Book Review: Bidyut Chakrabarty and Prakash Chand, Public Administration in a Globalizing World
Author | Alokka Dutta |
Published date | 01 June 2017 |
Date | 01 June 2017 |
DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0019556117699739 |
Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews 311
framework, laying down the development path which India should follow, suiting
its unique genius. The policy document can be discussed and debated, so that we
know the broad contours of ‘right economic model’, which could help us banish
poverty and deprivation and usher in a prosperous India.
References
GOI (Government of India). (2011). Socio economic and caste census. Retrieved 25 April
2017, from http://secc.gov.in/reportlistContenthttp://secc.gov.in/reportlistContent
Hobsbawm, E. (2011). How to change the world: Tales of Marx and Marxism. London:
Little, Brown & Co.
Korten, D. C. (2009). Agenda for a new economy: From phantom wealth to real wealth.
San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Speth, J. G. (2008). The bridge at the edge of the world: Capitalism, the environment, and
the crossing from crisis to sustainability. New Haven: Yale University Press.
B. P. Mathur
National Institute of Financial Management
drbpmathur@gmail.com
Bidyut Chakrabarty and Prakash Chand, Public Administration in a
Globalizing World. Delhi: SAGE Publications, 2013, 546 pp., `525.
DOI: 10.1177/0019556117699739
Public administration is being constantly reinvented simply because of the
processes in which it is embedded. It is state-centric and as the scope and
complexities of the state activities increase, public administration can hardly
afford to remain static. Given the complex nature of public administration in the
changed national and international milieu, it would, however, be difficult if not
impossible to dwell on each and every relevant issue. This book provides an
exhaustive account of public administration as an effort seeking to accomplish
public well-being. Indian example is perhaps the most appropriate illustration to
understand the changing nature of public administration for two reasons: First,
because of the peculiar historical circumstances in which Indian administration
was shaped after Independence in 1947. This had characteristics which were
neither completely Western nor purely indigenous but a unique mixture of both.
The pattern seems to have continued. Even after the adoption of new economic
policy in 1991, public administration remains committed to ‘the public sector’
despite having endorsed ‘the market rhetoric’ in development. Second, besides
substantial continuity, both in spirit and in content, Indian public administration
provides a creative response to the neoliberal avalanche by drawing upon India’s
distinct socio-economic circumstances. Indian examples also direct our attention
to the underlying values shaping public administration. Hence, public
administration can never be static but is being constantly redefined. This book
serves a useful purpose to the students seeking to grapple with the complex
To continue reading
Request your trial