Institutional Devices and methods for Citizens- Administration Interface

 Institutional Devices and methods for Citizens- Administration Interface

INTRODUCTION

 No system of governance can survive for an extended time without the support of the citizens. it's evident from the history of the nations that longevity of their governments largely trusted the cooperation and support rendered to them by their citizens. Wherever this support was missing, the nations found themselves in deep trouble that made their future uncertain. The administration-citizen relations are significant because the support and consent of the governed may be a prerequisite for the sustenance of a representative government just like the one in India. the normal theories of relationship between the State and society or government and therefore the citizens, in several political systems, be it laissez- faire or democracy or military dictatorship are now inadequate to deal with the new and difficult dimensions of administration that are gradually emerging. Position of the general public or citizens from being mere recipients of the executive help has now shifted to their being the prime movers within the affairs of governance - a change from local ‘beneficiary’ status to active ‘participant status’. This Unit focuses on the varied modes of interaction between citizens and administration. It discusses the changing norms of their interaction and institutional strategies and devices that attempt to build a theoretical conceptual base for the interface. The Unit particularly discusses the Indian scenario so as to know the various dimensions of the interaction between citizens and administration.

MODES OF INTERACTION BETWEEN CITIZENS AND ADMINISTRATION

 Today, governance is all about efficient and effective provision of products and services. Public Administration exists for the betterment of the general public by providing services like health, education, economic security, maintenance of law and order, national defence, etc. the general public interacts more intimately with public agencies at the leading edge level. government , as an example , affects people’s lives in various ways. The encounters may pertain to water system , electricity, disposal then on. There are alternative ways during which the general public interacts with the general public administrative agencies in real world situations. These interactions might be within the form of:

 i) Clients: this is often the foremost common sort of interaction with the executive agencies. during this form, citizens seek to get benefits or services from governmental agencies. for instance , a patient visits a government hospital for health check-up or medical treatment. 

ii) Regulatees: As a regulatee, the general public interacts with many public agencies viz., police, tax authorities, licensing authorities, etc 

iii) Litigants: The harassed citizens turn litigants once they seek redressal of their grievances from the courts, tribunals and Lok Adalats. As litigants, public can hope to urge justice for his or her complaints. 

iv) Participants: Democracy entails increased people’s participation in governance. this is often institutionalised through various means like community policing, guardian committee, beneficiary associations etc. In most programmes/projects, the people participate at the amount of designing , implementing and monitoring. People's participation democratises both administration and public, and also brings in new 7 inputs that help sound project designing, implementation, and facilitation of assets maintenance.

v) Protesters and people engaged in struggles and people’s movements: People often interact with government agencies on public policy as protesters, critically opposing the injustice in government policy and action. People’s struggles just like the one over Narmada Dam or forests in Uttar Pradesh (Now Uttarchanal), symbolise articulation of genuine grievance and demands and not just questioning of grievous faults in pubic policies faults.

RESEARCH ON CITIZEN-ADMINISTRATION RELATIONSHIP

 “The relational aspect of bureaucracy- its interaction with the general public and its subservience to the general public interest-is not properly articulated in Weber’s theoretical construct. As James D. Thompson (1962) has put it “Classic bureaucratic theory is preoccupied with behavioural relations ordered by one unified authority structure from which client is excluded…” The bureaucratic organisation may be a fixed monolith, which approximates a gentle and depersonalised machine. An automaton works uniformly and with unfaltering regularity. Institutional Devices and methods for Citizens- Administration Interface

The underlying assumption seems to be that the client for whom the machine exists has got to be adjustable, because the machine itself is inflexible. The inevitable result that follows is what Merton has called the ‘unintended consequences of the bureaucratic structure’. albeit the client wouldn't be served thanks to procedural rigidity, the organisation wouldn't shed its procrustean character. The Weberian theory is an inward – looking structural construct par excellence. Its face is toward the organisation and not the client (Cf Bhattacharya, 1987, op.cit). 

There are some important studies on the connection between the bureaucracy and therefore the client. Of these, special mention might be made from Peter Blau’s study (1973) of a public welfare agency, William Foote Whyte’s study of human relations within the restaurant industry, and therefore the research on new Israeli immigrants by Elihu Katz and S. N. Eisenstadt concentrating on the orientation of case workers serving clients during a public welfare agency. 

