The Politics of Administration: Power, Relations, Space and Otherness in Public Administration

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the dimensions of power, relationality, space, and otherness within the field of Public Administration, utilizing the politics-administration dichotomy as its central methodological framework. The study posits that Public Administration existed in a state of ‘Otherness’ prior to the full institutionalization of its disciplinary ‘space.’ This reflects the pursuit of epistemic truth under the paradigm of Critical Theory, which asserts that reality is both autonomous and subjectively constructed. In the administrative context, the endeavor to emancipate Public Administration from political spheres—often associated with New Public Management—is inherently paradoxical when contrasted with the behavior of bureaucratic apparatuses and the reciprocal nature of power relations. The Thai context, in particular, demonstrates that the demarcation between power relations and administrative space remains inextricably blurred. Nevertheless, the discipline has successfully established its identity and achieved legitimacy within the realm of public practice. This article concludes that Public Administration is fundamentally an intersection of politics, administrative relations, and otherness—a process of identity and spatial construction consistent with the evolution of other scientific disciplines.