Public is a word in the English language, either an adjective or a noun with these meanings:- (adjective) "of or pertaining to the people; (adjective) "relating to, or affecting, a nation, state, or community"; opposed to "private"; (noun) "the people of a nation not affiliated with the government of that nation: the people" (noun) "Public to the general body of mankind or of a nation, state, or community"; (noun, indefinite) the public; also, a particular body or aggretion^{[clarification needed]} of people; as, an authors public. specimens (adjective):- the public treasury / a public road / "public network" means a network that is regulated as a common carrier.

Public administration is a "field of inquiry with a diverse scope", of which the "fundamental goal...is to advance management and policies so that government can function." ^[1] Some of the various definitions which have been offered for the term are: "the management of public programs";^[2] the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day";^[3] and "the study of government decision making, the analysis of the policies themselves, the various inputs that have produced them, and the inputs necessary to produce alternative policies." ^[4]

Public administration is "centrally concerned with the organization of government policies and programmes as well as the behavior of officials (usually non-elected) formally responsible for their conduct" ^[5] Many unelected public servants can be considered to be public administrators, including police officers, municipal budget analysts, HR benefits administrators, city managers, Census analysts, and cabinet secretaries.^{[citation needed]} Public administrators are public servants working in public departments and agencies, at all levels of government.^[6]

In the US, civil servants and academics such as Woodrow Wilson promoted American civil service reform in the 1880s, moving public administration into academia.^[7] However, "until the mid-20th century and the dissemination of the German sociologist Max Webers theory of bureaucracy" there was not "much interest in a theory of public administration." ^[8] The field is multidisciplinary in character; one of the various proposals for public administrations sub-fields sets out five pillars, including human resources, organizational theory, policy analysis and statistics, budgeting, and ethics.^[9]