(ssa): Why Public Administration Cannot Be Neutral

STATE, MARKET AND DEVELOPMENT IN SUB
SAHARA AFRICA (SSA): WHY PUBLIC
ADMINISTRATION CANNOT BE NEUTRAL
BY
AKONGBOWA BRAMWELL AMADASUN
Ph.D, M.Sc, MPA, MBA, MEPE, PGD, B.Sc, MCIM, MNIM, ASCA, CAN
EMAIL: [email protected], [email protected]
CELL: +2348039445333, +2348055612923
AND
HENRY IGIEBOR OGHOATOR
Ph.D, M.Sc,MPA, MCIM
WESTERN DELTA UNIVERSITY, OGHARA, DELTA STATE, NIGERIA
EMAIL: [email protected]
CELL: +2348023453968
ABSTRACT
The focus is on the paradigm that sustainable development in Sub Sahara Africa
(SSA) can only be achieved through the interaction of the state and the market
that is conceived or modeled and directed in a well structured framework of
Public Sector Management and not the reverse. The paper posits that because
the SSA does not and is not likely to have a proactive and developed private
sector, socio-political and socio-economic systems, Public Administration cannot
be passive in managing the affairs of SSA Nations (political and economic affairs
inclusive).The paper argues that the socio-political and political economy of the
SSA states is premised on such shaky fundamentals that it is imperative that
Public Administration be an active participant in the development process; in
terms of developing new axioms and concepts or in adopting tested development
nexus, frameworks, theories and process in the SSA (political and economic
inclusive). The paper further posits that why the dichotomy between the state
and the market as a tool for driving the economy and sustainable development
might be relevant in the developed North, China and in the nations that make up
1 the Asian Tigers, it cannot hold sway for countries that makeup the SSA. It
opines that in the developed North, Public Administration has created the
symbiotic relations and synergy on which a strong partnership between the public
and private thrives as the fundamental for state development and growth. This,
the paper states should be more relevant to SSA countries considering the fact
that their political and economic and social systems are fragile, crisis ridden and
far from been described as rudimentary; in addition the SSA is a home to 38 of
the 44 poorest countries in the world. Consequently the Paper states that Public
Administration should not be neutral in the SSA but should serve as the
incubator, pivot and driving force for state development and growth. Taking this
into consideration the paper is of the view that what should be paramount is not
the neutrality of Public Administration in the SSA but: What kind/type of Public
Administration should be put in place in the SSA? What should be the constitutive
elements of Public Administration in the SSA? How can Public Administration in
the SSA create a strong synergy and symbiotic relations between the state and
the market for development and growth? And what are the barriers to Public
Administration in the SSA? Taking the foregoing questions into cognizance the
paper examined the model of the developmentalist state and the market in the
SSA in the context of the interactions of Public Administration roles; Neoliberal
globalisation and the SSA in the context of global competition, development and
growth; and the challenges of development theory and agenda in the context of
engaging neolibralism in the ramifications of Public Administration. Finally it
made some policy prescriptions and conclusions. The paper is intentionally
provocative with a view to provide the basis for further research.
INTRODUCTION
The question of national and regional development and citizen’s wellbeing is
critically dependent on the level of partnership between government and the
private sector. This in its core essence rest on the economic condition and
process that is linked to the political, social, economic , and cultural dimension
that is fundamentally dependent on a nations soundness and weakness of its
public managerial architecture (the collectivity versus individualism). In this
context national and regional development can be better understood from the
perspective that the material and human growth of a nation is multifaceted and
embedded in the definitive values of public management. Consequently the
primary agenda of public management’s collaborative and cooperative effort of
citizens is to build and maintain mechanisms and processes that should induce
and reinforce their well being. What this means is that public administration has
as its major goal, the elimination of poverty, raising living standards, providing
2 employment
opportunities,
health
facilities,
health,
education,
agricultural
productivity, shelter etc. Hence, public administration cannot afford to be neutral.
Increasingly public administration due to its eclectic nature has become
expansive, branching out into private and non-profit sectors.
