The Indian Central Bureaucracy: Responsive to Whom?

Abstract

THERE IS A LONG TRADITION IN INDIA of a clear separation between politicians who make policies and administrators who implement them. Yet, with the rise of welfare state objectives and with the regular intervention of the government into the social and economic life of the country, chief administrators have become, in a real sense, chief legislators and chief adjudicators. In short, thanks to the growth of government activity resulting from the logic of modern nationalism and the increasing complexity of modern life, the bureaucracy has emerged as the major locus of political power in the central government. Therefore, to ask about the responsiveness of the Indian national government is really to ask about the responsiveness of the Indian central bureaucracy. The pattern is repeated the world over, particularly in the case of public economic policies. The general purpose of this article is to shed some light on how to analyze bureaucratic responsiveness and its determinants better. Complaints regarding the responsiveness of a government's bureaucracy are made by claimants and onlookers irrespective of the cultural context.' In the competition for the scarce resources at a regime's dis-