Co‐operatives in the clash between member participation, organisational development and bureaucratic tendencies. (A complete guide to the creation, promotion and supervision of co‐operative societies resulting from an international symposium in Marburg) edited by dr eberhard duelfer and Dr Walter Hamm Quiller press, London, 1985, 619 pp.
| Published date | 01 January 1987 |
| Author | Peter Yeo |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230070110 |
| Date | 01 January 1987 |
110
Book
Reviews
population.
To
raise the levels of living in the country, a frontal attack has to be made to
alleviate the deplorable conditions in almost
all
aspects of rural life, the population of which
has been between
75
and
85
per cent of the total population, living in about
600,OOO
villages.
The Community Development Programme initiated in
1952
was an effort in this direction.
There have been many changes in its approach, but the concern for rural reconstruction has
remained.
It is in this context that the book under review needs to be looked at. It is concerned with
policy objectives and administrative changes in
a
historical perspective. The work is indeed
scholarly. Data, gathered painstakingly, are well documented. Scholarly work usually makes
for heavy reading, but the presentation is clear and consistent. It provides
a
comprehensive
study of district administration and rural development in India from the last quarter of the
eighteenth century to the end of the
1970s.
The author traces the evolution of district
administration and the impact of famines, decentralization, local bodies and rural
development. One chapter is devoted to personnel qualities and resources.
Too
often, in dealing with an issue, the tendency is to be obsessed with the contemporary
situation which does not allow for analysis of the problems and solutions in retrospect.
Looking back over two centuries
of
rural development, it seems as though the basic questions
that emerge with regard to rural development are very similar, although the context has
changed. What is rural development? Earlier the Government seems to have thought of it as a
search for an alternative to
laissez-faire,
an approach which was not concerned with uplifting
the rural poor. Today there is
a
planned approach in dealing with rural problems. Should
rural development be the interest
of
all
departments,
or
should there be
a
separate
department? Various approaches have been tried, but the question remains: How to evoke
participation? Decentralization, and formation
of
local bodies, are attempts to bring the
programmes to the people and to involve them. The response
of
the communities has varied.
The question of the extent of delegation of power and resources has been ever present. The
implementation of programmes is generally said to be unsatisfactory. The complaint is a
persistent one. The question
of
personnel qualities and resources in rural development
therefore assumes importance.
This book, although it has
a
historical perspective, raises issues with regard to present-day
rural development. Throughout, the analysis makes it clear that no development is possible in
India without direct intervention of the Government, both administrative and financial. This
is true both historically and in contemporary India. The value
of
the book is in providing a
window to the past, and in its insights to the understanding and analysis of the process of
rural development in modern times.
A. P. BARNABAS
Indian Institute
of
Public Administration
New Delhi
CO-OPERATIVES IN THE CLASH BETWEEN MEMBER PARTICIPATION,
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND BUREAUCRATIC TENDENCIES. (A
Complete Guide to the Creation, Promotion and Supervision
of
Co-operative Societies
resulting from an International Symposium in Marburg)
Edited
by
Dr Eberhard Duelfer and Dr Walter
Hamm
Quiller Press, London,
1985,619
pp
Since
1947,
ten institutes for the study of co-operatives have been founded in Germany. There
are also similar institutes in Austria and Switzerland, and between them they offer a richness
in the German-speaking world that the English-speaking world comes nowhere near to
matching. The book under review contains the conference papers from the tenth
of
their
International Congresses on Co-operative Science, held in
1981.
A German version was
published in
1983.
The list
of
over thirty contributors includes many
of
the most distinguished people working
in this field. The late Professor Valko’s paper must have been one of the last he wrote.
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