BPAC 107 Solved Question Paper June 2026 gives you complete, exam-length answers to all 8 questions IGNOU set in the BPAC 107 Comparative Public Administration term-end paper for BAPAH students. Two answers are open on this page so you can judge the depth before you message us; the other six sit in the full file on WhatsApp 9899436384.
BPAC 107 key facts at a glance
- Course code: BPAC 107 (printed as BPAC-107)
- Subject: Comparative Public Administration
- Programme: Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Public Administration (BAPAH)
- Credits: 6 (core course, three tutor-marked assignments)
- Blocks and units: 4 blocks, 9 units (IGNOU SLM on eGyanKosh)
- Maximum marks: 100 (20 marks per question)
- Duration: 3 hours
- Questions in the June 2026 paper: 8 (attempt any 5, at least 2 from each section)
- Sample answers on this page: 2 (Q1 and Q7)
- Questions in the paid file: All 8 answered (6 of them not shown on this page)
What the BPAC 107 Solved Question Paper June 2026 Covers
BPAC 107 Comparative Public Administration is a 6-credit core course of IGNOU's Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Public Administration (BAPAH) that studies how administrative systems differ across countries and which approaches explain those differences.
The June 2026 paper stays close to that core. Section I asks about the definition and evolution of the field, the difference between theory, model and approach, the behavioural approach and the idea of a social system. Section II moves to structural-functional terms, the political and administrative systems of the United States of America, Riggs and New Public Management.
Unlike the June 2025 and December 2025 papers, this one has no 10+10 short-note question. All eight questions carry a straight 20 marks, so every answer you pick has to stand as a full 400-word essay. That is exactly how our file is written.
BPAC 107 Sample Answers: Q1 and Q7 Solved in Full
Two of the eight June 2026 questions are answered in full below, one from each section: Q1 on the meaning and evolution of comparative public administration, and Q7 on Riggs's ecological approach.
Section I Question 1 20 marks
Q1. Define comparative public administration and trace its evolution. (20 marks)
Comparative public administration (CPA) is the study of public administrative systems from a comparative perspective, in cross-national and cross-cultural settings. It asks why similar institutions, such as a civil service or a cabinet, behave differently in different societies, and it uses those differences to build general explanations. It is a branch of Public Administration that has grown its own methods, models and literature.
Meaning and definition
Ferrel Heady, whose Public Administration: A Comparative Perspective first appeared in 1966, treated the field as the cross-national study of administrative systems with an eye on general patterns. Fred Riggs added that real comparison must be empirical, nomothetic and ecological. Older work that simply described one foreign government after another was, in his view, not comparative at all.
In a 1962 article Riggs identified three trends that mark the field: a move from normative to empirical study, from idiographic (single-case) to nomothetic (generalising) study, and from non-ecological to ecological study that places administration inside its social, economic and political environment.
Evolution of comparative public administration
Early roots. In his 1887 essay The Study of Administration, Woodrow Wilson argued that the United States could borrow administrative methods from France and Prussia without borrowing their politics. In 1947 Robert Dahl, in The Science of Public Administration: Three Problems, went further: no science of administration was possible unless its claims were tested across nations and cultures.
Post-war growth. The Second World War and decolonisation turned the idea into a movement. Newly independent states in Asia and Africa needed working administrations, and American technical assistance and foreign aid sent scholars abroad, where they found that Western models did not travel neatly. Development administration and comparative study grew together.
The CAG phase. The Comparative Administration Group (CAG) was formed in 1960 under the American Society for Public Administration, with Riggs as chair. Ford Foundation support from 1962 funded seminars, research and the Journal of Comparative Administration. Weber's bureaucracy, the general systems approach, structural-functionalism and Riggs's prismatic model dominated this phase.
Decline. By the 1970s the mood had changed. Grand theories proved hard to test, field data from developing countries were thin, critics saw little practical payoff and the Ford Foundation grant ended in 1971. In 1973 the CAG merged into the new Section on International and Comparative Administration of the same society.
