"Quality vs. Quantity of Bureaucracy!!!"
TOWARDS A BETTER ADMINISTRATION
ANALYSIS OF SAMPLE ISSUE TOPIC (GRE)
A democratized government is responsible for safeguarding the collective rights, privileges & interests of the people. Unlike dictatorship, democracy enables all and sundry to directly question the administrative authorities of the government. On the other hand, dividing the public departments into discrete units and increasing the density of bureaucracy will sharply dampens the direct approach of the people towards their representative government.
It's a matter of fact that bureaucracy is perhaps an important pillar of government and it's efficacy & dexterity should be increased by consolidating and revitalizing the inner structure, instead of increasing the number of officials that will create more burden on budget and hampers the direct approach of the people towards their representatives. I would like to quote an indigenous example over here, pertaining to the government of Pakistan. We have more than 100 ministries in Pakistan and these ministries are again sub divided into sub-ministries, divisions and parliamentary committees. As we know that the increase in the number of ministries and departments have a directly proportional effect on the number of officials. For example, Communications ministry is now divided into the four discrete independent ministries such as Postal ministry, telecommunications ministry, Ministry of IT & Ministry of Community & Works. If we just say by example that the parent ministry had 100 officials then now the four ministries have at least 300 officials because the number of officials increases with the number of ministries. According to the reports of transparency international and "Dawn August 3rd,2009", the government is reconsidering of joining the four again because of the degrading managerial environment.
Another and perhaps more elucidating example is of Local Government System of Pakistan. Before the local government system there was only one seat of Assistant Commissioner in a district but after the LGS, the post of Assistant Commissioner was divided in discrete parts such as DDO(R), DDO(Coordination), DDO(Finance) & DDO(judicial Magistrate). The result was quiet alarming as the International Crisis Group (ICG) named the Local government of Pakistan as the most corrupt local government system of the world. This shows how the alacrity of the dexterous officers is being marred by the division of bureaucracy.
If we look at the administrative setup of other countries then it would be quiet visible that the countries which have small administrative setup, with less number of officials have better quality of administration. It shows how the increase in the number of officials decreases the quality of administration and degrades the symbiotic relationship between the government and the people.
