Current Trends in the Development of Scientific Opinion on Public Administration

The article analyzes modern trends in the development of scientific thought about public administration. It was found that the development of the science of administrative law is not possible without discussions on the understanding of public administration, critical analysis of the opinions of other administrative experts, rethinking of old theories, teachings and concepts and the introduction of new ideas and worldviews of the concept of “public administration” and the development trends of this legal phenomenon. It has been established that the majority of modern scientific sources dedicated to the study of public administration, firstly, are formulated in the form of stating obvious facts that have occurred or are occurring in the law-making and law-enforcing spheres or have long been formalized in the form of axioms of legal science, and secondly, they have not succeeded : a) explain all the contradictions that arise in connection with its introduction into the categorical apparatus of administrative law; b) continue to use it as a “universal” term that can change its meaning depending on the needs of the researcher. It is emphasized that scientific studies of public administration in this form lose their meaning, because they take on distorted forms - retelling of long-known facts, quoting the opinions of authoritative scientists without proper critical analysis of them, agreeing with everyone and everything, etc. It has been proven that critical analysis is the driving force of systemic transformations and the development of the science of administrative law. The lack of critical analysis in the vast majority of scientific publications can lead to the decline of Ukrainian legal science. It has been established that a definition of public administration appeared in individual modern publications, which allows: a) to reveal the specifics of public administration in comparison with legislative activity and justice, as well as to show its place in the mechanism of the distribution of state power into three branches; b) distinguish public administration from intra-organizational activity, which is carried out in the middle of all public-authority subjects, as well as in the middle of the system of executive authorities. It is concluded that the science of administrative law stops stagnation and begins a gradual path to a systematic update of knowledge about administrative legal phenomena. Contributing to these positive processes in administrative law is the category “public administration”, which in modern scientific publications begins to demonstrate consistency between the “form” and “content” of the external organizational activities of executive and local self-government bodies.