Introduction
Public administration is a key element of society. It is responsible for bringing policy changes to the changing world. Unlike previous generations, modern public administrators are facing a different set of problems. The digitalised world poses new threats to the administration. With the onslaught of fake news, conflicts and violent protests have become rampant. Modern public administrators need to address the new problems that spring from voting on environmental issues. All these modern problems need to be evaluated and solved with the utmost priority. As public administrators are some of the key decision-makers of the administration machines of all countries, these challenges can be solved with initiative, drive, and purpose.In this article, we will discuss modern challenges for public administrators.
8 Modern Challenges in Public Administration
Ensure the integrity of elections in democracies.
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In democracies, voting has the decisive power to transform the nation. By electing competent politicians, the public can greatly strengthen the nation. However, in recent years, conducting elections has become a challenge for public administration agencies and administrators. News of voting machine fraud allegations and booth capturing are all major concerns for election authorities. Moreover, the public is increasingly losing faith in the election system itself (Source: University of Essex). Fake news, cyber warfare from other countries, and misuse of technologies like deep fakes have led to trust issues in the voting system. For example, in 2016, Russia conducted social media operations to exploit vulnerabilities in the American electoral system (Source: Wikipedia). The recent presidential elections were characterised by societal divisions and trust issues in the general public. The misuse of social media to inflame racial and societal elements caused widespread protests and rallies.
In many other democracies, voter participation is controlled by local and national politics. Public trust in elected officials is continuing to decrease. It is in the hands of public administrators to restore public faith in elections. Voter participation must be strategically improved to save democracies from failing. Voting infrastructure must be made available to every corner of the country to encourage voters. Above all, transparency in the election process must be enhanced with priority. Training the election workforce and the public about the voting process can increase voter turnout on election days in developing countries. Special care must be taken to identify voting fraud through impersonation. Public administrators need to enact strict laws against spreading misinformation on social media that can affect the election process.
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Public administrators can provide social equity to all
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Although the modern world has become much more hospitable to everyone on the planet, social equity has not yet been achieved completely. Discrimination based on gender, race, religion, language, and geography is still widespread across the globe. The marginalisation of the poor and illiterate individuals and communities is still rampant in many countries. This discrimination can be seen in healthcare, education, job hunting, housing, and transportation.
Politics is also severely dependent on religion, language, and ideological origin rather than national integrity and public service. In terms of the economy, the divide between the rich and poor has widened since the lockdowns. Even in technological terms, rural areas are facing a lack of infrastructure like basic internet connections, while the cities are already equipped with 5G (Source: Statista, NYTimes). This digital divide caused many rural learners to stop online learning during the pandemic lockdowns. Even after years, the situation is largely the same for rural learners.
Public administrators must work hard to bridge these gaps through policies and laws. Identifying the discrimination and providing necessary aid to the victims with infrastructure, technology, opportunities, and better living conditions must be a priority for public administrators. Making policies that uphold social equity across all industries and aspects of society will be a major challenge for public administrators.
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Public administrators can bring economic development of the country
The economy is the backbone of the nation. It can crumble due to a variety of factors: internal struggles, rising unemployment rates, wars, and pandemics (Source: CNBC). In such times, public administrators are the primary means of restoring the economy with policies and laws that facilitate economic growth. As part of national and local administration, public administrators must identify legal hardships that keep public businesses from flourishing. They must enact laws that enhance export and import and loosen regulations that restrict the international growth of companies. They can also advise elected officials on spending tax money on strengthening the local and national economies through infrastructure, education, and public engagement. All these need an evidence-based approach and evaluation at every stage to recognize economic growth.
