Public Administration in the 21st Century
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Public Administration in the 21st Century

A Global South Perspective

Rumki Basu

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Public Administration in the 21st Century

A Global South Perspective

Rumki Basu

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About This Book

Public Administration has experienced a fundamental rethinking of its basic objectives, concepts and theories during the 21st century.

This book examines the transformations happening in global societies, the economy and in politics, to trace the trajectory of public administration as an academic discipline as well as being a focus of social science research. It presents a reassessment of governance in heterogenous developing countries that goes beyond the traditional Weberian bureaucratic model, toward new models of organization and management, informed by their legal, constitutional, economic and political needs, aspirations and ground realities. This is especially important in relation to the marginalized sections of society that primarily rely on citizen entitlements through public service delivery systems. The author looks at widening the range and scope of public administrative agencies with the gradual cooperation of multiple actors, such as the civil society, people at large and even the private sector, in a partnering role. The author revisits the discipline to tackle intellectual dilemmas that current governance theories and practices are confronting, or will have to confront in future administrative situations.

There will be key discussions on mandates and challenges for the state regarding the rising South; this book will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of politics, especially governance and public policy, sociology and development studies. It will also be of interest to bureaucrats, NGOs and government officials.

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1

The changing world of the 21st century

Building new administrative capacities
As a scholar of public administration, I think it is time to re-evaluate the functions of government in diverse political settings from a public administration perspective in the rapidly globalizing and changing world of the 21st century. There are 193 sovereign nations who are members of the United Nations, two-thirds of them belong to the developing world, while the rest are either underdeveloped or are part of the developed world.1
What does it mean to be a public administrator in this global age? There are a few mandatory functions every public administrator will have to perform irrespective of the ideology of the political regime, e.g., collection of taxes, maintenance of law and order, provision of public goods and utilities, such as roads and public safety, banking and currency, water and power. These functions are known as system maintenance functions. The rest are referred to as context-specific because they vary from government to government across the ideological spectrum. Theories of public administration offer clues to the diversified and changing tasks of public administrators. Public administrators help shape and implement public policies framed by different governments in different state locales.
What is the environment in which policies are being made in today’s world? There are images of the emergent new world order in popular discourse, which have, for example, announced the arrival of a borderless world, the rise of the South, networked national governance and the emergence of an Asian century. Such images have been created by the seminal shifts and deep transformations that have occurred in global politics since the closing decades of the last century—the end of the Cold war, advancement of globalization and the slow but persistent rise of the Global South (developing countries) in world affairs. Recurring regional conflicts, unexpected alignments among states, cross-border migrations and changing power equations, have surfaced at such a pace that fresh thinking regarding the impact of state and non-state actors in relation to political administrative regimes have become an absolute imperative. Turbulence in the Middle East, the short lived “Arab Spring” and its “democratizing” effect on the entire region, the rise of new terror axes in different parts of the world, the “national interest” compulsions of the U.S.A., Russia and other smaller regional powers to intervene in troubled waters, have led to serious global ramifications. The gross violation of human rights in Syria and Iraq have triggered unprecedented situations in intrastate conflicts and interstate wars. Middle East wars between 2014–17 have left more people displaced and homeless than any period of 20th century history.2 Even after World War II the “refugee” crisis did not assume such serious proportions. These global events did have serious repercussions for the domestic politics and governance capacities of states hit by civil war or interstate conflicts. Laws and constitutions work during “normal” periods of civil governance; in conflict-hit states these norms do not work and citizen rights are never fully protected. For citizens living in conflict zones or during times of civil war (as millions of people did and still do), violations, curtailment or suspension of rights is the norm for both citizens and immigrant populations. The U.N.’s International Migration Report (2017) estimates that there were 258 million migrants in 2017. Between 1990 and 2017, the immigrant population has increased by over 100 million. We now live in a truly “globalized” world where more and more people are leaving their country of birth for places which have better opportunities and a greater chance of access to higher standards of living. Contrary to popular belief, that the West hosts the largest immigrant (legal or illegal) population, it is developing countries that bear the burden of immigrants worldwide. Although the U.S. is still home to the greatest number of immigrants in the world, in 2017, India was the largest source of immigrant populations. In the 21st century, every state will have to absorb and provide for both citizens and non-citizens in equal measure, stretching their governance capacities to the limit. Throughout the greater part of the 20th century, states and public institutions did not deliver the same package of citizen entitlements, which is universally recognized today as a Minimum Agenda of good governance: protection of social, economic and political rights that are required for human beings to flourish and develop their capabilities. In the 21st century, can we expect less violence and conflict to lead to a greater protection of human rights for all citizens through the agencies of the state and instruments of public governance?3 Let’s hope we can. Although, looking at the world today, it is perhaps not difficult to guess that inequality will continue to remain the most intractable public policy challenge in all states, even in the 21st century.
Today, global politics tilts towards multipolarity, the gradual lessening of violence, “regionalization” of world politics with state and non-state actors, both of which influence internal policies of states. Religious fundamentalism raises its ugly head every now and then, terrorism continues, and although “democratization” is the current buzzword, it will take decades before the world becomes fully democratic. Across the world, experts lament that democracy is eroding, backsliding, withering or buckling under authoritarian pressures. If the 21st century is to be dominated by China and India, there are a number of good reasons why this may happen. China and India remain the world’s two most populous countries, home to one third of mankind. The recent upsurge in the growth rates of these two countries, apparently bucking the trend during the financial crisis that spread from the U.S.A. in 2007 to most of the developed and developing world, attracted the attention of scholars to the developmental trajectories of Asia’s two largest powers. Both are currently undergoing capitalist transformations from socialist/mixed economy models of growth. China is a “hard” state, retaining its strong authoritarian one party regime with above average policy outcomes in most sectors; whereas India’s democratic state previously under-performed in most developmental sectors, but over the last two decades it has begun to do much better.
China has many firsts: it is the world’s most populated nuclear state with the world’s largest armed personnel and police force. China holds a remarkable record of growth: it is the only country which grew at a rate of 10% for 30 years, enabling the largest number of people to exit poverty (500 million) between the years 2002–12. It has the second largest economy, with the highest foreign exchange reserves, and is the second highest remittance receiving country in the world. Furthermore, it has one of the highest savings and investment rates in the world. It is also number one in the production of gold and interestingly, despite its professed ideological stance (socialistic), houses the highest number of billionaires in any city (Beijing) in the world (Bagchi and D’Costa 2012).