Resurgence. The field revived from the 1980s. New Public Management reforms in Britain, New Zealand and Australia, globalisation, the governance agenda and cross-country governance indices gave comparison a practical purpose again. Present-day CPA prefers middle-range, evidence-based comparison to grand theory.
Conclusion. CPA moved from describing foreign governments, to ambitious theory-building under the CAG, to decline, and then to a practical revival. A clear definition, Riggs's three trends and this four-stage evolution together make a complete 20-mark answer.
Section II Question 7 20 marks
Q7. Discuss Riggsian Ecological Approach. (20 marks)
The ecological approach studies public administration as a product of its environment. Administration, on this view, cannot be understood apart from the economy, social structure, culture and politics around it. John M. Gaus brought the term ecology into the discipline in his 1947 Reflections on Public Administration, but Fred W. Riggs turned it into the central approach of comparative public administration.
In The Ecology of Public Administration (1961), based on lectures at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi, Riggs compared the USA, Thailand and the Philippines. He traced how five ecological factors, namely economic foundations, social structures, communication networks, symbol systems and the political framework, shape the way administration actually works.
Stage one: Agraria and Industria
Riggs first offered two ideal types in 1957. Agraria stands for traditional agricultural societies: ascriptive status, particularistic values, diffuse roles, stable local groups and little occupational mobility. Industria stands for modern industrial societies: achievement-based status, universalistic norms, specific roles, high mobility and a differentiated occupational structure.
The two types were useful contrasts, but most real developing countries fitted neither. They sat somewhere in between, which pushed Riggs towards a third model.
Stage two: fused, prismatic and diffracted societies
In Administration in Developing Countries: The Theory of Prismatic Society (1964), Riggs borrowed an image from physics. White light entering a prism is fused; light leaving it is diffracted into a spectrum. A fused society uses one structure for many functions, a diffracted society has a specialised structure for each function, and a prismatic society sits inside the prism, partly fused and partly diffracted.
Three features mark the prismatic society. Heterogeneity means traditional and modern practices exist side by side. Formalism means a wide gap between what laws prescribe and what officials actually do. Overlapping means modern formal institutions exist, yet older social structures still decide many outcomes.
The sala model
Riggs called the administrative subsystem of the prismatic society the sala, a Spanish word for a room or office, in contrast with the chamber of fused societies and the bureau of diffracted ones. The sala shows nepotism in recruitment, polycommunalism and clects, poly-normativism, and a bazaar-canteen economy marked by price indeterminacy. Authority is concentrated, but effective control is weak.
Evaluation
The approach has clear merits. It put the environment at the centre of comparison, explained why imported laws often fail in developing countries, and moved the field from idiographic description to general models.
Its limits are equally well known: heavy jargon, ideal types that are hard to test, a largely negative picture of developing societies, and little room for administration as an agent of change. Riggs himself revised the model in Prismatic Society Revisited (1973). Even so, no BPAC 107 answer on approaches is complete without it.
Questions answered only in the full file
- Q2. Distinguish among the ‘theory’, ‘model’ and ‘approach’. Describe bureaucratic approach. (20 marks)
- Q3. Discuss salient features, impact and limitations of behavioral approach. (20 marks)
- Q4. Discuss the concept of social system and bring out the merits and limitations of General System Approach. (20 marks)
- Q5. Distinguish between multi-functionality and multi-structurality. Discuss structural-functional approach. (20 marks)
- Q6. Write a note on the political and administrative systems of United States of America. (20 marks)
- Q8. Write a note on New Public Management : Comparative Perspective. (20 marks)
Each of these six gets the same full 20-mark treatment in the file, from the theory, model and approach distinction in Q2 to the American presidential system in Q6 and NPM's record across countries in Q8.
Comparative Public Administration Syllabus Across 4 Blocks and 9 Units
BPAC 107 is taught through 4 blocks and 9 units of IGNOU self-learning material written mainly by Ramesh K. Arora, and the June 2026 paper draws on 8 of those 9 units.
