Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Structure
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Objectives 1ntrod;uction What to Compare? Levels of Analysis The Range of Comparative Studies
5.4.1 54.2 5.4.3 5.4.4 5.4.5 Inter-institutional Analysis Intra-national Analysis Cross-national Analysis Cross-cultural Analysis Cross-temporal Analysis
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5.6 Scope of Comparative Public Administration 5.7 Significance of Comparative Public Administration '5.8 Conceptual Approaches in Comparative Public Administration
5.8.11 Bureaucratic Approach 5.8.2 Behavioural Approach 5.8.3 General Systems Approach 5.8.4 Ecological Approach 5.8.5 Structural Functional Approach 5.8.6 Development Approach
Let Us Sum Up Key Words Some Useful Books Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises
5.0 OBJECTIVES
After you have read this unit you should be able to: 9 explain the significanceof Comparative Public Administration * explain the nature and range of comparative studies: and describe the conceptual approaches in Comparative Public Administration.
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521 INTRODUCTION
Dear student, comparisons of administfative'systems has had a long traditibn. But a focus on this aspect of administrative studies is about forty years old. Only ttfter the Second World War and with the emergence of new nations in Asia and Africa, a vigorous interest in compar*ve studies of Public Administration has evolved. Comparative Public Administration, in simple terms, refers to a comparative study of government administrative systems functioning in differentcountries o E the world. The nature of Comparative Administration has vast ramifications and ranges from the narrowest of studies to the broadest of analysis. To understand the meaning of Comparative Public Administration, it would be desirable to look at the types of comparative public . administration studies undertaken by scholars in the field. In this unit we shall examine the ' meaning, scope, and nature of Comparative Public Administration. We shall also discuss its conceptual approaches.
Micro studies relate to comparisons of an individual organisation with its counterparts in other setting's. A micro study might relate to an analysis of a small part of an administrative systein, such as the recrukment or training system in two pr more administrative organisations:Micro studies are m0.m feasible to be undertaken and a,large number of such studies have been conducted by scholars.of PublicA~ninisaation. In th; contemporary Con~parative Public Administration, all the three types of studies mexist.
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Another relevant question that arises is what is the range of comparative administrative studies? What type of sttidies arepnerally included in this realm? In fact, the scope of Comparative Public Adminjstration~atudies is so'wide that a variety or analysis farm part of this branch of knowledge.
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Such a comparison involves diff2rent time-frames for analysis. For instance, a cornparisoa between the administrative system prevailing during Ashoka's reign and during Akbar's regime would be a cross-temporal analysis. Likewise, comparisons,between the administrative systems of ancient Rome and modem Italy, or between the administrative practices prevailing during thd period of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi would fall under the rubric of cross-temporal analysis. ,
A cross-temporal analysis may be inter-institutional, intra-national, cross-nationai or crosscultural. For instance, a comparison of the administrative control mechanisms prevailing during the times of Julius Caesar, Alexander, Harsha, Attaturk and Nasser will be crossnational as well as cross-cultural. Exactness in cross-temporal studies is not possible because of differences in the nature of historical sources available for various periods. But some broad conclusions on the basis of existing sources can be reached throu h sucll studies. Nimrod Raphaeli has defined Comparative Public Administration a stu y of Public Administration on a comparative basis. The Comparative Administration Group referred to Comparative Public Administration as the theory of Public Administration which belongs to diverse cultures in the'na!ional settings and the body of factual data by which it can be expanded and tested. Robert Jockson has defined it as the phase of study which is -coneemcd. with making rigorous'cross-cultural cornparhons of the structures and processes involved in the activity of aPministering public affairs.
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d e c k Your Progress I\ NO& : i) Use the space below for your answgrs.
ii)'~heck yours answers with those given at the end of the unit.
1) What are the units of analysis in Comparhtive Public Administration'?
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2) What is.cross cultural analysis'?
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3) Explain cross temporal analysis.
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STUDIES
Some scholars believe that conlparison is an inherent part of any social analysis and whenever we examine any social problem or issue, we cannot do so without employing the comparative approach. Famous social scientist, Durkheim, subscribed to this approach. Further, Eisenstad believes that there is no distinction between comparative research and general social research, for the methods of the two are similar. On the other hand, there are other scholars who believe that comparative inquiry has special focus and techniques. Before the Second World War, there were; several studies on comparative politics and administration but such studies were primarily descriptive and normative. Fred Riggs, the toremost scholar of Comparative Administration had observed that there were three trends which were noticeable in the comparative study of Public Administration. These were : .I) "normative" to "empirical", 2) "ideographic" to '$ornothetic" and 3) "non-ecological" to "ecological". We shall~now-briefly refer to thcse trends.
