The Importance Of Bureaucracy In Public Administration

In the context of the features and changes above in public administration over the past century, several scholars have expressed differing views about bureaucracy and the efficacy of public administration and its evolving forms. McSwite argues that public administration undermines the effective and competent operations of a vibrant and highly desirable social context, featuring the unhindered operations of a market that fosters and maintains economic efficiency and its broad range of benefits. In other words, McSwite argues that public administration impedes, by slowing, reversing, and denying, desirable trends and systems in the society that a market system assures abundantly without the input of government agencies (McSwite, 2015). The author

In bureaucratic circumstances, the author contends, bureaucratic processes influence loss of reason and principles, based on the original assumption at its formation that it would free citizens’ reason through the order enforced by rulers. When individuals assume the administrative office in bureaucratic contexts, Hummel observes, they are, by rule, not permitted to reason, in terms of rational objections. The bureaucratic mechanism demands blind obedience from workers, which contradicts the human nature of application of reason in life and daily activities. In the development of party structures, for example in America, Hummel notes Weber’s observation that all political parties showed increasing rationalization - replacement of values and traditions that motivate behavior with those calculated to achieve designated objectives - in electoral processes, influencing their bureaucratic transformation (Hummel, 2006). This fact is commensurate with observations that bureaucratic systems restrict the creativity and ingenuity of citizens, especially because they involve rigid structures and processes that citizens have to follow at all times (Warner, 2001; Janis, 1971). Nevertheless, it is essential to note that since bureaucracy

Despite criticism about its ineffectiveness, bureaucracy is necessary in the society to enforce order and organization in the delivery of services and interactions between the state and citizens, especially considering the national scale of government and its service for a multitude of citizens. The reforms aimed at rectifying the political circumstances that had facilitated the prevalence of financial crises, corruption, and various inefficiencies in the delivery of public services. Introduction of a market-oriented model of public administration focusing on efficiency, public expenditure control (mainly through shrinking the government), and treatment of citizens as clients in the delivery of public service suited the evolving circumstances. Rather than an end in itself, the regime of bureaucratic reforms was a means to ascertain desired quality and standards in public service delivery. It represented a phase in the continuous objective of public administration to achieve and maintain high quality in public service