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M.P.A.-11
State, Society and Public Administration
ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2013-2014)
Disclaimer / Special Note: These are just the sample of the Answers/Solutions to some of the questions
given in the Assignments. These Sample Answers/Solutions are prepared by Tutor for the help of the student
to get an idea of how he/she can answer the questions of the Assignments. Sample answers may be seen as
the Guide/Reference Book/assignment Guide. Any Omission or Error is highly regretted though every care
has been taken while preparing these Sample Answers/Solutions. Please consult you Teacher/Tutor before
you prepare a Particular Answer.
SECTION - I
Q. 1. The nature of State can be understood through both Liberal and Marxist
Perspectives. Elcidate.
Ans. A state is an institution that has emerged out of a process of evolution, witnessing
changes in its nature over the passage of time. Varied social, economic and political condi-
tions have contributed to these changes. Different perspectives are available that illustrate
the nature of state.
Liberal Perspective: Liberalism as a political ideology took shape in the 16th century.
Many noted economists and liberals like Adam Smith, Ricardo, Hobbes and Locke were
important proponents of this ideology. This perspective advocated freedom of people.
The main characteristics of this ideology were representative democracy, rule of law,
human rights, secularism and struggle for political power.
Liberalism views man as a focal point in any social setup. It highlights complete freedom
of the people with the least amount of control and interference of state in its peoples lives. It
actively supports capitalism along with discouraging the state to interfere in peoples economic
activities. Although liberals view the state to be essential, they criticize its rules and regulatory
environment that interferes with people's freedom. Besides, they also accept the fact that the
state is able to perform several important and critical functions like ensuring the overall welfare
and development of people.
Marxist Perspective: Marxists believe the state to be an unethical institution that does
not represent the actual social requirements of its citizens. They believe that the concept of
state has been invented and propagated by a social class that owns the means of production
and that it has been done to protect their own economic interests. The prevailing class
differences in the society have also contributed to its development.
Particularly, industrial development led to feudalism and the growth of capitalist style of
economies. In turn, it made the class differences stronger, thereby leading to factors that led
to states formation. The prevailing Marxist thought believes that the state eventually functions
to protect the interests of the ruling class and other influential groups connected with it.
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Neo-liberal Perspective: This particular view believes that state works for the interest
and welfare of special groups by using its authority to fix economic transactions in order to
benefit them. This perspective on the nature of state propagates a market-based model of
state and encourages the thought that government is the best which rules the least. Herein,
the market is accorded superiority over the state along with an approach to downsize
administrative machinery and promote an active, participatory role of non-governmental
entities. This can only be achieved through privatization. The neo-liberal view of a state
believes that state should play a minimum role in the economy although in developing
economies, the state eventually ends up playing an important role in its citizens lives as a
large percentage of them are poor and disadvantaged.
Q. 2. Bring out the views of F.W. Riggs on Society and Administration.
Ans. Fred Riggs was a social scientist known for his ecological approach to public
administration. According to him, public administration can function in various social and
environmental situations and has the ability to adapt itself according to the prevailing conditions
so that fixed social objectives can be achieved. He viewed administrative structure, behaviour
and operations as vital parts of the society. He assumed that the nature of public organisations
in any country can be understood without grasping the social setting in which it operates and
also tried to explain the administrative processes in developing countries.
Riggs formulated the terms agraria and industria to explain different societal systems.
In terms of structural functional approach, all societies perform some basic functions such as
administrative, religious and economic amongst others. Societies perform these functions
with the help of different forms of structures. For example, a family performs social functions,
a market performs economic functions and the legislature performs the political function. In
traditional societies, all the functions were performed by a few structures but with the eventual
growth and development of society, more and more specific and specialized structures began
to take shape.
Riggs, through his Prismatic model, has also tried to explain the transformation process
of societies. Here, just like a white light when passed through a prism undergoes transformation
and comes out in the form of multi-coloured light; similarly, when a traditional society goes
through transformation, it first changes into a developing and finally into a developed society.
Despite these changes, in a modern society, some elements of a traditional society still
remained that Riggs termed formalism i.e. difference between form and reality.
Q. 3. Explain the Gandhian Perspective of Modern State.
Ans. The concept of modern state emerged during the British regime and it emphasized
democracy in India. The basic structure of this modern state was provided by the rule of law
for maintenance of public order and a political arrangement; the real motives were just
commercial in nature. A workable basis for this state was provided by a taxation method
consisting of tax assessment and collection. It also stressed on commerce and industry. All
these factors favoured the privileged section of the society. The commercial and professional
class felt alienated.
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Gandhijis own exposure to law and his study of the functioning of the British state, in
England and in the colonial territory of South Africa helped him to understand the theoretical
framework of the modern state and its actual working in different situations. Thus, he developed
an understanding of the modern state with a new perspective.