In &is context, it may be mentioned that two important trends have influenced the character of some administrative studies in the past two decades or so. First, the cowept'of 'T)evelopment Administration" which focuses on the goal-orientation of administrative
system is basically a nonnative concept .Thougl~r l con\iders reality as the basis of such goal4rientation, the emergence of Development Admtn~stration as a focus inquiry since the early sixties, Comparative Public Administration (encompassing the field of Comparative Development Administration) has evolved a synthesis between the normative and the elements of balysis. The second movement that bas influenced the nature of Comparative administrative ~tudies is phe Flew Public Administration which stressed the idealistic.goal lo be achieved h! an system and thus tried to bridge the gap between the "is" and "should" aspects of Public Administration. In the late sixties, the New Public ~dministrationmarked the "post-behavioural" trend and its impact on most administrative analysis has been profand. .
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Compnrntive Public
Administration
It may be noted that most of the ~omparative studies of Public ~dministration after the Second World War have been referring to the environment of the administrative sygtems, but the @ n emphasis is still on analysing the impact of the environment on Public Administratior). The analysis relating to the influences of the administrative system on the 'environment is still inadequate. Nevertheless, a change in emphasis is noticeable and the ecological onentation is gaining stronger footing in the contemporary comparative - adrnidsLsp'ti.ve anajysis.
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At this stage it may be painted out that when Riggs presented the above three trends in 1962; he was conscious of the fact that thsre is bound to be a co-existence of older as well as the newer emphasis in the comparative studies. Accordingly, today there are normative as well as empirical, ideographic as well as nomythetic and non-ecologicd aq,wdl a!. ecological approaches co-existing in the literatile on Comparative Administratiem ' Check Your Progress 2 Note : i) Use the space below for your ahswers.
'ii) Check your answers with those given at the end of kbe unit.
.ADMINISTRATION
' The scope of Public Administration has increased enormously during the twentieth century. '
The importance of Public Admiqistration has grown substantially with the success of the ~ussiah Revblution, increased role of state during and after the Second World War, measures of welfare adopted in most of the countries and growth of large number of ~f human 'developing countries. Taday, Public Administration influences almost all aspe~gi life. Even in a capitalistic country like'the USA, the role of govemment has expanded in an effective manner. The net result of this increased role of state or govemment has&eltn that large number of specialised branches of Public Administration have come up'on the scene. I Some of these branches aie economic administration, social administration, educational administration, health administration, transport administration, space administration, etc. Besides, there are areas such a s state administration, urban administration, rural administration, financial administration and personnel administration which have *become istegrd p&s 6f the vocabulary of govemment. Therefore, when we comp'are administrative systems existing in various nations or cultures, we can compare either the ' whole of the administhive systems or some important parts of such systqms. Today, we find a number of studies on comparative educational administration, comparative health administration, compaktive economic administration, comparadve social adqhinistration and other related areas. Further, there are a very large number of,publicationa on comparative urban administration and comparative rural administration. It be~omes\ckar that t h e s m p of Comparative Public Administration is as vast as that of its mother discipline, v k Public Administration. Anything that & ' a ~ t l v ecan ' be compared.
Whi* di~ussing the scope of Cotnparative Public ~dministratian, not only the specia,laed branches ,of administration have' to be taken into W W ~ Further . it also needs to'be , '
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stressed once again that comparative studies can be conducted at macro, middle-range and micro levels. These studies can be inter-institutional, cross-national, cross-cultural and cross-temporal. Here an interesting question arises: what do we include under the rubric of "nature" of Comparative Administration and what do we put under the heading of "scope" of comparative Administration? The best advice that can be given to students of Public. Administration is that to attempt a neat distinction between the 'nature' and 'scope' of comparative Public Administration may no! be a very useful effort. These two aspects are overlapping and have common stress on the types, levels, and range of comparative studies. Now a brief reference to the'signiticance of Comparative Public Administration is in order.
The second important function of Comparative Public ~dministrdtion relates to its relevance to the empirical world. Throu~h a study of ~ o m ~ a r a t iPublic v i Administration, administrators, policy makers and academicians can examine causes for the success or failure of particular administrative structures and patterns in different ewironmental settings. It is interesting to find out through comparative analysis as to which important f environmental factors help in the promotion of adn~inistrative effectiveness and which t administrative structures function appropriately and successfully in what type of i environmental settings, Lastly, an administrator or policy maker can, through comparative studies o l I'ublic Administration, have greater insight into the prtwss and slratcpics of ' administrative reforms. He can look at the structures of administrative reforms adopted by , various nations and examine those strategies and methods which can be helpful in his own '.country. In other words, through ('omparative Puhlic Administralion, we learn about the Finistrative practices followed in various nations and then we can endeavour to adopi those practices which can fit in our own nations and systems. The importance of Comparative Public Administration lies in its academic utility in terms 6fscientific and systematic study of Public Administration and in iqproying the knowledge about other administrative systems so that 'appropriate administrative reforms and changes can be brought about in different nations. .
