Political Context of

Public Administration
Wk 4
3 October 2022
Ref: Chapter “Political Context of Public Administration” in Public
Administration: An Action orientation
• This chapter focuses on the relations between public
administrators and the executive, the legislature, and
the judiciary as they work together to seek important
policy goals.
Discussion Agenda
 Public Policy

• Public administrators are responsible for

development, implementation, and evaluation of
public policies.

• What is a public policy?

 Public Policy
• Public policy is a statement of goals and intentions with
respect to a particular problem or set of problems, a
statement often accompanied by a more detailed set of
plans, programs, or instructions for pursuing those goals.

• Public policy is simply what an agency or an entire network of

public, private, and nonprofit organizations decides to do or
not do.
 Public Policy
• Public policies are authoritative statements made by
legitimate governmental actors (the chief executive, the
legislature, public agencies) or nongovernmental actors
(nonprofit organizations, foundations, quasi-governmental
organizations, private corporations) about public problems.
 Public Policy
• Public, private, and nonprofit organizations not only develop policies
that guide their own activities, but they also seek to influence the
course of public policy on behalf of their members or other
constituencies.

• Many such groups limit their activities to providing public information

and seeking to indirectly affect the formation of policies in their area
of interest. But others are far more direct, employing lobbyists and
others whose specific job is to influence the policy process.
 Public Policy
• We need to understand the context in which public organizations
operate.

• That context is not merely physical; it includes the beliefs and values
that shape our expectations of the organizations as well as the
structures we have developed to try to maintain those values.

• Political leadership has been wary of concentration of power in any

one institution or branch i.e. executive, legislative, and judicial.
Administrative Organizations
and Executive Leadership
 Administrative Organizations and Executive Leadership
• Federal and provincial government.

• Chief executive officer, the head of the federal bureaucracy.

• The Federalist preference for the executive branch was a faithful

reflection of their distrust of the people. An intelligent perception of
sound public policy, in their view, could come only from well-
educated men of affairs, men with trained minds and broad
experience—in short from the upper classes”
History of Public Administration in
Pakistan
 Evolution of Public Administration in India
• In 1872 the East India Company started administering the
revenue collection and regulating the civil service in three
states of Indian sub-continent.

• To educate, train and shape early lives of locally recruited

public administrators, Fort William College was established
in 1800 in Calcutta.
 Evolution of Public Administration in India

• However, just after six years in 1806 The Company decided

to establish another superior college called Haileybury in
England and restricted the role of Fort William to train in
oriental languages only.
Thomas Babington Macaulay’s Education Philosophy
for Colonial Administrators (1835)

“We must at present do our best to form a class who may

be interpreters between us and the millions whom we
govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but
English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.
cont…
Thomas Babington Macaulay’s Education Philosophy
for Colonial Administrators (1835)

…cont To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular

dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of
science borrowed from western nomenclature, and to render
them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the
great mass of the population.”
 Evolution of Public Administration in India
• Public administrators (civil servants) were not accountable to any
elected body or people‘s representative but direct servants of the
Crown.

• Public administrators (civil servants) were ‘political bureaucracy’

not only maintaining the administration of the district, but also
taking decisions on a variety of political, social, economic and
judicial issues.
 Performance of British Indian Civil Service
• In 1700, India was one of the richest countries of the world
with 27% share in global economy; in 1800, it was 23%.

• British Indian Civil Service was loyal to British Crown and

highly exploitative for locals.
 Performance of British Indian Civil Service
• Drained India with high taxes during 200 years rule.

• Indian economy was reduced to 3% of global economy, 90%

population living below poverty line, literacy rate of 17%.

• Economic growth rate from 1900-1947 was 0.001%.

• In Bengal famine of 1943, nearly 4.3 million Indians died;

Churchill government’s exploitative policies.
Performance of British Indian Civil Service
• Muslims were least represented in government service, e.g; in Bengal
representation of Muslims was:
Department Hindu Muslim

Asst Govt Engineers 14 0

Public Works 24 1

Accounts 50 0

• First university in the sub continent was established in Calcutta in 1858.

• 250 students graduated in 1865; only 12 were Muslims.

History of Public Administration in Pakistan
In 1947 Pakistan inherited this steel-frame of the British
Administrative system, which was adopted by Pakistan
with minor adjustments.
The Indian Civil Services (ICS) cadre was renamed the
Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS) in 1947 and from
1950 it is known as Civil Services of Pakistan (CSP).
History of Public Administration in Pakistan
Pakistan‘s inherited a weak and inexperienced political
leadership to run the affairs of the new state. The British
trained and organised civil service started performing
their role immediately.
 History of Public Administration in Pakistan

• At partition, only 157 officers (including 95 Muslims) from the total

number of 1,157 ICS officers decided to join services in Pakistan.

