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Comparative Public Administration

After World War II, many developing countries became free from colonialism. The

nited !ations also emerged with the development of developing countries as

one of its goals. The international technical assistance and co"operationprogrammes also started. It was widely felt in the western countries as well as

the developing countries that administrative capability of the latter was re#uired

to be enhanced so that they could fully utili$e the assistance being o%ered to

them. It was in this light that comparative public administration came into

picture. It emphasi$ed on the comparative analysis of the e&periences of the

developing countries to cope up with their problems.

In '()', comparative public administration was de*ned by +omparative

Administration Group +AG- as the theory of public administration applied to

diverse cultures and national settings and the body of factual data by which it

can be e&amined and tested/. It means that +0A doesn1t 2ust mean theapplication of concepts of public administration to di%erent ecological settings

but also entails obtaining some factual data by which the government

administrative systems of di%erent countries could be compared and analy$ed.

Although in all the modem social sciences the importance of comparative studies

has been widely recogni$ed, anthropology and sociology were the *rst disciplines

to ta3e lead in this sphere. 4erbert 5pencer, 6ilfred 0areto, 7mile 8ur3heim

and9a& Weber, who are considered to be the founding fathers of sociology had

comparative sociology as their main area of study. ut due to several constraints

such comparative study was slow to originate in public administration.

Origins of Comparative Features

It was Woodrow Wilson1s seminal essay in ';;< The 5tudy of Administration/

the publication of which is considered to be the beginning of the academic study

of public administration. Wilson argued for comparative studies in administration

e. g. some of the good practices prevailing at that time in 7urope could be

borrowed in American public administration. Taylorism/ which in=uenced

American administrative theory considerably had become sort of international

movement in '(>?s. @enin applied some of its ideas in 5oviet nion. @eonard

White stressed the cross"cultural/ character of the principles of public

administration. 4e observed in '() that a principle of public administration is

as useful a guide to action in the public administration of Bussia as of Greatritain, of Ira# as of the nited 5tates/. @ater on 4uman Belations movement,

though could not develop a cross"cultural approach, still emphasi$ed some

variables of internal environment of the organi$ation as important towards its

eCcient functioning.

After World War II, scholars such as 7dwin 5tene,4erbert 5imonand 8wight

Waldo made a call for the scienti*c e&planations/ in the administrative theory

and scholars such as Bobert 8ahl vigorously argued for cross"cultural/ analysis

in public administration.

efore the World War II also there were some studies on comparative

government and administration but post World War II literature is full of criticism
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against those studies arguing that they were not truly comparative/ and

ecological/ in their content. The main accusations are:

'. It made only the Western countries as its point of study. 5o it was culture

bound/ in content.

>. It emphasi$ed only constitutionalism and values of western liberaldemocracy. 5o it was normative/ in its approach.

. It assumed that every political and administrative system evolves the

same way as did the western systems. 5o it was parochial/ in character.

D. It was not ecological/ in nature.

E. +ross cultural/ and cross temporal/ features were lac3ing.

The Comparative Public Administration Movement

Though the literature on comparative government and administration e&isted

earlier also but post World War II this literature underwent a phenomenal change.+omparative 0ublic Administration emerged in true sense only after World War II.

The main reasons being:

'. After World War II, 9arshall 0lan was started for the economic recovery of

7urope and 0oint Four programme was enunciated for the developing

countries. American public administration scholar turned practitioners

were involved in such programmes. They reali$ed that many of the

problems of other countries could not be solved 2ust by the traditional

Americal public administration structures and institutions. 8i%erent

cultural conte&ts of di%erent countries forced them to thin3 in tems of

comparative studies of the administrative systems. 5oon nited !ationstechnical assistance teams were formed. The government of nited

5tates, many academic universities, multilateral bodies and private

foundations etc soon 2oined hands to embar3 on a path of international

administrative reform/.

>. The newly independent Asian African countries were in the varying

stages of social, economic and political development and there e&isted no

studies on their public administration systems. For these countries to

transform to modern developed nations the capability of their

administrative systems had to be enhanced. For that to happen

conte&tual/ studies of their administrative systems had to be made. Itwas this ob2ective with which the comparative public administration

movement started.

. There was an intellectual/ curiosity to develop a science of public

administration e. g. Bobert 8ahl asserted that as long as the study of

public administration is not comparative, claims for a Hscience1 of public

administration sound rather hollow/. Bobert ac3son also mentioned that

science of public administration, if not fully achievable, is at least worthy

of see3ing and that the scienti*c study of public administration re#uired

the study of various administrative patterns in the cross" cultural and

cross"national settings and the rigorous/ comparative analysis of


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empirical *ndings from such studies will help in constructing a general

theory of public administration.

D. ehaviouralism in administrative studies concerns itself with the scienti*c

study of human behavior in various conte&ts and ma3es use of

propositions drawn from other social sciences also. 5o it is necessarily

inter"disciplinary in character. This interdisciplinary and cross"cultural

approach has necessitated the study of comparative public administration.

E. 0ost World War II, generous *nancial assistance was provided to the

scholars of comparative public administration by aid giving agencies in

5A li3e Ford Foundation or Agency for International 8evelopment etc.

Their interest was to 3now more about the administrative systems of aid

receiving countries.

). At that time cold war had started and developing nations were important.

Therefore for the western countries to have an interest in the development

of developing nations had a practical/ connotation as well.

In '(E>, the *rst attempt was made to start the study of comparative public

administration when a +onference on +omparative Administration was sponsored

at 0rinceton by 0ublic Administration +learing 4ouse. William . 5iCn was the *rst

American scholar to write a boo3 on +0A entitled Toward the +omparative 5tudy

of 0ublic Administration/ in '(E). The ne&t important event was in '() when

the +omparative Administration Group +AG- was set up. It was set up as a

committee of American 5ociety for 0ublic Administration. +AG was funded till

'(


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. +ontribution from comparative politics

D. Interest of the scholars of administrative law

E. +ross cultural analysis of the problems of 0ublic Administration systems

CPA: Treading a Paradigm or still Pre"Paradigmatic#The study of any scienti*c disciplinepasses through many stages before arriving

at a stage which is the foundation for continuing as a coherent discipline/. This

foundation stage is acceptable to most of the scholars of that scienti*c discipline.

This stage is called a paradigm in that discipline or the dominant model. efore

this paradigm, a number of competing views and propositions e&ist and a

unanimous view regarding the path which the discipline should ta3e is lac3ing.

This stage has been termed as pre" paradigmatic/ stage by Thomas Kuhn.

5cholars li3e William 5iCn have described comparative public administration as a

*eld in confusion because of the diversity in the view points e&isting in the

literature. ut it is a matter of debate whether this pre"paradigmatic stage isgood or bad for the development of +0A as a *eld of in#uiry. 5ocial 5ciences by

their vary nature are prone to contestations from diverse view points and lac3 of

consensus regarding the dominant view in the discipline can not be ta3en

necessarily as fatal for the discipline, though it doesn1t mean that a systemic

coherence is not re#uired between di%erent paradigms. +0A at present is passing

through a poly"paradigmatic/ process. It is characteri$ed by a number of

competing approaches. Biggs has identi*ed a number of them as normative,

empirical, nomothetic, idiographic, non"ecological and ecological approaches.

