Role of Public Administration in Developing Countries

Examining the Role and Improvement of Public Administration in Developing Countries

by Dr. Yoginder Singh*,

- Published in Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, E-ISSN: 2230-7540

Volume 16, Issue No. 2, Feb 2019, Pages 1058 - 1060 (3)

Published by: Ignited Minds Journals


ABSTRACT

Public administration is an important aspect of the administration which exists in the political system and implement the policies which are formulated by the political executives. It does not only help in policy implementation but also in policy formulation. As far as developing countries are concerned, the role of public administration becomes more crucial because have to work for the overall development of every section of the society. The present paper highlights the role public administration in developing countries and effective suggestions to improve its working. This paper is totally based on secondary data and collected information from research papers, books, websites etc.

KEYWORD

public administration, developing countries, administration, political system, policies, policy implementation, policy formulation, overall development, suggestions, secondary data

INTRODUCTION

Public Administration occupies a middle place in the complex and rapid changing modern society. Its scientific study is concerned with the role of administration in such a society. Its actual comprises in the provision of services and regulation of inter-group relations in society. Basically, socio-economic welfare, maintenance of law and order, security, application of science and technology and all the other functions depend upon the efficiently functioning of the public administration. Thus, public administration covers all the aspects of the developing countries and play crucial role for the upliftment of the society. The developing countries are those countries which are in the stage of transformation from agricultural society to industrial society. Developing countries are also known as the ‗Third world countries‘ which are usually find in the Asia, Africa and Latin America.

MEANING OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

Public administration concerns the management of government agencies that carry out public policies for fulfilling the state objectives in the public interest.

DEFINITIONS

According to E. N. Gladden, ―Public administration is concerned with the administration of the government‖. Characteristics of Public Administration of Developing Countries

1. The Imitative pattern of Public Administration

The pattern of public administration in developing country is imitative means the basic pattern of administrative structure of the developing countries is inherited from the model of developed countries. Thus, sometimes it creates difficulty for the government to fulfill the interest of the people. So, it should be evolved according to the needs of the native people.

2. An Acute Shortage of Skilled and Trained Manpower

Efficient bureaucrats are required for any country in order to fulfill the targets which are formulated by the political executives but in the developing countries, the bureaucrats are not sufficiently trained which becomes the main hurdle for not functioning efficiently. Administrative training increases the capability of the bureaucrats which help them to work effectively.

3. Bureaucracy is very much concerned with Non-Productive Operators

Bureaucracy in the developing country is much concerned with non-developmental goals because it uses the administration as a tool to increase its personal power instead of functioning ethically. The bureaucracy must indulge itself in the development goals or productive work for the socio-economic development of the society.

the world. The rules and regulations are formulated just to implement the government policies and programs so that public interest can be fulfilled easily. But there is a lack of effective implementation of the policies in the developing countries due to which citizen‘s interest is not accomplished. Basically, the main reason behind it the unethical behavior of the bureaucrats. They try to fulfill their own interest rather than public interest.

5. Operational Autonomy

Bureaucrats in the developing countries enjoys high degree of operational autonomy because they have technical knowledge in the administrative matters. Moreover, they also help the political executives in formulating the policies. Apart from that they do not have effective control over them which helps them to dominate administrative system. Thus, most of the time these bureaucrats misuse their power just to fulfill their own interest.

6. Over-lapping in the Political and administrative Functions

There is an over-lapping in the political and administrative functioning of the developing countries. As the bureaucracy has technical and professional knowledge of administration so, it interferes in the functioning of the political executives because they may have not technical knowledge to formulate the socio-economic policies. Therefore, they have to rely on the bureaucracy which ultimately dominant the political structure as well.

Role of Public Administration in Developing Countries

1. Public Administration has to meet the rising expectations of the people

Government of the developing countries is expected to provide basic amenities to the various sections of the society such as poor people, women, aged person, children etc. Therefore, these people have to look to government for their betterment. For this purpose, bureaucracy helps the political executive to formulate good policies (education, health, employment) for the welfare of the targeted persons and gets the policy implemented to get the maximum outputs. Thus, bureaucracy play crucial role to improve living standard of the people.

2. Role in Socio-Economic Development

Developing countries are those countries which are in the stage of transformation from agriculture to industries. These countries may have lack of infrastructure, technology, resources, trained man-power. So, government of these countries has a accomplish its objectives. As the developing countries has the limited resources so these kinds of policies are framed through which the resources can equally be distributed among the citizens and help to improve their socio-economic development.

3. Effective performance of traditional functions which support developmental effort

The traditional function of government is to maintain law and order. This function is prerequisite for the development of the society or we can say that there is no development of the society without maintaining the law and order. In the developing countries, this traditional function is so difficult to maintain because most of the sections of society do agitation just to fulfill their demands. Thus, it becomes difficult for the government to maintain law and order all the time which create hurdles in the process of development. In this context, it has to make strict rules and regulations to maintain law and order so that development of the society can be increased.

4. Developing a sense of nationhood

No country can develop without the sense of nationhood but most of the nations do not have it due to ethnic and communal conflicts, castes and regional rivalries and all these things threaten the development, stability and national unity. Therefore, to create a sense of nationhood among the citizens of the developing countries. In this direction, bureaucracy play a vital role in the preservation of national unity and tries to resolve all the disputes of the sections of the society.

5. Helps democracy survive

In most of the developing countries, the democracy is not as strong as it needs to be because people of these countries do not have much experience of the democratic system. Therefore, these countries require the support of administration for the survival of democracy. The administration maintains law and order and democracy at the time of election of these countries. Moreover, it also helps the political executives to formulate policies and to get the policy implemented effectively.

SUGGESTIONS

1. The administrator of the developing countries should be given training time to time so that they can function efficiently and get the maximum result of the policy. 3. The political and administrative structure should be established according to need of the native people means which can suit them and function smoothly. 4. The administrator needs to be more accountable for its functioning. 5. Corruption should be removed from the administration so that the needy person can get the benefits of the welfare policies.

CONCLUSION

Efficient functioning of public administration is required for the development of any nation but there is need to make the administrator more capable and accountable. The government of the developing country adopt new economic policies, technology and different methods of development which ultimately increases the responsibility of public administration. Therefore, nowadays public administration has become more crucial part of any developing country and no country can not even imagine of development without proper functioning of the public administration. But there should be proper control over the high power of bureaucracy so that they can work ethically.

REFERENCES

Polinaidu, S. (2017). ―Public Administration‖, Galgotia PVT. LTD, New Delhi, pp. 27-33. Laxmikant, M. (2011). ―Public Administration‖, Macgraw Hill Education, New Delhi, pp. 10-11. https://www.owlgen.com/question/discuss-the-role-of-public-administration-in-developing-societies https://article1000.com/features-public-administration-developing-countries/ https://www.un.org/press/en/1996/19960412.ga9056.html https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1754-7121.1965.tb01212.x

Dr. Yoginder Singh*

Teaching Assistant in Political Science, Regional Centre Lula Ahir, Rewari & Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Haryana dharam.jajoria@gmail.com