Public administration and governance: features of the ratio

Abstract

The purpose of the article was to determine the features of the distinction between the categories of governance and public administration.
 Attention is focused on the fact that the problem of the relationship between public administration and governance is relevant for the science of administrative law, since these categories are sometimes identified. This creates a false idea of their essence both at the theoretical-methodological and managerial levels.
 The rationale is given that the difference between public administration and governance is as follows: a) governance acts as a means of state influence on society and citizens in order to achieve, first of all, the interests of the state, while public administration is primarily a way to satisfy the interests of individuals and legal entities, with using the potential available in the public administration (legal, financial, personnel, information, etc.); b) governance does not provide for or ignores feedback from society and individual social groups on the approval of certain decisions or state policies and their changes in case of disapproval by citizens, while public administration has as its integral feature the systematic study of society and citizens' satisfaction with the actions of public administration and its improvement activities depending on the feedback received; c) governance is always politicized, all its measures are based on political decisions, and public administration is a depoliticized technocratic process of public administration performing its tasks necessary to ensure the needs and interests of society and citizens (or, at least, tends to be depoliticized and technocratic); d) governance is characterized by a subject-object approach, in which the state actively changes the behavior and consciousness of a citizen, and for public administration - a subject-subject, partner approach, where the state and the citizen appear as equal participants in public relations aimed at ensuring the life of society, ensuring rights and interests of individuals and legal entities.