Blau points out the rigidities that are produced by administrative procedures, the ‘rigidities shock’ which young case workers experience on their joining the organisation, the type of coevals support that develops within the organisation, and therefore the way of these influence the connection between the case workers and the clients. Whyte’s study is far more illuminating because it delves deep into the fragile human relation problems during a restaurant considered as a mixture of production and repair unit which pulls attention to a “high degree of social adaptability” of the worker and therefore the need for client orientation of the entire organisation. Institutional Devices and methods for Citizens- Administration Interface

The supervision in such a situation has got to shed the laissez-faire attitude and appearance upon a restaurant or factory as an organisation of human relations, and as a system of inter-personal communication so as to enhance client-organisation relationship. Eisenstadt’s earlier writings on the conditions of development of bureaucratic organisations and therefore the environment indicate that, “The (se) structural characteristics don't , however, develop during a social vacuum but are closely associated with the functions and activities of the bureaucratic organisation in its environment. 

The extent to which they 10 can develop and continue any bureaucratic organisation is sought to be explained more by pertaining to the environmental conditions. during this connection, Eisenstadt uses the concept of ‘debureacratisation’ to connote changes in bureaucratic organisation caused by close interactions between the organisation and therefore the clients. “In debureaucratisation, the precise characteristics of the bureaucracy in terms both of its authority and its specific rules and goals are minimised, even up to the purpose where its very functions and activities are appropriated by other groups or organisations”

Citizen-administration relations were conditioned by the essential nature and operational peculiarities of administration during colonial rule. After winning freedom, the imbalance of a bureaucratic State was sought to be corrected by (a) Expanding the scope of state functions (b) Creating institutional infrastructure through Panchayati Raj to market popular participation, (c) Encouraging political interventions in administration to switch the rigour of formalism, and (d) Instituting organisational and procedural changes within the interest of speed and public understanding of administrative action.

Research findings on citizen-administration relations in India reveal interesting trends. supported extensive field survey, the findings of the study by Eldersveld, Jagannadham and Barnabas (1968) indicate: “The attitude of Indian citizens towards their government and its administrative officials is especially a posh and paradoxical mosaic of support and hostility, of consensus and critique. From 75 per cent to 90 per cent view governmental jobs as prestigious, 90 per cent feel that health and community development programmes are worthwhile, and fewer than 50 per cent (20 per cent rural) are critical of the work performance of Central officialdom . 

On the opposite hand, the bulk feel that fifty per cent or more of the officials are corrupt, large proportions (60 per cent urban, 32 per cent rural) say their dealings with officials are unsatisfactory, and majority sense that their probabilities of gaining access to officials and being successful in processing their complaints with them are low. Over 50 per cent feel officials in certain agencies aren't fair and therefore the citizen can do little by himself, and from 60 per cent to 75 per cent feel that political pull is vital in getting administrative action.”

Thus, the statistics don't project a really satisfactory picture. Even tho0ugh, the study mentioned above was undertaken way back , things at the bottom level still endorses the findings of the study. Studies on ‘Police Administration’ by David H. Bayley (1969), ‘Rural Development’ by Rakesh Hooja (1978) and ‘Urban Government’ by V. Jagannadham (1978), reveal citizens’ perceptions about public administration in India. Certain common points that emerge out of those field studies are: 

• Citizens’ ignorance about procedures involved in getting things done. 

• Unhelpful attitude of state officials, especially the lower level functionaries. 

• Inordinate delay and waiting period. 

• Prevalence of favouritism in administration. 

• Rampant corruption among officials. 

• Dependence on middlemen (brokers) to urge things done. 

• Urban dwellers being more critical about Public Administration than rural counterparts. 

• The rich having quick access to administration. Officials generally avoiding the poor and underplaying their needs and interests.

INSTITUTIONAL DEVICES AND METHODS

 The Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption felt that discretionary powers exercised by different categories of state officials opened “Scope for harassment, malpractice and corruption” within the exercise of these powers. the executive Reforms Commission took note of the overall public complaint about allencompassing corruption in administration and acknowledged the existence of widespread inefficiency and unresponsiveness of administration to public needs. Institutional devices to remedy the defects of administration are of particular relevance for the developing countries. Public administration features a built-in tendency in these countries to bypass the requirements of the people at large. The colonial legacy of limited government by an administrative elite stands within the way of universalisation of the advantages of governance. 

