Saudi Arabia : An unprecedented growth of Wealth with an unparalleled growth of Bureaucracy
| DOI | 10.1177/002085237904500304 |
| Author | Osama A. Othman |
| Date | 01 September 1979 |
| Published date | 01 September 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Saudi
Arabia :
An
unprecedented
growth
of
Wealth
with
an
unparalleled
growth
of
Bureaucracy
UDC
330.114.2:35.08(53)
by
Osama
A.
OTHMAN,
Dean,
College
of
Administrative
Sciences,
University
of
Riyadh
As
a
less
developed
country,
Saudi
Arabia
faces
most
of
the
problems
that
other
less
developed
countries
do,
except
for
lack of
capital.
It
faces
similar
administrative
obstacles
and
endorses
similar
ambitious
development
plans.
It
suffers
from
the
same
dilemma
created
by
the
widening
gap
between
expecta-
tions
and
achievements.
And
the
abundance
of
capital
in
Saudi
Arabia
has
not
provided
the
magic
cure
for
its
administrative
illness.
It
is
true,
as
Leonard
Debasi-Schweng
states,
that &dquo;
poor
countries
may
have
difficulty
in
providing
out
of
their
own
resources
even
the
minimum
of
public
services
at
a
level
acceptable
to
their
more
progressive
citizens
or
to
a
visiting
international
mission &dquo;
(1).
But
the
primary
obstacles
to
development,
as
Donald
Stone
asserts,
are
administrative
rather
than
economic,
and
not
deficiencies
in
natural
resources
(2).
Despite
the
fact
that
the
Saudi
bureaucracy
shares
the
same
problems
facing
many
bureau-
cracies
in
the
less
developed
countries,
it
differs
from
the
others
in
terms
of
its
history;
that
is,
it
does
not
have
the
bureaucratic
tradition
that
most
of
the
others
have.
As
Richard
Chapman
has
noticed,
&dquo; in
Saudi
Arabia
the
administrative
machinery ...
is
mainly
new
and
created
from
scratch
within
the
past
two
de-
cades &dquo;
(3);
nor
has
Saudi
Arabia
been
colon-
ized
like
so
many
other
less
developed
countries
which
are
now
seeking
to
reform
alien
methods
and
attitudes.
However,
the
Saudi
bureau-
cracy
with
its
limited
human
resources
is
charged
with
enormous
responsibilities
stem-
ming
from
its
over-ambitious
development
plans.
~
A
few
decades
ago,
the
modem
structures
and
patterns
of
bureaucracy
were
not
known
in
the
country.
In
1950,
there
were
only
four
ministries
dealing
with
the
traditional
tasks
of
government;
the
ministries
of
Foreign
Affairs,
Finance,
Interior,
and
Defense.
Civil
service
employees
numbered
not
more
than
several
hundred,
with
no
set
rules
and
regula-
tions
for
recruitment,
training,
promotion,
or
even
classification.
However,
the
Saudi
bureaucracy
has
since
grown
very
rapidly.
The
number
of
min-
nistries
has
increased
to
twenty.
&dquo; It
is
not
uncommon
for
a
modem
state
to
have
fifteen
to
twenty
ministries &dquo;
(4).
In
addition,
over
forty
independent
and
semi-independent
Public
Authorities
and
Corporations
have
been
creat-
ed.
Before
1950
there
were
no
public
cor-
porations,
but
since
then
many
public
cor-
porations
have been
established
(see
chart
No. 1).
The
Saudi
bureaucracy
has
assumed,
as
other
bureaucracies
in
the
less
developed
countries,
a
new
role
which
is
not
confined
to
the
traditional
tasks.
Obviously,
the
kind
of
organization
that
a
country
needs
to
form-
ulate
and
administer
development
programs
and
to
modernize
the
entire
society
differs
from
traditional
organizations
concerned
with
the
maintenance
of
law
and
order
and
the
pro-
vision
of
routine
services.
A
United
Nations
publication
has
explained
that :
As
soon
as
government
extends
its
activity
from
the
traditional
tasks
of
defense,
dip-
lomacy,
and
the
maintenance
of
law
and
order,
and
enters
the
field
of
economic
and
social
services,
its
administration
inevitably
acquires
a
multiplicity
of
ministries,
depart-
(1)
L.
Debasi-Schweng,
"
The
Influence
of
Economic
Factors
",
in
Public
Administration
in
Developing
Coun-
tries,
ed.
by
M.
Kriesberg
(Washington,
D.C. :
Brook-
ings
Institute,
1965),
p.
19.
(2)
D.
Stone,
"
Government
Machinery
Necessary
for
Development
",
in
Public
Administration
in
De-
veloping
Countries,
ibid.,
p.
51.
(3)
R.
Chapman,
"
Administration
Reform
in
the
U.K. :
Some
Features
that
may
be
Considered
by
the
Reform
Movement
in
Saudi
Arabia ",
a
lecture
de-
livered
in
the
Institute
of
Public
Administration,
Riyadh,
7
April
1973.
(4)
United
Nations,
A
Handbook
of
Public
Admirris-
tration
(New
York :
United
Nations,
1961),
p.
20.
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