The rise of the South

The ascendance of the South, which began in the latter half of the 20th century, has been unprecedented in its pace and outcomes. Never before, in recorded history, have the living standards of the average masses changed so rapidly in such a compressed time span. In England, where the Industrial Revolution started, it took 150 years to double its per capita output, while in the United States, which industrialized much later, needed about half a century. Both countries had a population under 10 million when they began to industrialize. In contrast, the current economic resurgence in China and India started with about a billion people in each country. Doubling their output per capita in less than two decades is an economic phenomenon that has made a developmental impact, no less radical than the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century!
Most developing countries have raised their living standards in the last quarter century, but some have done particularly well—in what can be called the “rise of the South”.4 Some of the largest countries have taken impressive strides, notably China, Brazil, India, Indonesia and South Africa. But there have also been seminal changes in smaller economies, such as Bangladesh, Chile, Ghana, Mauritius and Tunisia. By 2050, China, Brazil and India cumulatively, are expected to account for 40% of world output in purchasing power parity terms (U.N.D.P. 2013).
Over the last two decades, countries from several regions of the world have been converging towards higher levels of human development, as is evident from the U.N.D.P. Annual Human Development Index (H.D.I.); a composite measure of indicators involving three dimensions: life expectancy, educational attainment and command over the resources needed for a decent living. All groups and regions around the globe have made notable improvements in relation to H.D.I. components, with greater progress in countries which are ranked low and medium in the H.D.I. range. On this basis, it can be surmised that the world is becoming a better place to live for most people around the globe. However, national averages often conceal large disparities in living conditions. Disturbing inequalities remain within, and between, countries of the North and the South; removing these inequalities will remain the single most difficult challenge of public governance in the 21st century. Let’s not forget that for centuries inequality has remained the single most important destabilizing force in society.
The 20th century has witnessed numerous “egalitarian” revolutions, transitions and changes across several parts of the world. Most of these revolutions, whether they be socialist, feminist, environmentalist or other kinds of revolutions, furthered the cause, not only of individual rights and liberties, but highlighted issues, such as sustainable development, equity and gender justice. Also, waves of democratization swept across the globe from time to time; all of these have acted as great “levelers” and catalysts of progress and equality in the 20th century. However, they also necessitated the rise of “administrative” or “developmentalist” states, to ensure economic development, gender justice, human development and environmental protection. Politics willed and administration executed, that seemed to be the pattern of development everywhere. Even today the developed world leads the way, because their public management systems provide a sufficient and efficient infrastructure of public goods and services to citizens (invisibly, impeccably and imperceptibly), maintaining roads, communication, public safety and sanitation, primary education and health care, recreational facilities, banks and currency; with a public service ethos that makes them very different from private service operators who serve “clients” in the market with an underlying motive to be profitable.
Southern countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, through individual or cumulative efforts, are raising world economic growth, helping each other in their development efforts, reducing poverty, increasing national income and persistently trying to promote socioeconomic development by raising living standards in their own countries. Nonetheless, they still retain the largest percentage of the world’s poor. These countries, in the process of trial and error, have often demonstrated how indigenously designed policies or “home adopted” global technologies with a sharp focus on growth and human development, can bring about the desired turn around in the economy. Each experience is unique and needs to be studied.

