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UNIT 1 DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION: AN

INTRODUCTION
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Structure
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Meaning of Development and Development Administration
1.2.1 Concept of Development
1.2.2 Development Administration: Meaning and Definition
1.3 Scope of Development Administration
1.4 Objectives of Development Administration
1.5 Features of Development Administration
1.6 Difference between Traditional Administration and Development Administration
1.7 Conclusion
1.8 References
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1.0 OBJECTIVES
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After studying this Unit, you should be able to:

• Explain the concepts of Development and Development Administration;
• Trace the growth of Development Administration;
• Discuss the interrelationship between Development Administration and public
Administration; and
• Explain the objectives, features and challenges of Development Administration
and Administrative Development.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
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Development Administration is evolved as a branch of public administration and
primarily concerned with government and administration of developing countries of Asia,
Africa and Latin America which emerged after Second World War. It focuses to develop
the activity of government to bring a change, especially in achieving the progressive

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objectives in the social, economic and political fields. Development administration put
forward any social or political system and structure on the path of development. It is also
concerned with well-organised, integrated and directed efforts of national government to
bring about socio-economic progress, welfare and well-being of people at large.

The basic objective of Development Administration is to understand the administrative

problem related to development, which in turn creates various impediments in the way of
development. These impediments include poverty, illiteracy, population increase,
resource crunch, environmental protection, food production, energy crisis, deterioration
of human environment, absence of national unity, decrease in per capita income etc.
These and more impediments collectively, when accumulated, put pressure and impact on
the capacity and skill of administration and by which they become less effective. That is
why development administration has become important and compulsory elements for the
whole nation, so that they can act for social, economic, and political development of
nation as such.

To understand development administration this Unit clearly discusses ‘Administration '

and 'Development', which is a wide-ranging term and further highlights various features
of ‘development administration’ for success of development administration, and its
usefulness to bring fruitful and satisfactory results by removing bottlenecks and
impediments related to development.

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1.2 MEANING OF DEVELOPMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
ADMINISTRATION
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1.2.1 Concept of Development

Development is an aspect of positive change in which emphasis is given to improve

quality of life of people along with nations, civilisations and culture. It is concerned with
multifaceted phenomena, which is participatory in nature and covers both quantitative
and qualitative aspects of improvement. Actually, in 1950s and early 1960s, development
is equated with economic growth, which deals with ‘’basic needs approach’’ in terms of
sustained increase in real per capita gross national income. Despite, its utility, success

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and usefulness, has not brought its ‘trickle down’ effect. So, in late 1960s and early 1970s
emphasis, is laid to cover the context of Human Development Index in a United Nations
framework and, is changed to ‘growth with redistribution’ which covers the essential
needs of self-reliance, empowerment, security, more equality of opportunity, promotion
of employment, greater individual freedom, improvement in the carrying capacity,
including health and nutrition, sanitation and shelter, education and water supply etc.
Accordingly, development is an agent of socio-economic progress (transformation) and
nation-building.

With diverse meaning of the term development, it is a very complex task to define it. It is
adynamic and changing concept and it has its origin in human civilisation and culture. It
is a kind of liquid material that takes the shape of the utensils in which they are placed. It
is now better to refer to various definitions given by different scholars. “Development
never will be, and never can be, defined to universal satisfaction”, states the Brandt
Commission Report (1980). Many economists defined ‘development’ in terms of
economic productivity; Sociologists use this term in the context of social transformation;
some political thinkers include democratisation, political capacity, expanding and
increasing the capacity of the government and political system in it and still others like
administrators think of it in terms of developing administrative capacity and skills. Thus,
development comprises of various dimensions of economic, political, administrative and
social. Moving further, it is now necessary to understand development in a holistic
framework.

According to Weidner (1970), development is a process of growth “in the direction of

modernity and particularly in the direction of nation-building and socio-economic
progress”. In the words of T N Chaturvedi (1984)’ “Development is a multi-dimensional
phenomena. It aims at economic development and productivity, socio-cultural
transformation of people and social justice among different section of people”. Hahn-
Been Lee (1970) defines development in terms of both process and purpose “as a process
of acquiring a sustained growth of a system’s capability to cope with new, continuous
changes toward the achievement of progressive political, economic and social
objectives”.

