Presented by

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Swapnil Patil
THE BUREAUCRACY
The meaning of bureaucracy
Features of bureaucracy
Dysfunction of bureaucracy
Bureaucracy and public policy
Bureaucratic accountability
Bureaucratic reform
The meaning of bureaucracy
The bureaucratic institution has their origin in ancient
time and its developed to become most large
organization both public and private. There are many
meaning of bureaucracy. Generally it refers to
organizing principles that are intended to achieve
coordination of work in large organization. How
bureaucracy has different connotations:
1. It refers to all government offices
It may refer to totality of government office or bureau that
constitutes the permanent government of the state. It
is those public functions that continue irrespective of
changes of political leaders
2. All public officials
The bureaucracy refers to the entire public officials of a
government. They may constitute both high, low,
elected and appointed bureaucrats.

3. General invective (negative sense)

It may refer to inefficient organization full by red tape
and cumbersome procedures in government operation.
However this does not mean that government operation
is always inefficient. Many government agencies have
long standing reputation of being efficient.
The structural features of bureaucracy

Bureaucracy has been central to public administration. It

is because the characteristic of bureaucracy make it
behave in predictable way
1. Specialized jurisdiction, office, task and division of
labor and authority regarding the achievement of
organization goal
2. Hierarchy of authority to coordinate the activities of
the specialized office and to integrate their
jurisdictional authority. In the most rational
bureaucratic design, the organization is handle by
single individual.
3. A career path

4. A bureaucratic structure tend to be permanent and

remain intact regardless flow of the member in and out
of it. Society become dependent on bureaucracy's
functioning to the extend that chaos result if it is
destroyed

5. By implication, bureaucracy is larger organization

Procedurally, bureaucracy is:

1. Impersonal and dehumanizing

It is important to eliminate emotional element from the
performance of the individual bureaucrats and the
organization as a whole

2. Formalistic
It is because it does not operate on person but office.
Everything about its structure and operation is
written down in a formal procedure. The written
document are stored in files, access to which is limited
Rule-bound
Bureaucracy operates according to formal rules and
regulation that are in written forms and can be learned.
The objective of rules is to specify proper office
procedures and to assure regularities in dealing with the
outsider. The rules also seek to ensure impersonality and
enhance hierarchical authority.
4. Highly discipline, individual bureaucrats are bound by
the bureaucracy,s rules and authority structures. They
may be discipline for rules infraction or insubordination.
Because of these structure and procedural characteristic of
bureaucracy is:

1. Highly efficient. Weber regarded bureaucracy as the

most efficient form of organization. It acts with
continuity, precision, rationality,expertise and
discipline. It uses of discretion are predictable.
Bureaucracy is reliable
2. Powerful. Its power derives from rationality,
expertise and continuity. Weber claimed that well
developed bureaucracy is uncontrollable by outsider
and that society becomes dependent for its provision of
goods and services
3. Ever-expending. Bureaucratic expansion is
unavoidable because it is efficient, powerful that could
serve the need of the complex society
Why need Bureaucracy?

1. Rationalization of modern life

-age of science, (industries and technology) require
bureaucratic principles like specialization/
authority, discipline and performance, system of
rules and regulation

2. Contemporary society
Enormous size of modern nation and modern
organization. In the absence of bureaucratization,
large organization is impossible to maintain.


Max Weber (1864-1920) in his book, The theory of

social and economic organization gave the name
bureaucracy to describe a form of organization
that applicable to both public and private sectors.

In his analysis he identifies three basic types of

authority, which is useful in describing the legal
rational authority/ legitimate authority in
organization

1.Traditional authority: where acceptance of
those in authority arises from custom and tradition

2.Charismatic authority: where acceptance of

authority arises from qualities of the ruler.

3. Rational legal authority: where acceptance

arises out of the office, position of the person in
authority bounded by the rules and procedures of
the organization.
 Dysfunction of bureaucracy

Webers contribution is central to our understanding of

formal organization structures. However, It is
undeniable that some of the principle of bureaucracy
is the most efficient means of organizing. On the
contrary, the recent scholars have identified a
number of weaknesses (dysfunction) of bureaucracy.
Dysfunction may refer to social system which is
detracting from adaptation and adjustment (cannot
play function it intended to perform).
Some of the dysfunctions of bureaucracy are as
follows:
1. Rules originally designed to serve organizational
efficiency however they have a tendency to
become all-important in their own right.
2. Relationships between office holder are based on
the rights and duties of each roles, so they are
depersonalized and this lead to rigid behavior

3.Decision making tend to be programmed and this

discourage the search for further alternatives.