A case study

Take Mauritius, a tiny island state on the southern tip of Africa. It has taken giant strides in economic growth, due to the strength of its institutions (Subramaniam 2001). It stands as a role model, not only for Africa but for the rest of the world, for what could be achieved without the classic prerequisites of power: substantive land or mineral resources, population or nuclear capacity. The total land area of the country is 2040 km. The people are multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual. Its Human Development Index is the highest in Africa. Since independence from Britain in 1968, Mauritius has developed from a low income, agriculture-based economy to a middle income diversified economy, based on tourism, textiles, sugar and financial services. Mauritius ranks highly in terms of economic competitiveness; a congenial investment climate, delivering “good governance” with impeccable democratic credentials. Its economic performance is nothing short of a miracle, having a gross Domestic Product per capita over U.S.$16,820, one of the highest in Africa.
A well thought out strategy of nation building and development laid the foundations for sustainable growth in Mauritius. Its model of democracy relies on multi-culturalism, redistributive economic policies and strong autonomous institutions, which are critical when it comes to a country’s growth and stability. Democracy promoted incremental and changeable strategies for public policy formation and implementation. Education and health services were fully subsidized to encourage employment and inclusive growth. Mauritius is one of Africa’s least corrupt countries. High levels of public investment in selected competitive sectors of the economy yielded rich dividends, which could be further invested for human development.

At the crossroads

For many observers, the world today stands at the proverbial cross roads: a resurgent South—most notably countries such as China and India, where there is steady progress in human development, growth appears to remain sustainable, prospects for poverty reduction are encouraging—and a North in crisis—where recurring cut backs on “welfare” expenditure and the absence of steady or spectacular economic growth poses severe hardship to millions of marginalized, unemployed, poor and growing immigrant populations, as social welfare states increasingly give way to Right-wing political ones. There are also common concerns shared by the North and the South: growing intrastate inequalities, slow pace of recovery from recessionary trends, reduced rate of poverty reduction, as well as serious threats to the environment.
The world is becoming more connected; during the early years of the 21st century, the expansion of international trade led to a turnaround in global production, which, by 2015, accounted for nearly 60% of global output. Between 1980–2010, developing countries expanded their share of world merchandise trade from 25% to 47%: South–South trade increased from less than 8% of world trade to more than 26% (U.N.D.P. 2013). Paradoxically, despite being hit the hardest by the Recession, the U.S. remains the largest economy in the world, in monetary terms, and will remain so for some time. If the U.S.A.’s recovery gets delayed and Europe is unable to extricate itself from the doldrums it finds itself in, there will be a large spillover effect on the economies of the developing world. Transnational challenges, such as moderating the effects of climate change or averting communicable diseases, require a certain degree of global cooperation. While the rise of the South is reshaping global power equations in more than one way, painstakingly achieved gains in human development will be more difficult to protect if the North–South dialogue fails and difficult decisions are postponed, as witnessed in global environmental negotiations after 2000.

Lessons from the South

The developmental trajectories of Brazil, China and India, as well as less recognized success stories such as Bangladesh, Malaysia and Chile, are reshaping ideas of how to attain steady economic growth with steady human development. However, some remarkable lessons are also learnt from the diverse and variegated development journeys of many Third World “developmental” states (not necessarily democratic) that have not been imitative of any one model. Their nation building efforts are dedicated to human development, openness to trade, technological innovation, besides concerns of equity and sustainability incorporated in people centric policies and strategies. Common traits include promoting economic growth by incentivizing certain sectors, training and using competent bureaucracies, promoting institutions which plan and implement policies amidst all the odds. The “legitimacy” of these states is mainly dependent on their record in development; e.g. China, South Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
On the other hand, over a number of decades, democratic countries like India, Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa, Chile and Mauritius, have considered pro-poor patterns of growth as electoral investments. Developmental transformations need to alter the structure of produc...

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