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Development Management versus Third World Bureaucracies: A Brief History of Conflicting Interests

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  • David Hirschmann

Abstract

This article investigates the impacts on, and responses of, third world bureaucracies (more specifically those operating in the poorer parts of the third world), in the context of the changing demands of development management. These include efforts at debureaucratization, by calling for a radically different kind of civil service; at localization and training; at circumvention, through relying on semi‐autonomous public enterprises; at re‐orientation, by altering civil servants' attitudes and incentives; at decentralization; and at privatization and pressure. For these governments, this last mentioned approach proved more demanding and demoralizing than any of the previous notions they had confronted. Today, under the rubric of governance, there appears to be some acknowledgement that the anti‐state emphasis of the structural adjustment era may have gone too far, and the call is for the more effective bureaucracies to be accountable. The danger in many poor countries, however, is that the real and relative salaries, the morale and ethics of the bureaucracy, and public trust in the bureaucracy, have all plummeted so far, that it may be too late to turn these trends around. The daunting challenge today is how to break out of this ‘box’ of bureaucratic decline, the four corners of which are formed and connected by lack of resources, incentives, public service and legitimacy.

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  • David Hirschmann, 1999. "Development Management versus Third World Bureaucracies: A Brief History of Conflicting Interests," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(2), pages 287-305, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:30:y:1999:i:2:p:287-305
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-7660.00118
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    Cited by:

    1. Gyldas A. Ofoulhast‐Othamot, 2022. "The perils of a bureaucratic fad in Africa: Examining the effects of the agencification of the state apparatus in Gabon," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(3), pages 179-189, August.
    2. Gulrajani, Nilima, 2009. "The future of development management: examining possibilities and potential," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 24206, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Hoon Park & Clifford Russell & Junsoo Lee, 2007. "National culture and environmental sustainability: A cross-national analysis," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 31(1), pages 104-121, March.
    4. Cooke, Bill, 2001. "From Colonial Administration to Development Management," General Discussion Papers 30562, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    5. Park, Albert Sanghoon, 2017. "Does the Development Discourse Learn from History?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 52-64.
    6. Willy McCourt, 2007. "Impartiality through bureaucracy? A Sri Lankan approach to managing values," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(3), pages 429-442.
    7. Sumit Vij, 2023. "Polycentric disaster governance in a federalising Nepal: interplay between people, bureaucracy and political leadership," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(4), pages 755-776, December.

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