Critique of the Modern State
The mode of operation of the modern state violated Gandhijis concept of non-violence.
He also disagreed to the moral dimensions of this state as it weakened the sense of
responsibility and personal integrity. He criticized the modern state on the basis of certain
factors, highlighted below:
Concept of autonomy: It consisted of two distinct ideas. First, citizens should not be
dominated by other citizens or by the state. Second, individuals should be self-governing,
should possess moral standards for a self-evaluative assessment and accept responsibility
for individual choices.
Thus, Gandhian autonomy was based on set of moral principles that acted as a guide to
action and necessity on the part of individuals comprising the state to be self-reflective and
responsible for their actions. He suggested self-rule as an exercise of non-domination for
everyone. He believed that modernity was an obstacle to autonomy as it has introduced and
justified new forms of domination based on pre-determined process of economic activity. He
also felt that autonomous person had no link with the modern state and hence, this state could
also not achieve the goals of self-governance.
Gandhiji was also a critique of the modern state as he believed it to be a rigid setup that
blindly followed rules and regulations. Interestingly, he also compared this form of state to an
uncontrollable machine. A modern state with its uniform rules and bureaucratic management
specially came under attack from Gandhiji. He believed that this very nature of the state would
not accept individual differences and diverse opinions and attitudes.
He held the set up of the modern state as being responsible for spreading violence in
disguise, concealed behind a net of rules. All this made him strongly believe in the ideology of
non-violence. The ethics of non-violence illustrated freedom from moral blame and freedom
from all intentions to harm others.
Gandhiji never favoured the concept of a modern state as he felt that it was not compatible
with the essential human moral values. He strongly felt that an alternative model must be
developed for organising the society.
Modern State and India
During his days in colonial South Africa, Gandhi had been observing the functioning of the
modern state and its institutions. He was wondering over as to how any of its elements could
be of any use for his vision of an independent India. With voices increasing in favour of
replicating the modern state concept for an independent India, Gandhi had to offer an alternative
view for the country, keeping in mind the actual nature of the modern state that he had observed.
He felt that the modern state concept was inconsistent as a case for a modern India due
to the following comparison.
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Thus, the above comparison illustrated that the concept of a modern state was rejected
by Gandhiji as an option for an independent India. What was essentially needed was an
alternative model whose essence and characteristics would keep in mind Indias traditions
and history and simultaneously enable the country to face the developed world at an equal
footing.
SECTION - II
Q. 6. Through light on the contemporary Bureaucratic Paradigm.
Ans. The four main approaches that emerged in the contemporary bureaucratic scenario
were New Public Administration, New Public Management, Organisational Humanism and New
Public Service.
New Public Administration (NPA)
This approach to the traditional public administrative system stressed on openness, trust
and communication within the organisation. It recommended qualitative changes within the
bureaucracy, essentially covering the following areas:
Relevance: Public administration should be relevant to the prevailing social
environment and should ideally be guided by political and moral implications of their
actions.
Value-based administration: The public administration must be based on certain
values and principles that reflect societal good. It has to keep social problems in mind
and follow an ethical and participative/inclusive way of operating.
Indian Civilization Modern State
State was the result of Materialist Civilization.
States violent character was a known fact.
It promoted homogeneity and was impersonal
in nature.
It was based on urban civilization.
A modern state had uniform system of laws,
rules and procedures that removed variations
in the society.
This form of state was an abstract institution.
To implement its philosophy, the task of social
reconstruction would require a large degree
of states power, threatening peoples freedom.
Here, the society was likely to be dominated
by urban elite classes whose values would be
in confrontation with the values of rural
masses. This would lead to further social
exploitation and alienation amongst the people.
Spirituality was the essence of Indian
Civilization.
People generally believed in non-violence
Indian Civilization was rich with diverse
customs and way of life.
Primarily, India was a rural country.
Stratified Indian society had autonomous self
governing castes, sects and ethics groups
that needed a variegated system of
governance.
The society was based on direct, non-
intervened relations between people that were
also valued in principle.
Due to its immense social diversity, an
independent India would need a decentralized
power structure.
To have an equitable society, the
decentralized model was considered ideal as
political power would vest with its large rural
populace.
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Equity: This is an important criterion that must be followed by any public administration
while formulating policies and carrying out development and governance activities.
Change: Public Administrative officials are also expected to be open to change, both
in the internal and the external environment. They should not operate with a closed and
as is where is mind-set.
New Public Management (NPM)
This was an approach to reforming the existing management set ups in public sector
enterprises that began in developed countries like the UK, New Zealand and then spread to
developing countries. The approach articulated that a traditional administrations large structure
and complex system of working was an obstacle in initiating change. It observed that aspects
like organisational rigidity, low level of responsiveness and low bureaucratic accountability to
citizens plagued existing systems and hindered efficient functioning of the administration. In
this backdrop, NPM propagated and encouraged a management-oriented functional approach
in public administration. It felt that administrative officials should adopt a management-oriented
work culture that believed in efficiency, operating economies, result and goal-oriented and
accountability. Common citizens that formed their end-customers should be provided with a
choice of services and their needs should be kept in mind while delivering these services.
