Introduction — Scope of Comparative Public Administration

Comparative Public Administration (CPA) moved from studying only Western bureaucracies to examining administrative systems across the globe. The Minnowbrook Conferences (1968, 1988, 2008) in the USA shaped the New Public Administration movement. The field gained academic rigour through the work of scholars like Ferrel Heady, Fred Riggs, Milton Esman, and Dwight Waldo.

Why Compare? Comparison reveals which administrative structures work under which political-cultural conditions. For RAS aspirants, understanding USA (federal-presidential), UK (unitary-parliamentary), France (semi-presidential-unitary), and China (single-party-centralised) provides conceptual tools to evaluate Indian administrative design.