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Role Of Civil Society

How society is governed? What is justice? How can the dignity and self respect of human beings be assured? How can u morality be realised ? These and many related questions have been the area of interest of many social scientists. Political theorists have posited the state as the principal institution that major role in defining the political, cultural, social and economic aspects of any society. In short, state and societal governance were treated as synonymous.

However, equating state and societal governance posed a peculiar problem — ‘If every state possess umate power and exercises a set of definite functions, then each state should be like any other’. However, States are dissimilar and differ in the way they accumulate, articulate and exercise political power. Why does this difference arise ? Answer to this question can be located in the environment in which the state operates. The environment comprises variety of forces that intluence societal governance. One of the main components of the environment that exercises a dominant influence on the state and its role in societal governance is the Civil Society.

Civil Society is composed of groups and associations organised voluntarily, devoted to the cause of collective good, independent of the state and of any other vested interest.

Definitions

Some of the important definitions of Civil Society’ are given below:

Jeffrey Alexander : “Civil Society is an inclusive; umbrella-like concept referring to a plethora of institutions outside the state”

Niraja Gopal Jayal : “Civil Society covers all forms of voluntary association and social interaction not controlled by the state”.

S.K. Das: “Civil Society is the organised Society over which the state rules”.

George Huggins : “Civil Society is a social space, distinct from the state and business sectors but having a, sometimes tense, co-relationship with that state, functioning through association”.

Susanne Hoeber Rudolph : “Civil Society is defined variously by different theorists, but a minimal definition would include the idea of a non-state autonomous sphere; empowerment of citizens; trust-building associational life; interaction with, rather than subordination to the State”.

Larry Diamond : “Civil society represents the realm of an organized social life that is voluntary, self- generating, largely self- supporting,.and bound by a legal order or set of shared values”

Features Of Civil Society

1. It refers to non-state institutions
2. It covers a large space in society
3. It refers to the organised Society
4. It covers groups which are intermediate between the state ( political society) and the family( natural society ).
5. While it is autonomous, it is subject to the authority of state.
6. It implies the existence of freedom of association, freedom of thought and other civil of freedom economic rights.
7. It is in pursuit of common public good
8. It opposes authoritarianism and totalitarianism
9. It promotes citizenship by educating the individual
10. It facilitates citizen’s participation in the politico-administrative affairs.
11. It formulates public opinion and sets the demands which are general in nature.
12. Its important attribute is voluntarism, not coercion.
13. It advocates pluralism to reduce the domination of the state.
14. It serves as a moral referent in the community value system.

John Keane, the British theorist, summarises the current positive thinking about Civil Society as : “The emerging consensus that Civil Society is a realm of freedom correctly highlights its basic value as a condition of democracy; where there is a no Civil Society there cannot be citizens with capacities to choose their identities, entitlements and duties within a political-legal Framework.

Components

The organisations and groups included under the umbrella concept of Civil Society are:

1. Non-governmental organisations
2. Community-based organisations
3. Indigenous people’s organisations
4. Trade Unions
5. Farmer’s organisations
6. Cooperatives
7. Religious associations
8. Youth groups
9. Women’s groups
10. Other similarly organised groups.

In USA, the Civil Society is highly developed, while in India, it is fast growing since the 1970s. In the words of Niraja Gopal Jayal, with regard to India, it has been argued that Civil Society, in the sense of opposition to the State, is developed, while Civil Society, in the sense of associational groups, is not.

Neera Chandhoke observed, Civil Society in India is seen by most theorists as a fluid association of social groupings which are based on caste and kinship linkages or on religious mobilisation as much as on voluntary social association.

Categories Of Civil Societies Institutions In India

Rajesh Tandon has classified Civil Society Institutions in India into the following cateogaries:

1. Traditional associations based on caste, tribe or ethnicity
2. Religious associations like Ramakrishna Mission, Islamic Institutions, etc
3. Social movements of several types, viz.
   • Movements focusing on the needs of a particular group like women or tribals
   • Movements to reform social evils like dowry or liquor.
   • Movements to protest against displacements due to developments and
   • Movements focusing on governance like civil liberties campaigns or anti- corruption campaigns.
4. Membership associations of different types viz.
   • Representational like trade unions, peasants organisations and so on
   • Professional like associations of lawyers, doctors, etc
   • Socio-cultural like sports clubs, recreational clubs and so forth.
   • A Self-help like ward committees in cities or community-based organisations in villages.
5. Intermediary associations of different types, viz.
   • Service delivery like schools, homes for destitute and so on
   • Mobilisational which help organise marginalised sections to demand their own rights.
   • Supportive which provide support to other community-based associations.
   • Philanthropic like Child Relief and You (CRY), Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and so forth
   • Advocacy which explicitly advocate a particular cause.
   • New work which extend collective voice and strength like Association of Voluntary Agencies in Rural Development (AVARD).

Role Of Civil Society Institutions

The Civil Society Organisations (Voluntary or non-governmental organisations) play an important role in the welfare and development administration. The various dimensions of their role are: 

1. They organise and mobilise the poor for socio-economic development.
2. They disseminate information and make the people aware of various schemes, programmes, and projects initiated by the Government for their betterment.
3. They facilitate the people’s participation in administrative process.
4. They make the administrative machinery more responsive to the needs and aspirations of the 3 people, people.
5. They impose a community system of accountability on the functioning of administrative machinery at lower levels. Thus, they reduce the scope for corruption.
6. the administrative, machinery in identifying the target groups.
7. The facilitate the usage of local resources for local development and thus make the communities self-reliant.
8. They create political consciousness among the people by discussing various political issues.
9. They act as the watch-dogs of the public interest.
10. They strengthen the principle of self-help.

However, it must be mentioned here that the role of volu the efforts of government and not competing with it.

Place Of Decision Making In Administration

To Herbert Simon, the administration is the art of “getting the things done”. “He emphasizes the processes and methods that ensure action. He says that in administrative analysis sufficient attention has not been paid to the choice which precedes action. According to him, all administrative thinkers concentrated only on the study of doing’ rather than what to do’. Determination of what to do rather than doing actually’ did not receive proper attention. Simon points out without an adequate understanding of this dimension, which is rooted in the behaviour of man in the organisation, the study of administration would remain largely inadequate.

In the Behavioural approach, the question is to be understood as the process that precedes action. This is popularly known as the decision-making process. The need for taking decisions arises when there are several alternatives or courses of action open to an individual. But one has to choose only one alternative by a process of elimination. Therefore, decision-making is defined as a process of reducing the alternatives to one. The rationality of human beings lies in selecting such an alternative that can produce maximum positive results and minimum negative results. The efficiency of any group effort depends on the existence of principles that would ensure correct decision-making which in turn determines the effectiveness of doing the job.

In an organisation, people above the operative level are considered important, as they are entrusted with more crucial functions of decision-making. They have a very important role to play in realising organisational goals. They have a greater role in influencing the behaviour of the operative staff. For example, in a war, the soldiers fight on the battlefield. They make many decisions at their own levels. But the overall strategy that is formulated by the Generals, who are not engaged in the actual battle would determine the outcome of the battle. Similarly, in the automobile industry, the car is produced by the mechanics on the assembly line and not by the engineer nor the executive. Yet the latter occupied a crucial place. Again, the fire is extinguished by a team of firemen and not by the fire chief. In administration operative staff are important. The success of an organisation depends on them. The men above the operative level are equally important. They have an essential role to play in achieving organisational goals. The supervising staff have a greater influence upon the outcome of an organisational effort than the decision taken at the lower levels. These supervisory staffs have a greater influence on the operative staff. They decide, plan and direct the operative staff. In smaller organisations, the influence of the supervisory staff is direct, while the influence is indirect in big and complex organisations. Simon, therefore, says that effective organisation involves setting up of operative staff and above it. a superimposing staff capable of influencing the operative staff toward a coordinated and effective behaviour. He also says that the working of organisations depends on how the decisions and behaviour of employees are influenced. It is for these reasons that the behavioural approach emphasises that “insight into the structure and function of an organisation can get me gained by analysing how the decision and the behaviour of such employees influenced within and by the organisation.

Models Of Decision Making According To Simon

According to Simon, there are two models of Decision-making: The Rational Economic Model and the Administrative Model.

1. Rational Economic Model

The term “rationality’ implies ‘a consistent and value-maximizing choice within certain limits. It means that the decision-maker as an economic being tries to select the best alternative for achieving the optimum solution to a problem. According to this model, the decision-maker is assumed to make decisions that would maximize his or her advantage by searching and evaluating all possible alternatives. Thus, the economic man takes maximising decisions. The decision-making process, followed by an economic man to reach his maximising decisions is based on certain assumptions. They are :

• Decision-making is a Goal-Oriented Process

According to the rational economic model, the decision-maker has a clear, well-defined goal that he is trying to maximize. Before formulating the goal, the decision-maker can identify the symptoms of a problem and clearly specify one best way to solve the same. com

• All Choices are Known

It is assumed that in a given decision situation, all choices available to the decision-maker are known or given and the consequences or outcomes of all actions are also known. The decision-maker can list i) all the relevant criteria, ii) all feasible alternatives, and iii) the consequences for each alternative.

• Order of Preference

It is assumed that the decision-maker can rank all consequences according to preference and select the alternative which has the preferred consequences. In other words, the decision-maker knows how to relate consequences to goals. He knows which consequence is best (optimality-criterion).

• Maximum Advantage

The decision-maker has the freedom to choose the alternative that best optimizes the decision. In other words, he would select that alternative that would maximize his satisfaction. The decision-maker has complete knowledge and is a logical systematic maximizer in economic-technical terms. The above assumptions indicate that the rational-economic model is an idealist construct. The model is prescriptive and normative; it explains how decision-makers ought to behave. Total rationality is ideal and can be rarely achieved in an organization. Many factors hinder the achievement of total rationality in practice. 

Factors Inhibiting Total Rationality

The factors that inhibit the achievement of total rationality in an organisation are :

Defining the problem accurately

It is often impossible to reduce organizational problems to accurate levels. An accurate, precise and comprehensive definition of the problems, as assumed under the model, may not be possible. Moreover, relevant goals may not be fully understood or may conflict with each other. Striking a balance between goals such as growth, profitability, social responsibility, ethics, survival, etc., may be difficult and as such, the assumption that the decision-maker has a single, well-defined goal in an organizational setting appears to be unfortunate,

Lack of awareness of problems

Frequently, the manager does not know that he has a problem. If the organization is successful and is flourishing, managers may not be in a position to steal their valuable time for searching for future problems. As rightly commented by Weber, “if current performance is satisfactory, few of us use the present time to search for future problems”.

Imperfect knowledge

It is too simplistic to assume that the decision-maker has perfect knowledge regarding all alternatives, the probabilities of their occurrence, and their consequences. Indeed managers rarely, if any, have access to perfect information,

Limited time and resources

Most of the managers work under tremendous pressure to meet the challenges posed by internal as external factors. They have to operate underdo or die’ situations and investing more time than necessary would mean lost opportunities and consequently business. This pressure to act pushes the decision-makers to act quickly. Moreover, obtaining full information would be too costly. If resources are limited, the decisions should be taken in such a manner as to achieve efficiency and effectiveness. Less effective solutions may be accepted if substantial savings are made in the use of resources. Working under severe time and cost constraints, managers may settle down for less optimal decisions rather than wasting time and effort in finding out an “ideal solution. Thus time limits rationality.

Cognitive limits

Most of the decision-makers may not be gifted with supernatural powers · to turn out a high-quality decision every time they sit through a problem. They may not be able to process large amounts of environmental information, highly technical information, large amounts of competitive information thoroughly and relate them successfully to confusing organizational objectives. When managers are invaded with so many details regarding various fields they try to simplify the decision-making process by reducing the number of considerations (alternatives) to a manageable number. When the thinking capacity is overloaded, rational decisions give way to bounded decisions. Instead of considering 8 to 10 alternatives, managers may deal with only three or four to avoid overloading and confusion. They simplify the complex fabric of the environment’ into workable conceptions of their decision problems.

Politics

The normative model, unfortunately, ignores the influence of powerful individuals and groups on the decision-making process. Many studies have revealed decision making to be political in nature accommodating the dissimilar and sometimes conflicting interests of different groups (labour unions, consumer councils, government agencies, local community). To satisfy these groups, the decision-maker may have to give weightage to less optimal solutions at the expense of organizational efficiency).

