Lecture # 3

Question
Why it is difficult to get a proposed policy
adopted and implemented? What are your
suggestions for streamlining the process ?
 What is Bureaucracy
• Bureaucracy is derived from the word BUREAU ,
meaning office and Greek suffix KRATIA or
KRATOS means power or rule
• Bureaucracy thus means office power or office
rule or the rule of officialdom
• This word came into use shortly before French
Revolution of 1789
• However, bureaucracy existed long before the
words and theories were devised to describe it
 Salient features of Bureaucracy
• Division of Labor – Every employee performs his specialized work in
a predictable manner
• Rules and Regulation – are designed to ensure the consistency in
work performance
• Hierarchy of Authority – Each superior exercises control over his
sub-ordinates
• Technical Assistance – training is provided to the employees to
inculcate technical skills
• Record Keeping – every decision and action is recorded in its
original as well as draft form
• Impersonal Relations – Superiors are formal in dealings with their
sub-ordinates
 Salient features of Bureaucracy
• Specialization – A bureaucratic organization provides
advantages of specialization
• Structure – sets the pace and framework for the
functioning of the organization
• Rationality – A measure of objectivity is ensured by
prescribing in advance the criteria far decision making
in routine situations
• Predictability - conformity to rules and roles in
structural framework bring about order to cope with
the complexity
 Downside of Bureaucracy
• Vertical hierarchy of authority can become chaotic, some offices can be omitted in the decision
making process, and there may be conflict of competences

• Competences can be unclear and used contrary to the spirit of law; sometimes a decision itself
may be considered more important than its effect

• Nepotism, corruption, political infighting and other degenerations can counter the rule of
impersonality and can create a recruitment and promotion system not based on merit, but
rather functioning as an oligarchy

• Officials can try to avoid responsibility and seek anonymity by avoiding documentation of their
procedures
• Overspecialization, making individual officials not aware of large consequences of their actions
• Rigidity and inertia of procedures, making decision-making slow or even impossible when facing
an unusual case and similarly delaying change, evolution, and adaptation of old procedures to
new circumstances
 Downside of Bureaucracy
• The phenomenon of “group thinking”; loyalty and lack of
critical thinking regarding the organization which is viewed as
perfect and always correct by definition, making it unable to
change and realize its own mistakes and limitations

• Disregard for dissenting opinions, even when such views suit

the available data better than the opinion of the majority

• As bureaucracy creates more and more rules and procedures,

their complexity raises and co-ordination diminishes,
facilitating the creation of contradictory rules
 Max Weber on Bureaucracy
• Beneath this rational model of bureaucracy, there are three principles
– Formalization
– Instrumentalism
– Rational legal authority

• Formalization means degree to which rules procedures, regulations and task

assignments exist in written form
• Instrumentalism conveys the notion that organization is like a tool or machine
which is designed for a particular purpose
• Rational Legal Authority is the most efficient and rational means to gain compliance
rather than ensuring obedience through traditional or charismatic authority
• “Policy – administration dichotomy is indispensible”
“passionate struggle for power is politician’s element while bureaucrat should strive to
execute legal orders dutifully with out passion or anger”
 Max Weber on Bureaucracy
• Weber model of bureaucracy is based on rational (legal) authority

• Pre-conditions for emergence of bureaucracy

– Growth of population being administrated
– Growing complexities of administration tasks
– Monitory economy requires more efficient administration

• Weber identified six central elements in Bureaucracy

– Clearly defined division of labor and authority

– Hierarchal structure of offices
– Written guidelines prescribing performance criteria
– Recruitment to office based on specialization and expertise
– Duties and authority is attached to position not person
– Office holding as career or vocation
 Max Weber on Bureaucracy
• Individuals are recruited on the basis of relevant qualifications for a particular
task
• Individuals are assigned a position with fixed duties, responsibilities and
authority
• The duties, responsibilities and authority are tried to the assigned position
and can not be transported out of the organization or into other positions
with in the organization
• The position or office is always a part of a larger hierarchical structure that
defines superordinate and subordinate
• Written legal documents represent the formalization of information
prescribing task assignment and the rules and regulations of the large
organization
• Each of the task or office is designed to guide and direct individual behavior
towards goals of the organization
 Max Weber on Bureaucracy
• Weber’s bureaucracy model is called ideal type. An ideal
type is not one particular person or thing rather it represent an extreme position of a
concept
• Model of Rational Bureaucracy suggest several organizational
characteristics and processes
– The organization will have clearly defined goals that are best achieved
with in a formal structure
– Behavior within the organization is shaped by the formal structure and
therefore is directed towards achieving these goals
– Efficiency is enhanced to the extent that organizational members
follow the formal rules and policies of the organization
– Organizational decisions are based on survey of relevant information
and a calculation of costs and benefits
 John Stuart Mill on Bureaucracy
• Mill is remember more for his contribution to political philosophy than for his theory
of bureaucracy

