The egyptian bureaucracy monte palmer, Ali Leila and El Sayed Yassin Syracuse University Press, New York, 1988, 188 pp.
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230100410 |
| Date | 01 October 1990 |
| Published date | 01 October 1990 |
PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
10,473476
(1990)
Book
reviews
THE EGYPTIAN BUREAUCRACY
Monte Palmer,
Ali
Leila
and
El
Sayed Yassin
Syracuse University Press, New York,
1988, 188
pp.
In
1983,
the A1 Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies initiated a major study
of the Egyptian civil bureaucracy. The study was supported by the Ford Foundation and
was designed to produce an assessment of the ability of the Egyptian bureaucracy to play
an active role in Egypt’s economic and social development into the
1990s.
The project assessed the extent to which patterns of bureaucratic behaviour affected policy
implementation. It reviewed the various explanations for the existence
of
different behaviour
patterns and suggested ways in which the developmental capacity of the bureaucracy could
be enhanced. The data and analysis in this volume is thus presented as part of an evaluation
of the Egyptian bureaucracy which provides a range of prescriptions intended to improve
bureaucratic efficiency and effectiveness.
The study is remarkable, not only because of its detailed insights into bureaucratic attitudes
and behaviour in Egypt, but also because of its frank criticisms of the Egyptian administrative
machine. For example, chapter three deals with the problem of apathy within the public
service and assesses the degree to which negative attitudes result in
low
levels of motivation
and productivity.
The research indicates that there is a link between the very low salaries in the public service
and the low level of productivity evident throughout the bureaucracy. There is an apparently
structural disparity between the public service and the private sector in terms of salaries
and conditions which effectively reduces the impact of public incentive schemes based on
pay. Consequently, the researchers feel that financial incentives should be combined with
others which would have the effect of raising the prestige of those employed in public posts.
Such issues serve to underline the authors’ point that the bureaucracy should be evaluated
by taking account of the wider economic and political environment. The relative poverty
of the Egyptian public sector stems from the low level
of
per capita national product and
the effects of price inflation which reduce the real magnitude
of
increases in public spending.
Moreover, political uncertainties have resulted in a general lack of direction in public policy.
This has combined with over-planning and excessive central control in policy making and
execution. It is in honestly addressing such questions that the authors have produced an
objective study which presents some fascinating insights into the Egyptian public service.
BRIAN
D.
JACOBS
Staffordshire Polytechnic
GOVERNMENT BUDGETING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Peter
N.
Dean
with a chapter by
Cedric Pugh
Routledge, London,
1989,
157
pp.
The title is misleading. The book hardly deals at all with what would normally be regarded
as government budgeting. What it does deal with, through five valuable empirical studies,
is experience following attempts to introduce programme and performance budgeting in India,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Sri Lanka in the wake of U.S. enthusiasm for the
0
1990
by John Wiley
&
Sons, Ltd.
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