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SUSS POL 353 Study Unit 6 The Way Forward - A Public Administration for …
SUSS POL 353 Study Unit 6
The Way Forward - A
Public Administration for
Southeast Asia
Chapter 1 Political Culture of Public Administration in Southeast Asia
What is Political Culture
Definition
: the totality of
ideas, normative dispositions and attitudes
towards authority, discipline, governmental responsibilities and entitlements and associated
patterns of cultural transmission
, like the education system and even family life
.
What does it indicate
: political culture reflects how
citizens
comprehend and
feel about the political system
Impacts all actors in the political and administrative system
Represents basic political beliefs and values of actors
Reflects and influence how actors feel towards institutions and practices of government”
What is Political Culture and Why Should We Study It?
Shaping public admin
: political culture can shape how public administrative structures function in a political system
citizens interpret the function of + evaluate the performance of their government, public administrators and institutions against an image of what constitutes good governance and effective public administration
Normative consensus
values and attitudes which shape political culture are often based on normative consensus on three levels:
Principles
: Principles upon which governments and policies are based on.
Obligation
: Obligations of citizens to society, and one another
Rights
: Rights, benefits and prerogatives to which citizens should or should not be entitled to.
Political Socialisation
: These norms, practices and principles that citizens hold, are not only socialised and ingrained through education but by their lived experiences
Why is the study of political culture significant?
.
Socio-political indicators
: the normative nature of political culture acts as indicators of what is good and bad in governance and public administration - it
tells us what government and administration should do
so as to be “considered a proper government” or activities that they should be prohibited from.
i.e. accountability
: For instance, the government should ensure that there are adequate checks and balances in its policy-making process to prevent the concentration of power in the hands of a select group of political actors
.
Culture Influences administrative style
: another component of how political culture may establish boundaries on government and public administrative behaviour is the aspect of style
I.e. culture influences how governance and public
administrative practices evolved globally
and how citizens expect government and public administrators to interact with them.
For example, under
Traditional Public Administration
, public policy often was made
behind-closed-doors,
with little public consultation. However, governance and public administrative trends today, following changes as a result of New Public Management and New Public Governance, have led to a more citizencentric approach. Governments and public administrative structures which fail to do so then face citizen demands for increased voice and accountability in the policymaking process
Civic Culture
Almond and Verba’s The Civic Culture
Almond and Verba understand political culture as
a pattern of political orientations
to political institutions/mechanics such as parliament, elections, or the nation
There are
three different types
of political orientation
The
first is cognitive
, which is the degree to which citizens know about their political system including important historical events, political leaders and other figures, and the electoral system
The
second is affective
, which is the extent to which citizens feel that politics is worth their time
The
final is evaluative
, which is the extent to which citizens feel that
(1) they can make their views heard and that
(2) the political leaders are responsive to their demands
Almond and Verba’s method: three ideal type
Almond and Verba’s method was to collect
survey data
on the most important aspects of three categories in various countries and then
compare the citizens’ overall orientation
to politics with the political system under which they live.
After collecting the data, they
classified
the citizens’ orientation to politics into
three ideal types
The first is what they call a
parochial culture
in which there is a low level of awareness and interest in politics.
This general orientation was found to be most prevalent in underdeveloped nondemocracies.
The second is
subject culture
in which people are aware of politics and what government does; however, there is little participation from the citizens themselves.
This general orientation was found to be most prevalent in more developed non-democracies
The third is what they termed a
Civic culture
in which citizens are both knowledgeable about politics and actively engaged in them.
This general orientation was typically found in democracies, although in some cases an “overload” of demands and lack of trust in the political leadership resulted in a more volatile political situation.
Almond and Verba’s Conclusion
The
most stable democracies
, as Almond and Verba found, had political
orientations in between the ideal types of subject culture and participant culture
.
In such “civic cultures”, citizens are “active but trusting” and “political cultures are mixed to produce neither too much nor too little participation”.
Civic culture attitude
civic culture is the type of political culture that is most suited to democracies as it includes four main attitudes
Participation
: Individuals believe they can impact political decisions
Orientation
: Individuals are positively oriented towards the political system
Trust
: High degree of interpersonal trust between citizens and politicians/administration.
