The Interest of Bureaucrats: Implications of the Asian Experience for Recent Theories of Development

Abstract

Neither modernization studies nor the new world-system approach to development has treated bureaucrats as an autonomous group pursuing its own interests in competition and collusion with other social groups. An examination of bureaucrats and higher-education politics in Thailand, India, and China over the past three decades reveals a notably similar vision of group interest, despite great differences in historical origin and in the success with wich these interest, despite great differences in historical origin and in the success with which these interest have been pursued. The comparative success of Thailand's bureaucrats and failure of China's can be illuminated in part by considering differences in relationship to the world system, although this is by no means a sufficient explanation. Bureaucrats choose allies in conjuction with possibilities presented by the world system, as well as by such internal factors as the strenght of rival social groups and the continuity of bureaucratic organization. Theories of development are currently in considerable flux; the world-system contribution would gain analytical power by adopting a more realistic perception of bureaucrats.