Development Dynamics: Concept of development; Changing

profile of development administration; Antidevelopment thesis;

Bureaucracy and development; Strong state versus the market
debate; Impact of liberalisation on administration in developing
countries;Women and development - the self-help group
movement.

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DEVELOPMENT DYNAMICS: The scientific study of Development forces or processes (Dynamics) that
produce movement/change inside a group or system.
CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT:
Before we move on to analyse the meaning of Development Administration it is very important to
understand the concept of 'Development'. Development is a complex concept to define,generally it means
moving or graduating to a better stage of condition. Development means change plus growth.
Development is a process of acquiring a sustained growth of a system's capability to cope with
new,continuous change toward the achievement of progressive political,economic and social changes.
However, though growth is a pre condition for development it is not a synonym for development and the
two should not be taken to mean the same because mere growth of economy does not make it a
developed economy,there will be n number of other issues that are either caused by the development like
extreme poverty or there will be issues that are standalone like illiteracy,etc. Growth of economy or
economic growth is easy to achieve but economic development is not an easy achievement. Economic
development is when the means of production are more technical savvy and institutionalised and its
distribution is equal among everyone for social justice.
According to planners in India,the concept of development must incorporate the following elements:
1) Economic growth does not mean economic development. There is no surety that a growth in
investment,capital formation,industries and national income would alone bring in overall development and
social justice. Therefore,we must view development in its totality as one single,unified concept
incorporating social,political,cultural and economic angles/dimensions.
2) Social justice is basic to development,that is it provides the base and foundation and principle and
objective/goal of development.
3) Development has to be a participative exercise and not a one sided or lobbying affair where only those
who are elite and wield power have a say.
4) Self reliance is an important and inseparable aspect of development. In detail it asserts that developing

countries should be able to participate in the development process on basis of complete equality in
international relations and affairs for reaching an agreement that will be beneficial mutually to both parties
involved.
5) Scarcity of natural resources calls for maintaining their balance and not be exploited in the name of
development.

Now that we have understood the concept of 'Development',we can move on to understand the theory
and concept of administering that Development or Development Administration.
DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION - CONCEPT:
The essence of Development Administration is to bring about change through integrated,organised,and
properly directed governmental action.
When Riggs was busy testing the traditional theories of Administration in developing countries like
Thailand in 60's he realised the futility of the experiment because the problems that plague the developed
societies do not plague the developing countries and so the former's administrative practices did not work
in the latter's ecology. He found that in order to bring the developing nations onto the platform of the
developed there has to be a lot of development to be done and so these countries were so busy in their
welfare and development activities that they developed their own ways and practices of administration in
order to sustain the same. Therefore,that is where the concept of development administration was
conceptualised. Development Administration as an area of study was propagated as a means to bridge
the gaps and missing links in administrative theory between the developed and developing countries.

There is no unanimous definition of Development Administration as such as everyday it is being given

newer ones and updated but yes, there are certain characteristics and features of Development
Administration that help identify it. Those are:
i) Change Orientation - It is anti status-quo(continuing present situation). It looks to formulate strategies to
develop administrative capacities viz-a-viz external environment as well as building activating internal
structures in order to speed up socio-economic change.
ii) Goal oriented - It is result oriented that pertain to social,economic,political and cultural goals(including
technological) which are progressive in nature.
iii) Motivation - Motivation and that too a high degree of it is a backbone of any organisation and personal
vested interests should be thwarted if progressive goals have to be achieved.
iv) Client orientation - It is people centred and aims to provide the maximum services and products to the
people/clients.
v) Greater participation of citizens - It involves the great amount of people participation in the formulation
and implementation of development goals and policies. It looks to facilitate people's participation and in
India the block level and district planning level is part of the govt. initiative to do so at the grass root level.
vi) Effective integration - Effective integration among groups and authorities involved while achieving
development goals both at the small and big level.
vii) Innovativeness - Development administration has the approach of problem solving which it does
through applying new methods,structures,procedure,plans,projects and programmes for achieving its
objectives.
viii) Responsiveness - Fulfilling the needs of people and responding to the demands and needs of society
are its top priorities.

