The Study of Public Administration in India: A Chequered Journey (?)
| Date | 01 January 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556120140101 |
| Author | Bidyut Chakrabarty |
| Published date | 01 January 2014 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
THE STUDY OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN
INDIA: A CHEQUERED JOURNEY
(?)
BIDYUT CHAKRABARTY
Public Administration, as a discipline, is witnessing dawn
of
a
new
era in its study, which now by stepping
out
of
its
orthodox/conventional mould seeks to create an independent
space
in
Social Sciences.
The
overzealous endeavour at making
Public
Administration
an
instrumental
and
goal-driven
technical exercise has taken out the dynamism
of
the discipline
as an organic search
for
administrative solutions
for
socio-
economic problems in the country. The discipline
is
reduced
to efforts at building specific skills which are required to
address the identified problems without recognizing their
socio-economic and political roots. The discussion that follows
revolves around those major issues which remain critical
in
the framing
of
syllabus and
in
class teaching.
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION is a context-driven response to problems
confronting a specific society. Hence it would be conceptually misleading
to argue for a universal design for public administration. The basic problem
that appears
to
have impeded creative thinking in this area
of
human inquiry
is linked with our uncritical dependence on models/theoretical paradigms
which are rooted in the Western experience. Given the obvious limitations
of
such thinking, it is but inevitable that the peculiar nature
of
public
administration in non-Western hemisphere remains elusive or is sought to
be defined in a very mechanical manner avoiding the real challenge in
conceptualising the phenomenon in a specific perspective. This is a serious
problem
of
our
syllabi in Public Administration in
most
of
the Indian
universities. By choosing a relatively easy option, the academia responsible
for teaching and transmission
of
knowledge seem to have stayed away
from difficult questions concerning the unique evolution and nature
of
public administration in India. There is however emerging a new group in
the academia which is involved in efforts
at
re-conceptualising public
administration keeping in view its peculiar contextual nature. In such an
endeavour, one cannot entirely be oblivious
of
the Western tradition and
2 I INDIAN JOURNAL
OF
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
VOL. LX.
NO.
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JANUARY-MARCH 2014
its theoretical value in helping
us
understand the public administration in
its most complex forms; by underlining the contextual nature
of
public
administration, it is simply argued here that one-size-fits-all syndrome does
not appear to be a meaningful theoretical formula in so far as public
administration is concerned.
There is a related point here that has a universal manifestation even to
the extent
of
taking away the basic thrust
of
public administration
by
underplaying the importance
of
'public' in public administration. With the
acceptance
of
the World Bank-engineered 'governance' to articulate public
administration, Public Administration has perhaps received a serious jolt
since it was formally conceptualised in the seminal 1887 article by
Woodrow Wilson. Public administration is not merely a goal and process-
oriented act, it has also a well-defined purpose
of
serving 'the public' -
that cannot be captured by governance which focuses exclusively on: (a)
goal, and (b) process and remains completely silent about the purpose
of
the public authority. There is thus a clear 'disconnect' between the
instrument and the target group which is most critical in so far
as
public
governance is concerned. In contemporary studies
of
public administration,
the efforts have already been undertaken to highlight this serious lacuna in
our effort at approximating to the World Bank guidelines; a theoretical
search has already begun to unravel the theoretical limitations
of
the
governance discourse which by seeking to take away the publicness
of
public administration, is a serious source
of
concern in contemporary
thinking. Despite the obvious discomfort that the governance discourse
has caused, there
is
no denying the fact that
it
has provoked a well-informed
debate among those responsible for teaching and research in Public
Administration. Our syllabi in the universities have taken into account the
debate that appears to have reconfirmed viability
of
some
of
the major
theoretical tools
of
'traditional' Public Administration.
Major Arguments
(a) Public Administration
is
a contextual discipline and one should be
sensitive
of
this to develop a meaningful theoretical design, and (b) Public
Administrative is a purpose-oriented exercise and effort at delinking public
administration from public is theoretically misleading and intellectually
myopic_
Supplementary Arguments
(a) Unlike other disciplines in the field
of
social sciences, Public
Administration
is
a practice-driven endeavour in which the role
of
politics
is also evidently significant that cannot be wished-away, and (b) in the
context
of
the rise and consolidation
of
'networked society' (or global
village,
as
some commentators prefer to argue), a scientific study
of
public
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