In the above context public administration cannot offend to be neutral in
the SSA nation’s development process for the following reasons: (Shafritz et al,
2011);
1. Public Administration is what government does. The SSA has been
Balkanized into states that are manned by bureaucrats with the aim of
delivering services to citizens. Consequently to dismantle this structure will
be counterproductive, since the SSA cannot begin now to import and learn
to manage a new non-administrative system.
2. The increasing expansive nature of public administration that has provided
the platform for branching out into the private and non-profit sector has
given new meaning to governance to which the SSA cannot be excluded.
The implication is that what was once a synonym for the process of
government has evolved into inter-organizational efforts to cope with crossboundary problems by using networks of people and organizations. Again
providing the plat form for public administration for being merely indirect to
being extremely convoluted and this has great implications for SSA
development and governance.
3. Public Administration represents a phase in public policy making cycle: Sub
Sahara population is remarkably on the increase due to several factors and
this places high demand on public policy. In this context government is
constantly in a fury of whether to do or not to do; at the end of this
decision is the implementation by the bureaucrats. However public policy is
a continuous process it cannot end with implementation because there will
be an evaluation which set the stage again for another policy and
implementation. Consequently for proper functioning of governments in the
SSA public administration cannot be neural.
3 4. Sub Sahara Africa before the colonial incursion was made up of numerous
atomized empires and dukedoms, though some were quiet large. However,
most started as a community of people where public administration as a
mature manifestation of community spirit became central to process and
indeed collectively that which cannot be so well done individually for the
interest of common good. As at today the SSA conflict situation and
desperate aspiration to integrate in global economy, further provides the
basis for the collective management of public resources for common good.
5. Public administration is at work when policies are enacted to regulate and
actively
participate
in
the
market
(through
public
enterprises
and
corporations) in situations where the generality of the citizenry are not
financially in position to establish and operate the private sector enterprise
or corporation. Besides, there are situations were government cannot leave
the establishment and operations of strategic and or citizens welfare
industries or corporations to market forces. This is particularly so in states
where poverty is endemic, such as the SSA states. Even in the United
States of America, a case in mind is the creation of the National Rail road
Passenger corporation commonly known as Amtrak to assist in revamping
dwindling unprofitable passenger rail service. (Nice D and Fredericksen
P,1999:1)This function reiterates the importance of public administration
the world over.
Taking the above into cognizance, the need for a balance and holistic
participation of public administration in the SSA in the collective management of
public resources becomes pertinent. In this context it must encompass the above
proceedings from the point of view of collective action. This offers a reflection on
inter-related and fundamental issues relating to public management:
i. What
fundamentals
for
propelling
collective
management
of
public
resources in the SSA? What interests and agenda are served by public
administration?
ii. Has public administration impacted on the development experience in the
SSA and has this enhanced citizen’s welfare and dignity?
4 iii. What has happened to the role of public administration vis-à-vis that of
developmental process? Can it continue to play a pivotal role?
These questions raised the need for a consideration of public administration
as a catalyst or pivot to the development and growth of SSA economies. The
indication is that it will continue to revitalize, re-affirm and rededicate public
administration for the advancement of citizens’ welfare and dignity and as a
result cannot be neutral.
