District administration and rural development; Policy objective and administrative change in historical perspective B. B. Misra Oxford University press, Delhi, 1985, 431 pp.
| Date | 01 January 1987 |
| Author | A. P. Barnabas |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230070109 |
| Published date | 01 January 1987 |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
7. 109-1
14
(1987)
Book
Reviews
LOCAL ADMINISTRATION AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Edited
by
Hari Mohan Mathur and Helmut Palla
Asian and Pacific Development Centre, Kuala Lumpur (APDC) and the German Foundation
for International Development (DSE),
1983
This book originates from an Asian regional seminar on local administration and regional
development held in Kuala Lumpur from
19
to
29
July
1983.
It is actually
a
collection
of
papers presented by senior-ranking officers from the various Asian countries of India,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, People’s Republic of China, Philippines, Republic of
Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand as well as resource persons from the Federal Republic of
Germany and some Asian countries.
Like most such collections it is of uneven quality and length, with each country paper
sticking to its own experience and performance. The papers discussed seven specific themes:
(i)
Goals of programmes for the promotion
of
local and regional developments; (ii)
Development tasks of local administration (village, t?wn and district level); (iii) Financing
and implementation of local and regional development programmes; (iv) Participation of the
people in political and administrative decision-making at local. and regional levels; (v)
Relations between local administration and self-help organizations; (vi) Role and target
groups of training for the promotion
of
local and regional development: (vii) Planning,
implementation, didactics, and evaluation
of
training programmes.
The area of local administration and regional development is
a
vast subject and it is
a
rather
ambitious task to try to cover it within seven themes. Invariably the result was that the papers
presented for each theme were at best discussions
of
a
general nature and mere re-statements
of
problems (especially finance and personnel) plaguing the writers’ own governments. One
exception was Hari Mohan Mathur’s paper, which not only gave an account of the condition
and state of rural development in the Third World countries, but also provided suggestions
and ideas for further improvements.
While the seminar was
to
serve as a forum for an exchange of ideas and experience between
the various participants, however, the papers presented lacked this comparative aspect. They
were basically individual country papers. In this regard the book on the whole contains a good
account on the set-up of local government systems in the various Asian countries and
Germany. Many
of
the papers give helpful and straightforward information on the role and
functions of their own individual local government machinery. Clearly, any comparative
issues, if required, will have to be sieved
out
by the reader himself. Perhaps the editors should
have written a chapter on the basis
of
the papers presented, to highlight some of the common
issues facing the Asian countries concerned.
Finally, there is much left
to
be said about the binding of the book, which is badly done.
The pages come loose very easily.
PHANG SIEW No01
Faculty
of
Econornics and Administration
University
of
Malaysia
DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT; Policy Objective and
Administrative Change in Historical Perspective
B.
B.
Misra
Oxford University Press, Delhi,
1985,
431
pp.
Rural development in India has been
of
considerable interest ever since Independence. There
is a general assumption that the British rulers were not particularly concerned about the rural
0
1987
by
John
Wiley
&
Sons,
Ltd.
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