• Mill was one the main theorist of liberalism, Bureaucracy has central place in his
liberalism

• Mill defined bureaucracy as government by professionals. For him its was irrelevant
that whether professionals come from outside or inside the government

• What mattered for Mill was their training and devotion, which constitute their claim to
the power

• In modern terms, Mill’s concept of bureaucracy was a technocracy where ‘technically

trained trained experts rule by virtue of their specialized knowledge and position in
dominant political and economic institutions
 John Stuart Mill on Bureaucracy
• Both Mill and Weber recognized that technically competent bureaucracy is essential
for good governance in modern society. Such bureaucracy through equalitarian
education can promote meritocracy, in this way bureaucracy can bring positive effects

• Mill also saw that bureaucracy can pose serious challenges to liberal democracy

• Displacement of democratic politics by the work of bureaucratic experts would be a

recipe for despotism of the worst kind

• Such bureaucracy would be able to impose its version of truth on the public. They are
ill-qualifies to represent the will of the people

• This alienate the citizen from government and undermines the viability of democratic
politics, they would hold govt. for all evil which befalls them
 John Stuart Mill on Bureaucracy
• Mill pointed out the irrationality of pursuit of rational control (through
technocracy)
• Active participation of citizens minimizes the possibilities of bureaucratic
domination
• The solution proposed by the Mill doesn’t focus on put strict controls on
bureaucracy rather it strengthen popular participation through representative
democracy. Mill never had any doubt that final decision making power ought to
belong to the people, who would be the master of all the operations of the
government
• Mill pointed out the paradox, attempts are made to control the bureaucracy by
implementing more and more sophisticated and rational processes which in
return only make the bureaucracy more bureaucratic and more threat to the
democracy itself
• Only stronger and participative democracy kills the possibilities of bureaucratic
domination
 Karl Marx on Bureaucracy
• Historical Origin of Bureaucracy can be found in
– Religion, the early bureaucracies were consisted of religious clergy
– Formation of State, the state formulates, imposes and enforces law
and levies taxes giving rise to an officialdom enacting these functions
– Commerce growth of trade and commerce resulted emergence of
new dimension of bureaucracy which can keep accounts, process /
record transactions and enforce legal rules governing tade
– Technology , technologies of mass production has yielded another
dimension of bureaucracy which can handle the technologies of mass
production, which needs standardized routines and procedures to be
performed, now days they are called technocrats
 Karl Marx on Bureaucracy
• Bureaucracy rarely creates new wealth by itself, rather it controls,
co-ordinates and govern the production, distribution and
consumption of wealth
• Bureaucracy drive its income from social surplus product of
human labor
• Wealth is appropriates by the bureaucracy by law through fees,
taxes, levies, tributes, licensing etc.
• Bureaucracy is always a “cost” to society, but it may be accepted in
so far it makes social order possible and maintains it
• However, Marx always saw bureaucracy as part of the problem
rather than the solution. In his ideas of class less society there was
no place for Bureaucracy as in the shape we confront it today
 Karl Marx on Classless Society
• Economic basis of a society determines its social structure as a whole, as well as the
psychology of the people with in
• The dynamics of historical change is the conflict between the forces of production and
relations of production
• The class struggle between owners and workers is a social, political, psychological
reflection of objective economic conflict
• Property as a source of income is the objective criterion of class: within capitalism the two
basic classes are the owners and the workers
• Class struggle rather than the harmony – normal or otherwise - is the inevitable condition
in capitalist society
• Within capitalist society, the workers can’t escape their exploited conditions and their
revolutionary destiny by winning legal or political rights and privileges; unions and mass
labor parties are useful as training grounds for revolution, but are not the guarantee of
socialism
• Exploitation is built into capitalism as an economic system, thus increasing chances of
revolution
 Karl Marx on Classless Society
• The class structure becomes more and more polarized, thus increasing the
chances of revolution
• The material misery of the workers will increase, as will the alienation
• The opportunity for revolution exists only when objective conditions and
subjective readiness coincides
• The functional indispensability of a class in the economic system leads to
political supremacy in the society as a whole
• In all class societies the state is the coercive instrument of the owning class
• Capitalism is involved in one economic crisis after another. These crises getting
worse. So capitalism moves into final crisis and the revolution of proletariat
will come about
• The post capitalist society will first pass through a transitional stage that the
dictatorship of the proletariat; then it will move into a higher phase in where
true communism will prevail
 Woodrow Wilson on Bureaucracy
• Wilson argued in favor of a hierarchical organization of bureaucracy. He wanted
traditionally limited power of bureaucracy to be increased in USA

