The Program Variable in Comparative Administration : Postal Service
| Author | Charles T. Goodsell |
| Published date | 01 March 1976 |
| Date | 01 March 1976 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002085237604200105 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
The Program Variable in Comparative
Administration : Postal Service
UDC 351.816(73+728.6)
by
Charles T. GOODSELL,
Professor of Political Science,
Southern Illinois University
It is proposed that the variable of type of
try, in contrast to his developed-country coun-
program receive greater attention in theoretical
terpart, will be more formalistic and likely
and empirical studies of comparative public
to engage in corrupt behavior. Also it is ex-
administration.
Such studies
have often
pected that personnel policies in the developing
ignored the influence of program content by
country will be more ascriptive and that the
either comparing bureaucracies as a whole or
bureaucracy as a political institution will enjoy
by examining case studies where comparisons
relatively more power (1).
are not directly made. Progress in the com-
parative study of administration has neverthe-
By formalism we refer to nonenforcement
less been achieved in identifying the importance
of formal rules or selective enforcement of
of administrative ecology as a set of indepen-
them, depending on particularized relationships
dent variables crucial to bureaucratic life, and
between bureaucrat and client. The extent of
administrative behavior
formalistic behavior was compared in the two
-
rather than formal
structure
postal
-
as a crucial dependent variable.
systems by unobtrusive observation.
We
When
are just now coming to grips with admin-
a deliberately undersized postcard was
istrative results as the dependent variable of
presented at post offices of both countries re-
’
ultimate importance.
jection of the card as unmailable -
required
by the formal rules -
was rare to nonexistent
We must also recognize the intervening
in both places. One out of 13 cards was
nature of program as a variable between eco-
rejected in the United States and none out of
logy on the one hand and behavior or results
16 in Costa Rica.
In another test retrieval
on the other.
Program content can have a
of a letter was attempted 15 minutes after
critical effect in molding behavior within a
posting the letter at the post office, a permis-
particular ecology. In the case to be discussed
sible act in both countries but requiring com-
here, the program of postal service is seen as
pliance to complex recall procedures. In both
eroding the socio-cultural differences between
places a variety of actions was taken by clerks
a developed and developing country with res-
with the distribution of behaviors essentially
pect to how bureaucrats behave. At the same
the same : approximately half the time a
time, postal results differ greatly between the
description of the letter was requested but the
countries, which is explained not in terms of
claimant’s identity was not checked, as required
behavioral differences but contrasts in the
by the rules (2). Although one might expect
amounts of resources with which each postal
United States postal clerks to treat all custo-
program has to work. Such a conclusion has
mers the same with Costa Rican clerks treating
important implications for appropriate forms
upper-class patrons more favorably than lower-
of foreign assistance in public administration.
class, other tests involving observer-clients play-
ing high and low-status roles showed approxi-
BEHAVIOR IN TWO POSTAL
BUREAUCRACIES
(1) Ferrel Heady, Public Administration : A Compa-
We compare the postal systems of the United
rative Perspective, (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.; Prentice-
States and Costa Rica.
The first society is
Hall, 1966), pp. 71-72. Fred W. Riggs, Administration
in Developing Countries (Boston : Houghton Mifflin,
highly developed and the second developing,
1964), especially chapters 7 and 8. For later statements
and we have every right to expect such an
of both authors, see Riggs, ed., Frontiers of Develop-
ecological contrast to cause wide differences
ment Administration (Durham, N.C. : Duke Univer-
in the behavior of postal bureaucrats in the
sity Press, 1971), chapters 12 and 15.
(2) Reported by this author in his " An Empirical
two countries. Heady, Riggs, and others antic-
Test of ’
Legalism’ in Administration ", Journal of
ipate that the official of the developing coun-
Developing Areas, in press.
34
mately as much favoritism to the high-status
dissimilar personnel practices were found in
patron in the United States as in Costa Rica (3).
the U.S. postal establishment prior to conver-
sion
Corruption, like formalism,
to a
was found in
quasi-independent corporation in
both
1970.
postal systems. Confidential interviews
Although formally postmasters were
with volume
selected
postal users in Costa Rica revealed
according to a civil-service procedure,
that small bribes
in
are used to obtain scarce post
actuality they were named via a partisan
&dquo;
office boxes and
advisor &dquo;
to cement privileged relation-
system involving a local congress-
ships between business firms and postal offi-
man, senator, governor, or county chairman.
cials.
A...
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