Trends in Comparative Public Administration $tudies

Fred W. Biggs, the foremost scholar of comparative public administration,

observed that three trends/ were visible in the +0A studies. These are:

'. From normative to empirical

>. From ideographic to nomothetic

. From non"ecological to ecological

The empirical approach means to suggest some conclusions on the basis of

actual *eld study instead of Hnormative1 suggestions e. g. traditional comparative

politics administration emphasi$ed good administration/ and eCciency

economy were considered as virtues for administrative systems in all conte&tualsettings.

The ideographic approach focuses on Huni#ue case1 or Hcase study1 method while

nomothetic approach focuses on Hgenerali$ations1, Hlaws1 or Hhypotheses1 that

predict the behavior.

Biggs also emphasi$ed on studying the administrative systems in the conte&tual

settings in which such systems e&isted. This ecological approach emphasi$ed on

studying the inter"relations between the administrative system and the e&ternal

environment in which it e&isted.

%i&erent Approaches in Comparative Public Administration
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There are di%erent approaches which the scholars in comparative public

administration have ta3en to study the sub2ect. According to 4enderson the

literature of +0A can be classi*ed into three main areas of emphases:

'. The bureaucratic system approach

>. The input"output system approach

. The component approach

9ost acceptable classi*cation of the approaches has been done by Ferrel 4eady.

Ferrel 4eady in his boo3 PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION : A COMPARATIVE

PERSPECTIVEgives four main approaches in the literature of +0A:

'. 9odi*ed traditional approach

>. 8evelopment oriented approach

. General system model uilding

D. 9iddle range theory formulation

As already e&plained earlier the pre World War II literature on +0A was parochial

in its approach concentrating on 2ust few administrative systems. The modi*ed

traditional approach to +0A was the continuance of that approach only though

the focus shifted to some comparative aspects of di%erent administrative

systems. These studies were largely descriptive and included topics such as

personnel system and administrative organi$ation etc.

The development oriented approach focuses on the essentials of the

administrative system which should be developed in order to meet the

necessities of a society which is e&periencing large socio"economic, cultural andpolitical changes. The aim is to develop the administrative systems so that the

publically stated goals of the governments in such societies could be achieved.

The general system model building approach is a comprehensive approach which

focuses on the administrative systems in the larger conte&t of its environment. It

focuses on whole of the social environment. The prominent scholar who

contributed a lot to this approach was Fred W. Biggs who made ideal types/

models for societies. ohn T. 8orsey who gave information J energy model/ also

belongs to this category.

While the general system model emphasi$ed on building comprehensive models,of administrative systems, the middle range formulation concentrated on 2ust

few components of administrative system. The most famous middle range model

is bureaucratic model/. It is based on 9a& Weber1s ideal type of bureaucracy.

ut of the above described models, the most commonly used models for the

purpose of comparative public administration today are: the bureaucratic model,

the Biggsian models and development administration approach. These may also

be called the foci/ of comparative public administration literature.

'istorical and $ociological Factors A&ecting Administrative $stems

7very nation today has an administrative history which has a considerable

in=uence in the evolution of its administrative systems to the present form. @ong


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years of rule by some foreign powers, the despotic 3ings, a culture based on

consensus or con=icts, anarchy during some time periods, violent disruptions

during the transfer of power, balance between military and civilian

bureaucracies, a culture of empowering communities or centrali$ing trends in

administration etc. are some of the e&amples of historical and sociological

factors which a%ect the administrative systems.

Ancient and medieval civili$ations have contributed directly towards evolving

nation state as the dominant model of ordering society with bureaucracy as the

most common form of large scale organi$ation. 9odern all encompassing

bureaucratic organi$ations are the result of long years of centrali$ation of power.

Gerald 8. !ash in his monograph 0erspectives on Administration: The 6istas of

4istory/ cites numerous e&amples where the societies have succeeded in

substantially progressing culturally because of supporting achievements in

administration and vice"versa. To sustain a society at the previously developed

level the administration has also to develop its capabilities coherently otherwise

the society declines. 7&amples can be ta3en from ancient 7gypt and +hina,Gree3 city states and the countries during the last two centuries.

The civili$ation in which a society develops and administrative organi$ations are

mutually dependent. Karl A. Wittfogel has written on historical aspects which led

to the growth of comple& bureaucratic systems in his boo3 riental 8espotism:

A +omparative 5tudy of Total 0ower/. The oriental river valley civili$ations

re#uired high degree of organi$ed e%ort to construct the irrigation and =ood

control wor3s which could be obtained only through governmental institutions.

The result was the emergence of Hbureaucratic oCaldom1 through which total

power was e&ercised by the rulers of those societies. ureaucracies were crucialfor the success of the rulers of the empires. Through the enhancement of the

capabilities of the bureaucratic institutions, societal control and regulation could

be achieved. It also helped in stabili$ing the societies. The result was the

considerable dependence on the bureaucratic systems for the political survival.

This resulted in autonomy also of bureaucracy to some e&tent. This was the

reason why the bureaucratic institution deviated from the service orientation and

became self serving institution. This is the broader reason why administrative

sub"system in many of the countries today have become a force in itself. Thus

historical and sociological factors are crucial towards shaping the present

administrative systems.

$ome of the historical ( sociological features in developed societies

)hich have direct bearing on their administrative sstems are:

'. 8i%erent roles are distributed according to Hachievement1 rather than

Hascription1. This is the reason why bureaucracy also has merit as the

standard basis of recruitment.

>. The broader structure of the society is highly di%erentiated and

functionally speci*c, this has the direct result that bureaucracy there has

high degree of internal speciali$ation.
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. Bational and secular methods are appreciated in the polity. The traditional

values are no longer attractive. This has resulted into secular and

impersonal system of administration.

D. The range of political and administrative activities in such societies are

e&tensive. 5till e%ective political control, public awareness of their rights, a

culture of accountability, transparency and mass participation has resulted

into instrumental administration which e&ists for the e%ective

achievement of public policies. The administrative system is close to

Weberian ideal type bureaucracy in both structural and functional

dimensions.

E. As the society has most of the professional and occupational categories

the bureaucracy also identi*es itself with professionali$ation with public

service as a profession.

). 4istorically the political system has been stable and developed in these

countries that1s why there is clear demarcation between the role ofbureaucracy and politics. The bureaucrats do not usurp the roles of

politicians and are primarily tas3ed with rule implementation and to a

lesser e&tent rule ma3ing. This is in #uite contrast to developing countries

where bureaucrats have historically played an important role even in

political processes.


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All the above mentioned factors ampl prove that the administrative

sstems in various countries are signi*cantl in+uence b their o)n

historical and sociological factors,

--.Administration and Politics in %i&erent Countries

The administrative systems of various countries were classi*ed in our last article

while discussing the ureaucratic Approach to comparative public administration.

4ere the administration and politics in some countries will be discussed in detail.

The countries selected for discussion purpose are: The nited 5tates of America,

The Great ritain, France, apan, +hina and India.