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' 9 Check Your Progress 3 , \Nde: i) U'se the space below for your answers.
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ii) Check your answers with those given at the end of the unit.
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There are a number of approaches, models and theories presently characterising the subject-area of Compa~ive Public Administration. Particularly after Second World War, a number of approaches have emerged in comparative administrative analys&. Much of this effort is based on an adaptation of the developments in comparative ant~opology, comparative sociology and comparative politics. We will now study different approaches in a nut-shell.
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'I$e,re h e beea,a number of studies conducted in a comparative context employing the bureaucfqtic mod4 of Weber. Notable scholars in this area include Michael Crozier (on Lairdton the Soviet Union) and Monoe Berger (on Egypt). The Fiance), %Roy methodological limifation of an ideal-type model and specific context of a legal-rational I authority system'$ses constraints in the application of Wdber's model to the eompr!tive , study of bureaucracies. Nvertheless, for an analysis of the bure,aucracies, of the deweloped countries, the model is still considered eminently useful. Dwight Waldo views Weber's ' burwucratic model a's a "paradigm" of Public Administration. . .
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Particularly after Second World War, a number of apprdaches have emerged in- , comparative administrative analysis. Much of this effort is, based on an adaptation of the developments in comparative anthropology, comparative sociology .and comparative , politics.
Comparative Public
Administration
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Fred Riggs has successfully applied the ecological and structural-functional approaches in his analysis of societies and their administrative systems. His typology of "agrariatransitia-industria" systems, developed in 1957, was superseded by the typology oS "fusedprismatic diffracted" societies that was constructed in 1959. For the,past thirty years or so, Rigg's model of prismatic society and its administrative system known as "sala" has ruled [he contemporary model-building scene in Comparative Public Administration. Despite criticisms and certain inherent methodological limitations, the prismatic-sala model has fascinated the students and practitioners of Public Administration in "developing" countries. A prismatic society, according to Riggs, is characterised by a growing degree of structural differentiation but not matched by an equal degree of integration (coordination). This integration lag is reflected in almost all aspects of the functioning of a prismatic society.
A prismatic society and its 'sala' are characterised by 'heterogeneity', formalism and overlapping. Further,. overlapping has five dimensions: poly-communalism, polynormativism, bazaar-canteen model, authority versus control and nepotism. These features relate to the social, cultural, economic, political andladministrative systems of the prismatic society. The details of these characteristics are found in all important books on Public Administration.
5.8.6 ~ e v e l o ~ m e Approach nt
A very well-known conceptual approach in Comparative Public Administration is of 'Development Administration' which has been elaborately dealt with in a separate unit. adm~nrstrative system, e.g. This approach focuses on certain characteristics of a dynam~c goal-orientation, change-orientation, progressiveness, innovativeness, participation and responsiveness.
Besides, the abovei there are a number of other lessiknown approaches to comparative administrative analysis. These include "information-energy' model of John Dorsey and decision-making model of 'Martin Landau. Nevertheless, other models have not been able to match the comprehensiveness and acceptability of Weber's bureaucragic model, Rigg's prismatic model and of course, the construct of Development Administration.
It gppears that the experimentation phase in model-building in Comparative Public Administration is not vlgorous anymore. However, the enthusiasm for understanding the varieties of administrative patterns is alive in the scholarship of Public Administration. That is why, one can hope formewer dimensions of Comparative Public Administration emerging on the scene'in the'times to come
check Your ~rogr;iB"s 4 Note : i) Use the space below for your answer. , ii) Cheok your answer with those given at the end of the unit,'
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\ The Nature of Puhlk
AdmlnMraUon
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5.9
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comparative appr&ch has became an integral part of the Social ~ c i & inquiry. No i exercise of systematic Social Science researchcah be complete without a comparative focus. In this unit, we have examined the meaning and nature of Comparative Public Administragon and its scope and significance. We have also examined the different approaches to the study of Comparative Public Administration.
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Arora, Ramesh K., 1985: Comparative Public A&nistrotion;.Associated publishing" House: New Delhi. . Raphaeli, Nimrod, 1.%7. ~ e a d i n g in s Corhparative Public Administration; Allyn iurd Baconi: Boston.
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Riggs, Eied, 1964. Administration in Developirrg Cowrtries: The theory o fPrisMc Swiery; Houghton Mifflii: Boston. Varqa, S.P.and Sharma S.K,,1983. Conipantiw Abministratian; IIPA : New Delhi..
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Check Your Progress 3 1) See Section 5.6 2)SeeSection5.7 ~h&k Your Progress 4 1 X See Sub-section 5.8.1
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