• He had the conviction that professionally trained public servants would learn to act in
favor of the common will

• He wanted to install scientific, professional, meritocratic, clear-cut, rule based and

therefore trustworthy bureaucracy

• Wilson placed more emphasis on organic of the bureaucracy

• He didn’t fear that govt. based upon the principle of organic growth would lead to higher
forms of development resulting in the atrophy of bureaucratization and specialization

• Wilson’s concept of Bureaucracy was not much different from that of Weber
 Woodrow Wilson on Bureaucracy
• Both Wilson and Weber differed on the question of policy-
administration dichotomy
• Wilson recommended that administrators should have and
does have a will of their own in the choice of means for
accomplishing his work. They are not and ought not to be a
mere passive instrument
• He appreciated the political role of administrators. He
never sought to erect a strong wall between politics and
administration
• For Wilson creation, not control was the central issue.
Private, not public power was the chief threat to liberty
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• Most of the societies are made of two classes, one that rules and the other that is
ruled. The first class is always a minority, small in number, whereas the later is
always a majority, but lacks power

• The Elites are the people of social significance in the society. These elites are the top
strata of the society who have capacity to control or influence over the decision
making process, in all spheres of life

• Elites are also define as “which are at the summits of key social structure i.e. the
higher positions in the economy, government, military, politics, religion, mass
organization education and the professions

• The power elite / ruling elite is always equipped with political power. This political
power gives legitimacy to their decision and makes them binding for the other
sections of the society
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• Elites can be divided into two sub-classes i.e. governing elite and non-
governing elite
• Another way to categorize elites, is to classify them as specialized elite, social
elite and governing elite

• Elite’s role, pattern and types in developing political systems are different
from those of western liberal democracies. Factors like poverty, high birth
rate, economic dependence on developed world, agriculture based
economies, colonial legacies, which ultimately lead to formation of weak
political system

• Non-western systems are differentiated into following types (a) political

democracies (b) Tutelary democracies (c) modernizing oligarchies (d)
totalitarian oligarchies (e) traditional oligarchies
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• One common thread which run across these types is the absence
of clear demarcation of boundaries between various institutions of
the state

• The legislative bodies become less effective in regulating and

controlling the rule making function of the bureaucracy
•
• In well placed democratic system, all the government institution
work with in their specific domains and the ruling elite usually
comes from the legislature. On the contrary, in transitional
democracies, the centers of power are usually found outside the
political / legislative system.
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• After independence, political instability didn’t allow the political institutions to
develop

• This lack of development of political institutions and political cultural created a

vacuum of authority and power. The civil service and military took advantage of
the situation and established their claims on public policy making

• First martial law proved to be the corner stone of evolution of ruling elite in the
form of civil and military bureaucracy in Pakistan. So two non-political elites i.e.
civil and military bureaucratic elite dominated the politics in Pakistan

• Army and civil bureaucracies have been self-appointed guardians of the state
since independence. The political parties have come and gone but these two
institutions have remained the pillars of state
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• Successive dismissals of governments, disintegration of political
parties, dissolution of assemblies and clash between Muslim
nationalism and regional identities strengthened the grip of ruling
elite i.e. civil and military bureaucracies.

