Let’s keep the clock in the late 1960s for a moment longer in this exploration
of the possible reasons for the demonic restructuring of public services
which has been such a feature of government (and academic) activity over the
past 40 years.
1. Administrative reform ‘has existed ever since men conceived better ways of organizing their social activities’ – but (up to the time Caiden was writing) it had ‘not received any systematic analysis’ (Caiden, 1969: 1).
And let’s make it personal - the 1968 student protests had just shaken
the staid citizens of the US, France, Germany and even the UK; I had been appointed to a Polytechnic; elected
to represent the citizens of a low-income part of a shipbuilding town; and was
engaged in community activism – inspired by the work of Saul
Alinsky and books such as Dilemmas of Social
Reform
And then, in complete contrast, a book with a simple title appeared Administrative
Reform by Gerald Caiden. I remember reading it – with some curiosity
– at the time. Change was definitely in the air – I’ve blogged before about the
powerful impression Donald Schon’s Reith Lectures “Beyond the Stable State” made
on me at the time - but none of us in Britain had actually experienced “reform”
(the huge reorganisation of local government, which did so much to shape my
future life, took place a few years later, in 1975)
Caiden’s subject was more the experience of developing countries and
his tools those of comparative development – but I could relate to the dilemmas
about the resistance to change he expressed so well. He returned to the subject
in 1991 with a book entitled “Administrative Reform comes of Age”.
He may be an academic but he has worked with governments the world over
and is able to express himself in language we can all understand. Just
look at the opening section of the google extract you can read by clicking on “Administrative
Reform” above. And the books he lists in the bibliography give a marvellous sense both of what was available in those days.....and of his eclectic interests.....How different from the reading lists you get now in the the thoroughly technocratic literature of reform
I was delighted to discover a tribute to him (he is still active) in
this 2013 article A Critique of the administrative reform industry
The idea of reform drives so many
conferences, inquiries, research projects, reports and legislation today that
it is not too much to suggest that administrative reform has become the dominating
concern of the discipline and the practice of modern public administration. There
is, indeed, an implication that, if we are not engaged in administrative
reform, we are deficient in some way
Gerald Caiden probably did more than any other
scholar to register that administrative reform had become a central and
commanding concept in our discipline.
In his pathbreaking book with the simple title “Administrative Reform” published as far back as 1969, he charted and assessed the various movements that led to this outcome – as well as offering nine propositions………
In his pathbreaking book with the simple title “Administrative Reform” published as far back as 1969, he charted and assessed the various movements that led to this outcome – as well as offering nine propositions………
1. Administrative reform ‘has existed ever since men conceived better ways of organizing their social activities’ – but (up to the time Caiden was writing) it had ‘not received any systematic analysis’ (Caiden, 1969: 1).
2. The need for it ‘arises from the
malfunctioning of the natural processes of administrative change’ (p. 65).
3. It rests on the belief ‘that there is always
a better alternative to the status quo’ (p. 23).
4. ‘No aspect of administration is incapable of
reform or has not been reformed at some time’. BUT this does not mean that
reform is necessarily ‘good, desirable, preferable, successful, workable or
necessary’ (p. 36).
5. Serious interest in administrative reform as
a topic in its own right was stimulated by developments of the early post–World
War II period (reconstruction, decolonization, et cetera), and especially the
rise, within the discipline of public administration, of the sub-disciplines of
development administration and comparative administration (pp. 37, 40).
6. Indiscriminate use of the term was leading to
‘confusion and to difficulties in setting parameters for research and theorizing’,
and the absence of a universally accepted definition was handicapping the study
(p. 43).
7. Caiden proposed his own definition:
‘administrative reform is the artificial inducement of administrative
transformation, against resistance’ (p. 65).
8. When resistance is generated but overcome,
’change gives way to reform’ (p. 59).
9. BUT – and it is a big BUT – ‘resistance to
change is indispensable for stability’ and, if ‘people were willing to change
whenever an alternative presented itself, there would be chaos’ (p. 60).
Gerald Caiden has written a lot of books but his presence on the
internet is a bit elusive. The last title in the short list below is actually a broad-sweep socio-economic
analysis of the post-war period with a depth which borders on the
philosophical. His is indeed a rare voice of clarity !
A Caiden resource
Administrative
Reform; G Caiden
(1969)
Administrative
Reform comes of Age; Gerald Caiden (1991)
What
Really is Public Maladministration?; article in PAR by G Caiden (1991)
“Toward more democratic governance –
modernising the administrative state in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US “ –
chapter in Public administration – an interdisciplinary critical
analysis; ed Vigoda 2002
Public
Administration in transition – essays in honour of Gerald Caiden; 2007
Culture and corruption; G Caiden - 2011 article in PAR
Culture and corruption; G Caiden - 2011 article in PAR
Fighting
the scourge of corruption; G Caiden 2014
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