4. The effect of rigid behavior often is very damaging for

client and customer and also for management workers.
Clients have to accept standardization.

5. Standardization and routine procedures make changes

and adaptation difficult when circumstances change.

6. The exercise of control based on knowledge had led to

the growth of expert, whose opinion may come in conflict
with those of generalists (e.g. manager and supervisor).
 Bureaucracy and public policy

It concerned with some of the important

characteristics of the policy making process within the
bureaucracy. It involves two aspects:

1. Identify the principle group in administrative agencies

that participate in the determination of policy.
a) Political appointees
b) Career administrator
c) Outside expert
.
2. How does policy making change?

a) Hierarchy and decision making

b) Strong influence of professional
c) Policy is considerably less public than it is in
legislature
 Bureaucratic accountability

One of the defining features of democracies is the

institutionalization of bureaucratic accountability and
transparency (Matlosa, 2000). The concept of such a
system is the ability of ordinary citizens to hold
government officials accountable for their actions.

Accountability also refers to the answerability. It means

organization must be answerable to someone or
something outside itself. When a thing goes wrong,
some one must be held responsible.
It is no doubt that is bureaucratic
accountability is called the hallmark of
public bureaucracy. Without the
realization of such accountability, public
bureaucracy loses its identity. However, a
frequently heard charge/ criticism is that
government often is accountable to itself
rather than being accountable to the
public.
There are several ways of how to improve bureaucratic
accountability:

1) Regular comprehensive reports by ministerial,

political, and administrative heads to parliament or
the National Assembly on the activities of their
agencies.

2)Grass roots briefing on ministerial and departmental

activities in administrative districts and local
government areas with the general public in
attendance.
3)Publication and circulation of quarterly reports on
ministerial and/or departmental fiscal programs and
project operations.

4)Media briefings, where political and administrative

heads interact with the press on the degree of
accomplishment of set budgetary objectives or
programs targets.
6) A "public commitment" should therefore be made
essential in public bureaucracies. It contains among
other things the following set of values:

i. Public office is a public trust;

ii.Corruption is public enemy and should be exposed
wherever it is discovered;
iii.The public is supreme client and working for its good
is the primary duty of public bureaucracies;
iv.Searching for the most efficient and economical ways of
getting tasks accomplished.
 1. Misconception of the public interest
There are several factors that could lead the civil servant
or the bureaucrat to misunderstand the concept of
public trust.
1. They may be influenced by their social background
and interest.
2. They may develop a narrow outlook concerning the
public interest. They may tend to exaggerate the
importance of what they do, and down grade the
importance of what others do. They may also develop a
way of thinking that difficult to understand.
3. A close relationship with particular clientele group
is another factor that may influence the perception of
civil servant.
 2. Corruption
As betray of public trust for reasons of private interest.
Many examples of bureaucratic corruption appear in
press and publicly denounce by officials. Many
countries throughout the word, corruption in the form
of bribery, and the use of personal contact have become
institutionalized.

The main reason for this rampant corruption in public

bureaucracy is that the bureaucrats have something to
allocates that other people wants and sometimes it is a
part of the political culture.
 3. Subversion
The bureaucrats might also betray the public trust by
engaging in subversions. Though, the evidence is hard to
point out, it becomes the major concern in todays global
competition.
Reasons why it is difficult to check the
accountability of bureaucrats:
To find the means of establishing accountability is often
difficult even in the most developed countries like in
United States because of several reasons.

1.The accumulation of special expertise and

information
public administrators are often expert at what they do.
The outsiders are unable to match the information
available to them that others have difficulty to obtain
it. It other situation it may be the information that the
administrator themselves decide to generate.
2.The advantage of full-time status.
The bureaucrats do their job on full time basis. The people
who would hold them accountable usually engaged in
other activities and cannot devote sufficient time to
watch them.

3.The protective nature of the personal system

Bureaucrats often have job security. Discipline and
dismissal are possible but difficult to be applied. As a
result, petty infraction like using of public resources for
private purposes often go unpunished.
4.The fragmentation of agency structures and
function
The structure of public agencies is often fragmented and
often the missions are overlapping. It makes it difficult to
pin point responsibility for given administrative action.