• Regional and international factors also helped these non-political

ruling elite of Pakistan to consolidate their rule

• Pakistani bureaucrats were the lineal descendent of ICS (Indian

Civil Service), which was setup by British to rule a colony, they
trained the officers of ICS to rule not to serve the local population
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• This tendency to subjugate and overpower the common man did not die after
the independence. In Pakistan ICS was renamed as Civil Service of Pakistan (CSP)
• The CSPs besides structural patterns, also inherited the traditions, norms,
political ethos of ICS
• Authoritarian in tone and zero tolerance for outside interference in the absolute
use of their authority was the hallmark of officer of ICS. The same attitudes
prevailed after independence in Pakistan
• The inculcation of behavior of ICS officers was so strong that upcoming CSPs
emerged with even more powerful role than that of their imperial
predecessors
• At the time of partition, Pakistan’s share in the official corps was very minimal,
because the Muslim ratio was only 9 percent, who had hardly any experience at
higher posts of Bureaucratic hierarchy as only one Muslim officer had served as
the joint secretary, while 5 or 7 came with the experience of Deputy Secretaries
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• At the time of partition , the ICS officers were permitted
to choose one of the three courses for their future.
– First, an ICS officer can opt for service either India or Pakistan
without any reduction in salary or rank and without any loss in
pension privileges
– The second option was to leave the service with allowances
equal to officer’s salary from 1947 to normal retirement date
– Third option required re-entry into service by personal
contract with the government concerned.
• Out of 101, ICS-IPS Muslim officers, 95 opted for Pakistan
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• The organizational layout included the three categories

– Firs, was the general administrative category for which the CSPs were
recruited
– Second, there was the functional recruitment for services such as the
Pakistan Foreign Service (FSP) the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), Income
Tax Service, Customs, Central Excise, Audit and Accounts Services.
– The third category included the engineering and health services

• But the real power had always rested in the hands of CSPs, But FSP
and PSP also enjoyed a prestigious position as compared to other
services
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• From 1948 till 1969, the ruling elite of Pakistan
drew majority of its intellectual and moral
strength from CSP, higher ranks of military.
They had the sympathies of judiciary
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• Period from 1951 to 1957, time of
bureaucratic rule
• From 1957 - 1961, time of Army + Civil
bureaucracy rule
• From 1973 till 1977, time of civilian rule
• From 1977 till 1988 Army + Civil Rule
• From 1989 to 1999 Civilian Rule +
international Financial Institutions
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• Pakistani bureaucracy’s history is divided into
two phases

– Pre 1973 Civil Services Reforms

– Post 1973 Civil Services Reforms
 Bureaucracy’s Role in Pakistan
• 1973 Civil services Reforms

– Establishment of Unified national Pay Scales

– Establishment of Joint Pre-services training program
– Introduction of lateral recruitment program
– Provision of horizontal mobility
– Abolition of Constitutional guarantee of tenure

• Reforms effected the civil services environment in two significant ways

– The reforms weak end the dominance of CSP

– The reforms increased level of political influence on the bureaucracy
 Code of Ethics
• Codes often capture a vision of excellence, of
what individuals and societies should be striving
for and what they can achieve
• Codes are usually the most important statement
of civic expectations
• When applied to certain classes of people –
public servants, doctors, engineers etc. – codes
are the ultimate terms of reference
• Codes of ethics are written to guide behavior
 What Codes of Ethics do ?
• Increase the probability that people will behave in certain
ways
• Can make public servants to take actions that result in doing
the right things for the right reasons
• They don’t take away one’s own moral autonomy or absolve
the public servant from the obligation of reasons
• They serve as professional statement
• They are not merely a text, rather, they exemplify the
fundamental principles and values of a public service
• Principles and values are imbedded in all codes of ethics,
either implicitly or explicitly
 Codes of Ethics
• Public code of ethics, especially in developing democracies,
can play a crucial role in articulating the mission of the
public service
• The foundation of all successful bureaucracies is
– Integrity
– Objectivity
– Effectiveness
• Not using public office for private gains (Integrity), showing
impartiality in carrying out public duties (objectivity), or
the implied obligation in public service being a public trust
(effectiveness)
 Codes of Ethics
• Selflessness – should solely act in terms of public interest

• Integrity – should not place itself under any financial or other obligation to any
individual or organization

• Objectivity – should make choices on merit

• Accountability – accountable for the decisions and actions

• Openness – should be open about the decisions and action of a public Office

• Honesty

• Leadership – set the examples for other by taking lead in upholding these principles
 Codes of Conducts
• Codes of conducts of codes of behaviors are
designed to prevent certain specific types of
behavior e.g. conflict of interest, self-dealing,
bribery and inappropriate actions
• Codes of conducts focus on “do nots”
• Codes of Ethics are based on integrity and
codes of conducts are based on compliance
 Ethics System in Public Administration
• Codes of Conduct
• Transparency System
– Simplification of administrative procedures
– Elimination of Secrecy
– Financial or interest disclosure / assets declaration
• Training Systems
• Communication Strategies
• Counseling
• Whistleblower Hotlines & Helplines
• Control / Enforcement
– Criminal Code
– Conflict of Interest code
– Post-employment code
– Ombudsmen
– Audit Agencies
– NGOs
– Media
• Independence of the agency implementing the code
Thank You