The /nited $tates of America

The political cultures of the 5A and K have been described as the civic

culture/ by Ferrel 4eady, Almond and 6erba. +ivic culture means a culture which

is participant/ and pluralistic/. This is a culture based on communication andpersuasion, diversity and consensus. As a result of this culture the political

system in 5A has been able to maintain stability and legitimacy.

In nited 5tates there has been a good balance between political and

administrative development. +ompared to the bureaucracies of France and

Germany, the bureaucracy of 5A has been slow in becoming professionali$ed

and ac#uiring characteristics of classic/ Weberian bureaucracy. 5poils system

was prevalent here upto the late '( thcentury when through the 0endleton Act in

';;, it was abolished. Through this act the recruitment and promotion in the

civil service started to be done on the basis of merit and not patronage though

this started only at the federal level and not at the state or local level.

In 5A the bureaucracy is seen as a neutral instrument of government. +ongress

has the power of e&ecutive reorgani$ation i. e. for the creation or abolition of

e&ecutive departments. The head of the department is secretary who is

appointed by the 0resident but the 5enate has to con*rm it. A new 9erit 5ystems

0rotection oard and 0ersonnel 9anagement agency have been created at the

central level for the personnel management.

Position rather than ran0of the public oCcials is emphasi$ed in the 5

system. Ccials are selected on the basis of the re#uirements of the position. In

this way the 5 system is di%erent from the ritish or Indian administrativesystem. 5enior 7&ecutive 5ervice 575- was constituted in 5 has been
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constituted in 5 since '(


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It was in the middle of '(thcentury that the ritish civil service started to be

recruited on the basis of merit leaving the patronage system. It was brought

about by the famous !orthcote"Trevelyn Beport of ';ED. With this system the

foundation of a career based bureaucracy was laid in ritain in which recruitment

and career advancement both were based on merit rather than nepotism.

8ue to the high level of political participation in the ritish society, the role of

civil service is regarded as service oriented/ and there is *rm political control

over bureaucracy. This is the reason why bureaucracy is considered to be the

neutral agent of political decision ma3ers.

A ministry is headed by a minister and there is a post of permanent secretary

below it who is the administrative head. For managing the personnel matters,

there is a +ivil 5ervice 8epartment directly under the 0rime 9inister. efore

World War II, the ritish civil service used to be elitist with only people from

higher strata of society 2oining it but the social and education base of the civil

service has broadened for the last three decades. A career civil service e&ists in

which oCcials are generally ta3en at an earlier level only and the mutual

e&change of oCcers between public and private sectors is prohibited.

Anonymity and neutrality are the hallmar3s of ritish administrative system. The

bureaucrats are duty bound to give advice to the ministers who are responsible

politically for the discharge of governmental functions with the assistance of

bureaucrats.

This system allows the civil servants to be 3ept out of the public criticism directly

though at higher levels they are involved in the policy ma3ing along with the

concerned minister. The measures to ensure the accountability of administration

are #uite e&tensive in view of the increasing powers of the e&ecutive duetodelegated legislation. n whole, the ritish administration may be described as

orderly, cohesive and prudent.

France

In France the 0resident is directly elected by the universal su%rage and he

appoints the 0rime 9inister and terminates his tenure if the need arises. The

0resident is so powerful that he can overshadow the parliament, the

constitutional council and the council of ministers. The 0rime 9inister carries out

the policies of the 0resident and is answerable to the 0arliament for it. In theory

the government remains collectively responsible to the 0arliament while in

practice it is responsible to the 0resident.
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France witnessed continuous political instability for the last two centuries and at

some points violent disruptions were there in the political system. Fifth Bepublic

came into being '(E;. 8espite so much of political turbulence France li3e

Germany has been mar3ed by administrative and bureaucratic stability. The

administrative apparatus that had been created to serve the ancient regime/

transferred and maintained its allegiance to the nation, after the brief disruptionsdue to revolution, whether the government in control was an empire or republic.

8ue to the political instability the administrative apparatus of the country was

called upon to ta3e the governmental responsibilities many a times and this is

the reason that the French bureaucracy is a fully developed classic/ Weberian

type of bureaucracy. This is the reason why France and Germany are called

classic/ administrative systems.

nli3e ritain and India, there is no single body responsible for running of civil

service system. 7ach ministry is responsible for its own sta%. Also the civil

servants can participate in political activities unli3e ritain and India. The French

civil service is organi$ed on the basis of corps/. These are basically thecategories of sta% ta3ing part in administration and recruitment ta3es place in

these corps. In France centrali$ed form of administration e&ists since the very

beginning and due to this the French civil service is very powerful. It has been

accorded a higher place in comparison to the ordinary citi$ens. @aw e&perts

dominate the civil service.

A system of Hadministrative courts1 e&ists in France in which cases against

administrative e&cesses are decided. These courts are headed by Hcouncil of

state1 which decides the way these courts are e&pected to function. +ivil

servants not only control the massive administrative machine but also occupy

the important positions in politics, public and private sectors. 8emocrati$ation of

the civil service has not occurred to much e&tent as the higher education is

primarily con*ned to upper social classes only. In '(D), the civil servants have

been clearly given a right to organi$e trade unions. Bight to stri3e also e&ists

provided essential services are not hampered. n whole civil service system in

France is highly organi$ed, very powerful in=uential and resembled most

closely the ideal/ type of bureaucracy.

2apan

The constitution of apan ma3es 8iet, the parliament, the highest organ of the

state in which e&ecutive is responsible to it. The 0rime 9inister of apan is

designated by the resolution of 8iet. The emperor is only the nominal head of thestate. The powers of emperor of apan are practically nil in comparison to the

ritish monarch. ritish monarch has the right to be consulted by the 0rime

9inister, apanese emperor has none. 4e does not actually have power to

interfere in important decisions of government. 5till the emperor of apan is

considered as the living symbol of apan1s history and is very much loved by the

citi$enry. 0rime 9inister is the head of the e&ecutive and the head of his cabinet

secretariat *nds a seat in the apanese cabinet. 4e is called 8irector of cabinet

secretariat.


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apan has been termed as a bureaucrats paradise/ and the wonderland/ of

bureaucracy by the scholar +hitoshi Lanaga. The apanese bureaucracy is

democrati$ed to some e&tent though still the bureaucrats are recruited from a

narrow social base only. In recent times the apanese bureaucracy has been

downsi$ed and e&ecutive agencies/ have been created. The civil service is

organi$ed on the basis of career system. Intense competition to apanese civil

service is #uite remar3able. @i3e some other countries, large chun3 of candidatesbeing selected in the civil service come from some prominent universities li3e

the To3yo niversity. This feature is even more pronounced than the recruitment

of &ford and +ambridge graduates in ritish civil service. The civil service is

dominated by law bac3ground candidates.

A uni#ue feature of the apanese civil service is #uite limited lateral mobility of

civil servants between di%erent ministries. A civil servant is li3ely to remain in

the ministry which he enters. This restricted inter"ministerial lateral mobility

promotes the loyalty towards a ministry or department and not towards the

whole of civil service which sometimes results into compartmentali$ation among

di%erent administrative units. Another feature is lucrative post"retirement 2obsthat the apanese bureaucrats get. The retirement age is less around E? years-

and generally after a civil servant retires the attractive private sector of apan

ta3es him up on highly paid 2obs which are commensurate with their earlier

e&perience.

