Political Settlement and the Reform of Public Bureaucracy: An Exploratory Analysis with Particular Reference to the Developing World

This paper aims to analyse the contemporary reforms of public bureaucracy in the developing world from the perspective of ‘political settlement’, the idea of which as a theoretical construct has gained considerable... [ view full abstract ]

This paper aims to analyse the contemporary reforms of public bureaucracy in the developing world from the perspective of ‘political settlement’, the idea of which as a theoretical construct has gained considerable attention in recent years. Political settlement refers to the balance or distribution of power between social groups and social classes, on which the state is based. Historically, the public bureaucracy has been a powerful institution in developing countries. Its development traces back to colonial era. Since decolonization, its powers and privileges have remained unscathed depending on the form of ‘political settlement’. Its reform has also been a ceaseless phenomenon since decolonization. Particularly, the emergence of the new mode of governance in the 1980s heralded a new era in the realm of administrative reforms. While research in this area has been extensive, systematic analyses from the perspective of political settlement remains inconspicuous. Employing this framework in analysing reforms of the public bureaucracy in the developing world would be a significant contribution to the existing stock of knowledge on administrative change.

Though the concept of political settlement is not new, it’s systematic use was coined by Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, Steven B. Webb and Barry R. Weingast (henceforth NWWW) (2007). Since then a substantial number of empirical studies have analysed the dynamics of development. However, there are varied configurations of political settlement across the developing world. The main proposition of this paper is that variations in bureaucratic reform outcomes are decidedly affected by the differences in the pattern of political settlements that different developing countries experience at different times. The specific objectives of this paper are:
• To develop a framework for analysis;
• To delineate the significant elements of political settlements and position the public bureaucracy in the construct; and
• To identify critical reform initiatives in the public bureaucracy in selected Asian developing countries and analyse their success/failure in the light of the stylized framework.