Professor Dr. Mohammad Mohabbat Khan Senior most Professor University of Dhaka

Political Science and Public Administration (Part 2)Lecture-6: Public Administration in Developing Countries Professor Dr. Mohammad Mohabbat Khan Senior most Professor University of Dhaka Department of Public Administration Dhaka -1000 Bangladesh

Inherent Challenges to WesternBureaucratic Models • Some administrators have assumed that the ethos, behavior and technology of western bureaucratic organizations can be superimposed upon less developed societies without the necessity of changing the traditional ideological and structural alignments of western practices. • Indeed, in some societies one finds highly bureaucratized governmental organizations, often the product of British or French rule. It is the underlying class structures and social values of these societies, however, that govern the goals and behavioural consequences of these bureaucracies.

Although western technology and values have been introduced, traditional ideology and institutions have provided subtle and pervasive resistance to change. • The western model may provide an ideal for organizational development, and its clinical use may help less developed countries (L.D.C.s) achieve goals they have set for themselves, but the model rests on certain normative assumptions about society, man, motivation and time not found in non-western societies.

Presthus uses the term "welfare bureaucracy“ to emphasize certain basic differences in objectives, values and behaviour between the western Weberian model and the realiazation of the concept of bureaucracy in a less developed society. He claims that in traditional society the demands and conditions of status and class bases of authority as opposed to those of skill tend to dominate.

Recruitment based on achievement rather than ascription is an indication of admistrative modernization (also one of the pattern variables of role definition according to Talcott Parsons) that applies in western societies, but is invalid in L.D.Cs. • In such countries ascription and achievement are accepted adjuncts to one another. Limited educational opportunities have tended to reinforce associations of authority, status and class which are also perpetuated through administrative structures.

Western organizational theory takes the need for decentralization for granted, to meet the demand that authority be delegated to those parts of the organization qualified to handle given problems. Within LDCs however, traditionally ingrained attitudes towards status and power undermine willingness to take initiatives and accept responsibility within different levels of organization. Organizations are often permeated by a general "upward-looking" posture, in which even high-level administrators seek formal authority from above before acting.

In many LDCs,the power of a signature is a vital symbol of centralization and of the authority delegated to an individual. Frequent interruptions of senior administrators by subordinates requesting their signature not only reinforce the "upward looking" psychology of the organization, but take time which could be used effectively elsewhere. • A better understanding of an organization's climate in a L.D.C. can be gained by viewing the organization in terms of the prevailing conception of time: both the sense of time and the way it is valued in L.D.C.s are quite different from western assumptions in relation to time.

Rather than viewed as a scarce resource, time is considered as a relatively abundant commodity, measured in long-term sequences, such as seasons. Western man is personally concerned with time which he measures out in hours and days, whereas in LDCs on the whole man apparently feels little or no personal affinity with time. • This conception of time is bound up with fatalism, based on the proven conclusion that man has little control over his own destiny. The western belief that man can shape his future by the application of logic, rationality and time is usually out of context.

A different conception of time in LDCs contributes to a different conception of motivation. Western expectations of participation in decision making, with the implicit acceptance of responsibility and resultant benefit of higher morale, contribute towards motivation in western organizations. • An authoritarian administrative structure in a L.D.C. precludes such a basis for motivation. On the other hand, motivation in such countries may be enhanced by highly structured interpersonal relationships and by centralized authority patterns.

Autocratically administered systems often enjoy support among personnel at all levels. In LDCs, motivation may be positively correlated with authoritarian leadership and a minimum of participation in the western sense of the term, again a reflection of status and class bases of authority. • Classical western administrative practices reflect their origin in a time of relative stability of environment. Their intent is to stabilize, i.e. impose order on, the environment, within a framework of fixed conditions, goals and resources.

In a L.D.C, however, the environment tends to be far less stable than that of a developed country. A closed administrative system which is designed for meeting deterministic ends is not appropriate for satisfying the shifting priorities and demand of a dynamic environment. • Under environmental conditions of intense dynamism, or crisis, the bureaucratic model becomes dysfunctional. Development administration is in a critical period and needs more ideas which, however, are bred less frequently within controlled environments.

The Emergence of Modern State • Given practical form by the new nation states of Western Europe such as France in the late Middle Ages or Prussia in the nineteenth century, the old state system rested on the idea that by concentrating power in a single head or center, the state itself could be sufficiently controlled and its environment sufficiently managed to achieve self-sufficiency or at least a maximum of self-sufficiency in a world which would inevitably be hostile or at best neutral toward each state's interests and in which alliances would reflect temporary coalitions of interests that should not be expected to last beyond that convergence. The old maxim: "No state has friends, only interests," typified that situation.