The NPM approach has also laid down certain tasks that bureaucracy must perform; they
are as follows:
Development of a vision: Defining a mission statement, just like any corporate
enterprise, would provide the bureaucracy with a specific direction in which to move
while carrying out development and governance. This vision can also be at national
and state-level and would help in setting objectives, responsibilities and levels of
operating efficiency amongst others.
Disaggregation of the administrative structure: NPM approach believes in making
the large, traditional administrative structure into smaller, decentralized departments
with the necessary levels of operating independence. This would again help in operating
efficiencies, responsibilities and accountabilities, along with a clearer set of overall
goals to be achieved.
Downsizing civil services: The NPM approach also encourages a review of existing
human resource positions and posts so that redundant positions can be done away
and a leaner, more efficient and effective organisation can be brought together.
Decentralization of powers: Decentra-lization of powers includes shifting local
functions to state and local governments. This would make the administration more
participative as it would bring decision-making closer to the citizens.
Service delivery: This includes monitoring grievances of common people, including
channels and system of feedback. It also encourages simplification of rules and
regulations that are easy to follow-for both the officials that implement them as well as
common citizens.
Organisational Humanism
The traditional administrative organisation only promoted a formal human relationship
structure based on hierarchy and discouraged informal human relations. However, as the
external environment has changed rapidly with a focus on larger concerns of people, both
internally and externally, it is becoming essential for the administration to allow informal human
relationships to exist within its structure. Many thinkers support this view as it encourages
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potential for growth, innovation and developing human skills. The older, authoritative structure
usually ended up creating a choking environment for its personnel that seldom led to an
efficient and effective working environment.
New Public Service (NPS)
New Public Service was another administrative model that emerged as an alternative to
traditional bureaucratic systems. This approach advocated that bureaucrats and administrative
officials should primarily focus on serving the interests of the public. They should give up their
elitist-mindset and rather work with common citizens. This new NPS model based itself on
democratic citizenship and community service in public interest.
Democratic Citizenship theory was based on public interest and it included the concepts
of democratic values and community. An important assumption here is that people are not
self-centred but rather guided by community values and feelings. People participate in
community affairs, have a sense of belonging and bond with the community where they live in.
Therefore, the administration must respect this feeling of democratic citizenship in the people
and respond by encouraging the participation of people in governance and decision-making.
Community was the other factor in the NPS approach. People have never lived in an
isolated environment in any society but rather formed a group or a community. This usually
included a collection of people wherein people associated with each other for common welfare.
It provided them with a social system that they could be a part of that provided mutual care
and respect, encouraged conflict resolution and provided a participative environment with
teamwork.
Due to the above important role of a community, the administration must work towards
building communities and work to maintain good relations whether inter or intra-community.
This would help the administration in better understanding the actual needs of these
communities and deliver development services accordingly. Eventually, this would help in
better governance too.
Q. 9. Bring out the important initiatives of Good Governance in India.
Ans. Good governance has all elements important for any government to form good rela-
tions between government and citizens. It has eight main characteristics. All these features
ensure people sharing, citizen friendly, more responsive, accountable, transparent, efficient,
effective, participatory and consensus-oriented government. It assures minimum corruption
and less red-tapism. It believes in participatory decision-making approach and work for all
round development of people.
Characteristics of Good Governance
Participatory
Responsive
Accountable
Transparent
Equitable and
inclusive
Effective and
efficient
Follows the rule
of law
Consensus-
oriented
Good
Governance
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Accountability
All government and private institutions must be accountable to the public for their actions.
It means that the government is answerable to their citizens for their actions and activities. It
measures the performance of the officials.
Transparency
All actions and activities of the government must be transparent to the citizens. It refers to
the availability of information to the general public and clarity about government rules,
regulations and decisions. Right to Information (RTI) is an instrument to check the transparency
of the government and its officials.
Responsive
Government must be responsive to the needs of all those who are going to be affected by
their actions.
Participation
It means involvement of citizens in the development and decision-making process.
Appropriate changes can be made with respect to their demands and needs. Participation
can either be direct or through peoples representatives.
Effectiveness and Efficiency
It refers to the proper utilization of resources according to societys needs and demands.
It covers the sustainable use of natural resources and protection of environment. Development
should be result-oriented.
Rule of Law
It implies legitimate use of authority. It also requires full protection of human rights,
particularly of minorities.
Consensus-oriented
There are varied needs, demands and view-points in any society. Good governance must
see what is in the best interests of the whole community and how this can be achieved?
Equity and Inclusiveness
All members of society should feel that they have a stake in it and dont feel excluded from
the mainstream.