These characteristics and features will be understood after understanding the following two goals of
Development Administration:
1) Administration Of Development: Administration of Development means the arrangement and tasks
needed to control the operation/plan of development. It is how development plans and policies are carried
out or implemented,in short administered. Administration of development involves the following
goals/objectives:
a) application of innovative strategies for development. Administrative systems and machinery capacities
should be reinforced and built up to implement the programmes and policies in the most optimum way.
b) emphasis on development at the grassroots level. Development has to be a need-oriented and selfreliant process.
c) Stress on social development and human capital as a major resource.
d) Development has to be viewed not merely as a technological problem but also as an ideological norm.
e) Profound and rapid change in order to establish a distinct and just social order.
f) Recognising and highlighting the unity,rather than the dichotomy between politics and administration.
g) Effective and efficient use of scarce resources.
h) Creation of politics-administrative environment which is oriented towards securing basic needs of
population.
i) Freedom of administrative machinery to express its values and beliefs without fear or favour on
programmes and projects.
2) Development of Administration or Administrative development: Simply speaking it refers to that
aspect of development administration where administrative systems and capacities are developed for
efficient and optimum utilisation of scarce resources to implement the development policies. It looks to
bring out not only procedural,technical or organisational changes to keep the administrative machinery up
to date with the societal goals but also to bring about political development,economic growth and social
change. It also looks to bring about adaptability,autonomy and coherence in administration and remove
corruption.
So now since we have understood the term of Development Administration and its two aspects which
need to be fulfilled because they both are interdependent and if one aspect is not fulfilled the other cannot
persist. Also we can see the difference between traditional administration of the earlier periods where all
that was prioritised was increase in production and efficiency and profits,development administration is
concerned about social justice and economic as well as administrative machinery and political
development.

EMERGENCE OF DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION:

1) Goals of administration were being ignored and only the means to achieve those goals were being
stressed upon. In detail, only theories and methods were being looked into and no one was looking into
what should be the goals of administration.
2) The formation of the Comparative Administration Group in 1960.
3) Newly emerged independent nations after the second world war needed their own indigenously
developed administrative model/machinery suited to their ecology and needs of society.
4) UN sponsored development schemes and extension of USA economic and technical assistance plans
to the third world and newly emerged independent countries.

IMPORTANT INSTRUMENTS(Tools for Achieving) OF DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY:

1) Administrative systems - Planning Commission,etc.

2) Political Organisations - Political parties,etc.
3) Voluntary associations - Non profit trusts/societies like Voluntary Health Association,etc.
4) People's Organisations - NGO's,NPO's,etc.

CHANGING PROFILE(Attention) OF DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION:

As we had discussed earlier that the period of the 50's were a period of development where developing
nations imitated developed nations administrative practices in order to develop but that was found to be
unsuitable and in fact created a host of new problems and so the period of crisis of that theory began in
late 60's and 70's when the CAG/Comparative Administration Group was formed.
Then began the period of rejection of the western ideas and prescriptions and develop their own practices
suitable to them. These radicalists like Franck stated that the West were only interested in exploiting the
developing countries and nothing else through their policies and funds in the name of development they
were providing to the backward nations. This led to a shift in the strategies of the International Labour
Organisation and World Bank towards the goal of 'growth with equity'.
But this was termed as a new way of fooling the developing nations once more through bureaucratic
stranglehold. But,the western practitioners stated that their principles and theories were the solution but
they were not being implemented properly in these developing countries due to various reasons and that
is the reason for their failure.
The 1980's was a radical turn in the concept of Development Administration where scholars wanted
administration to be flexible and people should be included in the process.
Towards the 90's the very influential 'New Right Philosophy' sprung up which was neo-liberal(modern form
of the liberal approach prevailing in earliest time of society) and also the Public Choice Theory(Discussed
in previous articles on this blog) emerged that brought a new paradigm to the concept of Development
Administration. This led to the Good Governance concept. New Public management also made a huge
impact where it was suggested that administration should become more managerial and market based in
its approach in order to survive and be efficient. It stated that the state cannot sacrifice social values for
achieving efficiency and not go beyond its constitutional limitations.
Nowadays, the Discourse theory of Development Administration is doing the rounds that asserts that
development administration should have two major criteria:
a) Human need based approach
b) Sustainable approach
They examined five strategies(liberal capitalism,communist strategy,liberation theology,Islamic
fundamentalism,Sarvodhaya/socialist) to find out which one catered to both these criteria. It was found
that Sarvodhaya ( read - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarvodaya ) was the only model that contained both
the above criteria and if implemented properly will lead to optimum results in Development Administration.
Sarvodhaya(social uplift) is being studied right now and if found can replace the current prevalent strategy
which is Development Management and Good Governance Agenda.

