Bureaucratic Leadership and Administrative Reform in Bangladesh

Various political regimes introduced programs for administrative reforms in Bangladesh since the birth of the country. They included democratically elected governments as well as military dictators who apparently sought to... [ view full abstract ]

Various political regimes introduced programs for administrative reforms in Bangladesh since the birth of the country. They included democratically elected governments as well as military dictators who apparently sought to streamline the system of administration. A significant issue is the role of bureaucratic leadership in designing and implementing administrative reforms. Reforms are politically driven initiatives and are expected to be led by the political leadership in a country. The proposed paper will examine administrative reform efforts in Bangladesh and identify the drivers to determine the position of bureaucratic leadership in the process. The following research questions will be addressed: What were the drivers of administrative reforms in Bangladesh? How did reform ideas take shape? Who decided the agenda for reforms? How was reform proposals formulated? What were the outcomes, and who were the winners and losers? Answers to these questions will yield insight on the state of administrative reforms in developing countries.

Drawing upon theoretical ideas in the literature on bureaucratic leadership and administrative reforms, the paper will analyze data on various reform attempts in Bangladesh. It will reveal the powerful position of the bureaucratic leadership under both democratic and military rule. This group offered ideas for introducing administrative reforms, occupied prominent positions in reform bodies and, in many cases, was able to impede the implementation to protect their group interests. Consequently, administrative reforms were unsuccessful to produce the desired effect. The paper will highlight the relative roles of perceived and actual drivers of administrative reforms in Bangladesh and contribute to further understanding of the causes of unsuccessful reforms in Bangladesh.