Thus, the rational economic model is based on defective logic and reasoning. It is an idealistic, perhaps even naive, model of decision making which works only when all the underlying assumptions prevail. The complexities of the real world force us to reject the traditional concepts of rationality and explicit computational problem-solving techniques and consider a more realistic theory that receives inputs from both the quantifiable and non-quantifiable variables; a theory that focusses on human involvement in the various steps of the (decision-making) process and allows for the impact of numerous environmental factors.

2. Administrative Model

The objective of the administrative model, proposed by Herbert A. Simon and refined by Richard Cyert and James March is to explain the decision-making behaviour of individuals and organizations. The decision-maker in the administrative model is called the *Administrative man’.

The ‘Administrative man’ is very close to his counterpart the ‘Economic man’. Like the economic man, he also looks for the best alternative. To quote Simon, “A fundamental principle of administration ….. is that among several alternatives involving the same expenditure the one should always be selected which leads to the greatest accomplishment of administrative objectives; and among several alternatives that lead to the same accomplishment the one should be selected which involves the least expenditure. Since this “principle of efficiency’ is characteristic of any activity that attempts rationally to maximise the attainment of certain ends with the use of scarce means, it is as characteristic of economic theory as it is of administrative theory. The administrative man’ takes his place alongside the classical economic man'”.

However, the decision-making process followed by the administrative man’ differs from the process followed by: economic man’. He understands that he cannot attain completely rationality due to the following reasons :

1. He does not have full information about the problems.
2. He does not possess knowledge of all the possible alternative solutions to the problems and their consequences.
3. He does not have the ability to process competitive environmental and technical information.
4. He does not have sufficient time and resources to conduct an exhaustive search for alternative solutions to the problems.

Thus, the administrative man realises that human and organizational limitations make it impossible for people to make perfectly rational decisions. Hence he takes the best decisions that are possible, given the above constraints. Thus he recognises that there are ‘boundaries to rationality’ in organizations. The concept of bounded rationality implies that the decision-maker is concerned with the discovery and selection of satisfactory alternatives and only in exceptional circumstances he is concerned: with the discovery and selection of optimal alternatives.

To quote Simon, “most decisions are concerned with not with searching for the sharpest needle in the haystack but with searching for a needle-sharp enough to sew with. Thus the administrative man looks for “adequate profit” not “maximum profit”, “fair price” not “optimum price”. Thus the administrative man instead of maximising exhibits satisficing (a term coined by Simon to denote satisfaction and sufficiency) behaviour.

Given the above constraints faced by the administrative man Simon says “It is the task of administration to design the environment in such a way that the decision-maker will approach as close as practicable to rationality (judged in terms of the organisations’ goals) in his decisions”.

Criticism Of Herbert’s Models Of Administration

Herbert Simon’s, Rational man Organisation theory is criticised on the following grounds:

1. Ignores environmental factors

Simon’s study provides a deep insight into administrative behaviour and the interaction between the decision making processes and administrative behaviour found in organisations. However, Prasad and Prasad feel that while 3 concentrating on processes and the role of decision-making Simon has relegated social, political, economic and cultural factors to the background although their role is no less significant in the analysis of administrative behaviour.

2. Too much importance to decision-making

The critics of Simon mainly contend that although the decision-making process is an important variable in the organisational situation, it alone is not adequate to explain the totality of the organisational picture. To them, decision-making is a process involving the dimensions of emotional or expressive as Newestional or instrumental.

3. Administration dichotomy

This according to some thinkers has revived the discarded politics administration dichotomy in a new guise. 

4. Ethno Centric

Simon’s analysis that administration plays a similar role in all societies. But it is observed from experience that administrative systems in developing countries do not have similar role orientation as their counterparts in developed countries. Therefore, developing a theory purely based on the American experience, cannot be universally valid.

5. Supports status quo

Chris Argyris considers that Simon’s, reliance on the descriptive empirical approach and the concept of “satisficing man” postulated in his theory would support the status quo in organisational life. Simon’s theory in Argyris’s view excludes variables, viz., interpersonal relations, the need for self-actualisation etc. which are central obits to organisation behaviour.

6. Adequate assumptions about motivation

Simon’s reliance on mechanisms of al organisational influence as an important source of motivation would be tantamount to the view just that an can be motivated by the authority system. On the contrary, Argyris asserts, that man is basically proactive with a potential for self-actualisation. Simon’s theory of organisation would, thus, have no place for self-actualising individuals.

7. Lacks empirical validity

Peters and Waterman in their study of well-managed companies have proved that most of the well-managed companies do not follow the rational model as postulated by Simon.

8. Fosters anti-experimentation

Peters and Waterman feel that some versions of rationality did not value experimentation and crackdown on those who make a mistake or fail. They support their argument based on their empirical observation of certain well-managed companies’ which proceeded `irrationally’ and `chaotically’ and introduced more new products each, during the same period.

Chris Argyris’s Critique Of Simon

Herbert Simon’s “rational man organization theory” has been criticized by Argyris on several grounds. Argyris considers that Simon’s reliance on the descriptive-empirical approach and the concept of satisfying man’ postulated in the theory would support the status quo in organisational life. Simon’s theory, in Argyris’ view, excludes variables–interpersonal relations, the need for self-actualization, etc.–that are central to organisational behaviour. Further, Simon’s reliance on mechanisms of organisational influence as an important source of motivation would be tantamount to the view that man can be motivated by the authority system. On the contrary, Argyris asserts. man is basically proactive with potential for self-actualization. Simon’s theory of organisation would have no place for self-actualizing individuals, Argyris elaborates :

The consequence of intendedly rational man concept, in short, is to focus on the consistent programmable organized, thinking activities of man; to give primacy to behaviour that is related to goals; to assume purpose without asking how it has developed, Man, as a person who feels experiences chaos; manifests spontaneity; becomes turned-on without planning it or being able to explain it in terms of consistency of conscious purpose; thinks divergently… is not the primary concern of the intendedly-rational-man organisation theorists,

Argyris goes to the extent of bracketing Simon along with the traditional administrative theorists for emphasizing the importance of authority structures, for paying insufficient attention to the emotional side of the man and for ignoring the hostility, anger and negative feelings of a typical employee toward the organisation and its goals.

Administrative Thinkers On Decision Making

Leadership and decision making in public administration are two of the most important pillars of good governance. Decision-making as a separate area of study was focussed upon only after the advent of the behavioural school. The major contributors to decision-making in the behavioural school are Chester Barnard and Herbert Simon. In addition to Chester Barnard, Herbert Simon, other thinkers also emphasised knowing what is decision making in public administration and postulated different models of decision making in public administration. Read on to know more about Chester Barnard decision making theory and Herbert Simon decision-making theory.

I) Chester Barnard

The first meaningful analysis of decision-making can be traced to Chester Barnard: Barnard views an organisation as a system of decision-making as well as communication. He highlights the fact that decision-making is a complex and burdensome task. If the decision taken is correct and successful, the decision-maker is happy, but this is more than matched to the frustration or depression that results from failure, or error of decisions. A decision-maker, therefore generally avoids making decisions beyond a limited degree. However, none can escape from making decisions, because decisions are thrust upon them.

According to Barnard, occasions calling for decisions originate in three distinct fields in an: organisation. They are i.e.,

1. From authoritative communication received from the superiors.
2. From cases referred for decisions by subordinates.
3. From cases originating at the initiative of the executive.

Thus, according to Barnard, decisions have to be made in an organisation. The decision may be positive (a decision to do something) or a negative decision (a decision not to decide). 

The Process Of Decision Making According To Chester Barnard

According to Barnard, decision-making involves a search for strategic factors. We must therefore examine his ‘theory of the strategic factor’ which is related to the systems concept. In Barnard’s own words: “If we take any system, or set of conditions, or conglomeration of circumstances existing at a given time, we recognize that it consists of elements or parts or factors which together make up the whole system, set of conditions or circumstances. now, if we approach this system or set of circumstances, with a view to the accomplishment of a purpose. … The elements are parts which become distinguished into two classes: those which if absent or changed would accomplish the desired purpose, provided the others remain unchanged and the others. The first kind is often called limiting factors, the second, complementary factors … a limiting strategic factor is the one whose control, in the right form at the right place and time, will establish a new system… Which meets the purpose… If a machine is not operable because a screw is missing, the screw is the strategic (limiting) factor.

Therefore, to make an effective decision is to get control of the strategic factor and this control of strategic factor and this control must be exercised at right time, right place, with the right amount and right form so that the purpose is achieved or accomplished. ed or accomplished. The strategic factor is, then, the centre of the environment of decision. It is the point at which choice applies. To do or not to do this, that is, several strategic factors, any one of which meets the immediate situation. Often there are tentatively several strategic factors of immediate purpose. The final strategic selection will be made on the or satisfies the necessity of immediate purpose. The final basis of the estimate of less immediate future consequences. Barnard sees a decision as an act of the individual which is the result of deliberation, calculation and thought. It necessitates the location and control of strategic factors. While organizational decisions imply a logical process of discrimination, analysis and choice, non-logical processes cannot be totally ruled out. In sum, Barnard’s decision theory was a significant contribution to management thought.

II) Herbert Simon 

Herbert Simon, a professor of Psychology and Computer Science at Carnegie, is one of the leading pioneers in the work of “machine intelligence.” Simon believes that computers cannot only. calculate but also think. One of his experiments with a self-programming computer showed that it could discover on its own, a law of planetary motion, first conceived of by the astronomer Kepler in the 17th century. In 1978, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work in Economics done two decades ago.

But Simon’s work in public administration began in the field of municipal government. As a young political scientist, he wrote with Clarence Ridley, a booklet, entitled, “Measuring Municipal Activities” (1938) which is rated as a minor classic in municipal administration. In this work, one can clearly see the influence of traditional public administration concepts, which he sharply. criticised in his later books.

At the University of California’s Institute of Public Administration, he published studies on varied subjects such as the ideal caseload for social workers and the measurement of fire insurance risks. In 1950, he wrote “Public Administration” with Donald Smithburg and Victor Thompson. Jointly with Harold Guetzkow, George Kozmetsky’ and George Tyndall he brought out Centralization Versus Decentralization in Organizing the Controller’s Department (1945). His work ‘Models of Man’ (1957) summarized major approaches to organization theory and was a collection of 16 mathematical journal articles. This work was co-authored by James March. Simon authored Models of Discovery,’ in 1977′ *Models of Thought’, in 1979 and Models of Bounded Rationality in 1982. A recent publication is “Reason in Human Affairs’, 1991.

The book Administrative Behavior (1947) is the one that brought Simon immediate fame. This book shows the marked influence of Chester Barnard and carries a foreword by him.

To Simon, the administration is the art of “getting the things done”. He emphasizes the processes and methods that ensure action. He says that in administrative analysis not sufficient attention is paid to the choice which precedes action. Determination of what to do rather than doing actually’ did not receive proper attention. Decision-making deals with the process of choice which leads to action. Simon points out without an adequate understanding of this dimension, which is rooted in the behaviour of man in the organisation, the study of administration would remain largely inadequate.

Simon’s contribution to decision-making can be analysed as follows: 

1. Process of Decision-making
2. Existence of Values and Facts in Decision-making
3. Rationality in Decision-making
4. Place of Decision-Making in Administration
5. Models of Decision making it

Process Of Decision Making According To Herbert Simon

According to Simon decision-making consists of three principal phases :

1. Intelligence Activity

Borrowing from the military meaning of intelligence, this phase involves recognising and understanding the nature of the problem, as well as searching for possible causes. According to Simon, most executives spend a large fraction of their time surveying the economic, technical, political and social environment to identify new conditions that call for new actions.

2. Design Activity

During the second phase, alternative courses of action are developed and analysed in the light of known constraints. Simon postulates that most executives spend the maximum amount of time for this phase, seeking to, invent, design and develop possible courses of action for handling situations where a decision is needed.

3. Choice Activity

The third and final stage involves the actual choice among available and assessed alternatives. Simon feels that the executives spend a relatively small fraction of their time choosing among alternative actions already developed to meet an identified problem and already analysed for their consequences.

Existence Of Values And Facts In Decision Making

The first point which Simon makes in his book, Administrative Behaviour, is that every decision consists of a logical combination of fact and value (ethical) propositions. A fact is a statement indicating what the product is, was, or has been. A statement of fact may be proved or disproved. Some examples of facts are offered here: A table is made of wood; the room is warmed by central heating, or the number of people in a class is 14 or 18. These are all statements of facts, they are either true or false statements. On the other hand, value is an expression of preference. When one says, he likes a morning walk, it is a statement of preference; it is a value proposition. When one says that a festival like “Diwali’ is a good occasion, it is a statement of preference. Every decision, as Simon explains, is made up of several fact statements and one or more value statements or usually, a decision is compounded of one value statement and several fact statements.