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Fred W Riggs (1970) defines development as “rising level of autonomy or discretion, in
the sense of ability to choose among alternatives, not, of course, in sense of caution or
moderation”. He introduces the concept of development as “an increase in level of
discretion of social system”. According to Dudley Seers (1969), development is “the
realisation of the potential of human personality” and he further argued and suggested
that this was best achieved through the “reduction of poverty, unemployment and
inequality” and later realised necessity to include self-reliance and increased cultural
independence. Further, Michael Todaro (1977) described development as a “multi-
dimensional process involving changes in structures, attitudes, and institutions as well as
the acceleration of economic growth, reduction of inequality, and eradication of absolute
poverty”.

In brief, it is now clear that development is multi-dimensional process, which includes

the social, economic, political, administrative and human elements in which we give
utmost priority and importance to humanistic aspect in terms of improving the well-being
of the people. Further holistic and detailed meaning of development is related with the
expansion in the capacity, performance, suitability and eligibility of the economy and
political system of every nation including democratisation, social correction,
development, improvement and transformation. So, development is a complex process
and development administration has been the cornerstone (base pillar) to fulfil these roles
of development which is discussed in the sections ahead.

1.2.2 Development Administration: Meaning and Definition

Development Administration is a change-driven, positive and moving perspective, which

is functional for bringing socio-economic change in society. Development Administration
is new approach, which emerged immediately after Second World War. It is concerned
with government and administration of developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin
America. It has evolved as a branch of public administration. It focuses to develop the
activity of government to bring a change, especially towards achieving progressive
objective in the social, economic and political fields. Development Administration puts

4
forward any social or political system and structure on the path of development. It is also
concerned with organised and managed efforts of national government to bring welfare
and well-being of people. Many scholars have defined development administration in
their own way:-

Merle Fainsod (1963) has defined Development Administration as “a carrier of

innovative values……It embraces the array of new functions assumed by developing
countries embarking on the path of modernisation and industrialisation. Development
Administration ordinarily involves the establishment of machinery for planning,
economic growth and mobilising and allocating resources to expand national income”.
According to Edward Weidner (1963), Development Administration is an “action
oriented, goal- oriented administrative system…..guiding an organisation towards the
achievement of progressive political, economic, and social activities”. Another exponent
John Montgomery (1966), has defined it as “carrying out planned change in the economy
(in agriculture or industry, or capital infrastructure supporting either of those), and, to a
lesser extent, in the social services of the state(especially education and public health)”.

On the other hand, Fred W Riggs (1970), has defined Development Administration as
“organised efforts to carry out programmes or projects thought by those involved to serve
developmental objectives”. According to George F Gant (1979), Development
administration denotes a “complex of agencies, management systems and the processes
that a government establishes to achieve its developmental goals. Development
administration has an innovative dimension, as it is flexible enough to design new
methods, procedures, policies, which could save time, increase effectiveness and
quality”. Further George Gant put forward characteristics of Development Administration
by its purposes, its loyalties and its attitudes. The purpose of Development
Administration is to stimulate and facilitate definite and defined programme to bring in
socio-economic progress. The loyalty of development administration has to be
accountable to the people at large and attitudes of Development Administration should be
positive, persuasive and innovative.

So, it is now clear that if we take stock of Development Administration in an elaborative

and detailed framework, then we find that it includes the aspect of total nation-building

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based on and by following all processes, plans, policies, programmes and projects to
achieve socio-economic progress and national goals. It is concerned with modernisation,
institution-building, democratisation and establishment of just and equal social and
political order so that benefits can show a trickledown effect. It is planned change to
strengthen administrative capacity and to Administration of Development plans, policies,
programmes and projects including improving/removing environmental, traditional and
parochial cultural constraints. Accordingly, development administration is concerned
with three major components namely: (a) prevalent enthusiasm, zeal and willingness to
undertake development projects, (b) employing new forward moving techniques, and (c)
suitable skill and capacity building to achieve various aims and objectives of
development.

