BUREAUCRACY IN THE FIELD
TYPES OF INTER-GOVERNAMENTAL
RELATIONS
I. Golden Oldies:
II. Literary Map:
III. Grand Synthesis:
IV. Theme: Bureaucracy in the Field-
I. The Issue: A cacophony of terms
 AT ISSUE - Location of ultimate power
 Definition of Power: the authoritative allocation of values
2.
Forms of Decentralization
 Concept: Transfer of authority to a lower level of
government
 Primary Unit of Government: Lowest level that carries a
bureaucracy with it
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3.
Confederation and loose con-federal relationships
 Power lies with the sub-units
 U.S. Articles of Confederation
 European Union
 Southern African Development Council
 Economic Council of West African States
4.
Federal Relationship
 Some power lies with the National Unit
 Some power lies with lower units
Key Distinction:
1. Lower units cannot break away from the National
Unit
2. National Units cannot take power away from the
lower units
Federal
Examples: USA
Canada
Germany - Federal Republic
Nigeria
India
Russian Federation
Austria
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Switzerland
3. Under Federalism: Transfer additional authority
back to the sub-units but not take power away from
the federated governments
For example, there is a debate over provinces in
South Africa
5.
Unitary Systems
 All power ultimately lies at the national level
 What power the local level has, is given to it by the national
level
 The power that the national unit has given to the local level
can also be taken away from it
Examples: United Kingdom
France
Kenya
Ivory Coast
Malaysia
South Africa? (Unitary or QuasiFederal)
6. Devolution: Transfer to a non-Federal political body
E.g. Budget and personal authority to district, city and town
councils
Key- power lies with lower level politicians
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Note: Discussion of Traditional, Colonial and
Imperial systems (Heady)- Fused systems and the
fear of dissolution
7. Deconcentration: (Europe and Field Administration- Tarrow)
Transfer of authority to administrators at lower level within the
administrative system. Part of routinization of Bureaucracy
Terms:
1. Local state
2. Local Government
3. Self-Governance
4. Functional Systems
5. Prefectoral- integrated Systems
6. Prefectoral-unintegrated
7.
Delegation: and the soft state (Turner and Hulme) Public
Corporations or parastatals. The problem of Commercialization
8. Corporatism: The relationship between local government and field
administration (Picard) under social corporatism. (Peak organizations,
interests and technology)
9. Contracting Out: (Why contract out? Why not? Baker and Turner
and Holme)
10. Privatization: Origin and problems with public enterprise (Turner
and Holme)
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11. Governance Issues:
1. Democracy- the powerless of power (Orwell)
2. Decentralization and the critiques of indirect democracy:
the human factor (Greene)
3. Decentralization and NGOs (Are NGOs dangerous)
Threats (Morris)
4. Decentralization and ethnic and regional conflict- the
dangers of decentralization (Heady)
5.
The Communal/municipal model vs. urban/rural
dichotomy (Picard)
6. Decentralization (such as land reform) as a failure
7. Issue: local government staff: "bush postings" and
Rooting for the Other Team (Morris)
8. Decentralization and Development: State level central
planning
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Bureaucracy in the field
Questions:
1. What is the difference between local government and field
administration? What is the local state? What factors have made
local government difficult to introduce in LDCs? Is decentralization
easier in more developed countries?
2. What is the Prefectoral system? Why are some called integrated and
some called un-integrated? What criticisms are often made of field
administrators and field administration?
3. Analyze the issues of public management and public policy raised by
the novels by Graham Greene and George Orwell. How do the
issues differ from those raised by Warren? By our other authors of
"fiction?" Use the comparative public administration literature to
discuss these two very different situations.
4. What does Armstrong mean about "territorial direction?" How has
prefectoral authority work in France and Russia? What was the
Imperial experience with field administration in India and in other
British colonies? Compare this with other parts of the world.
5. According to Armstrong, what has been the experience of field
administration on development in Europe? Compare Armstrong's
view of field administration and development with that of our other
authors? What are the dilemmas of decentralization?
6. What does Morris mean by "rooting for the other team?" What is
wrong with it? What are the major problems that Morris points to
in his article?
7. How does Picard define decentralization? What does he mean by recentralization? What does he say happened in Denmark? How does
he relate re-centralization to the planning process? Critique the
model developed by Picard drawing on material from other parts of
the world.
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8. What is Corporatism? How has specialization affected
decentralization in Europe? What are the major goals of the reform
and how did they change local government in the Scandinavian
Countries? What are "steering mechanisms?" Peak Organizations?
What conclusions can be drawn about decentralization in
Scandinavia?
9. In general, what is the difference between field administration and
administration at the center. What is the difference between field
administration and local government? Terms to note and explain:
Prefect, Integrated vs. Un-integrated systems, devolution, deconcentration and functional administration.
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