The Bureaucracy and Economic Development in Japan

Abstract

In developing societies the role of the national bureaucracy is crucial. The attempt to develop and integrate complex trans-local economic and political structures in as short a time as possible lays the greatest share of the burden on mechanisms which the national planners and policymakers have at their disposal-primarily the national bureaucracy. In the area of economic development, the function of the bureaucracy is to insure the diversion of resources into growth-producing activities by devising policies on its own or implementing measures which will effectively achieve this goal. In pursuing this objective, the bureaucracy must be capable of insuring that due weight is given to long-run economic considerations. This is of special importance in developing societies since such considerations are likely to be played down or subjected to pressures from small-scale entrepreneurs and/or to be subordinated to considerations of external and internal security. To achieve these objectives the bureaucracy may act in three specific areas: (1) The establishment of minimal legal and public service preconditions for economic development such as law, order, security, and various infrastructural elements. (2) The establishment of specific output objectives which will modify and direct the development of the resource structure in a manner favorable to long-run economic growth. (3) The establishment of specific input transformation units in areas of the economy when the private sector will not or cannot provide the necessary investment and/or skills. In terms of present-day technology and science, it is evident that a bureaucracy must exhibit certain orientations if it is to perform in any or all of these areas with any degree of success. The recognition of this fact has led many observers to assume that these orientations must be modern in character. Modern value and behavior orientations in this context are generally described in terms of Weber's classical functional description of bureaucracy and the key elements of this formulation; specialization, differentiation, achievement-orientation, hierarchy, hierarchical responsibility, rationality and secularization. These elements are often assumed to be necessary conditions for the bureaucracy's role in carrying out not only economic but political and social development. Furthermore, the claim is sometimes made, regardless of what Weber himself intended, that insofar