Simon gives the following example (which he has borrowed from the infantry field manual of the United States Army) to explain the existence of facts and values in every decision:

“Surprise is an essential element of a successful attack. Its effects should be striven for in Comillas well as in large operations. Infantry effects surprise by concealment of the time and place of the attack, screening of its dispositions, rapidity of manoeuvre, deception and avoidance of stereotyped procedures”.

The above statement can be rephrased as follows :

1. Attack successfully ……. value statement.
2. An attack is successful only when carried out under conditions of surprise ……. factual statement.
3. The conditions of surprise are concealment of the time and place of attack etc ……. factual statement.

Mixed issues of fact and value, then impinge upon the administration value, then impinge upon the administration complicating the decision. This impingement on administration is to be seen in the purposive character of an organisation that develops groups of individuals to achieve goals ordinarily beyond the character of an organisation that develops groups of individual reach. The continuum of purposiveness includes that behaviour in an organisation is a complex network of decision processes-is, therefore, intendedly rational in character, adjusted to the goals that have been erected. Speaking of the complex network of decision processes Simon says that each decision involves the selection of a goal and behaviour relevant to it; this goal may, in turn, intermediate to a somewhat more distant goal; and so on, until a relatively final aim is reached. The ambiguous synonymity between means-ends and fact-value is clarified through a definition that in so far as decisions lead to the selection of final goals, they may be treated as `value judgements’- i.e., the value component predominates, and in so far as the decisions implement such goals, they may be treated as `factual judgements’ – i.e., the factual component predominates. The relationship of a decision to a set of ends remains a factual proposition. Simon does not refer to value decisions’ and ‘factual decisions’. For him, there are only value or factual premises and components. Thus Simon’s system of analysis makes it abundantly clear that in the administration both value and factual premises are intertwined in involvement.

Rationality In Decision Making According To Simon

What are the premises on which an administrator make his decisions? Simon’s concept of rationality revolves around answering this question.

The most often used definition of rationality in decision making is that “it is a means to an end”. If appropriate means are chosen to reach desired ends, the decision is said to be rational.

Simon defines rationality as the “selection of preferred behaviour alternatives in terms of some systems of values whereby the consequences of behaviour can be evaluated”.

However, they are many complications to this simple test of rationality. It is very difficult to separate means from ends, because an apparent end may be only a means for some future end.

This idea is commonly referred to as the “means-ends chain” or “means-ends hierarchy”. To quote Simon “the means-end hierarchy is seldom an integrated, completely connected chain. Often the connection between organisation activities and ultimate objectives is obscure, or these ultimate objectives are incompletely formulated, or there are internal conflicts and contradictions among the ultimate objectives, or among the means selected to attain them”.

Types Of Rationality According To Simon

One way to clarify the means-ends rationality is to attach appropriate qualifying adverbs to the various types of rationality. Simon identifies six different types of rationality. They are :

Objective Rationality

These decisions “maximise” given values in a given situation. Subjective Rationality: The decision is subjectively rational if it maximises attainment relative to knowledge of the given subject.

Conscious Rationality

In these types of decisions, the adjustment of means to ends is a conscious process.

Deliberately Rational

A decision is deliberately rational to the degree that the adjustment of means to ends is deliberately sought by the individual or the organisation.

Organisationally Rational

These decisions are aimed at organisational goals. A sa Personally Rational: The decisions which are directed to the individual goals are known as personally rational’ decisions.

Judicial Control Over Administration

The exercise of official authority may on occasion encroach upon the constitutional or statutory rights of the individuals, whether by reason of error, misunderstanding, or excessive zeal. Increased administrative powers have necessitated increased safeguards against their abuses. Protection of private rights becomes as much as essential part of government policy as the implementation of other governmental policies. While the administration is concerned with the latter, the judiciary is primarily concerned with the former. Both are essential and judicial control is an essential concomitant of a democratic society.

Judicial control over administration means the powers of the courts to examine the legality of the officials’ acts and thereby to safeguard the rights of the citizens. It also implies the right of an aggrieved citizen to bring a civil or criminal suit in a court of law against a public servant for the wrong done to him in the course of discharge of his public duty. The end sought by judicial control of administrative acts to ensure their legality and thus protect the citizen against unlawful trespass on their constitutional or other rights.

The Judiciary intervenes into administrative cases on the following grounds :

1. Lack of Jurisdiction (overfeasance): Every officer has to act within the limits of the authority given to him and also within a specified geographical area. If he acts beyond his authority or outside the geographical limits of his powers, his acts will be declared by the courts as ultra vires’ and hence ineffective. As, for example, in India it is expressly laid down in the Constitution that ‘No government employee shall be dismissed by an authority below the rank to the authority which appointed him’; otherwise the action of the dismissal shall be declared ultra vires due to lack of jurisdiction.
2. Error of Law (Misfeasance). A public servant may misinterpret the law and may impose upon the citizens duties and obligations which are not required by law. A citizen who has suffered on account of this has the right to approach the court for damages.
3. Error of Fact-Finding : Thirdly, there may be cases in which the official has erred in discovering facts. He may wrongly interpret facts or ignore them and thus may act on wrong presumptions. This may affect a citizen adversely and so there may be ground for bringing a case in a court of law.
4. Abuse of Authority (Malfeasance) : If a public official uses his authority vindictively to harm some person, the courts can intervene and punish him if he is found guilty of using the authority to take a personal revenge.
5. Error of Procedure: Above all, public officials have to act according to a certain procedure as laid down by laws and if they do not follow the prescribed procedure, the courts have a right to question the legality of their action and appeal from the party affected. For example, the law requires that an employee should be served with a notice of the charges before any action of suspending or dismissing him can be taken against him. Suppose the officer takes the action against him without serving a proper notice, then his action shall be declared null and void by the court.

Methods of Judicial Control : Control of administration by the courts may take one of the following forms: Judicial Review, Statutory Appeals, Suit against Government/ Government Officials, and Extra-ordinary Remedies in the form of Writs.

Judicial Review: By “Judicial Review we mean the power of the courts to review the administrative acts and decisions for their validity. On examination, if such decisions and acts are found to be ultra-vires, the courts refuse to enforce them. It has now become common place for courts to exercise this power in the countries following the Anglo-Saxon system of. Jurisprudence.

Statutory Appeals : Statutory appeal occurs where certain provisions of the statute themselves provide for appeal against administrative decisions and actions. By virtue of such provisions of the statutes the adversely affected or aggrieved citizens will have the right to appeal to a court or a higher administrative tribunal. Statutory appeals are now steadily gaining ground as legislative regulation of the administrative process increases.

Suits against the Government : Judicial intervention can be in the form of suing the government itself or the public official concerned against whom any citizen may want to be redressed of his grievance. The position regarding the suability of the government and public officials differs in different countries.

Extra-ordinary Remedies in the form of ‘Writs’ : The extra-ordinary Judicial Remedies consist of the ‘Writs’ of : Habeas Corpus, Mandamus, Certiorari, Prohibition and Quo-Warranto. In England these are known as prerogative orders or common law remedies. To these may be added a sixth one called “Injunction’.

Habeas Corpus : Habeas Corpus literally means “you may have the body”. It is a court order issued to a public official who has another person in custody. The writ requires the detainer to show the court that the detention is proper. The court will set the imprisoned person free if it sees no valid reason for his imprisonment. Thus, this writ is useful to secure immediate hearing on the propriety of the detention of person. This writ is a real protection of individual liberty against administrative oppression or arbitrary detention.

Mandamus : Mandamus literally means “We command”. By issuing this writ the court can compel any public officer to perform a duty which results from his official position. Thus this writ is useful to enforce a public duty which an officer falls to perform. It cannot be used to enforce discretionary acts. It is remedial in nature because it redresses the grievances and compels action.

Certiorari: It means “to be certified”. This writ is issued by a superior court to an inferior court for removing the records of some proceedings from the inferior court to the superior one, for the purpose of determining the legality of the proceedings. Such an order may also be issued by the superior court for giving fuller or more satisfactory effect to the proceedings of the court below. Thus it is useful to stop a wrongful judicial action by a public body.

Prohibition : It literally means “to forbid”. This writ is used to bring the decision of an inferior court up for review and to quash that decision if necessary. It is useful in preventing an inferior court from usurping jurisdiction with which it is not vested. The basic defect of this writ, like certiorari, is that it will lie in respect of only judicial acts. Both certiorari and prohibition do not lie in those cases where the public authority is acting in a purely administrative or ministerial capacity

Quo-Warranto : Quo-Warranto’ means ‘by what authority’. It is a writ issued by the courts to enquire into the right of an occupant of a public office to hold the office. The action will normally be brought by a person who claims the office. Judgement will go against the occupant if he fails to prove title to the office, Little use is made of this writ in administrative activity.

Injunction: ‘Injunction is one of the most important methods of judicial control over administrative officers. It is a writ that is preventive in nature. Normally, an injunction requires the person to whom it is issued to refrain form doing a particular thing or specified activity. It thus prevents a threatened injury. An injunction may also order some positive action, but this is rare, The order may have temporary effect or a permanent effect.

In India, according to Article 32 of the Constitution, the Supreme court can be moved to issue the various writs mentioned above for the enforcement of only ‘Fundamental Rights’ guaranteed by the Constitution. Thus the purpose for which the writs are issued by the Supreme court is restrictive in nature. However, the High Courts are empowered with issue of these writs not only for the purpose of enforcement of Fundamental Rights but also for any other purpose. Any individual or company may move the court in this direction.

Limitations of Judicial Control

The Judicial Remedies mentioned above provide an effective ntrol against official excesses or abuse of power, and in protecting the liberties and rights of citizens.  However, judicial controls are also subject to certain limitations, They are:

1. Exclusion of some acts : All administrative actions are not subject to judicial control. There are many kinds of administrative actions which according to constitution cannot be in to reviewed by the law courts. Then there is a tendency on the part of the Legislature also to exclude : by law certain administrative acts from the jurisdiction of the judiciary. example, in India, the Administration of Evacuee Property Act, 1950 vests final judicial powers in the Custodians and Custodian General of Evacuee Property and the law courts have no jurisdiction to interfere in the decision made under this act. The exclusion of certain acts as stated above undermines the control of the judiciary which is theoretically regarded as final interpreter of the legality of all administrative acts.
2. Lack of Suo Moto Powers: A serious restriction imposed on the judiciary is that it cannot act on its own. It can intervene only on the request of somebody who has been affected or is likely to be affected by an official action. This imposes a serious limitation on the extent of judicial control as most of the injustices suffered by administrative excesses are not reported.
3. Dilatory procedure : The judicial process is very slow and cumbersome. The courts follow certain set technical pattern of procedure beyond the comprehension of a layman, the procedure is so lengthy that it cannot be known as to when the final judgement shall be given. There have been instances when cases have been pending with the courts for years together. Most of the times the decision of the court comes when the damage that has been done, cannot be undone. An aggrieved person cannot wait indefinitely to avail himself of JUDO the judicial remedy. The dilatory judicial procedure will not in any way console the sufferer si to or reconcile his afflicted mind. Tired of the delay he will lose hoped become a victim of e bureaucracy.
4. Inadequate and Ineffective Remedies : Sometimes the remedies offered by the law courts are inadequate and ineffective. In many cases, especially relating to business activities mere to announcement of an administrative action or even a reminder concerning a proposed action may cause an injury to the individual against whom not even a suit can be filed in the law court.
5. Flexibility of the Executive in changing the rules : The government may deprive the person of the remedy granted to him by the court by changing the law and rules thereof In a leading case, the High Court ordered that the petitioners be promoted to the senior posts of professors and that direct selection for these posts contravenes the provisions of the in ‘States Reorganisation Act’ in as much it changes the conditions of service of the petitioners os to their disadvantages. The Government did promote the petitioners thereby giving effect to the judgement of the court. But after sometime these posts were withdrawn on the ground 2500 of financial stringency and the persons were reverted to their substantive posts.
6. You Expensive procedures :’ Judicial action is prohibitively expensive. Hence a common man cannot take advantage of judicial interventions. Moreover the procedures cause a great deal of inconvenience to the litigant and hence it is a general feeling that it is better to keep away form litigations.
7. Lack of expertise : The highly technical nature of most of the Administrative actions saps the force of judicial review. The judges are only legal experts and they may have little knowledge of the technicalities and complexities of administrative problems. Their legal. no bent of mind may hinder them in arriving at a right decisions a right decisions. They have to follow the prescribed procedures and observe some formalities.

Overcoming the Limitations of Judicial Review :

The Government has taken a few steps to offset the above mentioned lacunae in the process of judicial intervention into administrative action. The most important among them are : The method of Public Interest Litigation and the establishment of Quasi-Judicial Authorities. 