8istinction between bureaucracy and politics is #uite blurred in apan and

bureaucrats generally #uite actively ta3e part in the political decisions of the

government. This results into the political activism of the civil servants. 8ue to

very long period of political dominance of only one political party, the @iberal

8emocratic 0arty, the higher civil servants have come to be identi*ed with the

ruling party. 9any of the ministers in government have been former bureaucrats.

The e&istence of 8eliberation +ouncils/ is another feature of apanese

administration. These councils have representatives of government, private

sector and civil society. efore public policy ma3ing there ta3e place

deliberations within these deliberation councils and suggested reforms are ta3en

into consideration by the government. This shows that apanese administration is

responsive towards citi$ens1 views and the politics engenders a consensual/

polity.

In sum, apanese bureaucracy has successfully managed the change in post war

years and given the country much needed stability. ureaucracy though has lot

of political weight still transformed itself in consonance with the needs of

changing and industriali$ing needs of the country.
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China

In a democracy the government administration of the day are duty bound to

be accountable to the citi$ens of the country while in a communist country it the

party to which the administration has to be accountable. The emphasis on the

state administration to be responsive to the party creates con=icts. A bureaucrat

faces dilemma between acting as a public oCcial/ and as a committed party

wor3er/. From the early years in '(D( the communist +hina adopted 5oviet

model and the state bureaucracy was entrusted with the tas3 of implementing

rapid socio"economic changes. In '(E< a movement called Great @eap Forward/

was started for rapid progress on all fronts. 5logan politics ta3es command/ was

given by the +ommunist 0arty of +hina ++0- to motivate the people and the

government. The state administration was found to be too centrali$ed and

overbureaucrati$ed. 8ecentrali$ed e%orts li3e involving the rural communities in

increasing the agricultural production were started though industrial

development was not lost sight of. Great emphasis on four moderni$ations has

been laid by the +hinese administration: of industry, agriculture, science technology and the military and the reform of bureaucracy was considered as

pre"condition for achieving these four moderni$ations/. 5ome of the measures

by which the bureaucracy has been sought to be reformed in +hina are:

'. Advanced education for bureaucrats in +hina itself as well as in foreign

countries

>. 7mphasis on technical e&pertise as the necessary #uali*cation for

recruitment

. 7&pertise rather than seniority was emphasi$ed in ran3s of bureaucracy

D. The number of ministries and agencies were reduced and the sta%srationali$e

E. 0ublic opinion was given an important emphasis on 2udging the

performance of lower level oCcials

The +hinese political system operates on democratic centralism/ in which the

*nal decision ma3ing authority is highly centrali$ed. The !ational 0eople1s

+ongress !0+- is theoretically the highest organ of the sate but it meets only

during the annual sessions. In between the annual sessions its standing

committee is the highest authority. 4owever the 5tate +ouncil which is a3in to

state cabinet/ is responsible for directing all the ministries and administration.

!0+ acts li3e 0arliament of +hina. The +ommunist 0arty1s +entral +ommittee can


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recommend !0+ to designate or remove the members of the 5tate +ouncil

including the 0remier. !0+ has a *ve year term and it meets once in a year.

5tanding +ommittee of !0+ e&ercises its powers between the annual sessions.

The constitution of +hina can also be amended by !0+. +onstitution en2oins that

the 5tate +ouncil should consist of a premier, vice"premiers, vice"ministers and

the heads of the national ministries and commissions. In e%ect however due tothe large si$e of the state council, it is the inner cabinet which e&ercises all the

powers practically. It consists of premier and vice"premiers.

+onstitutionally the whole country is divided into provinces, autonomous regions

and municipalities which are directly administered by the central government. At

the local level, there are people1s communes and towns. The term autonomous/

is a misnomer and li3e other regions only the autonomous regions are very much

part of the centrali$ed administrative hierarchy. They are largely made on the

considerations of minority groups.

The +hinese government is controlled and directed by the communist party by

the interloc3ing system of party personnel and party having a parallel structure

to that of the government. The party even maintains a shadow government/. As

the government is manned by party functionaries also, the public oCcials receive

instructions both from the government as well as the party but the instructions

from the party high command are supreme.

The bureaucrats in +hina are called as cadres/ or 3anpu/. There are three

levels of cadres: leading cadres, intermediate level cadres and the basic level

cadres. These cadres are classi*ed into three broad categories: state, local and

military. A cadre1s ran3 is determined not necessarily by the seniority but by the

educational bac3ground and technical competence. The new generation of

leaders in +hina argue that there should not be distinction between partyideologues i. e. reds/ and the technically #uali*ed i. e. e&perts/. They insist on

creating red and e&pert/ cadre which is both ideologically oriented and

technically competent.

The +hinese bureaucracy has carefully managed to have a centrali$ed system

and a higher degree of administrative stability though the rising levels of

ine#uality and turbulence in +hinese society call for some radical shifts in

politico"administrative settings of +hina.

-ndia

The politics and administration in India today are a result of two sets importanthistorical events. The *rst one is colonial legacy and the second one is the

democratic welfare state set up by Indian constitution after independence. An

administrative class called Indian +ivil 5ervice I+5- was the most notable

legacies of ritish times in independent India. The colonial administration was

regulatory in nature with no developmental roles to perform and was

authoritarian, unresponsive and paternalistic in character though some minimum

welfare functions li3e construction of roads, railways, colleges and hospitals were

performed. The civil service was not 2ust an instrument of public policy e&ecution

but had the policy ma3ing in its own hands. The I+5 though an instrument of the

ritish was an integrating force in the Indian polity and was eCcient despite the

inherent diversity of India.


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The bureaucracy that India inherited at the time of independence was totally

new to developmental tas3s, was trained only in rule application and had no

concept of accountability to the people. After independence, 0resident of India

has been made the head of the state as well as head of the e&ecutive of the

country. The wor3 of the government of India is divided into various 9inistries

headed by 9inisters. The 0rime 9inister presides over the +ouncil of 9inisters.Wor3 is assigned to the various 9inistries through the rules framed under Article


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consists of three broad categories: the All India 5ervices, the +entral 5ervices

and the 5tate 5ervices.

Though the India administrative system is dominated by generalists but a uni#ue

feature of the civil services in India is that more and more of specialists and

technocrats li3e doctors, engineers, economists and lawyers are 2oining the civil

services. Also the bureaucracy is of mammoth si$e.

After independence the guiding principles of India administration and politics

were: welfare of its citi$ens and the accountability to them. The state became

the ma2or promoter of planned change. The nature of administration changed

totally from the regulatory one before independence to the developmental after

independence but the instrument of state to carry out such ob2ectives of the

state remained the same J the age old colonial bureaucracy veiled by secrecy it

its functioning and unresponsive to the citi$ens. A study of Balph raibanti

con*rms that despite independence the norms of Indian bureaucracy remain

same as were there during colonial times.