The table maps each unit to the topics examiners pick from it, so you can see where every June 2026 question comes from. The official units are open to read on eGyanKosh, IGNOU's course material repository.
| Block | Unit | Topics examiners draw on |
|---|---|---|
| Block 1: Comparative Public Administration: An Introduction | Unit 1: Comparative Public Administration: Meaning, Nature, Scope and Significance | Definitions of CPA; Riggs's three trends; growth from Wilson to the CAG and its revival |
| Block 2: Approaches to the Study of Comparative Public Administration | Unit 2: Bureaucratic Approach | Weber's ideal type; traditional, charismatic and legal-rational authority; merits of bureaucracy |
| Block 2 | Unit 3: Behavioural Approach | Features of behaviouralism; its impact on the discipline; decline under post-behaviouralism |
| Block 2 | Unit 4: General Systems Approach | Concept of a social system; inputs, outputs and feedback; merits and limitations |
| Block 2 | Unit 5: Structural Functional Approach | Structures and functions; multi-functionality and multi-structurality; the grand theory claim |
| Block 3: Political and Administrative Systems | Unit 6: Political and Administrative Systems in Developed Countries | USA and England; Russia; Australia |
| Block 3 | Unit 7: Political and Administrative Systems in Developing Countries | India and China; Brazil; South Africa |
| Block 3 | Unit 8: Fred Riggs Administrative Model for Developing Societies | Agraria and Industria; prismatic-sala model; the ecology of administration |
| Block 4: Resurgence and Future Challenges | Unit 9: Intellectual Developments in Comparative Public Administration | NPM's comparative perspective; New Public Service and development management; World Governance Index |
Unit 7 is the only unit with no question in June 2026, yet India, China, Brazil or South Africa came up in seven of the eight earlier papers, so do not drop it from revision.
If you are still working through the units, our BPAC 107 Study Material follows the same block order as the IGNOU books.
BPAC 107 Exam Pattern and Marks Distribution in June 2026
The BPAC 107 Question Paper for June 2026 has 8 questions of 20 marks each in two sections; you answer any 5 in about 400 words, with at least 2 from each section, for 100 marks in 3 hours.
| Section | Questions | Units tested | Marks each | Choice rule |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section I | Q1 to Q4 | Units 1 to 4 (Blocks 1 and 2) | 20 | Answer at least 2 |
| Section II | Q5 to Q8 | Units 5, 6, 8 and 9 | 20 | Answer at least 2 |
| Whole paper | 8 set, 5 answered | 8 of the 9 units | 100 in total | Fifth answer from either section |
The 2+2+1 choice matters. Most students write two from Section I, two from Section II and a fifth from the stronger side. Compare older patterns on our IGNOU Previous Year Question Paper page: every paper from June 2024 to December 2025 had 10+10 short notes, which June 2026 dropped.
Assignments carry 30 per cent and the term-end exam 70 per cent of the final result, as IGNOU's assignment booklet states for this six-credit course.
Most Repeated BPAC 107 Topics in Eight Official IGNOU Papers
Riggs's models, the developed-country systems and the NPM-era unit appeared in all 8 official BPAC 107 papers from June 2022 to December 2025, and all three return in June 2026.
We counted topics in every IGNOU BPAC 107 Question Paper published on ignou.ac.in and webservices.ignou.ac.in for June 2022, December 2022, June 2023, December 2023, June 2024, December 2024, June 2025 and December 2025. A topic scores once per paper, whether it came as a 20-mark question or a 10-mark short note.