Following the introductory section, the rest of this work is structured as
follows:
Public Administration in the context of state and market dichotomy;
(Section 2) and Public Administration in the context of a
developmentalist State ( Section 3); and Conclusion and Policy
Prescription (Section 4) 2. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF STATE AND MARKET
DICHOTOMY
The importance of the interventional role of the state as a fundamental
element in the growth of regions such as Asia, Europe and North America cannot
be over emphasized. Here the dynamics of the state was very important and the
dichotomous view that set the state against the market was avoided. The
capacity to develop such collaboration or synergy grew from strategic and
institutional collaboration between political and economic actors and coordinate
agencies towards goals established by the state in a market context was the
handiwork of public administration. The question this raises is why this must be
different in the case of Sub Saharan Africa where market forces have led to
degenerative performance in the context of a non-glocalised globalization. The
view is that both the state and the market in the SSA must forge collaboration for
optimal national development which can only be brought about by public
administration if the region is to successfully integrate into global economy. This
seems difficult because of the neo-liberal view of the state and market dichotomy
5 that set the two segments at opposing poles. This neo-liberal view stresses the
need for the states in the region to surrender their economic role to market
forces (Abdul Rahman Embong 2005). In his view this neo-liberal policy is a
manifestation of the ideology of developed North and Breton Wood institutions
which are not necessarily in accord with reality (perhaps with the tenets of public
administration), whether in Europe, North America and the late industrializers
such as Japan and the Asian Economic tigers. This neo-liberal view according to
Embong, 2005 (citing Holton 1992) is rooted in the nineteenth century economic
liberalism with its emphasis on individual sovereignty and supremacy of self
regulating market. A philosophy of that rest on the doctrine of the irrelevance of
the large and strong state in the public management of the economy in the SSA,
where the role of the state should be restricted to the establishment of social
order and the implementation of a legal system that permits capitalists to carry
out their businesses. But this cannot work in the SSA in the absence of a well
focused public policy/management because of endemic nature of the problems of
grinding poverty, unemployment, negative characteristics of a dominate neoliberal market sector policies, public sector driven economy and backwardness of
the SSA. This to a large extent relegates the role of public administration in the
SSA.
What has led to the gap that relegates public management of the SSA
economies in preference to market forces can be found in the theory postulated
by Polanyi (1944)- state and market dichotomy. In his argument he opines that
the market cannot be set aside from the state; that it is the state that establishes
the market. However the key actors (the capitalists) having successfully keyed
into the market demands independence and as such articulate strategies to free
it from the clutches of the interventionist state. Consequently Polanyi (1944),
calls for a retreat of the state from the economy. However Embong (2005) is of
the view that this is not in reality with the dictates of the social contract and
economic development that public administration is an incubator and a facilitator
Embong (2005) in this context argues that the truism is that the historical reality
indicates that industrialization in Europe that brought about the industrial
6 revolution
became possible because the state through public management
functioned as any incubator for the rise of the capitalist economy and the market
system through the establishment of the necessary institutional environment that
is fundamental for its growth. In addition state activities such as war and
conquest provided the needed platform and hastened action(s) for the growth of
iron and steel industry that served as the vital ingredients for the production of
armament, the cotton textile industry for clothing (uniforms inclusive). Besides,
the state owned a portion of the industry(ies), the state established monopoly for
textile and iron and steel industry-padagogical statism. This provided a
demonstration effect to the private sector. Consequently the argument of some
scholars is that Capitalism would not have been able to develop without the
interventionist role of a strong state (Miss and Hobson, 1995) and (Embong
2005). This is what the SSA need and not the neutrality of public management.
In Britain-the pioneer in world capitalist development-the state played an
important role in nurturing the market, above all through war. England
(subsequently, Britain) was engaged in war for 70 of the 127 years between
1688 and 1815 – a time of industrial transition. Towards the end of that period,
at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, there were 350,000 persons in the armed
forces in 1801, increasing to half a million by 1811 (or about 10 per cent of the
labour force). Hundreds of thousands of workers were engaged in production
activities provisioning the army with weapons, uniforms, food and transport. In
the half century between 1780 and 1830, state consumption was larger than the
total value of exports. Evidently, the British state played a catalystic role in
spurring and driving Britain’s development during that era (Harris 1992, 74).
3. PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION IN THE CONTEXT OF A
DEVELOPMENTALIST STATE
As at today the SSA states exhibit strong inability to confront the negative
impact of neo-liberal policies, poverty, unemployment, corruption, heavily
burdened external debt and the political will to set and implement national
7 agenda, and a lack of or decaying social and physical infrastructure for national
development. But this appears not to be the case with East and South East Asia
states that achieved independence almost the same time with SSA states that
were also confronted with the same development problems. Compared with SSA
states they have produced favourable development outcomes, developed and
installed competent bureaucracies and planning agencies as strong components
of public management vis-à-vis the private sector (the market). These public
management achievements some scholars have attributed it to the specific
circumstances of East and Southeast Asia as front line states in the cold war,
directly facing the countries of the socialist block (Soviet Union, China, North
Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos etc). This made it possible for them to receive
much greater attention from the United States in terms of assistance and
opportunities for foreign capital investments. Consequently the growth of
international trade benefited them and assisted their exports to enter European
and American markets. The foregoing notwithstanding, the truism is that they
established and sustained a strong public management architecture that
developed strong institutions, weak individuals and committed elites and citizenry
to state development vis-à-vis market development. In essence there was a rebirth of the state as an interventionist state through public management/
administration
whose
primary
role
was
to
drive,
protect
and
regulate
development vis-à-vis the market in a public-private sector partnership. What
this means is that good public administration was the fundamental on which East
and Southeast Asia development rest.
Flowing from the above, it is pertinent to note that SSA nations have shown
abysmal performance due to very weak and corrupt legal system and a
dysfunctional public administration. This has invariably affected the potential to
attract foreign investors and the entry of technology to the region. All this put
together has prevented the existence of strong, competent and effective states in
the region that should build social cohesion and institute equitable development
for citizens. In this context African elites compare to their Asian counterparts has
become a typical case study in political arrogance, waste, indiscipline, corruption,
8 violence, rascal leadership and subservience to foreign powers, tastes and
interests. They have also turned governance into instruments to punish,
impoverish, oppress, harass, intimidate and dehumanize the citizenry basking in
arrogance, insensitivity, fraud and political dishonesty. In addition those charged
with public policy have turned it into an instrument for criminal and pathological
fixation for the capture and development of raw power to the detriment of
development (Julius Ihonvbere 2003).
Taking the above into cognizance and its implication for good public
management vis-à-vis the market, the SSA has attracted so much attention.
Issues that have attracted attention centers on what type of capitalism should
the SSA develop and what challenges does this pose to the mainstream capitalist
model (integrating into mainstream capitalist model inclusive). But this seems
marred by the huge or monumental problem of corruption. Undoubtedly
corruption exists in both East and South East Asia and Africa (SSA inclusive). The
problem is that the nature of the corruption differs and this is what has made it
impossible for good corporate governance of the public sector and the marriage
between the state and the market ineffectual in the SSA. Why corruption in East
and South East Asia functions as a lubricant for development in these regions,
with those engaged in the corruption having an interest in seeing that
development succeed and within such context will they have their share.
However corruption in the SSA is the degenerative type, parasitic, sucking up
vital public funds that are needed for critical development. Consequently what
SSA needs are states that can critically intervene in the economy. Such states
are states that are strong and successful and possess certain capacities and
capabilities. This capacities and capabilities does not necessarily mean power of
coercion that can only yield compliance based on punishment as against
voluntary
participation/integration
that
should
yield
real
and
continuing
compliance that should produce real strength for growth and development.
As explained by Weiss and Hobson (1995), a strong state is one that possesses
infrastructural power comprising three dimensions of power:
9 1. Penetrative power, that is, the capacity to move freely and interact directly
with the population and obtain their support.
2. Extractive power or the capacity to obtain various resources, both material
and human, from society, whether for taxes, war, welfare, or development
and so on.
3. Negotiated power, or the capacity to negotiate and establish cooperation
between various groups such as economic groups and interest groups or
lobbies of various kinds, such as trade unions, NGOs and so on.
The
capacity
to
develop
such
cooperation
involves
strategic
and
institutionalized collaboration between political and economic actors, as well as
the capacity to coordinate various agencies towards goals established by the
state.
There are of course country-to-country variations of the developmentalist
state
model
(Sity
Daud
2002).