Progressive
: Inclination towards progressive and positive societal change
Facilitating the Development of Civic Culture
Developing trust
: public administration structures in a society must be developed in a citizen-centric way to help facilitate trust and confidence in public institutions
Without the citizens’ trust, there will always be an
assumption that “some sort of corruption
, deception or favouritism was involved” in policy and decision-making
Trust and confidence in public institutions can be developed in the following ways
Promoting collaboration between private and public instituition
Service delivery
Promote citizen Participation
Empowerment of street level bureaucrats to enhance service delivery
Information sharing
Examining Political Culture in a Society
Political Culture - from the Perspectives of the Citizen
Citizens
may hold different attitudes and values from the political elite, and this
can influence the behaviour of public administrators
and public service delivery
This can be understood from the following scenarios:
.
Acceptance/rejection of bureaucracy
: If society generally values authority and status, then such a societal culture will be accepting of the bureaucracy and the decisions it makes. On the contrary, a society that accords more importance to personal and informal decision-making processes will be less accepting of a pervasive bureaucracy.
Thus
bureaucracy is based on conservative/socialist social inclination
.
Bureaucratic autonomy/ Political dominance
: A society that is accustomed to strong controls and restrictions, such as seen in the former Soviet Union, then the society would not expect a bureaucracy that enjoys autonomy from the government but rather, public administrators that conform and are even complicit to the preferences of the elected politicians
Thus society which is accustomed to
authoritarianism is inclined to award political dominance
but a liberal society would be inclined towards bureaucratic autonomy
.
in-equality gaps = Difference in social values/ attitude
: If there is uneven development in a country (which is typical of many less-developed or developing countries) that results in the creation of modern and rural regions, the cultures of these two regions may be different from each other, leading citizens in both the regions to respond differently to the public service in different ways, given their different values and attitudes.
.
Rate of globalisation also = difference in social values/attitude
: As a result of globalisation, the number of immigrants from both developed and developing countries seeking opportunities and residence particularly in developed countries, has risen exponentially. Such immigrants (new residents and citizens) may also possess very varied values and attitudes towards public administration and its administrators
Political culture in a pluralistic society
.
Complexities/Fragmentation due to Social Cleavages
: Naturally, plural countries, as well as these cosmopolitan societies, thus experience numerous
social cleavages
along ethnolinguistic, religious and cultural lines. Political and
administrative decision-making become increasingly complex in a fragmented society
, where citizens may possess different values and attitudes. This becomes even more complex and
potentially destabilising
depending on the degree of fragmentation in society, where there is a dominant culture (majority) and subject cultures (minorities).
.
Bureaucratic bias
: should the
bureaucracy
be seen as highly
representative of the dominant culture
, either in terms of being staffed by those belonging to the dominant culture or policy-making is deemed to be serving the interests of citizens of the dominant culture, it may
attract resistance or resentment from citizens
from the subject cultures, who perceive unfair distribution of public goods and services.
This not only
precipitates tensions
in society but “may also place important
limits on the effectiveness
of the administrative structures”
Case Study: The Impact of Affirmative Action in Malaysia
.
bumiputra
: Malaysia’s practice of affirmative action for the bumiputra (sons of the soil) has prioritised the development of the Malay community over the other two major communities, the Indians and Chinese in Malaysia” which
contributes to Malaysia’s stagnation
.
Bias Access to privileges
: The affirmative action policy grants “quotas in public education, mortgage reduction
benefits, and even roles reserved in the public sector
” (Nair, 2020)
for ethnic Malays
. These special rights are defended by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (the supreme ruler or King) as
specified in the 1957 Constitution
and it was emphasised that “these Malay special rights would
become part of Malaysia’s culture and nationhood”
.
Entrenching dominant culture
: When the Malay community expressed unhappiness at the inadequacy of these special rights leading to tensions in society, the
quotas and rights were further expanded under the ‘New Economic Policy
’ that spanned from 1971 to 1990. Other than this, an unwritten rule further entrenches the dominant culture, whereby
all prominent government positions
, including that of the Prime Minister, can
only be distributed to ethnic Malays
.
Inequality and accountability issues
. As a result of such sentiments, institutional and socio-political
development is uneven
and has suffered, creating inequalities not only between the Malays, Indians and Chinese communities but also within the Malay community itself. A lack of meritocracy and the relentless promotion of Malays supremacy “
undermine government accountability
” as well as transparency and good governance, beleaguering Malaysian public institutions that are meant to ensure a well-functioning society
Political Culture - from the Perspectives of the Elites
.
