Vinod Kumar

MPA Final (Hons)

1st Semester
Roll No: 75.

Subject: Local Government & Rural Development

Administration.

Topic: Local Government in Pakistan is Failure or

Successful?

Teacher: Sir, Gul Muhammad Umrani.

Date: May 07, 2007.

Q: Administration System in USA, UK, & Germany, Also
Compare with the Pakistan Administration.

The Comparative Public Administration is study of Political

Phenomena as old as Political Science. In Modern times it’s the
Contemporary Systems of Government and Administration.
We have selected three administration systems for discussion. In
Contrast to Germany, the history of their political development is one
of relative stability. Circumstance permitted them for the most part to
take an incremental approach to the problems of political change, and
to develop their political institutions without violent discontinuities and
abrupt changes of direction. Including Germany and the United
States is basically similar patterns in each but with somewhat
different dimensions, reflecting difference in national histories and
social structure. The greatest consequence of gradualism on public
administration was that the administrative system also was able to
take shape feature by feature in a way that reflected the political
changes and was consonant with them. Political and administrative
adaptations were concurrent and fairly well balanced, but the political
theme was dominant. At no time has the administrative apparatus
been called upon to assume the whole burden of government
because of a breakdown of the political machinery. Compare to
Germany and United States was markedly slow in becoming
professionalized and in acquiring other important characteristics of
bureaucracy. A bureaucracy of competence, it should be noted, did
not appear in either country until representative political organs
decided that it was needed and provided for it.
In the USA and UK, on the other hand, the executive department is
the major entities, but included in the executive branch are a plethora
of regulatory commission, government corporations, and other units.
In the United States, the central personal agency for the federal
government from 1983 through 1978 was the civil service
commission, a three member board with statuary power designed to
guarantee the integrity of the merit system. Its functions have now
been divided between the office of personnel management and the
merit systems protection board, as one feature of civil service reforms
initiated by president.
The American tradition USA, UK has been to offer more specialized
and practical examination on an open competitive basis to those
meeting prescribed minimum qualification. The Administration
System is same like Germany. In the United States, because of a
more open society with less pronounced class distinctions, and
because of the methods used for the appointment and advancement
in the civil service. Although public executive have been better
educated then the general population and have tended to come from
families with business and professional background, a study made in
the 1960s indicated that nearly one-fourth of them had fathers who
were blue-collar workers. Compared to most national public services,
the American record is certainly better then average, despite these
group deficiencies in representation.
Again by way of contrast, the USA, UK and Germany such movement
back and forth at various levels has been and continues to be quite
feasible and even encouraged under existing personnel practice in
both the public and private sectors. In USA, the executive and
legislative branches share in regulating the bureaucracy, so that it
has a partial statuary base, but there is no constitutional protection for
the national service. The merit bureaucracy depends more on a
protection tradition than on elaborate legal provision.
The civil servants tend to have policy matters develop on them under
such a minister, they do not regard this ministerial role favorably
because it often cause delays in decision, which need to be a taken
at the minister’s level.
Germany does not usually deal directly with the public by providing
goods and service. Generally the power and impact of the central
government is buffered rather than direct. Direct control of the
subordinate governmental units is likewise untypical. Finally, higher
civil servants usually do not leave their careers for service in other
elites in the society. In the American setting, USA, UK there is
probably no dramatic contrast in the over all impact on policy making
of higher ranking civil servants, but the rules of the game are quite
different. Bureaucratic policy-makers in the United States must
operate much more in the public eye, which gives greater leeway but
also involves greater risks.
So these are the Administration systems in USA, UK and Germany,
which we have explained.
Compare with the Pakistan Administration.

As we compare with the Pakistan Administration, in USA

development did not take place until the latter part of the 9 th century.
Pakistan Administration is very different from these countries.
Formulating general principles concerning public administration in the
United States, UK and Germany may be different and difficult
enough. Various administrative devices developed abroad may also
adaptation at home.
The laboratories for administrative experimentation provided by the
emergence of many new nations should in the future offer numerous
instance of innovation in administration worthy of attention in the
more established countries.
To begin, any attempt to compare Pakistan administration must
knowledge the fact that administration is only one aspect of the
operation of the political system. This means inevitably that
comparative public administration is linked closely to the study of
comparative politics, and must start from the base provided by the
current stage of development of comparative studies of whole political
system.
The same functions are performed in all political systems, even
though these functions may be performed with different frequencies,
and by different kinds of structure.

Perhaps the most notable contribution to Comparative Public

Administration from the viewpoint of theory is that by the American
scholar, Fred Riggs, who, in 1964, published a book entitled
“Administration in Developing Countries”, in which he articulated a
‘theory of Prismatic society’. The details of this theory need not delay
us here. Page no: 97