Public Interest Litigation : A useful judicial innovation in India which has developed in recent times is the Public Interest Litigation. This has been a progressive trend in judicial remedies against citizens’ complaints not only in our country, but also in various other countries like the U.S.A. and U.K. The Supreme Court in 1978, has propounded a liberal view of standing so as to provide judicial redress for public injury arising out of any breach of public duty or from violation of the Constitution. Complaints involving maladministration, like patients not getting proper medicines in government hospitals, inefficient administration of prisons, failure of administration in checking environmental pollution, irregularities in the administration of educational institutions etc. are being challenged under the category of public interest. The rules of the Supreme Court which were revised, to bring in this provision, facilitate any citizen or group of citizens to appeal to the court, on behalf of any group of people affected by any act of government. So even if the citizen himself has no personal complaint against the administration, he can still lodge a complaint against the administrative injustice which according to him is being done.

The Public Interest Litigation has acted as a catalyst in providing additional protection and securing social justice to citizens in India especially to the poor and illiterate.

Establishment of Quasi Judicial Authorities : In order to speed up the judicial procedures and also to improve its expertise the Government of India has set up Quasi Judicial Authorities. The most important of them are the institutions of : Administrative Tribunals and the Ombudsman.

Administrative Tribunals: Besides regular courts of law, in some countries, administrative courts and tribunals are functioning to deal with the complaints lodged against administrative action. In India, there are Administrative Tribunals established under various Acts to deal with specific kinds of citizens’ grievances. Some of these Tribunals include Industrial Tribunals, Income Tax Tribunals, Railway Rates Tribunals etc. These Tribunals which adjudicate upon disputes between the citizens and administrative agencies are said to be inexpensive, efficient than ordinary courts and being headed by experts are equipped with greater technical knowledge. The Tribunals perform Quasi-Judicial functions whereas a court exercises only judicial functions. They are administrative authorities performing judicial functions. For examples, matters like determination of election disputes, assessment of tax, adjudication of industrial disputes etc. are dealt by the different types of tribunals.

Ombudsman: An Ombudsman is “an independent, high level officer who receive complaints, who purposes inquiries into the matters involved, and who makes recommendations for suitable action”. He may also investigate on his own motion. He makes periodic public reports. his remedial weapons are persuasion, criticism and publicity.

We have discussed above how the Administration is made accountable through the means of Parliamentary, Executive and Judicial controls. In the final analysis we can conclude that the ultimate sanction for the accountability of administration of the people lies in the democratic mores and traditions of a country.

External Controls

As the name indicates the external controls act upon the administration from the outside they work within the general constitutional structure and may differ from country to country

The external control over administration may be considered from four main standpoints, namely:

• Legislative or Parliamentary control,
• Judicial Control,
• Quasi-Judicial Control 
• Control by the Community.

Legislative Control can be studied with reference

1. Control in a Presidential System
2. Control in a Parliamentary System

i) Legislative Control over Administration in a Presidential System:

Legislative Control in a Presidential System is relatively restricted when compared to the Parliamentary system. Executive in the parliamentary system, the Executive in the Presidential system need not necessarily have the majority support in the House of Congress. The Legislature in a Presidential system can neither put questions to the ministers nor can it pass a no-confidence or Censure Motion against the government.

Under a Presidential system, the Congress can exercise control over administration through the following methods:

• It defines the organization, powers and duties of the administrative authorities.
• It appoints legislative committees for investigation of administration. 
• It makes laws laying down policies, methods and procedures.
• It controls the national purse, sanctions expenditure through appropriation acts, fixes the purposes and amounts of expenditure, passes tax legislation and examines the accounts and audit.
• It has the power of impeachment of the President.

ii) Legislative Control Over Administration in a Parliamentary System:

Unlike the Legislative Control in the Presidential system Legislative control is of primary importance in a Parliamentary System because all state activities emanate form the Legislature.

The problem of ensuring administrative accountability to the legislature in a parliamentary system of government like that of India, is one, which is largely a matter of politics’ and not of law’. Of the many functions of the legislatures; one of the most important is the Control and overview of Administration’.

The notion of legislative control has been subject to two different interpretations, i.e.,

a) General Political Control

b) Detailed examination of Governmental activities

General Political Control:

General Political Control implies that the legislature has a right to express its agreement or disagreement with the way the government intends to orient or has oriented its activities. In the West Minister model of Parliamentary Government, such a control is secured through the continuous and collective responsibility of the Cabinet to the directly elected House of Parliament and its continuation in office so long as it commands the support of the majority in that House.

Detailed Examination of Governmental Activities:

The second interpretation involves the detailed examination of governmental activities, which may cover both

i). Preliminary Intervention (ii) Ex-Post Facto Scrutiny

Preliminary Intervention: It is a type of influence that is exercised before a policy is adopted. Discussions on the President’s address at the commencement of the new session of Parliament or the General Discussion of the Budget can be cited as examples for preliminary intervention.

Ex-Post Facto Scrutiny: In the ever expanding role of administration due to the phenomenal proliferation of state activities in a modern democratic welfare state, parliamentary control has increasingly taken the form of ex post facto supervision and control. It is in this sense of control that we must now examine the main instruments through which Parliament in India attempts to exercise control over the executive.

The control of the Parliament over the Executive can be studied under three categories.

• General Control over policies and actions of the executive
• Financial Control
• Control Exercised by other Committees on Legislative and Administrative matters.

General Control over Policies and actions of the Executive: The general control of legislature over the policies and actions of the Government is exercised mostly at the initiative of individual opportunities to raise important points to raise important political, policy or administrators either requiring an answer from the government or criticizing its activities generally.

The tools of general control can be classified into the following categories:

1. Parliamentary Questions/Question Hour /Zero Hour
2. Discussions
3. Calling Attention Notice
4. Motions
5. Resolutions
6. Mentions under Rule 377

1. Parliamentary Ouestions:

The tool of Parliamentary Questions can be classified into the following:

(a) Proceedings during the Question Hour (b) Proceedings during the Zero Hour.

Question Hour: The first hour of every Parliamentary is reserved for the asking and answering of questions for information. This is known as the Question Hour’. The Question hour has come to occupy a valuable part of the daily proceedings of the House. Members, Ministers, visitors to the Lok Sabha, and the Press representatives, all of whom are present in maximum numbers during the Question Hour, look forward to it with lively interest. Members make use of the Question Hour to ask questions on all subjects falling within the sphere of the Government of India. The Questions throw, as it were, a “searchlight on the whole administration.

Although a question is asked to seek information but behind it may be the suggestion that things have gone wrong or administration has been amiss or there has been delay or the administrative action has not been consistent with the approved policy.

Categories of Questions: Questions asked in both Houses of Parliament are normally o addressed to the Ministers (government members) and can be categorised as Starred Questions, Unstarred Questions and Short Notice Questions. A Question may sometimes be addressed to the private members also.

Starred Questions: These questions are to be answered orally on the floor of the House. Answers to such questions may be followed by supplementary questions by members. Starred qüestions derive their name form the fact that they are always distinguished by an asteriske

Unstarred Questions: An unstarred question is so named because it does not carry an asterisk mark. Answer to such a question unlike a starred question is not given orally, but in a . written form. Consequently, no supplementary question can be asked thereon

Short Notice Ouestions : A short notice question is one which relates to a matter of urgent public importance and can be asked with notice shorter than the ten days prescribed for an ordinary question.

On an average some 30 questions are orally asked and answered everyday. Many supplementary questions asked are always in the nature of the cross-examination and on often an ordeal for the Minister to answer them. It is not always that question to seeking information, which should be their primary object; they are often used to hold don’t to ridicule. Though on occasions, the questions are obviously trivial, a useful purpose is served by all questions, trivial or important, because they train attention different phases of administrative policy or activity and keep the administration into the standard.

Effect of Questions on Government Departments:

The effect of questions on departments is tremendous. To Quote Hugh Gaitskell, “If there is one major thing which leads Civil Servants to be excessively cautious, timid and careful and to keen records which outside the Civil Service would be regarded as unnecessary, it is the fear of the Parliamentary questions”

Earl Attlee, the former Prime Minister of Britain, said, “I always consider that questionnaire in the House as one of the finest examples of real democracy. The effect of questions were Minister and still more questions asked publicly in the House, is to keep the whol service on their toes”

No officer is more concerned with any other form of Parliamentary control than the question and nothing makes him more anxious than what his minister would do while replying to supplementaries. The instrument of questioning is flexible, quick and strong enough to discredit the Ministry and the minister, though sometimes it may go further and lead to the Tesignation of the Minister concerned. If the member who has put the questions is not satisfied with the reply, he can ask for a special half-an-hour to be allotted for discussing the matter.

Zero Hour:

Immediately after Question Hour and before the House adjourns for lunch, follows what in current jargon is called Zero Hour. During this hour opposition members attempt to raise a discussion on some subject which may be agitating the public at the time. As soon as the Question hour is over several members are on their feet, to raise matters who may na cannot brook any delay, even, if there are no rules permitting them.

Zero Hour is an irregular affair. Since the matters are raised without any permission or prior notice, it results in loss of precious time of the House and encroaches on the legislative, financial and other regular business of the House. The underlying consideration behind the use of Zero Hour seems to be the belief that rules are irrelevant and issues of national importance or serious grievances of the people should be raised immediately.

Zero Hour is India’s innovation in the field of parliamentary practices and has emerged, since 1962, as a powerful tool of control over the executive.

2. Discussions:

Discussions can be classified into two major categories, i.e. Half-an-Hour discussions and Short duration discussions.

Half-an-Hour Discussions:

If a member feels that the answer to a question that he had fielded was not satisfactory he can demand for a Half-an-Hour discussion at the end of the day. Generally speaking, such half-an-hour discussions are held frequently and they serve a useful purpose both from the standpoint to full scrutiny by Parliament and form the viewpoint of administration which has a opportunity to explain it’s case in more detail. Three days in a week are normally allotted for half-an-hour discussions. As the name suggests the discussions are limited to half-an-hour. When the discussion is taken up, the Member makes a short speech and the Minister replies to it.

Short Duration Discussions:

Yet another device available to a member to bring to the notice of the House matters of urgent public importance is to raise a discussion for a short duration. For raising such discussion, a member has to give a notice to the Secretary-General specifying the matter precisely and explaining clearly the reasons thereof, Such a notice should also be signed by at least two members of Parliament. This device has been in existence since 1953. The Speaker/Chairman decides the admissibility of notices received. If he is satisfied that the matter is urgent and of sufficient importance to be raised in the House at an early date and an early opportunity is otherwise not available for discussing the matter, he may admit the primarily the concern of the Union Government and is not based on unsubstantiated allegations: is not hypothetical; and involves an element of urgency. Only one matter can be raised in a notice.

3. Calling Attention Notice:

It is a notice introduced in the Parliament by a member to call the attention of a minister to a matter of urgent public importance, and to seek an authoritative 19 a statement from him on that matter. Like the Zero Hour, it is also an Indian innovation. In on the parliamentary procedure and has been in existence since 1954. However, unlike the Zero Hour, it is mentioned in the rules of procedure.

4. Motions:

Parliamentary Motions that are applicable in the above context are: Adjournment motions, No confidence motion and Censure motion. 

Adjournment motions:

Whenever a member of Parliament is inclined to member of Parliament is inclined to press a matter to a 01 conclusion and wants to censure the government, he has a potent weapon” e government, he has a potent weapon in his hands in the 9 device of `Adjournment Motion’. It is a motion for an adjournment of business of the House for be the purpose of discussing a definite matter of urgent public importance with the con Speaker’. The rules relating to adjournment motions are strict. The matter must be definite, of sufficient public importance of recent occurrence, must attract the central response involve failure of government and the facts must be agreed to by government and above must have the support of fifty members of the House. The discussion usually lasts 10. more than 2 1/2 hours and in any case is to be concluded that day. It is because o restrictions that it is rarely that a motion passes all the tests.

All these factors have combined to give this method of exercising control over the Executive a. great deal of importance and prestige.

No Confidence Motion:

The Council of Ministers remains in office as long as it enjoys the confidence of Lok Sabha. The moment it expresses a lack of confidence in the council of Ministers, the government is constitutionally bound to resign, whether or not the Prime Minister recommends a dissolution of the House. In order to ascertain this confidence, the rules provide for moving a motion to this effect which is called a “No confidence Motion’. There is no express provision in the constitution regarding the individual responsibility of the Minister to parliament for anything done or not done in his department. This responsibility is collective. Therefore, only a motion expressing want of confidence in the council of Ministers as a whole is admitted and the one expressing lack of confidence in an individual Minister is not admitted. A No-Confidence Motion need not set out grounds on which it is based, however it requires the support of at least 50 members to be admitted. A notice of motion of no-confidence has to be given before the commencement of the sitting on the day it is proposed to be raised. No conditions of admissibility have been laid down in the Rules . The Speaker has the power to decide whether a motion can be admitted or not.