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1.3 SCOPE OF DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
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As discussed above it is clear that 'Administration' and 'Development' is a wide-ranging

term and ‘Development Administration’ being a part of both, is natural and its scope is
wide. Like administration, scope of Development Administration is very wide, under
which development related determination of economic, social and political policies and
objectives, organisation of organised developmental activities, establishment of
organisational structure for improvement and development and all the activities,
including arrangements for administrative development system of means and tools
necessary for the attainment of economic objectives, are included. Just as there is a
difference in the definition of Development Administration, similarly there is a difference
in the determination of its subject area and scope.

Both Fainsod and John D. Montogomery have analysed scope of Development

Administration as planned economic development. Both relate development
administration with economic development of country and observe that all kinds of
economic development related activities are included in its scope.

Scholars with different views, like Lucien Pye, F. W. Riggs and Edward Weidner have,
pointed towards the wide areas of Developmental Administration. They have stated that

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the administrative process of fulfilling the political, economic and social objectives set by
an appropriate officer or government is called Development Administration. According
to them, scope of development administration is not limited only to economic
development but social and political development are also included in its subject matter.
Development Administration is related to all those programmes, schemes, purposes and
organisation that work for the overall development and nation-building of the country. It
is such a developmental and progressive process that fulfils the developmental goals of
administration by using the new, modern, and up-to-date means, tools and abilities.

Accordingly, with the analysis of thinkers of both slides of the spectrum, we find that the
area is determined by both in their own way. But it is so certain that both are unanimous
in area, scope and subject matter of Development Administration and relate it with
nation-building. Under the area of Development Administration, forms of work and
efforts made for nation-building are implemented by public organisations and
government administration. According to J N Khosla, Development Administration is a
difficult administrative structure in which economic, social, political, and administrative
means and powers are mixed for the fulfillment of objectives and goal.

In this context, it is need of the hour to understand that scope of Development

Administration, which is expanding day by day in a positive direction to cover basic
societal needs and welfare. It is related to achieving wide spectrum of goals, which is
developmental in nature. It not only brings social, cultural, political, and economic
changes, but also, purposeful planning and programming through active people’s
participation. For proper utilisation of natural resources and to achieve wide variety of
developmental goals Development administration constantly interacts with environment.
Lest us try to understand the complexion of development administration under the
following heads:

a) Treatment of economic problems and poverty alleviation

Solution of economic problems like poverty, hunger, poor economic
opportunities, systematic social deprivation and neglect of public services like
clean water, housing, clothing and health is also possible under development
administration. In this context, it is utmost important for development

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 administration to solve these problems for the smooth operation of the economy.
Satisfaction of human needs is the basic objective of economic life in the context
of limited resources. Economic resources are limited due to demand and
alternative experiments, and on the other hand, there are different types of
demands in society. George F. Gant, while defining Development Administration
includes poverty alleviation as an important goal. Amartya Sen (1999), on the
other hand in his book ‘Development as a Freedom’ while highlighting aspects of
capability approach also relates economic poverty and substantive freedom from
capability perspective, as opposed to measuring it in terms of per capita income.
He stressed on intrinsically important deprivations, which causes capability
deprivation, that is, on real poverty, and on relations between low income and low
capability. Therefore, an important concern of Development Administration is to
use the limited resources according to human needs and social satisfaction, which
can lead to smooth operation of economic system.

b) Fulfillment of goals for increasing rational needs and opportunities

The problem of rational use of limited resources and solution to the problem of
meeting the eternal and endless needs also comes under the area and subject
matter of Development Administration. It is in this context it is important to
understand that development is not only limited to basic quantitative aspects of
poverty alleviation and fulfillment of the physical needs only. In a contemporary
perspective, it covers improvement in both quantitative and qualitative aspects of
human life and dignity, empowerment and capacity building including important
aspects of human development index like quality of life, education, health and
human rights. Equality of opportunities and sufficient choices can only satisfy
their life’s basic necessary needs and aspirations. Amartya Sen (1999) says,
‘Expansion of freedom is viewed, in this approach, both as the primary end and as
the principal means of development. Development consists of the removal of
various types of unfreedoms that leave people little choice and little opportunity
of exercising their reasoning agency’.

