financial powers are far less than its predecessor. Analyze.
- Q55.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Even though the law and order administration is a State subject, it is paradoxical that the Central agencies- NIA or paramilitary forces under the Union Government-have restricted the powers of State Governments. Discuss.
- Q56.Public Administration Optional — Paper II
Performance grants devolved by Finance Commission of India have increased the financial accountability of the local bodies. Elaborate.
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