• The main reason for such a low Muslims representation in the ICS
was their traditional anti western education stance, which kept
them handicapped from joining the ICS. (In 1835, when British
introduced modern education, 8000 Ulema said no to this western
education).
 Quaid e Azam’s Guiding Principles for the
Civil Servants (1948)
“The services are the backbone of the state. Governments are formed,
Governments are defeated, Prime Ministers come and go, Ministers
come and go, but you stay on and therefore there is a very great
responsibility placed on your shoulders. You should have no hand in
supporting any political party or leader. This is not your business.
Whichever government is formed according to the constitution, and
whoever happens to be the Prime Minister coming into power in the
ordinary cont…
 Quaid e Azam’s Guiding Principles for the
Civil Servants (1948)
…cont constitutional course, your duty is only to serve that
government loyally and faithfully, but at the same time, to fearlessly
maintaining your high reputation, your prestige, your honour and the
integrity of your service. I wish also to take the opportunity of
impressing upon our leaders and politicians in the same way, that if
they ever try to interfere with you and bring political pressure to bear
upon you,
 Quaid e Azam’s Guiding Principles for the
Civil Servants (1948)
…cont which leads to nothing but corruption, bribery and
nepotism - which is a horrible disease and for which not only your
province but others, too, are suffering - if they try to interfere with
you in this way, I say they are doing nothing but disservice to
Pakistan.”
History of Public Administration in Pakistan
• There was expansion in departments. To make up deficiency of
the officers, in 1952 strong exceptions to candidates‘ education
and suitability were provided to make them eligible for joining
the public service of Pakistan.

• Civil servants got involved in corruption; e.g. in 1952 case was

registered against 1,134 persons, including 735 civil servants on
the charges of hoarding and black-marketing.
History of Public Administration in Pakistan
• For the first time, the prestige and clean character of Pakistan
civil service was tarnished in a desire of joining the rich class of
the Pakistani society.

• Since then the state bureaucracy has not been able to regain
respect in the eyes of common citizens and it is considered to be
an ineffective, unresponsive and corrupt institution.
History of Public Administration in Pakistan
• Again, in 1969 again, 303 class-I (including very senior) gazetted
officers were suspended by then President on the charges of
corruption, misuse of power and misconduct.

• In the country‘s post split scenario of 1971 some 1,300 civil

servants were compulsorily retired by the then Prime Minister Mr.
Z. A. Bhutto, who blamed bureaucracy for the country‘s many ills.
 Z. A. Bhutto about Pakistan’s Bureaucracy
“No institution in the country has so lowered the quality of
our national life as to what is called Naukarshahi
[bureaucratic rule]. It has done so by imposing a caste
system on our society. It has created a class of Brahmins‘ or
mandarins, unrivalled in its snobbery and arrogance,
insulated from life of the people and incapable of
identifying itself with them.”
 History of Public Administration in Pakistan
• Bhutto initiated the first ever comprehensive reforms of
the PPS in 1973 and thereafter a number of attempts were
made by various governments to bring improvements.

• However, instead of improving, the situation kept on

deteriorating and PPS became an alleged source of red-
tape, corruption and financial burden.
 History of Public Administration in Pakistan
• Pakistan‘s civil servants are widely seen as unresponsive, corrupt
and the bureaucratic procedures are cumbersome and exploitative.

• Almost all the Governments since its independence have recognised

this and various scattered attempts have been made in to improve
the performance of the public sector as Governments greatly relies
on their executing hand for the conversion of their policies into
action.
 History of Public Administration in Pakistan
• More than 20 studies have been made on administrative reform by
different government committees and commissions.

• These reports proposed a number of actions to makes changes to

the country‘s administrative system.

• Most of these attempts remained on the shelves owing to frequent

switchovers between political setups or military takeovers i.e
political instability (controlled chaos).
 History of Public Administration in Pakistan
• 1948-1971 formation period of just after independence: during which the
focus remained largely on the establishment of basic government departments
and their governing rules to run the affairs of the country.

• 1973-1990 consolidation period in the country‘s post split scenario.

• 1990- onwards NPM-inspired reforms have been initiated by various

governments to recover Pakistan from deep-rooted fiscal problems and
improve its public sector functioning, but no substantial achievement could be
made.
 History of Public Administration in Pakistan
• From the year 2000 the Military led government in Pakistan, with the
assistance of International developing partners, paid special attention
to modernise its public sector under the agenda of good governance.

• These institutional reforms were arguably aimed at accelerating

growth and poverty reduction, particularly in the areas of tax
administration; financial management, procurement, and devolution
of power to local governments.
History of Public Administration in Pakistan
• Since its inception in 1947, Pakistan has made successive but
unproductive attempts to reform its public sector.

• The espoused aim of these reforms has been to create a more

responsive, transparent, efficient and affordable public sector; so as
to improve the quality of services and strengthen the national
economy.
History of Public Administration in Pakistan
• The weaknesses or failures of traditional state bureaucracy such as
its monopolistic nature, unmanageable size, managerial
inefficiency, public inaccessibility, economic inertia and self serving
agenda are the most common explanations.