Actors impact institutions and are subsequently, the institutions impact actors
: Mostly,
founding leaders
in the immediate post-independence period are instrumental in
establishing the fundamentals of this culture
by taking stock of the capacities of a country and subsequently decide how best to establish political and administrative institutions that will capitalise on its strengths and mitigate its vulnerabilities. The strength and resistance of the culture can
result in two general paths
.
Stability:
On the one hand,
the stronger and more resistant a culture
, the higher the level of stability in the country
.
Dominance
: On the other hand, if the culture is so strong and resistant to the point where the political and administrative system becomes “ends in themselves”, what results is a highly bureaucratic, self-serving environment where
any change is deemed as a threat
Culture and governance
three basic ways in which culture can impact on governance in a country
Constraints
: Culture constrains the political agenda and the policymaking process.
Issues that run against the dominant culture, will not be entertained
Confronts
: Cultural norms are used to confront contradicting policy decisions/ innovations
Possible undermining of creative expression and value evolution
Catalyses
: Cultural norms catalyses decision making and reinforces policies which promote such listed values
Adapting to change
:
What is required instead are
culture and mental models that
“seek to
perceive emerging patterns
, understand them and adapt to a new reality
Of the 3 effects of culture on governance, cultural values and norms catalysing decision-makers to seek policy options that conform and promote the existing norms and values create more positive and reinforcing outcomes as opposed to culture constraining or confronting the policy process.
Elite Culture VS Mass culture
.
Differences in perspectives
: political elites, who
wield power
and hold governmental responsibilities, can however
develop different perspectives on politics as a result of their responsibilities
, in comparison to other political actors such as citizens, (whom he refers to as the masses) who are often “political observers or marginal activists”
.
Implications of differences
: the
greater the disparity
between the elite culture and mass culture, the
higher the level of disagreement
between the elites and the citizens in how public affairs and politics are managed
.
Dissatisfaction
: citizens will not be satisfied by public policy formulated and implemented by the elites
.
Dampens efficiency
: Secondly, this also has repercussions for public administrators. Public servants can be understood as the bridge between the elected politicians and citizens, who serve citizens not only in accordance to their own administrative expertise, but also by carrying out the vision of elected politicians. If the elite culture and the mass culture are so drastically disparate in a country, the public service may not be able to fulfil their duties effectively.
Cosmopolitan orientation vs traditional orientation
.
Pye also suggests that
political development
in a country
may create further discrepancies
between the cultures of the masses and elites, where the elite culture consists of “cosmopolitan orientations” as opposed to the traditional orientation of the masses.
This in turn will influence citizens’ attitudes towards political elites and public administrators. Such attitudes and values are best encapsulated in The Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map
The Inglehart-Welzel Cultural Map
Cultural values can be understood in terms of four categories
.
Traditional Values
: Tend to be more conservative and emphasizes familial values and religious values. Have high levels of national pride/ values
.
Secular-rational values
: Less emphasis on religious/ domestic or traditional values. Inclined towards liberal values
.
Survival Values
: Emphasizes social and economical security. Low levels of trusts and tolerance. Political realism
.
Self-expression values: Inclined towards post-modernist values. Inclined towards increase citizen participation.
In gist
: Citizens of well- developed, industrially advanced countries may possess more self-expression values and thus have higher demands for participation, transparency and accountability in public service delivery, while citizens of a less-developed country with a history of deference to political elites may have fewer demands
Political Culture within the Bureaucracy
Culture and Authority in Organisations
Culture and Motivation in Organisations
Case Study: Community Policing in Singapore
Citizen Engagement, Civic Culture and Public Administration
Chapter 2 Context in Public Administration
What does Context in Public Administration mean
Context in Public Administration
Case Study: The Context in which the Thai Bureaucrat Operates
Does Examining Context Always Lead to Reductionist
Conclusions
Comparative Public Administration and Administrative
Reform
Using a Comparative Approach to study Public Administration
Systems
Administrative Reform - What is it and Why is it necessary
Moving Public Administration in Southeast
Asia Forward
Comparative Case Studies - Singapore, Malaysia and
Thailand
Case Study: Best Practices and Lessons from Singapore
Case Study: Performance Management Reforms in Malaysia and
Thailand
Conclusion - What is the Way Forward for Public
Administration in Southeast Asia?