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Tackling environmental risks
Climate change is already a hot issue in many industries. Its disastrous effects are also a major concern for public administrators. Every nation has its fair share of rich natural diversity. Due to pollution through greenhouse gases, this natural heritage, as well as man-made facilities, is endangered. While plastic and chemical pollutants threaten the water quality of lakes and rivers, air pollutants bring about climate change and harsh weather conditions. These pollutants threaten the quality of the air we breathe in major cities. For example, the capital of India, New Delhi, is witnessing the effects of air pollution on residents' health. Due to low-quality air, many high-carbon-emitting automobiles are discouraged as opposed to public transport (Source: Wikipedia).
Climate change, on the other hand, puts public infrastructure at risk. It can disrupt logistics, supply chains, and distribution chains across the country. Landslides can isolate affected regions and render rescue operations fruitless. These can cause food shortages and, in some cases, temporary refugee crises in local areas. In times of natural calamities like storms and floods, creating safe havens for the victims becomes a challenge and priority. Providing shelter, food, clean drinking water and maintaining hygiene will be a major challenge for public administrators.
Public administrators must adapt to the needs created by climate change before it is too late. There need to be policies and strategic safe zones in each locality for sheltering the victims of floods, storms, snowfalls, and heatwaves. During droughts, clean drinking water must be a priority supply. They also need to enact laws that protect natural habitats, ecosystems, and marine life. Strict laws against pollution must be welcomed with vigour before pollutants make the country inhospitable. The development of clean energy resources must be encouraged with policies and government aid.
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Addressing water scarcity
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Climate change is a monstrous issue causing droughts and heatwaves in many parts of the world. In some other countries, harsh monsoons, storms, and heavy snowfalls are causing disasters. These natural calamities considerably destroy clean drinking water supply facilities and pipelines in weather torn seasons. According to UNICEF, almost two thirds of the global population experience severe water scarcity for at least one month every year. In many countries, water resources are drying up during the summers, leading to drinking water scarcity. Due to inefficient or unclear laws that do not distribute the water resources, many states are fighting legal battles every year over who has the right to claim the water. Water reservoirs are the leading cause of this struggle. For example, the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka see massive protests and legal battles in the summer months (Source: Wikipedia).
As a result, the agricultural industry suffers due to the shortage of water, and packaged drinking water becomes the only alternative to natural drinking water. During natural calamities, contaminated water resources are the only option left for the victims. This can add additional costs to the public. This can lead to severe diseases or dehydration and result in death in many cases.
Public administrators and public agencies need to address this water scarcity crisis before climate change makes it critical and urgent. All levels of government must be willing to cooperate in strengthening natural water resources like rivers and lakes. Clean drinking water supply needs to be highly organised and planned in urban areas as well as rural regions. Regular maintenance of the infrastructure and its upgradation must be a priority as water scarcity threatens and weakens entire regions. They must also work to create policies that facilitate harmony between states through the fair distribution of water resources.
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Technological integrations
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Artificial intelligence is the buzzword that is taking the technical world by storm, along with other prominent technologies. Artificial intelligence is the ability of computers to think, decide, and act like humans. The technology is largely backed by supercomputers, high-tech processors, and advanced algorithms. The technology is one of the most promising, yet high-risk technologies. Many prominent scientists, including Stephen Hawking, have warned us of the downside of uncontrolled technology ( Source: Analytics India). Though technology is not yet anywhere near humanity's thinking capacity, chances are it will become a reality sooner or later.
Meanwhile, AI is already being used in many industries, including medical, human resources, and customer service. We can expect the technology to soon become popular in virtually every industry. This can become a challenge for public administrators. On the other hand, public administrators need to prepare the government for this technology. They need to develop an AI-ready workforce in the administrative sector. The curriculum for public administration must adapt to AI's uses and risks. Public agencies and administrators are responsible for making local, regional, and national level governments ready. This can be attained through developing relevant policies, processes, and systems.
In analytics, decision support, visual perception, and foreign language translation, AI can save time, effort, and money. They can do these tasks with high speeds, accuracy, and efficiency, though these are highly dependent on the quality of unbiased data input.