Benowned scholars li3e +. 0. hambhri and 6. 5ubramaniam have underta3en

studies to study the socio"economic bac3ground of members of Indian

Administrative 5ervice IA5-. They have found that they are elitist by bac3ground

and are urban educated professionally #uali*ed middle class of the country.

The proportion of rural areas is less According to +. 0. hambri, in Indian conte&t

there is incongruence between the orientation attitudes of higher civil service

and the national goals such as e#uality"secularism, social 2ustice and democracy.

Bural farming families, lower income groups etc. have little representation in

these services. 5ometimes the attitude of civil servants is manifest in the bias

pre2udice for their social class.

Traditionally the Indian civil services are considered to be obsessed with rules

regulations, having lac3 of initiative dynamism and resistant to new changes

ideas. 0olicies such reservation system in the recruitment to civil services have

failed to some drastic e%ects on the Hattitude1 of the civil servants as once part of

the civil service those from lower castes are also no di%erent behaviourally from

the rest.

In the Western nations, economic development and prosperity too3 place later

than the political and administrative development. They too3 years to achieve it

but in India we have sought to achieve this in shortest possible time and that too

without any forceful or totalitarian measures. 5o in India the administrator is

seen as an agent of moderni$ation/ and social change/.

The simultaneous presence of e&treme impersonality and susceptibility towards

the e&ternal pressures is one of the parado&es of Indian administration. It is most

unfortunate that the administrators have lost much of their credibility today in

India. This has to be changed by clearly de*ning the domains/ of both

administration politics and stic3ing to it in true spirit.

Ecolog and Administration

The bureaucratic approach is primarily based on Weber1s ideal type ofbureaucracy. Though this model was #uite useful for comparing the


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bureaucracies of the western countries it could not serve the purpose for the

developing countries. The reason being that the western countries had stable

polities and the conditions prevailing there resembled those assumed for

classic/ bureaucratic system suggested by Weber. 5uch were not the conditions

prevailing in the underdeveloped countries. 5o after the World War II when there

was an urge to study the admninistrative systems of developing countries thebureaucratic approach based primarily on Hstructural1 Hfunctional1 aspects of

bureaucracy- could not serve the purpose well. When the technical assistance

programmes etc. were started for the developing countries in post war times,

there was a natural curiosity on the part of the donor agencies to 3now what

type of administrative systems these developing countries had and whether they

would be able to absorb the 3ind of assistance being provided to them. 4ence

studies were started to study administration of developing countries and the

private foundations such as Ford Foundation sponsored such studies. The

features of administrative systems in these countries were #uite di%erent from

those of developed countries and approaches such as bureaucratic approach

were found lac3ing. Thus came the necessity for developing a new approachtowards the comparative public administration. Two approaches emerged as a

result of this necessity. The *rst one was ecological approach and the second one

was the development administration approach.

The Ecological Approach to Comparative Public Administration

The basic assumption of ecological approach is that administration does not e&ist

in vacuum. ureaucracy is one of the several basic institutions e&isting in the

society. Thus inter"relationships of bureaucracy with other sub"systems e&isting

in the society is the cru& to understand its Hstructures1 and Hfunctions1. These

other sub"systems could be political, social, cultural and economic etc.

ureaucracy as an administrative sub"system e&ists with these other sub"

systems in a society. Thus for understanding the structure, role and functions of

bureaucracy, the in=uence of these political, socio"cultural and economic sub"

systems on bureaucracy and vice"versa are to be studied. It has to be noted that

in ecological approach two way interaction between a system and its

environment is considered i. e. it is not only the in=uence of the e&ternal

environment on the system but also the system1s modifying in=uence on the

e&ternal environment. 9ost of the scholars have concentrated on the social

environmental in=uence on the administrative sub"system rather than

bureaucracy1s in=uence on the social environment. 5o there is a need to develop

a more balanced interactional analysis.

The ecological approach can be traced bac3 to the writings of ohn 9. Gaus

whose wor3 in turn too3 inspiration from the sociologists. Gaus was primarily

interested in 3nowing 3ey ecological factors for understanding the American

0ublic Administration and he found some factors #uite useful e. g. people, place,

physical social technology, wishes ideas, catastrophe personality. Bobert

8ahl, Boscoe 9artin and Fred W. Biggs are other prominent writers in this *eld.

According to Biggs, only the studies which are empirical, nomothetic and

ecological are truly/ comparative. 7cological approach believes that as all

plants can not grow in all climates similarly all administrative subsystems can

not be successful in all ecological settings.
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According to Ferrel 4eady, the environment of bureaucracy can be understood in

terms of concentric circles/ with bureaucracy at the center as shown below :

5ince bureaucracy is most closely in interaction with the political sub"system,

that1s why, the circle depicting the political system is the innermost circle. 5ince

the larger society can be considered a general system it shown as the largest

circle. The circle depicting economic sub"system lies in between.

For doing a comparative analysis of di%erent nations, they can be classi*ed into

some basic categories based on some Hdecisive1 environmental factors. These

factors could be of social and economic nature. ased on this approach the

di%erent nations could be classi*ed into developed/ and developing/ countries.

This approach uses development/ as the basis of classifying various countries.

4owever this approach does not put countries in two polar e&tremes of

developed/ and developing/, rather the countries are located on a continuum,

with the former placed on upper scale of development and the latter on relatively

lower scale of development. This approach is called the development

administration approach. As can be seen the development administration

approach itself is largely ecological.

ne of very important approaches in ecological analysis is structural J

functionalism/. Biggs, the foremost theorist in the *eld of comparative public

administration has used this approach to understand the administrative sub"systems in the conte&t of Htransitional societies1. We will *rst study what is

structural J functional approach and then move on to the Biggsian models their

criti#ues.

The $tructural 3 Functional Approach To Ecological Analsis

The structural J functional approach assumes that every function in society is

performed by some structure or to be more precise Hsocial structure1-. A

structure may perform di%erent functions and a function may also be performed

by a combination of structures. In this approach a social structure is considered

as any pattern of behavior which has become a standard feature of a social

system/. An interesting point is that structures may be concrete/ li3e


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governmental departments etc. or may be abstracts/ li3e Hstructure of

authority1.

The social structures having resemblance to each other in di%erent

environmental settings may perform di%erent functions and so if some society

doesn1t have some particular structures then it doesn1t mean that some

functions would also be missing from that society. Also the social structures are

not always unifunctional. In traditional societies a structure may perform many

functions e. g. administrative political functions are performed by more or less

the same institutions. All this shows that structures and functions do not have a

one to one relationship between them and the actual relationship should be

determined by empirical research for di%erent conte&tual settings. This approach

focuses on the Hinteractions1 among various structures of the social system and

of the social system with its e&ternal environment. According to this approach

there are some pre"re#uisite structures and functions for the survival of the

society. Biggs mentions *ve functional re#uisites for any society as well as for

the administrative sub"system:

'. 7conomic

>. 5ocial

. +ommunicational

D. 5ymbolic

E. 0olitical

It was 8wight Waldo in '(EE who *rst all suggested using the structural M

functionalism in the *eld of public administration. 7ver since Biggs has been the

foremost user of this approach. sing this approach he came out with his Agraria

M Industria typology and the models of Fused"0rismatic"8i%racted societies. The

structural J functional approach proves that though indigenous structures and

institutions of non"Western nations may prove to be dysfunctional from the

Western standards still they are functional in their own social settings. It will be

further discussed while discussing the Biggsian models.

