Public administration

is an administrative activity related to the provision of public services, the management of public
affairs at local and central level and the provision of matters of public interest. In addition to
this administrative activity (e.g. issuing administrative acts), the public administration is also
considered to be the administrative bodies that perform it, that is mainly the authorities. In the
centralist concept of the state, only the state was the bearer of public administration. At
present, however, public administration is divided into state administration and self-government.
Public administration is exercised in the public interest. The activity of public administration is
bound by law and constitutional principles (the Czech Constitution: "State power serves all
citizens and can be exercised only in the cases, within the limits and in the manner prescribed by
law" and "State power may be exercised only in cases and within the limits set by law, in the
manner prescribed by law.")

Public administration can be understood as:
- administration of territory, state, region, municipality
- the management of matters to which the public has property rights
- public matters management
- public finance management
- management of the use of public buildings and facilities
Public administration has several function:
- to exercise of power – it realizes its power in the state through the rule of law and through the
operation of the state system,
 - protective - it ensures and organizes internal and external security,
 - organizational - public administration organizes state affairs, affairs of institutions and
affairs of citizens
 - regulatory – it promotes a system based on political pluralism, solidarity and tolerance
 - public service – it carries out activities which are provided in the public interest.

In a modern democratic society, a system of public administration has developed, which has two
branches, the branch of state administration and the branch of self-government.


State administration is performed by state authorities.

Self-government is the performance of public administration (delegated powers) by self-governing
public corporations. Self-government can be professional or territorial. It is a way of managing a
whole, in which a given entity decides autonomously on at least some of its matters, that is to
say, it performs 'self-governing'. The advantage of self-government is that it is closer to the
managed entity than central management and should therefore be more efficient and cheaper in
securing local or interest-based matters.

There can be also so-called “other public administration”, which are institutions with legal
personality (in the Czech Republic e.g. VZP, ČNB, ČT, ČTK etc.)