The first powerful nation-states were monarchies, advocates of the divine right of kings to protect central authority and power. After a series of modern revolutions, first in thought, led by people like Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, and Rousseau, and then in practice as articulated in The Federalist, kings were stripped of their exclusive powers and new power centers formed, presumably based upon popular citizenship and consent but in fact with the same centralized powers, only vested in representative assemblies and executive officers speaking in the name of the state.

Only in a few cases, where earlier dispersions of power had been constitutionalized, did they need to be taken into consideration. This led to the establishment of federations, forms of federalism that combined national supremacy with real constituent state powers, at least for purposes of foreign relations and usually defense. • The second defining element of the nation-state was its striving for homogeneity. Every state was to be convergent with its nation and every nation with its state. Where people did not fit easily into that procrustean bed, efforts were made to force them into it.

This was done either through internal pressure (as in France where the French government in the name of the state warred against Bretons, Occetanians, Provencals, and Languadocians, among others, even denying them the right to choose names for their children that did not appear on the official Francophone list), or external (as in the Balkans where small national states with minorities outside of their state boundaries regularly warred with one another in an effort to conquer the territories where their fellow nationals lived and either exterminate or expel those not of the same nationality).

As a result, modern wars were basically of two kinds, either imperialistic wars designed to enable more powerful states to become even more self-sufficient by seizing control of populations, territories and resources that could be used in that direction, or nationalist wars designed to reunite parts of the nation with the national state. • In the end, none of these three goals could be achieved. In many cases they were not achieved at all; in others they were achieved temporarily until those disadvantaged by them succeeded in revolting.

In still others they proved to be unachievable by any sustainable means, usually with a combination of all three factors that prevented their attainment. • As a result, the existing states in the world, 90 percent contain minorities of 15 percent of their population or more within their boundaries (like Croatia) and of the remaining 10 percent, almost all have large national minorities living outside of their state boundaries (like Somalia).

Since then, matters have gotten more complex, as we see by the great resurgence of ethnic conflict in one form or another throughout the world, a factor that has become one catalyst for the new paradigm in its search for ways to overcome those conflicts. • As we approach the end of the era of the politically sovereign nation-state, we also are beginning to recognize that state self-sufficiency, in reality was never achievable.

It is well to recall that modern economic liberalism, which was essentially based on the principle of free trade, emerged shortly after the emergence of modern statism with its economic basis in mercantilism which sought self-sufficiency, because of the problematic of mercantilism brought to the fore, inter alia, by the American revolution against Great Britain.

When that policy failed, imperialism replaced it -- for the powerful states -- as the means to the end of self-sufficiency. Imperialism failed by the middle of the twentieth century, not only because the subjugated peoples rejected it, but because a democratic moral sensibility came to affect the subjugators. So the world has had to find a new paradigm -- and it seems that we have.

Increasing Challenges and Pressures in Developing Countries • Developing Areas, Less Developed Countries, the Periphery, the Third World, the South, Emerging Markets—each of these conceptually blurry terms evokes regions of the world where living standards are below (often well below) the global average. • Developing countries have few financial and technical resources with which to limit the spread.

Recurring economic and political crises in various parts of the world, serious environmental problems, and widespread insecurity about the future have increased the gap between rich and poor, between countries and also within countries.

The problems have to a large extent been stabilized in developed countries that have been exposed to substance use for decades, in contrast to many developing countries and countries with former socialist economies . Alcohol use is rising rapidly in some of the developing regions : early onset and excessive drinking are reported; large increases in cigarette smoking are also documented . For illicit drugs, data are more difficult to obtain. Major increases in injecting drug use, which carries the highest health risks, are recorded: opiate injecting in eastern European countries and south and South-East Asia, and amphetamine injecting in many regions.

In Asia, Africa and Latin America, urban populations increased from 16% to 50% of the total. “Increased stressors and adverse events, such as overcrowded and polluted environments, poverty and dependence on a cash economy, high levels of violence and reduced social support” have deleterious consequences for mental health in general and substance use problems in particular, increasing the risk of heavy drinking. Half of the urban populations in low- and middle-income countries live in poverty, and tens of millions are homeless; 77% of Brazilian street children drink heavily.

Associated with poverty are unemployment, low education and deprivation, all contributing to higher prevalence of substance use disorders. In countries without organized social welfare agencies, the disruption of social networks is especially harmful. • Migration often results in unemployment and difficult living conditions with increased social stress, worsened by a lack of social support.