Decision-making on major problems with public policy remains a proud preserve of the tiny politico-administrative elite class. The social organization of the developing societies is characterised by numerous divisions along linguistic, ethnic, religious, castes and economic lines. More powerful groups within the society tend to bend the machinery and processes of state to their side and thus monopolise the fruits of administration. This process of capture of public administration by the powerful social groups is aggravated by the existence of endemic poverty and illiteracy. Institutional Devices and methods for Citizens- Administration Interface 

Both economic incapacity and lack of education reduce the dumb millions into an edge of passivity and subservience. Public administration, therefore, tends to become a really private affair because it usually responds to the stress of alittle minority of social elite. The political process many an time fails to realize integration of interests and tends to make instead rigid social divisions. A peril of coalition politics is that when a party involves power through the electoral process, Public administration becomes a captive agency within the hands of the party. The opposition parties are treated as enemies and not partners within the process of governance. 

The colonial legacy, social diversity, poverty and illiteracy, and therefore the peculiarity of the political process combine together to rob public administration of its publicness in most of the developing countries. There are three more reasons for this unhealthy transformation of public administration: (1) With more and more expansion of state activities, the lower level functionaries engaged in field administration come to enjoy an excellent deal of discretionary powers. Administrative discretion, when exercised without effective supervision, is certain to breed malpractices and corruption. (2) With the increasing complexity of legislative work, the legislatures are granting the chief more and more discretionary powers and leaving the small print to be filled up by the latter. 

Delegated legislation has the tendency to magnify executive strength and discretion. (3) the chief in many developing countries has increasingly been assuming the role of dispenser of justice also. Administrative adjudication and therefore the use of Administrative Tribunals are on the rise in many countries. 

Administrative discretion, delegated legislation and administrative adjudication have the effect of accelerating the powers of the chief . Institutional strategies are therefore necessary to see executive inflation and guard against corruption and administrative injustice. we'll read more on this in Unit 13 of this Course. within the Western democracies, non-legal institutions just like the political parties, the press and therefore the popular opinion are traditionally exercising control over administrative action. additionally , the executive agencies have developed their own internal norms and administrative ethics. thanks to economic affluence, these agencies are ready to function quite fairly and efficiently in these countries. Institutional Devices and methods for Citizens- Administration Interface

The Administrative Courts

 The French system of Administrative Courts to affect disputes between the administration and therefore the individual citizens may be a unique institution that has spread to several European and African countries like Greece, Belgium, Turkey etc. In France, the executive Courts are break away the hierarchy of ordinary courts. A distinction is formed between acts that a government servant is personally liable and suitable within the ordinary courts (Fautede-Personale) and people , which are the results of administrative faults that service as an entity, is responsible (Faute-de-service). the executive faults are mentioned appropriate Administrative Courts. The courts of first instance are called Administrative Tribunals, and at the top of the system of Administrative Courts is that the Council of State (Conseil d’Etat). The Council is that the government’s advisory body on legislation; it's also the supreme Administrative Court. because the Supreme Court of appeal altogether administrative matters, the Council exercises general supervision over administration and possesses ultimate authority over the discipline of civil servants.

CONCLUSION

 The essential ingredients of the citizen-administration relationship are adequate knowledge of administrative norms, practices and structures for both citizens and administration; positive evaluation of the work performance of state officials; and perceptions of administrative system as sensitive and aware of the general public , instead of inflexible and remote. within the present scenario where economy, culture and society are changing, the situations demand a forging of a replacement equilibrium between the bureaucracy and therefore the citizens. The goal of the bureaucracy must be to make an administration-citizens interface supported participation, information, belief, confidence and action orientedness that tends to satisfy the expectations of the citizens. Simultaneously, the attitude of citizens, self-help groups, corporations, associations of all types , and personal institutions must even be supportive of the general public authorities when genuine public interest is being served. Various mechanisms like Citizens’ Charters, Ombudsman like institutions, and participatory devices are introduced to facilitate redressal of citizens’ grievances. These got to be revamped to strengthen the interface between citizens and administration within the positive direction. This Unit examined a number of these issues.

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