It is to be noted that the Rajya Sabha is not empowered to entertain a motion of no-confidence. because the government is collectively responsible under the Constitution only to the directly elected House of the People (Lok Sabha).

Censure Motion:

A No-Confidence Motion cannot be moved against any single minister. In order to off-set this lacunae another parliamentary device known as the “Censure’ motion is used.

A Censure motion can be moved both against the Council of Ministers or an Individual Minister for failure to act or for their policy, and may express regret, indignation or surprise of the House at the failure of the Minister or Ministers. However, the Censure Motion to be admissible must set out the grounds or charges on which it is based and is moved, for the specific nummer censuring the government for certain policies and actions.

5. Resolutions:

A resolution is also one of the procedural means available to the members and the Ministers to raise a discussion in the house on a matter of general public interest

A resolution is a self contained independent motion. Unlike motions in generala resolutions have been provided by the Rules of the Procedure concerning both Accordingly, a resolution to be moved in the Lok Sabha may be in the form of a declaration of opinion or a recommendation; or may be in the form so as to record either approval or  disapproval by the House of an act or policy of government or convey a message; or commend i request or urge an action, or call attention to a matter or situation for consideration by government, or in such other forms as the Speaker may consider appropriate. Similarly, in Rajya Sabha a resolution may be in the form of declaration of opinion by the House or in any such other form as the Chairman considers appropriate.

Types of Resolutions : Resolutions may be classified as:

1. Private Member’s Resolutions
2. Government Resolutions and
3. Statutory Resolutions.

Private Member’s Resolutions: Resolutions which are moved by private members are called Private Member’s Resolutions. They, in fact, enable the government to gauge the feelings of the House with regard to proposals which are still indefinite or may be ahead of public opinion.

Government Resolutions: Resolutions moved by the Ministers are known as Government Resolutions. Ministers also are required to give prior notice to the Secretary General of their intention to move a resolution. Though no period has been prescribed for this, in actual practice, Ministers give such notice several days in advances. These notices are also subject to the same rules admissibility as a private member’s resolutions.

Statutory Resolutions: These resolutions may be moved either by a Minister or by a Private Member. They are so called because they are always tabled in pursuance of provisions in the Constitution or an Act of Parliament.

6. Mentions Under Rule 377 :

This is a device that enables members to raise issues which were not the subject matter of a recent Question, Adjournment Motions, Calling Attention Notices, etc. Matters which are not points of order or which cannot be raised under the rules relating to Questions, Short Notice Questions, Calling Attention Notices, etc. are raised under Rule 377.

Parliamentary Control Over Finances : Control over public revenues and public expenditure is the most important element of legislative control over public administration. “It is one of the primary functions of the budgetary process to satisfy the requirements of accountability to parliament which, in our democratic set-up, is the ultimate authority to sanction the raising and spending of public funds. Parliament’s control of the purse is fully established and taxes cannot be imposed and money cannot be spent without its approval : The financial control exercised by the Parliament is of two kinds : Control before Appropriation and Control after Appropriation.

Control Before Appropriation: The budget, that is the ‘Annual Financial Statement of estimated revenues and expenditure, is an important tool of legislative control over administration. In discussing the budget – which is the authority for all government spending and voting the budget grants, the legislature in fact exercises a basic form of expenditure control. The principal steps in the budgetary process are four in number, namely : General Discussion on the Budget, Discussion on Demands for Grants, Passing the Appropriation Bill, and Passing the Finance Bill. All the above steps involve various procedures through which the Parliament can exercise its control by expressing its displeasure. (A detailed account of the same has been given in the chapter on Financial Administration.)

Post Budgetary Control/Control After Appropriation : The control continues in another form after the budget is passed. The objective is to ensure that the funds appropriated by parliament have been utilised for the purposes specified and in the manner intended. In this phase of parliamentary control, the instruments used are the Financial Committees of Parliament,

Financial Committees of Parliament: It is the responsibility of Parliament to examine and approve the proposals for taxation and estimates of expenditure made by the government. Although nearly two months of the Budget Session’ are devoted for this purpose, discussions are neither very extensive nor intensive. In its anxiety to cover the whole field, the observations and criticism by Parliament have tended to be general, repetitive and formal. As the time available is short, often demands relating to a number of Ministers/Departments are not discussed, in detail In order to offset this drawback parliament has provided for three financial committees, that endeavour to undertake the task of detailed scrutiny bf governmental spending and performance there securing the accountability of the administration to Parliament in financial matters.

The three Financial Committees of Parliament are The Public Accounts Committee, The Estimates Committee and the Committee on Public Undertakings.

The Public Accounts Committee:

The Public Accounts Committee, popularly known as PAC, is the oldest Financial Committee. On the basis of the recommendations of Act of 1919, the Public Accounts Committee was constituted in 1921. It consists of 22 members (15 from Lok Sabha and 7 from Rajya Sabha), (originally it consisted of only 15 members from the Lok Sabha however in 1954 it was increased to 22 by adding 7 members from the Rajya Sabha). Members are elected by the Parliament every year from among its members according to the principle of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote to enable all parties to secure due representation on it.

The term of office of the members is only one year but by convention members are re-elected for another year. As a matter of practice since 1967, a member of the opposition is being appointed as the Chairman of the Committee.

Functions of the Public Accounts Committee : Rule 308 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha lays down the functions and duties of the Committee as follows:

 

To examine the accounts showing the appropriation of sums granted by the Parliament for the expenditure of the government of India, the Annual Finance account of the Central Government and such other accounts laid before the house as the Committee may think fit. It does so by examining the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General submitted to parliament. While doing so the committee has to ensure,

a] That the moneys shown in the accounts as having been disbursed were legally available for and applicable to the service or purpose to which they have been applied or charged.

b] That the expenditure conforms to the authority which governs it.That every reappropriation has been made in accordance with the provisions made under rules framed by the competent authority.

To examine the statement of accounts showing the income and expenditure of state corporations, trading and manufacturing schemes, concerns and projects together with the balance sheets and statements of profit and loss accounts which the president may have required to be prepared or are prepared under the provisions of the statutory rules regulating the financing of a particular corporation, trading or manufacturing scheme or concern or project and the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on it. This power, however, does not extend to such public undertakings as are allotted to the Committee on Public Undertakings by the Speaker.

To examine the statement of accounts showing the income and expenditure of autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies the audit of which may be conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor-General either under the direction of the President or by a statute of Parliament.

To consider the report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General in cases where the President may have required him to conduct an audit of any receipts or to examine the accounts of stores and stocks.

 

Accountability And Control

In recent years, there has been a great increase of governmental activities all over the world. One inevitable consequence of this phenomenon is the strengthening of public bureaucracy in terms of number and powers. In fact, in all democracies bureaucracy has become the most powerful organ of government exercising vast discretionary powers. If such a powerful bureaucracy is left uncontrolled, it will become irresponsible and despotic endangering the rights and interests of the citizens. Realising the danger of an uncontrolled bureaucracy, every democratic system of government provides for a number of controls over administration. In the words of L.D. White, “Power in a democratic society requires control and the greater the power the more the need for control. How to vest power sufficient to the purposes in view and maintain adequate controls without crippling authority is one of the historic dilemmas of popular government”.

In order to prevent misuse or abuse of authority by bureaucracy, it must be made responsible or subject to controls. The purpose of control is to make sure that bureaucracy exercises its powers in accordance with laws and established rules and procedures and that the actual operation confirms to established standards.

Broadly speaking there are two main types of controls, namely:

1. Internal controls
2. External controls.

I) Internal Controls Over Administration

In a Parliamentary form of government, it is the Council of Ministers who are collectively responsible to the legislature for all the departmental activities. Each minister is also individually responsible for the acts of omission and commission of his department and may have to resign if a censure motion is passed against him at any time. In his administrative work, the Minister is assisted by the Secretary of the department and other high officials. These officials are concerned with the operational aspects of routine administration and perform a wide range of activities. The main need for Executive control over Public Administration lies in the fact that under the cloak of ministerial responsibilities the powers of the civil servants are growing everywhere, and hence the ministers may find it necessary to keep a check on their powers since the ultimate responsibility to the legislature is theirs.

Executive Control

Executive control means the control exercised by the Chief executive over Administration. The Chief Executive formulates policies whose implementation depends entirely on the civil servants. The civil servants are often conservative, Very often the government finds it difficult to implement programs which in some way or the other disturb the vested interests of the civil servants. Hence it is necessary that the Executive should have proper methods of control over the administration.

Methods Of Executive Control

The Executive exercises control over administration through the following methods and agencies:

1. Policy making by the Political Executive
2. Departmental control by the Minister
3. The Administrative process
4. Budgetary control
5. Personnel Management and Control
6. Control by Staff Agencies
7. Professional ethics and self regulation

Policy Making By The Political Executive

In the first place, control is exercised by the Chiefutive through policy-making. In India. important policy decisions are taken by the Cabinet. Within the policies laid down the line departments carry on their day to day work, They can do no more than what has been directed by the policy-decision of the Chief-executive.

For the execution of the policy the departments are under the control of, and responsible to the to policy-maker, the Chief-executive, since he is held responsible for the proper implementation of policy, he controls administration.

Departmental control by Ministers:

As a natural adjunct of his power of policy making, the minister has the power of direction, control and the supervision of the department. He has full authority to manage and direct his Department. His writ runs throughout the sections and branches of the Department. He lays down the policy and looks to its implementation. He – e issues directives to the departmental officials. No important decision can be taken without bringing the matter to his notice. He may concentrate the entire authority in his hands and reduce the power of the Secretary. He may call for any and every file and issue a directive that no action on particular kind of matters will be taken except by him. He may go round the Department in order to supervise its working. He may issue orders to eradicate red-tapism and increase efficiency. He may transfer the officials from one branch to another and make changes in the allocation of work. In short, the officials work under his general direction, control and supervision. In other words, the departmental officials are directly and wholly responsible to him.

Budgetary Control:

It is the responsibility of the Chief-Executive to prepare the annual budget and submit it to the legislature for its approval. After it is approved by the legislature, he executes and implements it. Through the budget he allocates funds among the various departments. The activities of each department ‘must be tailored to and carried on in accordance with the budgetary provisions. Provision for men and material needs is made only in the budget. Further, any administrative department can spend money and do any job only after taking the permission of the executive. The Central Finance Agency, i.e. the Ministry of Finance, plays a major role in controlling government finances.

Administrative Process:

The Administrative process has an in-built system of control in the 7 form of a hierarchical order. The minister is in charge of the ministry which may consist of one or more departments but it is the Secretary who is the head of the department. The Department is divided into wings, each wing being under the charge of a Joint or Additional Secretary; a wing is sub-divided in to Divisions which are headed by Deputy Secretaries; each division is then split into Branches under the charge of Under Secretaries; and then comes the lowest rung of the ladder, namely, he section presided over by the Section Officer. It is an accepted principle of Secretariat procedure that each paper must pass through the proper authorised channel both in its outward and inward journey. In other words, there is a regular established line of communication through which transaction of business takes place.

In the hierarchical order the employees are organised on a superior-subordinate relationship with clear-cut responsibilities and provisions of accountability. In the administrative hierarchy subordinate public servants are accountable to their superiors for their doings, thus, hierarchy itself is a powerful instrument for monitoring subordinates’ behaviour and for enforcing accountability.

Personnel Management and Control:

Another means of executive control is a centralisation of establishment or personnel functions. Personnel management control is exercised at two stages, namely:

• Recruitment Stage
• Management Stage

Recruitment Stage:

Generally, recruitment to the civil service is placed in the hands of Public Service Commission – an independent body. The general rules of recruitment laid down by the Government: The qualifications, experience age, etc. required for different posts are determined: by the executive. It has also the power to exclude certain posts from the purview of the Public Service Commission. To the higher posts of the civil service, the executive has a free hand. The ministers select their own secretaries and heads of departments. Thus through their 2. appointees, they exercise full control over the administration of the department.

Management Stage:

All the recruits to the Civil Services are subject to centralised control through rules and regulations formulated by the specialised agency. In India, this control is exercised by the Department of Personnel.

Through uniform rules and regulations prescribed by the Central personnel Agency, the executive controls the administration.