ANTI DEVELOPMENT THESIS:

It began in 1950's and 60's. It is not against development but only against the western theory of
development in developing countries which they termed as full of vested interests and anti-development
policies of the West that were being labelled as Development of the developing countries. Reactions to it
or it gained prominence during the 70's and 80's and was a precursor to the Good Governance policy
nowadays.
The Anti-Development theorists suggested that the western concepts should be debunked and people
should revert to their indigenous ways and include people in the administrative process that is the only
road to development,through the bottom up approach. It laid stress on the socio-economic, political and
environmental traits of the country in question while devising/formulating and implementing development
policies and programmes in it instead of blindly aping the west and developed nations where the situation

is totally different.

BUREAUCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT:

Bureaucracy and development are two components of development philosophy if seen from an overview
seem to possess opposing values(ideas) as Bureaucracy represents static or orthodox and rigid values
while Development advocates dynamic(moving) values. Bureaucracy viewed by the Weberian model and
other theorists pertains to same routine,unchanged and repeated procedures that enable it to
continue,achieve its pre-estabilished goals and handle its problems like a system without being influenced
by external factors. Development as a concept on the other hand is seen as a phenomenon influenced by
the concept of change and is quick to adapt and adjust to changes coming in through both external as
well as internal factors on the way to development. It is the administrative process evolved for developing
countries. And in the developing countries till now Bureaucracy by shedding its Weberian character is the
only neutral,biggest existing and stable machinery that can achieve and lead the way towards the process
of development in the developing countries. Therefore in the context of developing countries Bureaucracy
and development are complementary and inter dependant instead of being hostile to one another for the
purpose of Development Administration. In order to sensitise the bureaucracy for development processes
it is suggested to provide them training in attitudinal changes and incorporate dynamic and social values
in them to know the requirement,preparation of strategy and implementation of programmes in the
present ecological setting in order to uplift the socio-cultural and economic status of the country.
Bureaucracy,apart from its own duties like development policy formulation and implementation as well as
educating people about the policies has been suggested to utilise their specialist knowledge in order to
play the role of a friend,facilitator,coordinator,guardian,philosopher and guide to the factors like market
and civil societies as well as other instruments of development administration(as listed above under the
same heading) in the process of development and the bureaucrats have been asked to patiently assist
people in the same. Therefore,as one can understand now that overall evaluation and implementation of
Development Administration programmes are carried out by the Bureaucracy playing the leading role in
developing nations.

STRONG STATE VERSUS THE MARKET DEBATE:

There has been a constant debate as to what shall be the instrumental influencing factor for the economic
arrangement and economic development of a organised state. This is very important because economic
development has a very big impact on the development of a nation. There is a question as to whether the
Market as in western countries should take the lead to do so or should the neutral and just State be the
leader as in developing countries. A State led economic arrangement consists of planned social and
economic development through five year plans,etc whereas the Market led mechanism on the other hand
is associated with increased economic enterprise/industries and better quality of products and services.
Thinkers have supported both ideas and thus there is no synonymous decision on the same. Lets discuss
this further in order to understand how exactly both of them are important. A State led mechanism
according to scholars,is very necessary as it will be determined in its objective to achieve equitable and
all round development in society whereas the Market is only profit driven and it may lead to a disparity in
people's status as those who cannot afford the products and services would be further pushed down into
unjust social conditions. Market will not invest in new ventures and areas where the profits are not visible
thus leading to stagnation and no development,thus a State is required to intervene. They will keep
competing among themselves for the same kind of products and services thus leading to unnecessary
supply and wastage of natural resources. Even countries who are champions of market driven
mechanism have been forced from time to time to bring in the State to intervene and regulate them for the
benefit of the people and economy,examples of these are the 'New Deal' arrangement during The Great
Depression in the 1930's and in the recession period in 2008.
On the other hand if we take a purely State led mechanism to drive economic arrangement and
development in a society then scholars fear that it will lead to a rigid arrangement where even

developmental and necessary economic decisions may become victims of routine and rigid rules and
regulations and corruption in the name of socialistic perspective and will be pushed back thus leading to
no development and ineffectiveness and inefficiency. Market is a very efficient and quality provider of
goods and services and they create an arrangement of competition and betterment through the forces of
demand of supply.
Therefore,in between these counter views in the era of Liberalisation,privatisation and globalisation post
1990's there has been a sort of compromise between the two schools of thought and we have as a result
the arrangements of Public Private Partnership,etc and it has been suggested the State should be
present to provide an indicative framework with sufficient free play to market forces in enterprises within
that framework. Which means simply that the State shall regulate and create a framework with necessary
objectives and goals for development of society and the production of products and services shall be
given to the market for proper competition and efficient,quality products and services that will be
distributed equally by the State as per its policy framework established. So,both factors will be playing
and driving the economic arrangement and development in a society(mostly in developing countries).