c) Development administration, political culture and ideology

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 Political culture and ideology provide functioning and working efficiency and
effectiveness for development administration guides and monitors implementation
of various developmental policies and programmes. For that purpose,
development administration performs duties or services as a steering wheel that
govern society to firmly lay down and well-demarcate goals of political leaders
and staff attached to the development process. It removes the barriers and lose
ground between development necessities and administrative development.

d) Nation-building, social welfare and traditional and parochial social structure

Development Administration also covers the task of nation-building and social

welfare. It needs to mould, reconstruct parochial social structure and relationship
based on religion, kinship pattern, caste etc. in a globalised modern era.
Therefore, it needs to focus more on democracy, industrialisation, promotion and
development of technology, education, equity, social justice, job creation and
other interlinked aspects of social welfare for national development. Social
change is necessary and for this social traditional custom that impede the process
of development needs to be converted and improved for the ever increasing task
of nation-building.

e) Implementation of development administrative policies

The policies of development administration are of no use till they are followed or
fill there is proper implementing system. In the field of administration, various
administrative policies are followed to solve various problems arising in the field
of recruitment, training, promotion, rules of conduct, classification, etc. It gives
tangible form and right direction to development administration by creating
certain fixed and positive policies of the government in this regard.

f) Institution building, planning and programming

Proper and suitable institutional framework is needed to implement

developmental projects, planning and programming, so that it converts these into
action to bring balanced growth, which is acceptable to society at large. For this it

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 is important to give prominence to proper assessment and utilisation of resources,
firmness of plan precedence, appropriate formulation, fair implementation,
suitable monitoring and reasonable evaluation of plans and project with
efficiency, economy and effectiveness. Accordingly, various components of
institutional framework need to be well-coordinated for effective development
administration, with an aim to achieve maximum results with minimum costs and
time.

g) Development administration, ecology, and environment

As we know administration works under the provisions of Constitution as well as

political and legal framework. Moving further during 1960s, comparative analysis
indicates that development administration is ecological in its nature. It needs to
change in consonance with changing political, social, economic, and cultural
scenario, because it cannot survive in a vacuum. It affects the environment around
it and is in turn affected by it. No growth model and development scheme, no
sophisticated technology and even the adoption of best technological assistance
from foreign country can be planted on a developing system blindly. For that
system has to be ready to receive changes. All such changes have to be suitable to
its local conditions.

h) Development administration is transboundary in its nature

Development administration is transboundary in nature as it is not only limited to

national level, but it also crosses the boundary. For proper developmental
planning, strategy and adoption of technological know-how, we have to depend
on the foreign countries for trade, necessary financial aid and technology.
Therefore, development administration goes beyond the boundaries.

It is obvious from the above discussion that the area, scope and subject matter of the
development administration is very wide and it includes all the schemes related to
national development programmes, through which economic, social, political and
administrative development of the country can take place. Not only this, the solution of

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problems of production, consumption, exchange, distribution and revenue also comes
under the area of development administration.

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1.4 OBJECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
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After having analysed the area, scope and subject matter of the Development
Administration, we will now describe the objectives of Development Administration. Its
basic objective is to understand the administrative problem related to development,
which in turn creates various impediments in the way of development. These
impediments include poverty, illiteracy, population increase, resource crunch,
environmental deterioration, fall in food production, energy crisis, low living standards of
middle class, absence of national unity, decrease in per capita income etc. These and
many more impediments, when accumulated put pressure and impact on the capacity and
skill of administration and by which they become less effective. That is why development
administration has become important for the, social, economic and political development
of nation as such. Despite various impediments, it is important to give emphasis and
create such environmental situation for administrative institutions by implementing
developmental programmes, which can bring fruitful and satisfactory results. The
usefulness and success of Development Administration depends on the following
objectives in mind:

• carrying out development-oriented goals through organised efforts, including

regulatory administration of government.
• strengthening the administrative machinery, which would bring about socio-
politico-economic development.
• developing, building and improving public administration systems in the direction
of nation-building.
• establishing social justice through equitable distribution of benefits among
masses.
• addressing equity and redistributive issues, with focus on the implementation
problems.
• dealing with issues of Fundamental Rights, human rights and basic human needs

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 • strengthening and increasing the administrative capacity for development.
• administration of development plans, policies, programmes and projects including
improving/removing environmental constraints.
• mobilising resources and their allocation for various development activities at a
large-scale.
• increasing responsibility to carry out intended change in the direction of social,
political and economic arenas.
• developing coordination among various functional units of developmental
projects for proper and timely implementation.
• understanding the actual local problems by administrative officials so that they
can formulate developmental policies and programmes according to needs and
aspiration of local people.
• Facilitating dedicated administrative leadership to generate awareness,
commitment, discipline and feeling of unity for success of economic planning and
community development plan.
• Encouraging active and voluntary participation of people at large is for making
developmental programmes functional.
• Bringing efficient, skilled, competent, trained bureaucracy to bring suitable new
changes and transformation in society; and
• developing proper and amicable relationship between permanent executive and
political executive for public policy formulation and implementation.

Though, development administration is necessary for developing country’s development,

modernisation, democratisation, socio-economic transformation and nation -building, but
irony is that speed and pace of development is very slow. Traditional society, lack of
education, unbalanced development, political instability, unskilled administration,
absence of new technology in developing countries are primarily responsible for slow
development. Therefore, usefulness and success of development administration depends
on fulfilment of various objectives to bring fruitful and satisfactory results.

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1.5 FEATURES OF DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION

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________________________________________________________________________

After understanding the importance of objectives of development administration in

bringing substantial results by removing bottlenecks and impediments related to
development, it is now pertinent to know its various features. A number of scholars have
defined Development Administration, but it is difficult to find its agreed definition.
Though development administration is a new concept in the field of study of social
sciences. Over the years its meaning has undergone a change with new developments and
experiences. But even then, development administration not only highlights the problem
but suggests and coordinates government in its solution. By providing solutions,
development administration helps in national development. On the basis of analysis of
various definitions, a number of features of Development Administration can be
identified from the point of view of study, which are as under:

a) Result and change-oriented

To my mind, result orientedness is the first and more important features of Development
Administration. People of any nation want immediate and rapid results. Development
Administration at the same time wants to solve problems in a definite time-frame and for
that it employs various welfare-oriented productive facilities related to increase in per
capita income, education, health etc.

Textual meaning of development is also related to change. To bring that change,

development administration acts as a base pillar. Its prime concern is to bring desirable,
constructive, fruitful, effective, and intended planned change in the direction of nation-
building and socio-economic progress. For development, this kind of nation-building and
socio-economic change is utmost important. These changes can be possible by
development administration process.

b) Client and goal-oriented

The purpose of administration is basically to serve the people at large and for this it is an
utmost responsibility of administration to always do welfare-oriented work for them.
People also monitor their various works. In this context, Development Administration’s
central concern is towards satisfying the basic needs of its client (people) and work

13
positively for the upliftment of poor and weaker sections of society. It is needed to be
flexible and action-oriented in its approach for delivery and administration of community
development programmes. For this purpose, development administration requires
requisite capacity to mediate and respond to the substantive demands of the people and
environmental challenges. Therefore, these clients are not the only functional
responsibility of Development Administration, but due to the benefits that they derive,
they actively participate in the public welfare programmes.

