t is a paradox that the parts of government most affecting Belizeans are those least understood. Most studies of the government focuses on the Constitution, elections, legislatures, judiciary, and politics. In their coverage of government, the media—television, radio, newspapers, and magazines—tend to cover the same subjects. Although these subjects are important and interesting, for the typical citizen the most ordinary and common contact with the government takes another form.

This contact is with the routine working, day-to-day part of government and the part of government we call public administration. We see public administration function when we pay our taxes, when we get a license to drive or register a car, when we get a parking ticket, when we visit a national park or go to a public school, and when we buy products that are graded and checked by inspectors. To put it directly, our birth certificate, our social security number, our marriage license and our death certificate are all parts of public administration.

This course is about those parts of government that most directly affects us—public administration. We will learn how government is structured to carry out its daily responsibilities, who works for the government, what they do, and how they do it, and how the working of public agencies affects each Belizean citizen. This course also suggests to the student that when public administration is properly carried out it constitutes public service to others, a kind of ennobling contribution to a greater good. The second paradox of this course, then, is that contrary to popular belief, bureaucracy is not bad; at a minimum it is essential, and at its best it is good for the people in the Belizean democracy.