IMPACT OF LIBERALISATION ON ADMINISTRATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES:

Liberalisation refers to an arrangement where restrictions which once existed in an economy are removed
or relaxed. State is given the role of a facilitator and regulator of economy and economic enterprise is
given more free play to set up their businesses(multi nationals especially) especially at the ground level
thus providing more and more employment opportunities leading to economic development. This is the
positive side of liberalisation,now lets look at the other flip side of it as well.
It has also led to a big divide among people and their socio-economic and class status in the developing
countries as the State is being pushed back and corporates driven by the motive of profit only are taking
over in even policy matters due to rampant corruption and corporate lobbying in the Parliamentary
proceedings. The corporates only invest and work in those areas and sectors that are profitable to them
and do not touch other areas so one area/sector flourishes at the cost of the other's development.As a
result poverty is driving people to acts like theft,murder,communal riots and terrorism to fulfill their basic
needs and once it starts it carries on because of various reasons thus causing all the more problems. The
institutions like World Bank and IMF,etc are taking over policy decisions of developing countries in the
name of development and if any country refuses it ,sanctions are laid on it and funds cut off,thus arm
twisting is done by Western developed nations for their vested interests through these institutions that
are dominated by them and their constant funding.Thus,there is going to be a loss of
sovereignty,democracy and community in developing countries due to the constant interference of these
global institutions in the State functioning. There is a shift from Government to Governance(the act of
governing) that means that a government is not necessary but governance is necessary and that can be
done through any organisation.
Thus,to counter all this there is a necessity of the State to play a strong role of a regulator and facilitator
and rule maker and operate in a professional manner to challenge the unwanted growth of the private
sector through means of comparative studies and analysis as to failures of market in certain areas and it
will take over that immediately. The policies and programmes are still to be determined and formulated by
the State only in favour of social justice and development and the private organisations to be directed by
them as to what they can and cannot do and if not adhered to will attract legal action under the law of the
land. The imposition of Corporate Social Responsibility on enterprises by the State has also made a lot of
self regulations on these corporates thus making them responsible towards the society and the upliftment
of the people. For more please refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_social_responsibility .

WOMEN AND DEVELOPMENT: THE SELF - HELP GROUP MOVEMENT :A Self Help Group is a small voluntary association of poor people preferably from the same socio
economic backdrop,it can be an all women group,all men group or a mixed group and micro credit is
given to them for their enterprises. However,it has been found that women's groups perform better in all

the important activities of Self Help Groups.

Self Help Groups in India are a catalyst for the economic empowerment of women and poverty
eradication. As majority of women lack the assets to help contribute to their empowerment and well
being ,economic independence through self employment and entrepreneurial development must be paid
attention to and that's why the Govt. of India has provided for Self-Help Groups.Most of the Self-Help
Groups are found in India though some are also found in South and South East Asia.
It is usually composed of 10-20 women who make regular small contributions of their savings for a period
of time until there is enough money/corpus in the group to begin lending back to the members or other
people of the village for any purpose which might be beneficial to the group as an investment and also
many SHG's are linked to banks for the purpose of delivery of microcredit(very small loans to
impoverished brokers for entrepreneurial work or alleviate poverty as well as empower women and uplift
communities). The Grameen Bank of Bangladesh is one example and in fact the pioneer of micro finance
providing institution/bank,NABARD of India is another example.Thus these SHG format relieves people of
unjust money lending tactics by thugs and heavy interest repayment and allows them to become
financially sound.
SHG's are mostly started out or germinated by NGO's for a variety of goals/purposes like birth control
facilities,school enrollment,small businesses by women,community,etc.
But,there are concerns too that women should be properly trained before going ahead with an enterprise
because only then can she sustain that and earn profits otherwise she will end up having more debts on
her head. Also the local govt. like village panchayats,etc need to help curb procedural delays in these
groups getting the requisite financial aid from the local banks. And,there should also be a tab and rigid
check that people who are better off do not indulge in borrowing money from here.