Another distinctive feature of Development Administration is its goal orientedness. It

attempts to achieve targeted socio-economic goals of certain specific programmes to
bring the desired results. Development Administration and its structure acts as an
instrument of development process. For this, changes in the direction of modernity of
administrative structure, its capacity to handle development-oriented activities and goals,
required autonomy to apply rules and procedure with discretion to accelerating the way
for economic, political, and social development are important.

c) Progressive and plan-oriented

Progressive development for achievement of socio-economic goals is also an important

task of government in the developing world. This is being done by the instruments of
development administration, which call for training and development of administration.
This, in turn, forecasts new competencies in the context of changing technology and
methods.

Development Administration is also concerned with intended planned change in the

direction of nation-building and socio-economic progress. It includes strengthening
administrative capacity and administering development plans, policies, programmes and
projects including improving/removing environmental constraints. In developing
countries, where human and material resources are scarce, governments are required to
adopt development planning techniques as an invaluable aid in promoting social and
economic development (Sapru, 1994). The identification of major functions to be carried
out and their alignment are basic ingredients to development administration.

d) Coordination and participation-oriented

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Development Administration is concerned with organised and coordinated efforts to carry
out various developmental activities. These activities are channelised for building of
human and material resources for development. Coordination is important to bring
organised efforts, discipline among various administrative units and for proper
monitoring and investigation. Accordingly, development administration decides,
prioritises, and applies suitable and appropriate methods of control and coordination at
different functional level. It is then we can expect proper implementation of various
policies and programmes.

On the other hand, for the development of any society or nation, active and greater
participation of people is very important to achieve development goals. Without their
meaningful participation in the developmental process, it would be impossible to realise
desired socio-economic progress. Proper participation of people can create an atmosphere
for mutual cooperation, sacrifice, surrender, mercy, love and tolerance which are
necessary conditions for development. Particularly for development administration it is
important that people give effective cooperation in the implementation of government’s
developmental programmes. For this, administrative needs to create and promote
conditions to facilitate greater and effective participation of people in the process of
change and delivery of public goods and services. Their participation in public policy
making, implementation, evaluation and monitoring with the purpose of benefitting them.

e) Capacity building and Commitment- oriented

Development Administration creates, enhances, and builds capacities as a means for

achieving many developmental goals. The inherited administrative system needs to
change to respond to accumulated and combined challenges. Therefore, it focuses on
developing skills and improving knowledge of development-oriented administrators
according to the needs and pressures of the masses.

It is also an important characteristic of development administration to do particular work

with full commitment and enthusiasm. Bureaucracy is expected to be involved and
always performing with full commitment toward their duties and responsibilities. It is
expected to complete the projects in a given time and space. Commitment puts

15
development administration into developed form and expand ways for all-round
development.

f) Creativity and Innovativeness-oriented

Creativity is an also an important feature of Development Administration. It is an ability

and power to develop new ideas. Therefore, the techniques and means of doing new ways
of doing things, are one of the essential requirements for development administration.

An important aspect of development administration is innovativeness. It means

application and adoption of new ideas, structure, procedures, methods, policies, plans and
programmes with the objective to achieving developmental goals to the maximum extent
possible with minimum resources. Therefore, it promotes and carry out qualitative
innovations to increase effectiveness.

g) Environment and welfare-oriented

Development Administration is a planned change to strengthen administrative capacity

and improve/remove environmental constraints. For this, it actively needs to interact and
respond to the demands and challenges arising from its environment. Fred W. Riggs has
highlighted how changes in administration affects its environment and environmental
changes have impacted various activities of administration. Development Administration
requires to be responsive, accountable, and flexible enough to design new methods,
procedures, and policies.

The main purpose of development administration is all-round development. When

determined developmental goals and priorities are in consonance with all-round
development and public welfare, then, we find a situation of development administration.
This form of development administration is visible since State’s objective is public
welfare-orientedness.

h) Time-bound accountability and social realities-oriented

Time orientation is one of the important characteristics of Development Administration.

It involves the completion of various welfare-oriented developmental programmes as
quickly as possible. A definite timeframe is essential for development administration, as
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fast development of society is possible only when it can bring meaningful and
progressive socio-economic change in a least possible time. Therefore, all activities of
development are done by keeping in mind the importance of time.

