Western Conceptualisation of Administrative Development
| Author | Satya Deva |
| Published date | 01 March 1979 |
| Date | 01 March 1979 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002085237904500108 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Western
Conceptualisation
of
Administrative
Development:
A
Critique
and
an
Alternative
by
SATYA
DEVA,
Chairman,
Department
of
Public
Administration,
Panjab
University,
Chandigarh
The
problems
of
conceptualisation
in
comparative
public
administration
are
signif-
icant
because
they
are
related
to
the
Third
World’s
quest
for
a
better
future.
Most
of
these
countries
have
recently
gained
freedom
from
colonial
rule.
However
their
people
still
remain
poor,
unhealthy
and
uneducated.
Other
common
maladies
are
rise
in
population,
unemployment,
corruption
and
authoritarianism.
Their
people
naturally
want
to
get
rid
of
these
problems
and
are
forced
to
visualise
the
possible
alternative
models.
Each
model
has
its
own
interrelated
economic,
social,
cultural,
political
and
administrative
aspects.
Hence
a
choice
related
to
public
administration
may
really
be
dependant
upon
the
choice
of
a
world
view.
Development :
The
Western
Model
The
chief
model
of
modernization
is
that
of
Western
Europe
and
North
America
as
these
have
developed
since
the
seventeenth
century.
Its
main
elements
may
be
described
as
the
development
of
science
and
technology,
the
national
state,
democracy
and
capitalism.
The
professed
political
ideals
of
this
model
were
put
forward
by
John
Locke,
John
Stuart
Mill
and
T.
H.
Green
among
others.
However,
in
practice
countries
in
the
West
have
been
imperial,
warring
powers,
thus
showing
that
they
had
little
regard
for
democratic
ideals.
Internally
also,
a
fascist
tendency
has
often
been
present.
Their
economy
has
been
beset
with
the
ills
of
capitalism:
inflation,
unemployment,
monopolies
and
slums.
Industrialisation
has
resulted
in
dehumanization,
social
disorgan-
ization,
misutilization
of
natural
resources
and
environmental
pollution.
Science
and
tech-
nology
have
been
used
more
for
private
profit
and
war
than
for the
betterment
of
human
life.
The
civil
administration
in
this
model
is
expected
to
function
like
a
large
scale
industrial
or
business
undertaking.
Development :
The
East
European
Model
The
second
model
is
that
of
the
USSR
and
other
East
European
countries.
Its
professed
ideals
come
from
Marx,
Engels
and
Lenin.
These
are
the
elimination
of
class
distinctions,
increased
production
so
as
to
provide
for
all,
an
end
to
the
social
division
of
labour
and,
ultimately,
the
withering
away
of
the
state.
In
practice,
however,
a
ruling
class
and
the
social
division
of
labour
seem
to
be
very
much
in
existence.
The
state
shows
no
signs
of
withering
away.
Under
Stalin
it
became
very
powerful
and
authoritarian.
The
means
of
production
in
these
countries
are
not
privately
owned;
it
is
therefore
said that
capitalism
has
been
abolished.
However,
the
state
itself
has
apparently
come
to
function
as
a
capitalist.
Workers
have been
made
to
work
on
low
wages
under
the
slogan
of
saving
for
the
posterity.
The
benefits
of
the
system
seem
to
go
dispro-
portionately
to
the
ruling
class.
Science
and
technology
grow,
but
in
an
atmosphere
lacking
in
freedom.
Preparation
for
war
goes
on;
a
new
kind
of
imperialism
takes
shape.
The
bureaucratic
machine
is
different
from
the
West
mainly
in
(i)
the
lack of
opportunity
to
withdraw
from
the
system
and
(ii)
its
duplica-
tion
in,
and
control
by,
the
party.
The
Rise
of
Comparative
Public
Administration
The
theory
of
comparative
public
adminis-
tration
has
developed
in
the
context
of
these
models.
In
the
United
States,
it
grew
largely
from
the
effort
to
&dquo; save
&dquo;
Third
World
countries
from
communism;
the
Comparative
Administration
Group
consisted
largely
of
scholars
who
had
served
on
US
AID
mis-
sions
(1).
These
scholars
wanted
to
under-
(1)
Fred
W.
Riggs
(ed.),
Frontiers
of
Development
Administration,
" Introduction
"
(Durham,
N.C. :
Duke
University
Press,
1971),
p.
5,
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