Current $tatus of Comparative Public Administration

The contemporary comparative public administrationis concerned with the

comple&ities of social change in the conte&t of moderni$ation and diversity.

These comple&ities are:

'. What really is moderni$ationN

>. What role does diversity play in moderni$ationN

. What are the conte&t speci*c processes of moderni$ationN

D. What is the di%erence between cultures which have moderni$ed

themselvesN

In=uenced by the events at the international level, the comparative public

administration has moved from the theoretical/ emphasis of the Hclassical era1
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to a Hnew1 empirical/ emphasis that guides in ma3ing better decisions in public

policies and management. For this to happen the modern governments should

3now what s3ills and institutions are needed.

The classical/ comparative public administration generally from '()' to '(;?-

stressed transfer of Western technology to the non"western world, e&port of the

ideas of democracy, moderni$ation of the administration through e&ternal

support, training by foreign practitioners and setting of institutes of public

administration etc. The classical era produced mostly the rhetorical debates

about what constituted development and how it could be achieved. An

appreciation of the local cultures and environments was emphasi$ed while

framing the development policies but the only few developing countries

developed with the help of foreign aid or comparative public administration

model building. The primary reason was that the developing countries didn1t

have the 3ind of infrastructure which the 9arshall aid receiving countries of

7urope had at that time. 5o the success of 9arshall 0lan could not be replicated

elsewhere. In developing countries, comparative studies used to be con*ned tothe case studies, such as the case study of 0a3istani civil service by raibanti.

The comparative lessons were often o%ered but were rarely followed in later

studies.

The focus of foreign aid programmes have now shifted from direct government

assistance to non"govemmental organi$ations and private agencies. The e%orts

have been on reducing the role of state in direct productive activities. Trade and

investment are being seen as the solutions to nation building. If the government

receives aid now then it is for downsi$ing the civil service and not primarily for

reinvigorating basic governmental functions of budgeting, personnel

management etc.

Fewer resources and increased doubts about the applicability of theory building

the focus of new +0A has shifted from constructing new theories to application of

the already e&isting ones. In contrast to the past debates over middle range

vOssystems theory, the new comparative public administration has been on

*nding solutions to policy problems. The comparative public administration is no

longer determined by the =ow of 5 foreign aid money. Funding for

administrative studies is no truly multilateral e. g. through !80, the World

an3, the I9F and 7.

The comparative public administration is moving towards a reinvigorated

functionalism stimulated by the growth of new public management. Thecomparative focus has been on practical issues of policy and administration e. g.

performance based procurement, performance budgeting and performance

management. The International 0ublic 9anagement !etwor3 I09!- through its

two 2ournals International 0ublic 9anagement ournal I09- and International

0ublic 9anagement Beview I09B-, promotes the comparative public

management as one of the focus of comparative administration. The 0ublic

9anagement Institute at +atholic niversity in elgium has developed a set of

performance indicators to compare national level performance of public sector in

policy areas such as health and public welfare. The changing world order has

created a set of conditions in which the international interest in the results of

public sector reform is increasing rapidly.
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The comparative public administration now focuses on non"governmental

structures, international bureaucracies and post"bureaucratic structures such as

the nongovernmental organi$ations and public private partnerships. !ew

challenges li3e sub"nationalism, ethnicity, bal3ani$ation etc. are the important

concerns of comparative public administration now which were never there for

the traditional +0A studies. The traditional +0A literature did not have muchempirical data due to lac3 of awareness about di%erent systems while due to

enhanced information 3nowledge, the new +0A doesn1t face any such

constraints. 7arlier the national governmental organi$ations such as the 0lanning

institutions, national bureaucracy etc used to be the study point while the new

trends in +0A emphasi$e even the study of supranational organi$ations such as

WT, the World an3 and the I9F. This shows that now international bureaucracy

and global administrative systems are being studied and not 2ust the

bureaucracy con*ned to a nation. @iberali$ation, privati$ation and globali$ation

have in=uenced the spirit of +0A to a large e&tent. This in=uence has made de"

bureaucrati$ation as one of the focus.

The human3ind today faces global problems for which global solutions are to be

found. This has forced public administration to be truly globalised and have an

international outloo3 rather than a narrow country speci*c view. Terrorism,

gender issues, environmental concerns, civil societyinitiatives participation,

human rights, labour laws, self help groups, trade barriers etc. are some such

issues which have to be tac3led globally. This aspect has also helped evolve the

new +0A outloo3.

4iggsian Models and their Criti5ues

To study the administrative sub"systems and the problems associated with them,

social scientists and the scholars of public administration have constructedmodels. Fred 6, 4iggs developed some models to stud the

administrative sub"sstem of the developing countries, -n 789 4iggs

gave the Agraria"lndustria model,

Agrarian and -ndustrial Model

Biggs classi*ed societies into agricultural and industrial societies i. e. the

agrarian and the industrial. The models were developed to study the political and

administrative transitions in such societies. Imperial +hina and contemporary

America were the prototypes of these agraria and industria ideal types

respectively. Biggs assumed that all societies transformed from agrarian to

industria at some point of time in history. The features of the agraria were

described as follows:

'. Ascriptive, particularistic and di%use patterns were predominant in

such societies.

>. @imited social and spatial mobility

. Belatively simple and stable occupational di%erentiation

D. 7&istence of di%erential strati*cation system

$imilarl; the characteristics of a modern industrial societ i, eindustria )ere given as follo)s:
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'. niversalistic, speci*c and achievement norms were predominat in

such societies.

>. 4igher social and spatial mobility

. Well developed occupational system insulated from other social

structures

D. 7galitarian/ class system based on generali$ed patterns of

occupational achievement.

E. 0revalence of associations/, i. e., functionally speci*c, non"ascriptive

structure.

4owever it was observed that these two polar type models were not helpful in

studying the transitional societies i. e. the societies which are not yet fully

industriali$ed but are far more industriali$ed in comparison to the agrarian

economies. To overcome this problem Biggs developed an e#uilibrium model

transitia/ for the transitional societies but this was less developed.

The agrarian"industria model )as critici


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models only for heuristic purposes and their e&act characteristics are not found

in any actual society.

Prismatic societies have follo)ing features )hich are in bet)een those

of fused and di&racted societies:

'. In between Huniversalism1 of di%racted societies and Hparticularism1 offused societies, the prismatic societies are characteri$ed by Hselectivism1 i.

e. somewhere between universalism and particularism.

>. 5imilarly intermediate between Hachievement1 norm of di%racted societies

and Hascription1 norm of fused societies the prismatic societies are

characteri$ed by Hattainment1 norms i. e. people progress in society partly

by achievement and partly by ascription.