On the other hand, public administrators are responsible for keeping AI a technological solution that helps humanity. They need to recognise the risks associated with a fully developed AI that can think, decide, and act like a human. If these faculties get into the wrong hands, like terrorists and authoritarian governments, they can become a disastrous tool. Public administrators must be well aware of the risks and follow conscious ethical guidelines to protect human liberty and autonomy.
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Protection of private Data
The internet has become huge. Currently, a third of humanity is using the internet and social media. E-commerce and online education have picked up pace since the lockdowns. People spend regular time on social media for entertainment, social interaction, and information. The use of smartphones as a map has caused the popularity of GPS-based applications. All these processes collect personal data from the users. Websites use cookie data; social media sites collect personal data; banking sites collect financial data; and applications collect other sensitive data, to name a few. All these are exploited by hackers of all kinds. Foreign intelligence divisions hack into politicians' data to collect sensitive information. Furthermore, many companies like Facebook have been fined in the past for selling private information to third parties (Source: FTC). This is a direct violation of the right to privacy.
Such cybercrimes are threatening to affect not only the private data of citizens but of government agencies as well. Sophisticated hacking software is exploiting government systems, websites, and even nuclear facilities. The uranium enrichment facilities of Iran were attacked by a sophisticated zero-day virus, which took years to notice the damage it was doing (Source: Wikipedia). Foreign intelligence agencies hack into government websites to steal information or to disrupt the administration by locking critical information using ransomware software (Source: Privacy Affairs). This is a constant threat in countries that are highly dependent on the internet and computers. This leaves no organisation unthreatened. Government databases, company websites, and hospital and school systems are all under the radar of cyber attacks.
As the world is increasingly moving into the digital world, public administrators need to develop strategies and policies to safeguard private information from malicious attacks. They need to pass laws and regulations that criminalise data selling. These are not only the problems of individuals but also a concern for internal security. Making ethical regulations that uphold the safety and privacy of internet users is of utmost importance.
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Building foreign relations
The future of a country is only as good as its citizens. With educated, skilled, and self-reliant citizens, any nation can rise to the highest ranks in the world. However, this development can be severely hindered by neighbouring countries. Relations between other nations play an important role in a country's development. Russia's war on Ukraine and China's expansive approach to international borders are some examples of the dire effects of offensive foreign policies by some countries. The Middle East's nuclear programs are also a major concern for world security. Refugee crises from all around the world are a major border issue for nations bordering countries with the ongoing crisis.
In the age of globalisation and e-commerce, economies are dependent on complex supply chain structures spread across the globe. The Suez Canal blockage of 2021 is a fitting example of the inter-reliability between countries (Source: BBC). Many industries, like tourism, are dependent on the visa laws of the country to attract foreign travellers. International investment is also largely dependent on state laws and the internal stability of the country. All of these can cause challenges in the country's short and long-term development. International institutions like the United Nations are struggling to keep the peace between nations to avoid wars and genocides. Without strong internal administrators, international issues cannot be solved. These institutions must be reformed to meet the demands of modern international relations and conflicts.
Public administrators are capable of addressing these global issues. They can create internal security protocols with elected officials to improve the defence. International relations can be strengthened with budget reformations and foreign policy changes. Economic upgrading also plays a major role in bringing in foreign money and aid. Public administrators also must safeguard the nation against cyber attacks and diseases from other countries.
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Conclusion
Public administration plays a major role in holding a country together. It helps the country to stay vigilant in facing modern threats like cyber warfare, information security, and voter manipulation through technology and misinformation. Public administrators are required to build people's trust in democracies and vote. They are responsible for bringing change in the societal structures and social equity to every last individual in the country. The country depends on strong public administrators to enact laws that facilitate the development of the country.
In the changing climate, countries need a creative approach to minimise the impact of climate change on public lives. They need to take care of quality in building public infrastructure and water supply. Recent technological advancements like AI bring additional ethical challenges to the table. With that, protecting critical private data from prying international agencies is also a major challenge for public administrators. These are all the current and future challenges that they must be ready to face.
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