Moreover, the political executive has the power to initiate disciplinary action on the officers’ manning permanent executive positions for correcting their misbehaviour if any, in relation to the performance of his/her job.

Disciplinary Action may be informal or formal. Informal disciplinary action may mean assignment to a less desirable work, closer supervision, loss or withholding of privileges, failure b of consultations in relevant matters, rejection of proposals or recommendations. It may include curtailing of his/her authority and diminishing his/her responsibility. The reason for taking informal disciplinary action may be that the offences are too subtle, or too difficult to prove, to warrant direct or formal action.

Formal disciplinary action follows where the offence is serious and legally established. In such cases the penalties which are imposed on a member of the Civil Service can be : Censure, Withholding of promotions, Recovery form pay of the whole or part of any pecuniary loss caused to Government or to a company, association or body of individuals, Withholding increments of pay, Reduction to a lower stage, Scale of pay, grade and post, Compulsory retirement, Removal from service, Dismissal from service depending on the intensity of the offence. In serious cases of offence, even judicial proceedings against the offender may also be launched.

Professional Ethics:

Professional ethics constitutes another means of internal control. Every profession, such as the medical, legal etc., develops a code of conduct for its members. Government service also has become a professional career. Many countries have developed their own code of ethics to be followed by civil servants.

A code of ethics serves the purpose of clearly stating to the public officials and to the public what is acceptable behaviour. A code too may carry with it sanctions. In India, for example, we have conduct rules for Civil Servants. These rules lay down what constitutes misconduct for the public servant. According to these rules, corruption, nepotism, disclosure of official information etc., constitute misconduct on the part of government servants. Such misconduct is punishable. Some persons also put great faith in the official’s own sense of responsibility to the public. The official must always ask his own conscience whether he is doing the right and for the public good. Such introspection constitutes a means of control in itself. It acts as an inner check imposed by officials on their own conduct.

Control by Staff Agencies:

There are certain staff agencies whose functions though advisory in nature operate to exercise influence and indirect control over various ministries, departments, and other administrative agencies. The Department of Administrative Reforms and the Planning Commission can be cited as examples in the above context.

The Department of Administrative Reforms functions as the apex agency for improving administrative capability on a continuing basis. As regards the Planning Commission, it is an advisory body and has neither constitutional not even statutory authority. While Commission itself, often takes the initiative in suggesting new policies or programmes, one main function is to coordinate policies and programmes originating from other agencies of government. Free form day-to-day administrative and executive work, the commission is in a position to devote itself primarily to the formulation of the plan and evaluation of the progress achieved in its execution at each stage. At the same time its composition and status in the government are such that it is in a position to maintain an effective liaison with the central ministers and State Government.

Aforesaid, we have discussed some of the instruments and methods of exercising control over Public Officials within the Executive and Administrative hierarchy. They can be summarised as follows:

• Power of appointment and removal
• Rule making power
• Civil Service Code
• Staff Agencies
• Budget
• Appeal to Public Opinion

Executive control is considered to be more effective, firstly, because it is positive in nature and content, in as much as it consists of directing, regulating, supervising, advising, inspecting, evaluating, prodding, and if necessary, punishing the derelict. Secondly, executive control is more effective because it is continuous and invisible.’

In the final analysis we can conclude that of all possible methods of holding administrators accountable, probably none is more effective in the long run than self-control on the part of administrators themselves, because they are more likely to act correctly if they want to, than it they are forced to. Although such restraint cannot always prevent serious breaches of the law, it contributes more than any other factor towards a desire among government employees to be courteous and responsive in their relations with the public.

Decision Making In Administrative Behaviour

The decision-making process represent the dynamic aspect of administration. Read on to know about all the concepts like the introduction of decision making, types of decision making, principles of decision making, etc. These can be seen in situations when the administration is in action. At any level the secretariat or the field, the administration has to deal with numerous issues and problems. Through a learning process, practices and procedures are evolved to manage the recurrent problems using decision-making skills. New problems arise which call for innovations. Within the organisation, many kinds of relationships have to be smoothly conducted to orchestrate the activities of the organisation. Similarly, external relations with clients and other organisations have to be managed. Internal activities need to be planned and controlled. The flow of information within the organisation has to be regulated to facilitate relationships and task accomplishment. So, an administrative organisation in action exhibits several salient processes. More important among these are:

1. Decision-making
2. Communication
3. Control
4. Motivation
5. Leadership.

Decision Making

Decision-making lies deeply embedded in the process of administration. It is the foremost function of the administrator. Consciously or unconsciously every administrator is engaged in decision making or deciding what is to be done, how it is to be done, who is to do it and when it is to be done.

Decision-making is a process of selection from a set of alternative courses of action which is thought to fulfil the objective of the decision problem more satisfactorily than others. It is a course of action that is consciously chosen for achieving the desired result a. It is the choice wherein a manager selects a particular course of action from the available alternatives in a given situation. Administrative decision-making involves establishing goals, defining tasks, searching for alternatives and developing plans to find the best answer to the decision problem.

Definition For Decision Making

Decision-making may be viewed as the process by which individuals select a course of action from among alternatives to produce the desired result. It is a process made up of four continuous interrelated phases; explorative (searching), speculative (analysis), evaluative (weighing) and selective (commitment).

1. Explorative:

The decision-maker must find occasions for making a decision. He must: make a realistic appraisal of where the firm is, and what are the current problems. Asking What should be done? and What are the challenges? represents searching.

2. Speculative:

The decision-maker should analyse various factors affecting a decision 23 problem’ so that an appropriate response can be obtained. How to take advantage of the challenging opportunities in the environment ?” and “How to utilize the resources to get the maximum possible benefit for the organization?” indicates analysing.

3. Evaluative :

The decision-maker is expected to make a cost-benefit analysis of various alternatives. Asking “What are the costs ?’ and “What are the potential benefits?” indicates evaluating.

4. Selective:

This is a question of choosing among alternatives that would maximize the decision maker’s total expected relative value.

In other words, decision-making is the process by which the decision-maker tries to jump over the obstacles placed between his current position and the desired future position.

Principles Of Decision Making

A manager’s effectiveness is related directly to the quality of his decision. Decision-making is the work a manager does to arrive at conclusions and judgements. In all circumstances, management decisions should follow a few basic principles which are likely to ensure its soundness.

1. Principle of Definition :

A logical decision can be made only if the real problem is defined with minute attention. But too often time and effort are wasted since we mostly try to think through what the problem is – or the objective. We fail to identify the real problem because of our inability to determine the basic factors that must be changed to arrive at a satisfactory solution.

2. Principle of Evidence :

Decisions should not be taken hastily. It must be based on evidence, meaning that adequate facts must be there to back the judgement. When the facts underlying a problem are collected and care is taken to analyse the situation the basic work in decision-making is done.

3. Principle of Identity :

From a different perspective, the same object usually appears to be different to different people. Not only that, the relative importance of the same fact differs from year to year.

It is, therefore, urged that the decision-maker should try to use different viewpoints and determine the relative significance of the period during which the event happened. In the event of decisions involving two or more persons, it is required that the view of each such person should be taken into consideration, weighed carefully and checked with other sources before a decision is taken. 

However, in a precise manner, we may add that the above basic principles provide a sound basis for management decisions.

Types Of Decisions

The quality of decision-making skills is one of the critical factors in managerial success. Managers are evaluated by the decisions they make, and, more often, by the results obtained from their decisions. So it would be useful to distinguish between decisions made by managers at different levels in the organization.

Basic and Routine Decisions

Basic decisions are decisions concerning unique problems or situations. They are one-time decisions demanding large investments. For example, decisions about launching a new production plant, or buying a more advanced computer system are non-routine decisions. They require creativeness, intuition and good Tout to judgement on the part of managers. They are strategic decisions that affect the future of an organization, “Anyone, who is a manager has to make such strategic decisions, and the higher his level in the management hierarchy, the more of them he must make”. In other words, as a manager progresses to higher levels, the number of basic decisions to be taken increases.

On the other hand, routine decisions are repetitive.  They require little deliberation and are generally concerned with short term commitments. They `tend to have only minor effects on the welfare of the organization. Generally, lower-level managers look after such mechanical or operating decisions. For example, a supervisor can decide whether an employee’s absence is excused or cannot be excused based on personnel policy guidelines. Usually, standard procedures are established to dispose of such repetitive problems quickly. 

Personal and Organizational Decisions

According to Chester Barnard decisions can be divided based on the environment in which they are made. Decisions to watch a television programme, to study, or retire early are examples of personal decisions. Such decisions pertain to managers as individuals. Such decisions indirectly affect the organization. For example, a personal decision to purchase a car, rather than a Jeep indirectly helps one firm due to the sale and hurts another because of the lost sale. The sudden decision of a popular singer to seek premature retirement may affect the film industry badly. In other words, personal decisions can have an impact beyond the immediate system on whose behalf they were made”. Organizational decisions are made by managers in their official or formal capacity as controllers and allocators of organizational resources. Unlike personal decisions, organisational decisions can be delegated. These decisions are aimed at furthering the interests of the organization.

Managers operate in an open environment. Results of their decisions are open for public view (subordinates, stockholders, customers, general public etc.) and such results are generally measured in terms of the firm’s earnings, the welfare of the employees and the economic health of the community. In other words, managerial decisions have an impact on a greater number of people. So, to survive and progress managers are forced to make professional decisions, to make decisions that are based on rationality, judgement and experience. As pointed out by Levitt, the manager is judged not for what he knows about the work that is done in his field, but by how well he does the work’. To protect the long-term interests of the organization, sometimes, a manager may be forced to adopt certain decisions which may be against his personal choices. For example, a manager who abhors unethical practices may tolerate deceptive product messages in company advertisements to ward off competitive pressures. To survive, the manager must be a professional decision-maker. He is expected to resolve the conflicts that take place between organizational and personal decisions in a smooth way.

3. Programmed and Non-programmed Decisions

Herbert Simon has provided a popular classification scheme for managerial decisions i.e. Programmed and Non-programmed. A programmed decision is routine and repetitive. Rules and policies are established well in advance to solve recurring problems quickly. Thus, a hospital establishes a procedure for admitting new patients, a supervisor administers disciplinary actions against workers reporting late for work, a store clerk knows when to requisition additional supplies as soon as the existing stock drops below a specified level. Based on a pre-established set of alternatives, programmed decisions can be made routinely. Since programmed decisions are relatively easy and simple for managers to make, they do not tax the intellectual capacities of the decision-maker. However, routine procedures leave little room for the manager to choose, Judgement cannot be used and freedom is affected. 19 Programmed decisions are usually made by lower-level personnel in organizations “in which the market and technology are relatively stable, and many routine, highly structured problems must be solved.”

For example, in banks and insurance companies, the market and technology are relatively stable and usually routine problems confront operating personnel. Decisions are highly routinized and the decision-maker simply recognizes the problem and implements the predetermined solution.

Non-programmed decisions deal with unique/unusual problems. In such cases, the decision-maker has to decide a poorly structured situations-one are no pre-existing, cut-and-dried solutions. Deciding whether to take over how to restructure an organisation to improve efficiency, where to locate a new company Warehouse, whom to promote to the vacant position of Regional Manager at one of the company’s plants are examples of non-programmed decisions. The common leisure these decisions are that they are novel and non-recurring and there are no ready-made courses of action to resort to. Because non-programmed decisions often involve broad, long-range consequences for the organization, they are made by higher-level personnel only. Managers need to be creative when solving infrequent problems, and such situations have to be treated de novo each time they occur. Non-programmed decisions are quite common in such organizations as research and development firms where situations and poorly structured and decisions being made are non-routine and complex.

The differences between Programmed and Non programmed decisions

It is interesting to note that in real-life situations the practising administrator tends to spend a relatively greater amount of time on programmed decisions than on NonProgrammed decisions. A person with responsibility for both routine activities and long term planning is likely to find the routine taking a much greater share of his time. Simon and March call this phenomenon the “Gresham’s Law of Planning”.

4. Policy and Operative Decisions

Policy decisions are taken by the top management in the organisation which determines the basic policies. The policy decisions are very important and have a long term impact. Operative decisions are related to the day-to-day operation of the business and have a short term impact.

5. Individual and Group Decisions

Individual decisions are taken by a single individual These are taken in the context of routine or programmed decisions where the analysis of various variables is simple and for which broad policies are already provided with a mi decisions are taken by a group constituted for this specific purpose or by a standing committee. Group decisions have certain positive values such as greater participation of individuals and quality in decisions, and certain negative values such as delay in the decision-making process and difficulty in fixing the responsibility of decisions

After going through the above types of classification of managerial decisions we that there is no single and satisfactory way of classifying decision situations. Moreover, the foregoing classifications have ignored two important problem-related dimensions :

1) How complex is the problem in terms of some factors associated with it? and

2) How much certainty can be placed with the outcome of a decision?