| Topic | Unit | Papers where it appeared | Count (of 8) | In June 2026? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Riggs: ecology, Agraria-Industria, prismatic-sala | Unit 8 | All eight papers | 8 | Yes, Q7 |
| Developed-country systems (USA, England, Russia, Australia) | Unit 6 | All eight papers | 8 | Yes, Q6 |
| NPM, New Public Service, development management, WGI | Unit 9 | All eight papers | 8 | Yes, Q8 |
| Meaning, scope and evolution of CPA | Unit 1 | All except June 2022 | 7 | Yes, Q1 |
| Bureaucratic approach and Weber's authority types | Unit 2 | All except December 2022 | 7 | Yes, Q2 |
| Developing-country systems (India, China, Brazil, South Africa) | Unit 7 | All except December 2023 | 7 | No |
| General systems approach | Unit 4 | Jun 2022, Jun 2023, Jun 2024, Dec 2024, Jun 2025, Dec 2025 | 6 | Yes, Q4 |
| Structural-functional approach | Unit 5 | Dec 2022, Jun 2023, Dec 2023, Jun 2024, Dec 2024, Jun 2025 | 6 | Yes, Q5 |
| New Public Management on its own | Unit 9 | Jun 2022, Dec 2022, Dec 2023, Jun 2024, Dec 2025 | 5 | Yes, Q8 |
| Behavioural approach | Unit 3 | Jun 2024, Dec 2024, Jun 2025, Dec 2025 | 4 | Yes, Q3 |
| USA's political and administrative systems | Unit 6 | Dec 2022, Jun 2023, Jun 2024 | 3 | Yes, Q6 |
Earlier papers were not located on IGNOU's official portals, so this count covers eight sessions over four years, not five.
Want a similar shortlist for your other courses? Our IGNOU Important Questions page groups repeat topics course by course.
How Our Comparative Public Administration Answers Are Written and Checked
Every answer in the IGNOU BPAC 107 Solved Question Paper is drafted from the official SLM units, sized for a 20-mark, 400-word response, and reviewed before it goes into the file.
Prateek Talwar's team starts with the unit a question comes from, then checks how IGNOU asked the same topic before. Riggs, for example, has appeared in every paper since June 2022 under different wordings, from Agraria and Industria to the prismatic-sala model, so the Q7 answer is built to handle any of them.
Each answer follows a simple exam shape: a crisp definition, headed points with thinkers and dates (Wilson 1887, Dahl 1947, Riggs 1961 and 1964), a short evaluation and a one-line conclusion. Sheetal Kirola then reviews the file for accuracy and fit with the BAPAH syllabus.
Terms are kept the way the IGNOU units use them, so words such as sala, clects and poly-normativism match what your evaluator expects to see.
BPAC 107 Solved File Index for the June 2026 Paper
The full BPAC 107 file answers all 8 June 2026 questions; 2 are shown on this page and 6 are in the full file only.
| Question | Section | Topic | Course unit | Where to read it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | I | Definition and evolution of comparative public administration | Unit 1 | On this page |
| Q2 | I | Theory, model and approach; bureaucratic approach | Unit 2 | Full file only |
| Q3 | I | Behavioural approach: features, impact, limitations | Unit 3 | Full file only |
| Q4 | I | Social system; general systems approach | Unit 4 | Full file only |
| Q5 | II | Multi-functionality and multi-structurality; structural-functional approach | Unit 5 | Full file only |
| Q6 | II | Political and administrative systems of the USA | Unit 6 | Full file only |
| Q7 | II | Riggsian ecological approach | Unit 8 | On this page |
| Q8 | II | New Public Management in comparative perspective | Unit 9 | Full file only |
Preparing other core courses of the same programme? Our BAPAH Question Paper collection lists the solved sets course by course.
Programmes That Include BPAC 107 Comparative Public Administration
BPAC 107 is a core course of IGNOU's Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Public Administration (BAPAH), and every official paper from December 2023 to June 2026 is printed under that programme name.
If you are enrolled in the IGNOU Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Public Administration, BPAC 107 sits alongside other core courses such as BPAC 106 Understanding Public Policy and BPAC 110 Urban Local Governance.