5.The larger size and scope of public bureaucracy

Government spends a lot of money to run the public
bureaucracy and its personnel, while at the same time
handling a lot of activities and functions. It is difficult
even with the help of advance computer to track
everything from people, money, regulations, form and
others.

Conclusion
There are lots of challenges to have so called bureaucratic
accountability. It seems that the formal theory of
accountability in public administration is not working in
reality
Means of ensuring bureaucratic accountability:

Different scholars have suggested different mechanisms

to ensure accountability such as-

1.Formal (external) mechanism: legislative means,

parliamentary question, budgetary means), executive
means (control of political executive over matters and
personnel investigation., judicial means ( regular and
administrative court) other bodies advisory committees
and ombudsmen.

2. Formal (internal) mechanism: performance evaluation,

official rules and code of conduct
3.Informal (external) mechanisms: includes public
hearing, interest group, opinion polls, media scrutiny
4. Informal (internal) mechanisms: such as organizational
culture, norms and peer pressure.
BUREAUCRATIC REFORM
It involves efforts and manifestation to improve to
improve government. It may in include redesigning the
organizational process to achieve significant
improvement in critical measures of government
performance cost, quality and efficiency of service
delivery.

In the case of Malaysia, many reforms to public

bureaucracy had been made. The critical major reform
was conducted in 1990s with the aim to improve
internal system and process in bureaucracy. It focuses
on three broad areas, financial administration (out put
based-computerized accounting), service delivery
system and personnel management (new remuneration
system)

Major areas of bureaucratic reform

1. The size of the public sector which is often too

large, reform, can be expensive and time consuming.
Right sizing of government bureaucracy is often
desirable. It becomes a major concerned since the wide
bureaucracy can drain government resources.

High salaries, expenditure and operating cost, inefficiency

of civil service as a result of improper distribution of staff
s among various ministries and department.
2. Decentralization-should be actively encourage
with proper and adequate check from time to
time. Decentralization has greater potential for
facilitating more efficient delivery of services
through greater local involvement. It is also
important in promoting development,
sustainable development and poverty elevation;
however, it requires appropriate check and
balance so that the process of decentralization is
not subjected to the manipulation of center.

In addition, administrative decentralization

should be combined with financial
decentralization. Participation of local decision-
making is also essential. Ensure, monitoring,
training and capacity building.
 3.Corruption-is systemic and endemic requires
strong enforcement of rules and regulation (law)
ensuring power is balanced between executive, legislative
and executive body and other public bodies.

Corruption is critical factor in undermining the functions

of government. It resulted in high cost, lack of
transparency, ineffective or wrong policies. Inadequate or
weak regulation, major mistakes can lead to high
economic losses. It creates a gulf between people and
government.
 4.Accountability-remain a major constrain to
achieve development objective, bodies such as NGOs,
civil society organization, parliamentary committees,
mass media should be empowered.

It is necessary to promote good governance. Adequate

checked and balance is essential, so no one exceeds
authority and dominates others. Parliament also
shouldnt be weak, besides strengthening various laws
and regulation
 5. Provision of goods and services- is constrains
by lack of resources, staffing and training of front line
service provider, inadequate supervision, non existence
of service delivery, poor investment in infrastructure.

It is the most important responsibility of government.

However, it is always being hampered by lack of
financial, resources, ineffective decentralization and lack
of training. E.g. health sectors.

Government should explore the involvement of public

sectors businesses
 6. Public participation remains low it is necessary
to promote, sustainable human development and poverty
reduction. The citizen should be encouraged to
participate. Even though, there are legal provision and
constitutional right, it doesnt guarantee true
participation

Public isolation in policy making is evident particularly in

the area of fiscal and economic policy, which directly
affect the life of citizen
 7. Globalization- has resulted in income inequalities
among people, need to address social adjustment so that
the issues of poverty commensurate with the increase in
wealth.
It is concerning government capacity to deal with the
issues of globalization on how and what to be done to
restructure the public sector in order to compete.
(Domestic industries and trade)

WTO requires competitive market environment that need

effective and efficient public sectors. Most of the
governments that practice unfair and informal
competition must be regulated. Globalization should be
able to bring human development instead of political and
business interest.
In conclusion
-1. Government should take serious effort to streamline
the provision of good and services

2. Frequency and type of reform should be monitored

and carefully observed

3. Government also should ensure adequate resources in

term of finance and human resource for implementation