Based on these two dimensions, four kinds of decision modes can be identified: Mechanistic, Analytical, Judgmental, and Adaptive.

1. Mechanistic Decisions

A mechanistic decision is routine and repetitive. It usually occurs in a situation involving a limited number of decision variables where the outcomes of each alternative are known. For example, the manager of a bicycle shop may know from experience when and how many bicycles are to be ordered; or the decision may have been reached already, so the delivery is made routinely. Most mechanistic decision problems are solved by habitual responses, standard operating procedures, or clerical routines. To further simplify these mechanistic decisions, managers often develop charts, lists, matrices, decision trees, etc.

2. Analytical Decisions

An analytical decision involves a problem with a large number of decision variables, where the outcomes of each decision alternative can be computed. Many complex productions and engineering problems are like those. They may be complex, but solutions can be found. Management science and operations research provides a variety of computational techniques that can be used to find optimal solutions. These techniques include linear programming, network analysis, inventory reorder model, queuing theory, statistical analysis, and so forth.

3. Judgmental Decisions

A judgmental decision involves a problem with a limited number of decision variables, but the outcomes of decision alternatives are unknown. Many marketing, investment and resource allocation problems come under this category. For example, the marketing manager may have several alternative ways of promoting a product, but he or she may not be sure of their outcomes. Good judgement is needed to increase the possibility of desired outcomes and minimise the possibility of undesired outcomes.

4. Adaptive Decisions

An adaptive decision involves a problem with a large number of decision variables, where outcomes are not predictable. Because of the complexity and uncertainty of such problems, decision-makers are not able to agree on their nature or decision strategies. Such ill-structured problems usually require the contributions of many people with diverse technical backgrounds. In such a case, · decision and implementation strategies have to be frequently modified to accommodate new developments in technology and the environment.

Factors Affecting Decision Making

The function of the organization is to inculcate in its members’ certain viewpoints and loyalties. Incumbents of the different positions are expected to conduct themselves in ways appropriate to their positions. However, role ambiguities inevitably exist. In addition, role conflicts occur when the enabling legislatures authorise or even mandate administrators to attain incompatible objectives, such as promoting industrial development and the environment another type of role conflict exists when there are differing expectations within the organisation of the decisions a person should make. The influence of role perceptions is very noticeable when someone changes positions. A new position provides different perspectives. Officials do not change all their beliefs when they move into different positions. They may have internal role conflicts when expected to behave differently towards their former positions.

Outside Pressures

Some decisions are forced on administrators because of pressures from outside the organization. Since politics is largely horse-trading, and politics and administration are not separable; the chances of arriving at totally rational decisions, is all the more limited in the governmental environment.

Sunk Costs

If substantial sums have already been invested in a programme, administrators often stubbornly persist with it despite what appears to the critics to be overwhelming evidence that the original decision was wrong and should be changed.

Personality Characteristics

The kinds of decisions officials; make are determined largely by their characteristics. For example, a conservative official may take decisions that involve the minimum risk, whereas, a dynamic live-wire official might prefer to take risky decisions.

Influence of Outside Reference Groups

Another powerful force in the social environment of the decision-makers. They tend to associate with groups at their level of power and status, or above it rather than those of lower status.

Past Conditioning

Previous training and experience may influence how people make decisions. There seems to be no unanimity regarding the factors which help in decision-making. Perhaps there are no such fixed bases. A decision often depends on the criterion or basis believed to be important in a particular situation. The means of arriving at a decision may be rational, deliberate, emotional, impulsive or habitual. Intuition, facts, experience and authority are among the most common bases used in arriving at a decision. Seckler-Hudson enumerates twelve factors that must be considered in decision-making – legal limitations, budget, mores, facts, history, internal morale, future as anticipated, superior, pressure groups, staff, nature of programme and subordinates.

Steps In Decision Making

Terry lays down the following sequence of steps, which, when followed, will assist greatly in the making of a decision :

1. Determine what the problem is
2. Acquire general background information and different viewpoints about the problem.
3. State what appears to be the best course of action;
4. Investigate the proposition and tentative decisions.
5. Evaluate the tentative decisions.
6. Make the decision and put it into effect; and
7. Institute follow-up and, if necessary, modify decision in the light of results obtained.

Phases In Decision Making Process

Three relatively distinct stages in the decision-making process are :

1. The past, when the problems developed, information accumulated and the need for a decision was perceived.

2. The present in which alternatives are found and the choice is made.

3. The future in which decisions will be carried out and evaluated.

The three phases here are:

1. The Identification Phase

During this phase, the problem is recognised and a diagnosis is made.

2. The Development Phase

Here, a search for an existing standard procedure, ready-made solution or the design of a new tailor-made solution is made.

3. The Selection Phase

During this phase, the choice is made Decision-making is a highly complex dynamic process. There are many feedback loops in each of the phases. These loops can be caused by problems of timing, politics, disagreement among decision-makers, inability to identify an appropriate alternative or to implement the solution or the sudden appearance of a new alternative.

Techniques Used In Decision Making

Generating a reasonable number of good alternatives may require creativity, thought and study. Some of the means for generating alternatives are :

1. Decision Tree
2. Brainstorming
3. Synectics
4. Nominal Grouping

Decision Tree

The problems faced by a decision-maker are usually complex. Hence, decisions regarding any problem cannot be made completely at one point in time. Decisions have to be made in stages. The decision tree serves as a useful tool in the hands of the decision-maker to solve decisions at various stages. The decision tree is a technique whereby the future sequence of events are mapped out and the various possible outcomes are outlined. Whenever the decision-maker is encountered with a new problem he can use the decision tree to arrive at the right decision quickly.

Brainstorming

It involves the use of a group to develop as many potential solutions as possible. It is based on the premise that when people interact in a free and uninhibited atmosphere they will generate creative ideas. This technique was developed by Alex F.Osborn,

Synectics

Synectics developed by William J.J.Gordon is a more recent and formalized creativity technique for the generation of alternative solutions. The members of the group react by stating the problem. The problem is thoroughly reviewed and analyzed before proceeding to offer potential solutions. The leader of the group guides the discussions. In brainstorming the judgement of ideas is withheld until all ideas are generated. In synectics, judicial evaluations of member’s suggestions do take place from time to time. This technique is appropriate for complex and technical problems.

Nominal Grouping

Nominal grouping developed by Andre Dillbecq and Andren van de en does not rely on a free association of ideas, and it purposely attempts to reduce verbal inte raction. Each group member is asked to prepare a list of ideas in response to the identified problem, working silently and alone. Based on interaction, subsequently, the ideas are being modified. Group preference arrives through votes. The nominal grouping has been to be particularly effective in situations requiring a high degree of innovation and idea generation.

Disaster Management

India is vulnerable to various natural disasters on account of its geo-climatic conditions. About 60% of the landmass is susceptible to earthquakes and over 40 million hectares (8%) is prone to floods. 8,000 kms of coastline is prone to cyclones and 68% of the country’s geographical area is susceptible to drought. The 2004 Tsunami’ which struck five coastal States / UTS, has highlighted our vulnerability. Fire incidents, industrial accidents and other mandate disasters involving chemical, biological and radioactive materials are additional hazards which have under scored the need for strengthening mitigation, preparedness and response measures.

Role of Central and State Governments

The basic responsibility for undertaking rescue, relief and rehabilitation measures in the event of a disaster is that of the concerned State government. The central government supplements the efforts of the State governments by providing financial and logistic support in case of severe calamities.

Change in orientation

The government have brought about a change in the approach to disaster management. The change is from a ‘relief-centric’ approach to a holistic approach covering the entire cycle of disaster management encompassing Prevention, Mitigation, Preparedness, Response, Relief and Rehabilitation. The approach proceeds from the conviction that development cannot be sustainable unless disaster mitigation is built in the development process.

Central Legislation

The government has enacted the Disaster Management Act (DMA), 2005 on December 26, 2005. The Act provides for setting up of a National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) under the chairmanship of the Chief Ministers and District Magistrates. The Act further provides for the constitution of the National Executive Committee NEC), the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).

It also provides for the concerned Ministries and Departments to draw up department wise plans in accordance with the National Disaster Management Plan. In addition, the Act contains provisions for constitution of National Disaster Response Fund and National Disaster Mitigation Fund and similar Funds at the State and District levels. The Act also provides for a specific role to local bodies including Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) as well as urban local bodies (ULBs) in disaster management,

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA)

The NDMA was initially constituted on May 30, 2005 under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister by an executive order. Following enactment of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 the NDMA has been constituted in accordance with the provisions of the Act on September 27, 2006 with eight members, one of whom has been designated as the Vice-Chairperson.

At the national level, the National Disaster Management Authority has the responsibility, interalia, of laying down policies on disaster management and guidelines to be followed by different Ministries or Departments of the Government of India to integrate the measures for prevention of disaster or mitigation of its effects in their development plans and projects. It has also to lay down guidelines to be followed by t eh State Authorities in drawing up State plans and take such measures for the prevention of disasters or preparedness and capacity building for dealing with the threatens situation or disaster as it may consider necessary.

National Policy on Disaster Management ( NPDM)

Recognising the multi-disciplinary dimensions of the efforts required for the prevention, mitigation and management of disasters and to mainstream disaster reduction features in the overall social and economic development processes, the NPDM is being formulated to lay down the roadmap and directions for all government endeavours and delineate the role and responsibilities of different stakeholders in disaster management.

Financial Mechanism

The present scheme of financing the relief expenditure and was the recommendations of the Twelfth Finance Commission (TFC), which are in operation 10m 2005-06 to 2009-10. The Commission has recommended continuation of the Schemes of Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) and National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF). The Twelfth Finance Commission has increase the allocation in Calamity Relief Fund for the period 2005 – 2010.

Calamity Relief Fund (CRF)

A Calamity Relief Fund has been constituted for each State with an allocated amount, based on the recommendations of the Twelfth Finance Commission. The Calamity Relief Fund is contributed by the Government of India and the State government in the ratio 3:1. The Central share is released in two equal instalments in June and December. The State Level committee headed by the chief secretary is fully authorized to decide on all the matters to the financing of the relief expenditure from the Calamity Relief Fund in accordance with the items and norms approved by Government of India.

National Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF)

In the event of a calamity of a severe nature, in which the requirement of funds for relief operations is beyond the funds available in the State’s Calamity Relief Fund account, additional Central assistance is provided from NCCF, after following the stipulated procedure.

Items and Norms of Expenditure from CRF/NCCF

The State Governments are required to incur expenditure from CRF/NCCF as per the items and norms approved by Government of India. These norms are generally revised after the Award of successive Finance Commissions.

Consequent to the Award of Twelfth Finance Commission, an Expert Group was set up in the Ministry of Rome Affairs to comprehensively review the existing items and norms of expenditure for assistance from CRF/ NCCF and also to formulate norms for newly added calamities in the approved list of natural calamities, i.e. cloud burst, hailstorm, landslides, and pest attacks. The Expert Group consulted and sought suggestions from all the State Government / UT Administration and concerned Central Ministries / Departments. The Group has submitted its report and Ministries of Home Affairs and Finance as well as NDMA have considered it. The proposal of revision of items and norms of assistance from CRFINCCF has been forwarded to the High Level Committee (HLC) for consideration and approval. Thereafter, the revised items and norms will be notified and circulated to the States/UTs and the concerned Central Ministries / Departments / Organisations.

Disaster Risk Management Programme (DRMP)

A DRMP has been taken up in 169 districts in 17 most hazard prone States with assistance from United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), European Union and a few other international agencies. The programme aims at putting in place sustainable initiatives with the involvement of local self-government institutions and communities. The programme States are being assisted to draw up State, District and block-level disaster management plans, Village level disaster management plans are being developed in conjunction with Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and disaster management teams consisting of village volunteers are being trained in preparedness and response functions such as search and rescue, first-aid, relief coordination, shelter management plans, etc. The State and District level multi-hazard resistant Emergency Operation Centres (EOCs) are also being set up under this programme including provision of equipments for EOCs. Orientation training of engineers, architects and masons usadas resistant technologies has been initiated.

