Public Administration in the Developing World: Issues, Challenges and Opportunities

Most of the developing nations seem to have failed to rise to the new challenges and grab the opportunities that a highly globalized and networked world offers. Many have lost the momentum in the realms of administrative and public service reforms that are crucial to survive in a highly competitive world. Countries like India have been trying very hard to adjust to the requirements of a global economy through institutional and policy reforms, but the results have not been encouraging. In the last few decades, societies in the developing world witnessed radical changes in the areas of information and communication technologies, transportation, knowledge, and modes of civic engagement. The role and position of the governments have changed drastically with the state losing its capacity to intervene in highly complex socio-economic issues. On the policy formulation front, the governments are highly dependent on autonomous policy networks and supra-national organizations like the World Bank and the World Trade Organization. A new trend that has been witnessed in public administration of these countries is that of client-orientation that involves various interactive tools. Transparency has been the new hallmark coupled with reforms in the public sector. It is against this backdrop that this paper seeks to put into perspective the changes in public administration in the developing world on an evolutionary plane.