Developing countries believe they get a raw deal when it comes to international trade. These problems include • Relying on only one or two primary goods as their main exports; • They cannot control the price they get for these goods; • The price they pay for manufactured goods increases all the time; • As the value of their exports changes so much long term planning is impossible; • Increasing the amount of the primary good they produce would cause the world price to fall;

Developing countries that try to export manufactured goods find that trade barriers are put in their way. There are two types of trade barrier - quotas and tariffs. • A quota is a limit on the amount of goods a country can export to another country A tariff is a tax on imports • Other problems that developing countries face are they are short of the money that is needed to set up new businesses and industries. Also, developing countries have fewer people who have the wealth to buy the goods made in local industries.

The most important trade and environment problems in developing countries are: deforestation, desertification, degradation of coastal areas, over fishing, loss of wildlife and other biodiversity resources, land degradation, and the dumping (by other countries) of wastes, environmentally harmful products and obsolete technologies

Many Developing Countries have already acknowledged the need to integrate environmental considerations into their economic policies and poverty alleviation programmes. Several Developing Countries have established a National Environmental Management Programme (NEMP) or similar plan to strengthen institutions, monitor and enhance environmental quality, provide environmental education and raise public awareness. Significantly, however, trade-related environmental issues and environment-related trade issues have received little or no explicit mention in such plans.

Some of the issues under consideration in the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment affect the LDCs just as they affect other developing countries. Environmental requirements, for example, may restrict market access for LDC producers in the same way they do for those in relatively more advanced developing countries.

LDC producers, however, lack the capacity and flexibility to accommodate such requirements in their production processes. This problem has been exacerbated by the fact that their exports depend on a very limited number of items. • In other instances, trade-related environmental issues pose a special challenge to LDCs. Environmental degradation can reduce their capacity to generate export earnings in the future. The costs of any environmental degradation they may suffer tend to be compounded by their lack of economic diversification.

UNCTAD's Least Developed Countries 1998 Report concludes that "the strengthening of LDCs' capacities for policy analysis and better coordination between trade and environmental policies could help to reduce some of the obstacles to the achievement of sustainable development in LDCs.

With that goal in mind, and bearing in mind also the special characteristics of LDCs, special attention should be given to: • The introduction of effective conservation practices, bearing in mind that they tend to be ineffective unless they are preceded or accompanied by effective income-generation programs which meet the basic needs of the populations.

Multi-stakeholder approaches to multifaceted problems in specific sectors. • Projects designed and implemented at the grassroots level, in close cooperation with the developmental NGOs in LDCs. • Greater policy coherence on the part of the international donor community, in particular export promotion programmes should be accompanied by assistance to LDCs in identifying and complying with environmental requirements in the sectors concerned.

Projects in favour of smallholders and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). • Capacity building in the field of trade and environment, including UNCTAD's technical co-operation programme for LDCs."

A recent research study namely ‘Climate Change Threat: Developing Countries Lack Means to Acquire More Efficient Technologies’ conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado, confirms that even those advanced nations that are turning to more environmentally friendly technologies are worsening the outlook for global warming. Their economic growth is outstripping the increase in efficiency, and the demand for more cars, larger houses, and other goods and services is leading to ever-increasing emissions of carbon dioxide.

Many of the products these nations consume come from developing countries that are producing more but not gaining the wealth needed to increase efficiency. • As a result, most industrialized and developing countries are increasing their emissions of carbon dioxide. Overall, global emissions grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the 1990s and 3.3 percent from 2000 to 2006.

The study has implications for international climate change negotiations, such as this week's U.N. Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland. The United States and other technologically advanced nations are under pressure to reduce their per capita carbon dioxide emissions, while developing countries are being urged to adopt cleaner technology. The research suggests that both goals will be difficult to achieve.

In addition, if developing countries fail to become significantly more prosperous, they may be unable to protect their residents from some of the more dangerous impacts of climate change, such as sea-level rise and more-frequent droughts. • "Their populations and economic activities will not have the availability of resources, entitlements, social networks, and governance structures deemed particularly important ... for them to adapt to the impacts of climate change," the paper states.

The study also highlights the disparities in per capita emissions of carbon dioxide. Of the 72 countries analyzed, the team found that the advanced countries have a tiny share of the world's population, yet emit 52.2 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions. In contrast, one-third of the global population lives in the have-not countries, but accounts for just 2.8 percent of total carbon dioxide emissions.

Professor Dr. Mohammad Mohabbat Khan Senior most Professor University of Dhaka