. etween Hfunctional speci*city1 and Hfunctional di%useness1,

Hpolyfunctionalism1 was coined by Biggs to e&plain multifunctionality of

social structures in prismatic societies.

The focus of this model of Biggs is the study of administrative sub"system sala of

prismatic societies and its interaction with other social structures and their

environment because the primary concern of Biggs has been the study of

administrative problems of the developing or transitional societies.

The basic characteristics of the prismatic societies are:

7, 'eterogeneit

4eterogeneity refers to the simultaneous presence, side by side, of #uite

di%erent 3inds of systems, practices and viewpoints/. It means presence of

features of both fused and di%racted societies e. g. presence of sophisticatedintellectual class in urban areas while in rural areas still traditional rural elders

have many political, religious, administrative roles etc. This may happen due to

uneven social change. 5imilarly the administrative sub"system of prismatic

societies sala/ e&ists along with modern bureau/ and traditional courts/ or

chambers/.

=, Formalism

Formalism means the incongruence between the formally prescribed and the

e%ectively practiced i. e. between the norms and the realities. pposite of

formalism is called realism. For e&ample, the rules may prescribe a certain set of

behavior by the government oCcials while they act in a di%erent way

considerably. The di%racted and fused societies have high degree of realism. 8ue

to formalism, the public oCcials have lot of discretion in implementing the laws

of the land. The broad reason why such formalism develops in a prismatic society

is lac3 of ability of the society to guide the performance of the institutions in

society i. e. lac3 of awareness in public, lac3 of commitment towards the societal

ob2ectives etc. This type of formalistic behavior encourages corruption in a

prismatic society.

8ue to such a formalism"realism/ dichotomy between the prismatic and

di%racted societies, attempts towards administrative reformsin di%racted

societies lead to the desired changes in administrative system however in theprismatic societies as the public oCcials indulge in behavior which is #uite
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di%erent from the oCcially prescribed one, all the attempts to bring about

administrative reform have only a super*cial impact.

>, Overlapping

It refers to the e&tent to which formally di%erentiated structures of a di%racted

society coe&ist with the undi%erentiated structures of a fused type. In di%ractedsociety there is no overlapping as the various structures of the social system

perform the speci*c functions in a more or less autonomous way while in a fused

society all the functions are performed by the same social structure which is

generally the +hief 7&ecutive of that society- so there is no scope of overlapping

in fused societies also. 4owever in a prismatic society though modern

di%erentiated/ social structures are created still the society is dominated by the

undi%erentiated structures. In the administrative subsystem sala/ overlapping

means that the actual administrative action is determined by Hnon"

administrative1 criteria such as social, cultural, political, economic or religious

factors etc. verlapping is manifest in a prismatic society by many features e. g.

nepotism, poly"communalism or clects/, poly"normavativism, lac3 of consensus,

separation of authority and control. These are described below:

a. ?epotism

In contrast to the di%racted society, in prismatic society the considerations of

caste, religion, family and loyalty etc. are the deciding factors in

oCcialrecruitment. This is there despite the fact that oCcially these criteria are

prohibited. In di%racted society universalism is the criteria for oCcial

recruitment. This is due to the fact that in prismatic society selectivism/ which

is intermediate between universalism/ and particularism/ prevails i. e.

sometimes universalism is followed while at others particularism is followed. Thisall depends on the people to be selected and favours they *nd with the selecting

authority.

b. Pol"Communalism or Clects

0oly"communalism refers to the simultaneous e&istence in a society of various

ethnic, religious and racial groups which remain #uite hostile to each other while

in e&istence. These groups represent various interest groups e&isting in the

community. These groups are termed as clects/ by Biggs and they are

characteri$ed by attainment norms, selectivism and poly"functionalism. +lects

are functionally di%use and carry out semi"traditional type functions but clects

are organi$ed in a Hmodern1 way.

According to Biggs, ecological factors a%ect the administrative system also, so

the e&istence of clects a%ects Hsala1 also. As a result the public oCcials develop a

loyalty toward the community more than that toward the government. In the

oCcial recruitment, dominant minority community gets disproportionate

representation. To balance it #uota system/ is started but it results in mutual

hostility among the various groups e&isting in the society.

Puite often, the sala oCcials develop close ne&us with some particular clects and

start functioning as their Hagents1. This a%ects the functioning of the government

very badly and generates corruption.

c. Pol"?ormativism 3 @ac0 of consensus
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0oly"normativism is a uni#ue feature of the prismatic societies. This means that

the traditional behavior pattern co"e&ists with Hnew1 sets of norms. This results in

lac3 of consensus on norms of behavior. This a%ects the Hsala1 also. 5ala oCcials

though publicly claim to follow ob2ective, universalistic and achievement oriented

norms actually follow sub2ective, particularistic and ascriptive behavior. The

recruitment of public oCcials is generally done from certain groups only. 7ven ifrecruitment is done based on merit the career advancement of the oCcials is

a%ected by ascriptive values. The relationship between the citi$ens and sala

oCcials is also a%ected by poly"normativism. Though the citi$ens e&pect the

public oCcials to be honest and rule abiding yet they do not have these virtues

and avail bene*ts out of turn.

d. $eparation of Authorit and Control

In a prismatic society the authority and control structures are separated. Though

such type of societies have highly centrali$ed and concentrated authority

structures in the society still the control system is highly locali$ed and dispersed.

This means that there is a separation of de"2ure/ authority i. e. legitimate

power- from de"facto/ control i. e. illegitimate power-. This control system *nds

roots in society1s culture of poly"communalism, clects and poly"normativism. This

a%ects the politician"administrator relationship also in a prismatic society and

results in unbalanced polity/ in which the sala oCcials e&tensively in=uence the

policy ma3ing process. This upper hand of bureaucrats in the e&ercise of power

ma3es the political process wea3 and the administration becomes unresponsive

in prismatic societies. According to Biggs in such scenario if the public

administration in transitional societies is strengthened then it bloc3s the political

development. The sala oCcials become too powerful but wea3 as administrators.

This results in nepotism in recruitment, corruption and ineCciency in theadministration of laws.

!a


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to the public oCcials. 5uch an atmosphere breeds corruption by the public

oCcials to increase their income.

Eogenous; Endogenous and E5ui"genetic Changes in societies

After considering the main features of prismatic societies we now turn our

attention to studying the process of change in societies. If change is causedprimarily by e&ternal pressures li3e technical assistance programmes the change

is called e&ogenous/, on the other hand the change emanating due to internal

processes is called endogenous/ change. 7#ui"genetic/ changer results when

both e&ternal and internal pressures for change act in e#ual measure. In

prismatic societies both e&ogenous and endogenous changes ta3e place however

if the process of di%raction is more e&ogenetic then the prismatic phase has

more formalism, heterogeneity and overlapping. 5uch societies are called e&o"

prismatic/ societies. In endo"prismatic/ societies the prismatic phase is more

endogenetic and the e%ective/ behavior precedes the formation of new

institutions while in e&o"prismatic societies *rst the formal institutions are

created and then it is e&pected that the behavior of social structures will change

according to the newly prescribed norms. @atter is the case generally in

developing countries which try to absorb the e&ternal pressures in minimum

possible time but actually result in more formalism, heterogeneity and

overlapping.

