An insight into bureaucracy

The Bureaucratic Ascendancy: Public Administration in Bangladeshby Habib Zafarullah and Mohammad Mohabbat Khan New Delhi: South Asian Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2005, pp. X+267.

The Bureaucratic Ascendancy: Public Administration in Bangladesh written by Professors Habib Zafarullah and Mohammad Mohabbat Khan provides an accurate reflection of developments which covers different phases of Bangladesh's political history with the spotlight on the bureaucracy and the role it plays in its polity. It analyses the dynamics of the relationships of the bureaucracy with the political structures as well as within it. In fact, this book is a compilation of twelve research papers on Bangladesh public administration and bureaucracy published by the authors jointly or individually in internationally reputed journals and edited books during the period from 1984 to 2001. These twelve papers in twelve chapters in the book, each focusing either on particular issues or on the bureaucracy in general, were actually written as stand-alone pieces for different readerships at different times. However, it appears that the authors have taken great care to place in context some of the facts and information repeated in one chapter to another while preparing their anthology. By doing so they have thus rectified the tautologies which seem typical in papers written on similar or related topics but at different times.

Although this book has a cut-off point and examines events and developments in the first three decades of independent Bangladesh, i.e., those occurring between 1971 and 2001, references are often made to developments taking place after the cut-off point.

Obviously this has been done either to complete an analysis usefully, to illustrate a situation, or to assist the reader in forming a fair judgement on any measure of policy and administration which was initiated during the period at issue. The inclusion of references as such has made the book most up-to-date.

The chapter headings indicate a wide range of public administration topics treated in the book. Yet, they may be deemed categorised into three focus areas considering the commonalities among certain topics, which in effect make one focus area distinctive from another. Thus, the topics, “Political System and Bureaucracy”, “Bureaucracy and Public Administration”, “Bureaucratic Reforms”, "Governance Reforms” and “Bureaucratic Politics” (chapters 1, 2, 3, 11 & 12), form one such area. The focus here is upon the bureaucracy in Bangladesh; the role it plays in politics, governmental structures, bureaucratic and governance reform efforts, and so forth. The topics “National Administration”, “Public Service Commission”, “Civil Service Management” and “Recruitment and Training” (chapters 4, 5, 6 & 7) form another focus area. The spotlight here is on the structure and organisation of the machinery of government at the national level, functioning of the public service commission, civil service management, and the systems of civil service recruitment and training. Finally, the remainder three topics “Rural Development”, “Local Government Planning” and “State Enterprises” (chapters 8, 9 & 10) form the remaining third focus area.

These three topics, related peripherally to public administration though, are considered very important when one underscores the need for alleviating rural poverty, involving the local representatives in local level planning process, and helping the public sector enterprises perform well towards the goal of accelerating economic growth. But the discussions under these topics in the book show that the inability of Bangladesh to get out of the low growth trap is largely due to the weak implementation capacity and inefficiencies of bureaucratic institutions.

The strength of the book lies in chapters 1, 2, 3, 11 & 12 where the bureaucracy in Bangladesh is examined in historical, constitutional, structural and functional contexts. Most importantly, the narrative in these chapters reveals how skilfully the Bangladeshi civil servants manoeuvred themselves into a position of power from where they have been playing a critical role both in policy making and policy implementation, and what is more, how tactfully they have frustrated most administrative reform efforts initiated in the post-independence years. The authors have taken great care to document carefully the politico-administrative changes that have taken place in the years of turbulence in this country's history. While extensive use is made of official documents, reports, and published materials, the contents of most the chapters in the book are also supported by firsthand information from interviews and surveys conducted at field levels. Chapter 1 (Political System and Bureaucracy) and Chapter 12 (Bureaucratic Politics) are particularly well written and indicate the mastery of bringing into light some of subtle moves of the Bangladeshi bureaucrats to foil any measures that threatened their power and status.

The authors deserve to be congratulated for presenting such a highly informative anthology on the subject. It does have its distinctive strengths. It makes a valuable contribution to existing knowledge about Bangladesh public administration and bureaucracy both in their historical and modern contexts. For someone wanting to gather insightful knowledge on the bureaucracy in Bangladesh, it is indeed a valuable publication available now at the leading bookstores in Dhaka. The academics and practitioners of public administration in particular will find the book an enlightening reading. It may also be useful as a text in training and public administration courses where an emphasis upon the historical origins, structural arrangements and legal systems is required.

Syed Giasuddin Ahmed is Supernumerary Professor of Public Administration, University of Dhaka.