However,
of
importance
is
that
each
developmentalist state must possess power with those three capacities and this is
what the SAA states need. Where such power exists, and is informed by a
developmentalist ideology, the state is able not only to establish state-owned
industry (especially in strategic sectors) but, more importantly, it can establish
‘smart’ partnership, between government and business and other groups,
through its negotiated power. In such partnerships, the state plays a leading role,
occupying the driver’s seat (Henderson & Appelbaum 1992).
In addition, the developmentalist state pays heed to the political agenda of
nation building, and not only to the strengthening of the state apparatus and
economic growth. Its governance takes as its departure efforts to ensure the
continued existence of the state and the society, and is attentive to the politics of
unity for building the nation. Thus, it makes developmentalist ideology into a tool
to establish legitimacy and unity, with specific political projects besides building a
competent technocratic state apparatus. Hence, for the developmentalist state,
development is not the ultimate objective. It is a means to break free of the
condition of dependency and to uphold national interests in the international
arena (Caftells 1992).
10 Most of the above-mentioned characteristics do not exists in the states and
governments in Africa. This is their problem, a political elite governs, but the
state institutions under its leadership have been unable to adequately establish
the three dimensions of infrastructural power. Although the political elite has,
with certain limitations, adopted a developmentalist ideology, this ideology has
not become an instrument of legitimation for that elite, nor has it functioned as a
unifying ideology opportunities and circumstances to attract more investment,
technology and so on to generate economic growth. Instead, they remain
indebted, misusing a portion of that loan for projects that did not bring the
desired
development,
thus
plunging
them
into
the
debt
crisis
and
underdevelopment. At the same time, they were struck by various forces, which
undermined the state’s capacity to undertake development programmes. This
occurred especially after the start of the neo-liberal counter-revolution in the
1980s marked by the rise of Reaganomics and Thatcherism, following the election
of Ronald Reagan as US President and Margaret Thatcher as Britain’s Prime
Ministers that seriously undermined public administration.
4. CONCLUSION
Public Administration has come to occupy a very important place in the SSA
states. This is because these states survival and effectiveness are more than ever
before dependent on efficient public administration. Taking into consideration
some variables that include but not limited to the ever increasing population,
urbanization of the rural settings, integration of national economies into global
economic etc. in the foregoing context public administration has become great
stabilizing force in governance that not only ensure the crafting but also the
implementation and continuity of policies, and programmes with minimum effort
and risk. In addition to being a great stabilizing force in governance it has
become a veritable instrument for social change and economic development;
assisting in articulating plans, policies and programmes of government that has
as its fours the uplifting of the social and economic standard of the citizenry
11 (ensuring
the
overall
economic
and
industrial
development
inclusive).
Furthermore the emergence of the welfare state in the SSA has made Public
Administration of pivotal importance in the actualization of the ideals of the
concept. This includes ensuring progress, prosperity and protection of all the
citizens in the state, compared to the past when the citizens expect nothing but
oppression from public authorities.
What is certain is that as at today 38 to 44 poorest nations of the world are
in the SSA region. Largely as a result of bad governance and corruption to which
a re-engineered public management/administration stands out as the solution. To
be able to make the leap from developmentalist state (poverty stricken) to that
or a developed region (post developmentalist) countries that make up the
region,it must establish and sustain a public governance (or administration)
architecture that should ensure strong governments, ability to discipline domestic
capitalist entrenched developmentalist ideology and aggressive policies that
should guarantee entry markets of the developed countries; policies that provide
for coordination and cooperation between the state and the market. Because of
the eclectic nature of public administration all these issues falls within the
purview of public administration. Consequently if the SSA states are to progress
from
largely
under
developed/developmentalist
state
to
that
of
a
post
developmentalist state to the point of convergence where the United State is,
public administration cannot be neutral to the developmental aspiration of the
SSA states.
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13 Akongbowa
Bramwell
Amadasun
PhD,
is
a
Professor
of
Public
Administration and Political Economy, Department of Political Science
and Public Administration, Benson Idahosa University, Benin City, Edo
State, Nigeria.
Henry Igiebor Oghoator, is a Lecturer in the Department of Public
Administration, Western Delta University, Oghara, Delta State, Nigeria.
14 15