Development Administration requires to be accountable, responsive, dynamic,

innovative, developmentally conscious and flexible enough to design and perform their
developmental roles. A top-down and bottom-up flow of communication patterns and
initiative are important features of accountable administration. Highly centralised public
policy making is a major constraint, which we inherited from colonial administration. As
we know that flexibility, creativity, positivity, persuasiveness, innovation, and
adaptability is crucial in the planning of development activities. In turn, it requires
committed, enthusiastic, dedicated, and motivated administration at various levels to
accomplish progressive development goals.

Development Administration is also required to be in touch with social realities at local

and grassroots levels. Due to heterogeneous differences between rural and urban areas,
between various socio-economic, political and ethnic groups, development administration
needs to in constant touch with rapidly growing, changing and shifting social realities.

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1.6 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL ADMINISTRATION
AND DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
_____________________________________________________________
Many scholars like George Gant, Ferrel Heady and others have sought to conceptualise
development administration as different from traditional administration. They explain
that these two types of administration differ from each other in terms of purpose,
structure and organisation, attitudes and behaviour, capabilities, techniques and methods.
This is the implicit meaning of the observation of John Gunnel who says, "The increasing
shift of development scenario requires increased diversification and specialisation of
knowledge and skills and high level of managerial ability for integrative co-ordination.
For quickening the pace of development, there is an additional need for a new breed of
administrators of superior calibre and vision, with a passion for achieving results and of
those who can take risks and introduce innovations. There is an increasing need to have

17
heightened sensitivity to the welfare of the poor sections and greater responsiveness to
the political process." It follows that development administration has to have different
features and should be based on different requisites than the traditional or law and order
or general administration. The distinction between the traditional and Development
Administration has been presented by S.P. Verma and S.K. Sharma as follows:

Traditional Administration Development Administration

Regulatory Administration (routine Unpredictable new tasks or problems
operations) (rapidly changing environment )
Oriented towards efficiency and Oriented towards organisational
economy (emphasis on individual growth and effectiveness in
performance) achievement of goals (emphasis on
group performance and inter-group
collaboration)
Task orientation and conformity to Relationship oriented with emphasis
rules and procedures (Concern for on high programme standards
security, playing safe, comfort status (willingness to take risks,
and power) encouraging innovation and change)
Sharp and elaborate hierarchical Structure shaped by requirements of
structure (strict and authoritative, goals (flexibility and continuously
climate of mistrust) changing roles, mutual trust and
confidence)
Centralised decision-making(past Wide-sharing decision-making.
experience as the main guide to (empirical approach to problem-
problem-solving) solving and use of improved aids to
decision-making)
Emphasis on maintaining status quo Continuous organisation development
(resistance to organisation change) in response to environmental
demands (development of an
organisation which is dynamic,
adaptive and futuristic)

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Traditional administration has been visualised as the one concerned with fulfilling all the
legal requirements of governmental operations and maintenance of social stability. In the
main, this type of administration confines itself to the maintenance of law and order,
collection of revenues and regulation of national life in accordance with the statutory
requirements. The assumption behind the differentiation between development
administration and traditional administration is that administration in newly emergent
nations must switch completely from law and order values to developmental values.
Thus, the qualitative goals of Development Administration i.e., planning for the people,
with people's support and co-operation distinguishes it from the quantitative goals of
Public Administration i.e. implementing rules (Adapted from BDP, EPA-03 on
Development Administration).
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1.7 CHALLENGES OF DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
________________________________________________________________________

Development Administration is an important element of every country’s national

development. Development can and never be uninterrupted, unrestrained, continuous, and
incessant. Time, situation, culture, etc., are problematic for the pace of development and
can bring various challenges in the functioning of development administration. Various
problems arise because the developmental path, which the developing countries (new
nations) have set to follow are new and, therefore, differ from traditional path. However,
in the realisation of new developmental goals, new nations are faced with many problems
and challenges. It is difficult to analyse and discuss all challenges of development
administration. From the point of view of study and interpretation, a number of
challenges of Development Administration can be identified, which are as under:

• Existence of traditional society,

• lack of education,
• political instability,
• unskilled and untrained administration,
• absence of new technology,
• lack of modern techniques of management,

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 • administrative and procedural delay,
• lack of enthusiasm, zeal and commitment in planning and implementation
• lack of sufficient discipline,
• lack of proper coordination and objective relationship between specialists and
generalists,
• highly centralised public policy making,
• poor direction, training and guidance,
• adopting poor methods and forward moving vision in public policy making,
• mismanaged and poor organisation of public enterprises, government
departments, boards and regulatory organisation and financial institutions,
• poor response of the people,
• existence of traditional attitudes, old customs, inappropriate languages and
religious beliefs,
• lack of political support to development programmes; and
• dearth of finances and material resources etc.

Activities

1. Visit your nearby hospital and make a list of the development activities taking
place there.

2. With the help of newsclips and write-ups, distinguish between traditional and
development administration.

_______________________________________________________________________
1.8 CONCLUSION
______________________________________________________________________

It may be concluded that with above problems and challenges of development

administration, it may not be in a position to move forward in a desired direction. As
outward movement is not possible, rather accumulation of these diverse challenges

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pushes it backward. If we actually want to move forward then we have to remove our old
customs and traditions as, there is a need to bring suitable changes in the contemporary
context. It is also important to understand the need to improve and strengthen the
capabilities of administrators. Further, at the same time, we have to control unorganised
society, turbulent environment, establish coordination and reconcile conflict of interest in
human beings also. We also need to remove chaos, confusion and disorder in society by
carrying out policies and programmes related to developmental goals of nation-building
and socio-economic progress. Otherwise, development administration would remain in
jeopardy.

1.7 REFERENCES

Amartya Sen, “Development as Freedom”, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1999.

Chaturvedi, T.N., in S P Verma and S K Sharma (ed), Development Administration,

IIPA, New Delhi, 1984.

Dudley Seers, “The Meaning of Development”, International Development Review,

Vol.11, No. 4, pp.2-6, 1969

Fred W Riggs, “The Idea of Development Administration”, in Weidner (ed),

Development Administration in Asia, Duke University Press, Durham, 1970.

George F Gant, "The Concept of Development Administration", Otenyo, E. and Lind, N.

(Ed.) Comparative Public Administration (Research in Public Policy Analysis and
Management, Vol. 15), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 257-285, 2006.

George F Gant, “Development Administration: Concepts, Goals, Methods”, The

University of Wisconsin Press, London, 1979.

Hann- Been Lee, ‘Role of the Higher Civil Service under Rapid Social and Political
Change,’ in Weidner (ed), Development Administration in Asia, Duke University Press,
Durham, 1970.

Independent Commission on International Development Issues (Under the Chairmanship

of Willy Brandt), North-South: A program for Survival, Pan Books, London, 1980.

Merle Fainsod, “The structure of Development Administration” in Irving Swardlow (ed),

Development Administration: concepts and problems, Syracuse University Press,
Syracuse, 1963.

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Michael P. Todaro, “Economics for a Developing World”, Longman Group Ltd.,
London, 1977.

Montgomery, John, “A Royal Invitation: Variations on Three Classical Themes”, In John

Montgomery and William J. Siffins, eds., Approaches to Development Politics,
Administration and Change, McGraw Hill, New York, 1966.

R K Sapru, “Development Administration”, Sterling Publishing Private Limited, New

Delhi, 1994.

Riggs, Fred, W., “The Context of Development Administration”, In, Edward Weidner
(ed)., Development Administration in Asia, Duke University Press, Durham, 1970.
Riggs, Fred, W., The Ecology of Administration, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1964.

Weidner, Edward W, “Elements of Development Administration”, In Weidner (ed),

Development Administration in Asia, Duke University Press, Durham, N C., 1970.

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BLOCK 2 TRENDS IN DEVELOPMENT
ADMINISTRATION

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