Criticisms of 4iggsian Models

The 4iggsian Prismatic 3 $ala Model )as critici


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has Hprismatic1 socio"cultural sub"systems while #uite Hdi%racted1

bureaucratic sub"system. 5uch is the case in countries li3e India and

9alaysia. Thus prismatic society can not be considered to have all the

components as prismatic, there may be cases when some social structures

in such society are relatively di%racted in comparison to other. 5o there is

a need to consider di%erent mi&ed categories/ in prismatic model.

D. It can not be generali$ed, as has been done in Biggsian models, that

formalism always enhances the power/ of the bureaucrats or that power

of administrators is indirectly proportional to the administrative

e%ectiveness. 9uch depends on the way the terms li3e power/ are

de*ned.

E. Inter"relationships among several structural conditions should have been

ta3en into account by Biggs to ma3e his study more e%ective. B. 5. 9ilne

has tal3ed of certain structural characteristics which have led to the

emergence of other structural features e. g. according to him under two

conditions bureaucrats may not become powerful. First, if there is a culture

of civil service neutrality and second, if the politicians could be suCciently

powerful so that they control the bureaucrats. In India both these

conditions e&ist to some degree, in 0a3istan the *rst one is there but not

the second while in 0hilipines the second one e&ists not the *rst one. 5o

di%erent analytical categories need to be made out of the uniform/

prismatic model to ta3e into account the structural variations in di%erent

countries and to avoid the general statements regarding the transitional

societies.

). verlapping is not necessarily dysfunctional and sometimes it brings along

with it new ideas and interesting change/. In fact countries li3e nited5tates sometimes set up two or more competitive agencies whose areas of

function will overlap and will result in some wastage but will also bring out

some new innovations. 9ichael +ro$ier supports this view. ohn

9ontgomery says that one of e%ective ways of administrative reforms is to

duplicate functions, to start competition with old bureaucracy or to bypass

it altogether. Thus overlapping per se does not always mean

dysfunctionality and wastage of resources and Biggs should have

considered this aspect to increase the heuristic purpose of his study.

Prismatic Model 3 Trul ?egative or ?egative from 6estern !ias

The social behavior in a prismatic society has been assumed to be negative in

itself by Biggs. 4e has used terms li3e Hnormlessness1, Hritualism1, Hmimetic1,

Hmyths1 and double tal31 etc. to show the functioning of the prismatic societies.

bviously the use of such terms shows that the basic character of prismatic

societies has been assumed to be negative. This shows that Biggs sees

everything associated with prismatic society as a dyfunctionality. While in a

di%racted society the aberrations have been e&plained with much more

sophisticated terms li3e Hmar3et imperfections1 and Hfrictions1.

Biggs Theory seems to have put the nited 5tates society and its society as a

standard model and lac3 of development in developing countries has been ta3en

as dysfunctional. 4e chose only those actions in a prismatic society which appear

to violate the standards of economy, eCciency and morality of the West while


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the bad economics, ineCciency and immorality of the West have not been

mentioned. 4is model sees only negative aspects of political, economic, social

and administrative sub"systems in developing societies. 9onroe points out

American social structures can not be ta3en as standard di%racted society and

they have a number of prismatic characteristics e. g. in civil rights matter the

true spirit of American constitution is violated, corruption in highly placed oCces,regulatory agencies often indulge in discriminatory behavior, ta& loopholes etc.

This means that Biggs has underestimated the prismatic traits of even relatively

di%racted societies and as a result has discussed the behavior of social

structures in di%racted societies only on the basis of oCcially prescribed

behavior. If analytical categories of e%ective/ behavior in relatively di%racted

societies are created and then compared with the prismatic model then the

negative character of prismatic societies would not be as much negative. 5o, to

see the true characteristics of prismatic societies and their sub"systems the

academic analysis has to be freed from the Western bias.

Formalism 3 Contet decides the functionalitAccording to Biggs, formalism refers to the degree to which incongruence e&ists

between the formally prescribed and the e%ectively practiced. Biggs has

considered this feature of prismatic societies as dysfunctional to the

achievement of public policy goals of the prismatic societies as it leads to oCcial

corruption, arbitrariness, ineCciency etc. 4owever for 2udging whether a

structure is eufunctional or dysfunctional, it has to be seen in the ecological

conte&t. This important aspect has been neglected by Biggs. Biggs has e#uated

formalism with negative development/. 4owever it has been the e&perience of

development practitioners that strict adherence to the rules and regulations i. e

realism showed by the bureaucrats can prove to be a hindrance for the

development. 7ven in an atmosphere where little respect is there for the formally

prescribed rules and regulations, formalism can be e&ploited to further the

ob2ectives of the government by freeing the government of red tapism and

ma3ing the bureaucratic process faster. 6alsan has propounded the concept of

positive formalism/ to bring into highlight the positive development ushered in

by such formalism. Interestingly B. 5. 9ilne has gone to the e&tent of

recommendingtrainingthe civil servants in positive formalism as far as

practicable. All this discussion highlights the fact that the functionality/ of

formalism is decided by the conte&t in which it is being used. It may be

dysfunctional if used in the conte&t of classic/ Weberian type of bureaucracies

e. g. e&isting in France, Germany etc. but could be eufunctional/ anddevelopmental/ if practiced to a practicable limit in developing countries li3e

India.

Conclusion

The bureaucratic approach and the ecological approach to study the comparative

public administrationdi%er in regard to the number of ecological elements

incorporated in them. In Weberian scheme of things the administrative sub"

system was considered with reference to the nature of the socio"cultural norms

of authority system while the impact of economic environment was only s3etchy

but in Biggsian models the socio"cultural and economic aspects of the

administrative ecology are discussed in much more wider conte&t. As far asinteraction between political and administrative systems are considered both the
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scholars have given ample attention to it. oth Weber and Biggs have chosen

nations at a particular stage of their socio"economic development as the sub2ects

of their study. Weber studied bureaucracy/ of West while Biggs was mainly

interested in studying the problems of administrative sub"systems sala/ of

developing countries in transition. The administrative patterns of fused or

di%racted societies were not his prime consideration. oth Weber and Biggs lac3in their comparative/ studies to e&plain development/ in various sub"systems

particularly administrative sub"system. Weber1s assumption of unilateral

development towards bureaucrati$ation/ can not help solve present day

problems while Biggs contribution to development administration has been

outside his ecological models.

Biggs1 contribution to the study of comparative public administration has been

phenomenal. As Ferrel 4eady has mentioned mere ac#uaintance with all his

writings on comparative theory is in itself not an insigni*cant accomplishment/.

The ideal type models of Biggs have in=uenced much research in comparative

public administration.

They are designed to suggest certain relationships among the di%erent variables

they incorporate. The rigour of scienti*c theory should not be e&pected in these

framewor3s. 7cological models help only #ualitative comparisons among various

societies. Their utility is limited as they use impressionist categories li3e more or

less prismatic or the problems faced while measuring di%raction. In spite of these

and other operational problems, the ecological model has brought consciousness

of interaction between administrative system and the social environment around

it.

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