BUREAUCRACY IS THREAT TO CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY

Although we usually think about ‘bureaucracy’ in the context of public administration, the system of appointed officials both military and civil, the bureaucracy has a great political significance; not only in the  sense that officials exercise direct influence on the shaping of public policies but also by affecting the reputation of governments.

Maladministration leads to popular dissatisfaction with governments, from the poor to the elite. Good public administration reflects not only the ability of appointed officials to work effectively, but also the capacity of a country’s political institutions to maintain effective control over its bureaucracy.

No matter how democratic the institutions of representative governance may be, they cannot survive for long if they are not able to exercise enough control over their appointed officials to assure the honest and effective implementation of public policies. Without such controls, bureaucrats left to themselves can easily indulge in corruption, abuse of power, laziness and inefficiency. All administrative systems suffer from difficulties that antagonise and worry citizens and administrative reforms are able to correct many of them.

By contrast, maladministration implies the fundamental inability of appointed officials to perform the functions normally expected of them. All constitutional democracies, if they are indeed to meet the needs of their citizens, must provide a host of new public services. The inherent complexity and interdependence of these functions requires the support of a large number of talented and dedicated public servants.

Their capacity and willingness to perform these functions cannot be taken for granted; no bureaucracy can, in principle, be internally designed on democratic principles. Later they need to become specialists with authority to act based on their competence and knowledge of the technical problems involved in every domain of public policy, not by taking notes to see who agrees!

Put simply, good public administration requires the empowerment of appointed public officials; they need to be able to act quickly and efficiently in order to accomplish the missions assigned to them. The more powerful officials become, however, the more difficult it becomes to hold them accountable for their performance and the greater the need for institutions of representative government (legislatures and courts of law as well as chief executives) that are able to direct and monitor public bureaucracies.

The survival of a constitutional democracy, therefore, hinges not only on the internal design and effectiveness of the institutions of representative government but also their capacity to manage public bureaucracies.
This has always been true, but the emergence of modern technology, scientific, and industrial institutions and problems on a global basis has raised the problems of bureaucratic control and management to new heights

The design of a public bureaucracy and its capacity to administer public policies effectively hinges on the capacity of representative institutions to maintain their authority and effective control over appointed officials (military and civil) and when such controls evaporate (or fail to evolve) because of the weakness of representative institutions or the resulting maladministration of public policies, democratic government will almost surely collapse.

Moreover, in the decision-making arena of public bureaucracies, it is important to establish structures that will enhance the power and the authority of the public officials enough to enable them to administer well - but not so much as to enable them to seize power when great crisis severely tests the capabilities of the institutions of representative governance.

The design of contemporary constitutional democracies, therefore, must keep the structure and performance of public bureaucracies in mind as an essential component of the whole system of governance.

Martin Dlamini is away this week. Just Thinking will return next week.

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