The June 2023 paper carried a Bachelor of Arts (General) (BAG) header, and IGNOU filed the 2022 papers in its CBCS BAG folder. If you study BPAC 107 outside BAPAH, confirm the course in your programme guide before you order; the June 2026 paper itself is the same.
Get the Full BPAC 107 Solved Question Paper on WhatsApp
Message WhatsApp 9899436384 to get the complete BPAC 107 Solved Question Paper for June 2026, with all 8 answers, including the 6 not shown here.
Send the course code BPAC 107 and the session June 2026. We reply with the file details and how to pay, and the PDF is then shared on the same WhatsApp chat.
With five answers to write in three hours, the file lets you rehearse Q2 to Q6 and Q8 in the exact 20-mark shape, instead of piecing answers together from four blocks of reading.
BPAC 107 Comparative Public Administration FAQs
These answers cover the June 2026 BPAC 107 paper, its pattern and how to get the full solved file.
How do I get the full BPAC 107 solved file on WhatsApp?
Send a WhatsApp message to 9899436384 with the code BPAC 107 and the session June 2026. The full file contains complete answers to all 8 questions in the paper: the 2 you can read on this page (Q1 and Q7) plus the 6 answered only in the file. We share the PDF details and the payment step on the same chat, and the file follows there.
Which BPAC 107 questions are solved in full on this page?
Q1 and Q7 are solved in full here. Q1 defines comparative public administration and traces its evolution from Wilson's 1887 essay to the revival after the 1980s. Q7 explains Riggs's ecological approach, from Agraria and Industria to the prismatic-sala model. Together they show the depth and structure of every answer in the BPAC 107 Solved Question Paper, one from each section.
How many questions must I attempt in the BPAC 107 exam?
You attempt any 5 of the 8 questions in the BPAC 107 term-end exam, choosing at least 2 from Section I and at least 2 from Section II. Every question carries 20 marks, so the paper totals 100 marks over 3 hours. In June 2026 none of the questions was split into 10-mark short notes, which means each choice needs a full essay.
How long should each BPAC 107 Comparative Public Administration answer be?
IGNOU asks for about 400 words per answer in BPAC 107 Comparative Public Administration. With five answers in three hours, that leaves roughly 35 minutes for each one. Aim for a short definition, four to six headed points with thinkers and dates, a brief evaluation and a one-line conclusion. Both sample answers on this page are written to that length, so you can judge the shape.
Which BPAC 107 topics repeat most often in IGNOU papers?
Three BPAC 107 topics appeared in all 8 official papers from June 2022 to December 2025: Riggs's models, the political and administrative systems of developed countries, and the unit covering New Public Management, New Public Service and development management. The meaning and evolution of the field, the bureaucratic approach and the developing-country systems each appeared in 7 of those 8 papers.
Which units of BPAC 107 does the June 2026 paper cover?
The June 2026 BPAC 107 paper draws on 8 of the course's 9 units. Questions 1 to 5 follow Units 1 to 5 in order, Q6 comes from Unit 6 on developed countries, Q7 from Unit 8 on Riggs, and Q8 from Unit 9 on intellectual developments such as NPM. Unit 7, on India, China, Brazil and South Africa, has no question this time.
How many credits is BPAC 107 Comparative Public Administration?
BPAC 107 Comparative Public Administration is a 6-credit core course in IGNOU's BAPAH programme. IGNOU's assignment booklet confirms this, which is why students submit three tutor-marked assignments for it rather than two. Assignments carry 30 per cent of the final result and the term-end exam carries 70 per cent, so a strong exam paper still decides most of your grade.
Who writes and reviews the BPAC 107 answers?
The BPAC 107 answers are prepared by the Unnati Educations team led by Prateek Talwar and reviewed by Sheetal Kirola. Each answer is drafted from the IGNOU self-learning units by Ramesh K. Arora, checked against how the topic was asked in earlier papers, and kept to the 20-mark, 400-word format. The review checks facts, dates, thinker names and the fit with the June 2026 wording.