National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM)

In the backdrop of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), a National Centre for Disaster Management was established in 1995. The Centre has been upgraded and designated as the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM). The NIDM came into existence in October 2003 and achieved the status of a statutory organisation under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The NIDM has been encrusted with the responsibility to develop training modules, undertake research and documentation in disaster management and organise training programmes; undertake and organise study courses, conferences, lectures and seminars to promote and institutionalise disaster management; undertake and provide for the publication of journals, research papers and books. NIDM has prepared a model District Disaster Management Plan and drafted a Disaster management manual for the States. NIDM has also taken up the preparation of the National Drought Management Manual.

Training Institutes in States

Disaster Management faculties are being financially supported by the Ministry in 29 State level training institutes located in 28 States. The State Training Institutes take up a focused training programme for different target groups within the State. The training institutes are being provided technical assistance by the NIDM by developing training modules and imparting training to the faculty members.

Awareness Generation

The Government have been persistently educating people about do’s and don’ts during the disasters and disaster like situations through All India Radio, Doordarshan, publicity in newspapers and sensitising children at school and college level at national, State and district levels.

School Education

Disaster management as a subject in social sciences has been introduced in the school curricula for Class VIII, IX & X through the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The State Governments have also been advised to take similar steps through their respective School Boards of Education. Several State Governments have already introduced similar curricula in school education.

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Citizen – Administration Interface

For better governance and administration one needs to emphasise the significance of citizen centric administration. No system of governance can survive for a long time without the support of the citizens. It is evident from the history of the nations that the longevity of their governments largely depended on the cooperation and support rendered to them by their citizens. Wherever this support was missing, the nations found themselves in deep trouble that made their future uncertain. The establishment of several institutional devices and strategies for citizen administration interface adds value and play a very important role in public administration. These commissions act as interface between citizens and administration. The administration citizen relations are significant because the support and consent of the governed is a prerequisite for the sustenance of a representative government like the one in India. The traditional theories of the relationship between the State and society or the government and citizens, in different political systems, be it laissez-faire or democracy or military dictatorship are now inadequate to cope with the new and complex dimensions of administration that are gradually emerging. Today, the citizens are no longer passive beneficiaries of the government, they are the prime movers in the affairs of governance.

Modes Of Interaction Between Citizens And Administration

Today, governance is all about the efficient and effective provision of goods and services. Public administration exists for the betterment of the public by providing services such as health, education, economic security, maintenance of law and order, national defence etc. The public interacts more intimately with public agencies at the cutting-edge level. Local government, for instance, affects people’s lives in various ways. The encounters may pertain to water supply, electricity, garbage disposal and so on.

There are different ways in which the public interacts with the public administrative agencies in real-life situations. These interactions could be in the form of :

1. Clients

This is the most common form of interaction with administrative agencies. In this form, citizens seek to obtain benefits or services from governmental agencies. For example, a patient visits a government hospital for a health check-up or medical treatment.

2. Regulatees

As a regulatee, the public interacts with many public agencies viz., police, income tax authorities, licensing authorities etc.

3. Litigants

The harassed citizens turn litigants when they seek redressal of their grievances from the courts, tribunals and Lok Adalats. As litigants, the public can hope to get justice for their complaints.

4. Participants

Democracy entails increased people’s participation in governance. This is institutionalised through various means like community policing, guardian committees, beneficiary associations etc. In almost all programmes/projects, the people participate at tie levels of planning, implementing and monitoring. People’s participation democratises lot administration and public and also brings in new inputs that help sound project-designing, implementation, and facilitation of assets maintenance.

5. Protesters and those engaged in struggles and people’s movements

People interact with government agencies on public policy as protesters, critically opposing injustice in government policy and action.

The Indian Scenario – Committees And Commissions

The need for institutional innovation to deal with corruption and citizens’ grievances has always been felt in India. Various committees and commissions to bring about administrative changes and create new controlling agencies have made many worthwhile suggestions from time to time. Thee ‘ Law Commission in its 14th Report drew attention to the wide field of administrative discretion in

India where administrative authority may act outside the strict limits of law and propriety: without the affected citizens being in a position to get effective redressal. The Santhanam Committee on Prevention of Corruption thought that it was necessary to devise adequate methods of control over the exercise of discretion by different categories of government servants.

As the Committee observed, “In the more advanced countries various methods of such control have been devised. We recommend that this should be studied and a system of control should be devised keeping in mind the vastness of our country and the basic principles which are enshrined in our Constitution and jurisprudence.” As a sequel to the Santhanam Committee Report, Vigilance Commissions were set up at the Centre in 1964, and also in the various states later. Vigilance Cells have been created in several government departments and public sector undertakings.

The Commissions receive complaints directly from aggrieved persons. Other sources of information about corruption and malpractices are the press reports, audit reports, allegations made by members of Parliament etc.

The nature of prosecution depends on the approval of the appropriate sanctioning authority. The jurisdiction of the Commission is presently limited to complaints against gazetted officers of equivalent status. The Administrative Reforms Commission set up in 1966 took up on a priority basis the matter of redressal of citizens’ grievances. The Commission felt that the existing institutions, to deal with this problem were inadequate and found the Ombudsman to be a sine qua non of democratic functioning; and as an essential prerequisite of the progress and prosperity on which the fulfilment of our democracy depends.

The Commission recommended two-tier machinery of Lokpal and Lokayukta for redressal of citizens’ grievances. Lokpal would deal with complaints against ministers and secretaries to the government at the central as well as state levels. The Lokayukta, one at the Centre and one in each state, would attend to complaints against the rest of the bureaucracy. The Lokpal would be. appointed by the President after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha and the speaker of the Lok Sabha. The legislations for the institution of Lokpal and Lokayukta were introduced in Parliament in 1968 and again in 1971 and 1977. All of them lapsed with the dissolution of respective Lok Sabhas. The ill-fated Lokpal Bill has so far not been able to pass through the drill of parliamentary procedures. Lokayuktas in the states has also not been able to live upto the objectives for which they came into being. The Seventh All India Conference of Lokayuktas and Upa-Lokayuktas held in 2003 suggested that Constitutional status be conferred on this institution to give it more teeth to fight corruption.

The institutional devices available in the world to redress the citizens’ grievances are many and varied. In India, several institutional experimentations have been made at the different levels – Centre, state and local, but the problem remains largely unresolved. Dissatisfaction with governmental operations, especially at the cutting-edge levels where government meets the people directly, namely post office, bank counter, railway booking office etc., is widespread. The issue of corruption in public administration has, again and again, come up for discussion at different levels and in different forms. Keeping in view the endemic inefficiency in the government and its general insensitivity to the clientele, the usefulness of the Ombudsman or any other grievance-handling machinery would be of great help if implemented with sincerity. Already an Ombudsman has been created for the banking sector, and in Kerala, the institution of local government Ombudsman has been set up.

Citizens’ Charter Initiative

The Citizens’ Charter initiative is the latest mechanism to define the relationship between citizens and administration. It demands from the government and other service providers that a certain degree of accountability, transparency, quality and choice of services be made available to the people. The concept of the Citizens’ Charter was initiated following the Common Cause Initiative in the UK in 1994 during the regime of John Major. The Citizens’ Charter is no doubt an innovative mechanism. However, its formulation and enforcement is no easy task. Precise standards of performance have to be set. There has to be somebody or an authority to – monitor performance and watch violations and maintenance. The citizens have to play an active role in giving timely and necessary feedback about services rendered by the government agencies, Within the organisations, the employees must be well-prepared to serve the public as per the agreed-upon standards.

The Prime Minister of India inaugurated a Conference of the Chief Secretaries in November 1996 on “An agenda for an effective and responsive administration” in order to restore the faith’ of the people in the fairness and efficiency of the administration at different levels. It was admitted that the public agencies had been inward-looking and alienated from the people. The Government of India has since introduced Citizens’ Charters in a number of departments and agencies with a public interface like Income Tax departments, the LIC, the Railways, the CPWD etc. The Charter places the citizens at the centre of administration, instead of treating them as passive recipients of services.

The Citizens’ Charter is usually framed on the basis of the following principles:

1. Wide publicity on the standards of performance of public agencies.
2. Assured quality of services
3. Access to information along with courtesy and helpful attitude.
4. Simplified procedures for receipt of complaints and their quick.
5. Provision of performance scrutiny with citizens’ involvement.

Greater concern for accountability to the public has led to innovative schemes in countries like the Philippines and Malaysia. In 1994, the Philippines Civil Service Commission launched a citizens’ satisfaction campaign called Citizen Now. Not Later. The campaign involved the adoption of standard norms of conduct and courtesy to clients. The Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit (MAMPU) has designed the ‘Client’s Charter’, which is a written commitment aiming at the delivery of outputs or services to an agency’s clients. Should an agency Tail to comply with the stated quality standards, as per its Charter, the public can use this as a ‘basis for complaints’ against non-compliance. In the same vein, several other initiatives on a citizen-administration interface are taking place worldwide.

Another dimension of the citizen-administration relationship that cannot be overlooked is the increased accessibility of citizens to the administration. This has been possible due to the recent accent on ‘governance. The information age paradigm shift has redefined the fundamentals of administration and has changed the institutions and mechanisms of delivery of goods and services forever. Knowledge-based society enables the sharing of vast escalation on a global scale almost instantaneously, which consequently helps in selecting, absorbing and adopting relevant technology and services. The focus today is on the users’ needs. Many developed countries have already taken recourse to e-governance to increase the effectiveness of the interface between citizens and public administration and to improve the efficiency of administrative structures and processes.

The essential ingredients of the citizen-administration relationship are adequate knowledge of administrative norms, practices and structures for both citizens and administration; positive évaluation of the job performance of government officials; and perceptions of the administrative system as sensitive and responsive to the public, rather than inflexible and remote. In the present scenario where the economy, culture and society are changing, the situation demands a forging of a new equilibrium between the bureaucracy and the citizens. The goal of the bureaucracy must be to create an administration-citizen interface based on participation, information, belief, confidence and action-orientedness that tends to meet the expectations of the citizens. Simultaneously, the attitude of citizens, self-help groups, corporations, associations of all kinds, and private institutions must also be supportive of the public authorities when genuine public interest is being served. Various mechanisms such as Citizens’ Charters, Ombudsman-like institutions, and participatory devices have been introduced to facilitate the redressal of citizens’ grievances. These need to be revamped to strengthen the interface between citizens and administration in a positive direction.

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Problems Of Administration In Coalition Regimes

India’s Parliamentary system is based on the British model which is primarily suited to a two-party system. This model has failed to deal with the situation created by the multiplicity of political groups. Consequently, there have been hung legislatures at the Union and the State level. This has led to an era of ‘coalitions’ where many groups come together to join hands on a common platform by sinking their broad differences and form a majority in the House. Such a combination leads to a hybrid’ which exhibits unique characteristics. Read on to know about challenges in administration, coalition government advantages and disadvantages, and problems of administration in coalition regimes.

What are the important questions raised by the coalitional politics of India to the behaviour of the Indian bureaucracy?

Bureaucracy in a democracy is exposed to three kinds of political activities :

a) Bureaucrats have their political views and opinions, and informally discuss political issues, parties, and personalities among peer groups,

b) Intrabureaucratic politics revolves around promotions, transfers, and other advantages. Factions in bureaucracy try to get support from political leaders, and in the process develop political alignments.

c) Bureaucrats are involved in all important governmental decisions, and all important decisions are political decisions. Ministers want decisions in party interest. Civil servants are asked to evolve policies and programs which may bring to the party and more support to the party members.

The bureaucracy is not immune from politics and political pressures. How are they going to behave during the period of the political instability of heterogeneous coalition cabinets? How are they going to function in the climate of inter-party conflicts of the coalition partners? If political leaders are busy with questions concerning their survival who will provide the administrative leadership? Will civil servants be acting on their own? When parties are weak, divided, getting fragmented, who will articulate public demands and interests? Will bureaucracy do the work of the articulation of interests and the resolving of public conflicts? Political parties act as channels of communication between the public and bureaucracy, but when they are engaged in the politics of cabinet-forming and cabinet-toppling (as happened from 1967 to 1969 in some of the states), how will they act as the link between the people and the bureaucracy? Will weak cabinets lead to powerful bureaucracy in India? If so, in what direction and for what purposes will power be exercised by the bureaucracy?

The whole mechanism of parliamentary control over bureaucracy depends on the strength of the party system in the country. The mechanism of parliamentary control as devised in India will not achieve its objectives if the bureaucracy is immune from cabinet control. Parliamentary control over bureaucracy is dependent on the minister’s control over his department. But a minister whose political future is uncertain, who is not sure about tomorrow, can hardly be the instrument for controlling bureaucracy.

Control Over Bureaucracy

Control over bureaucracy in a democracy means that the people’s wishes be respected as expressed through the representatives of the people,

For proper control over the bureaucracy, a well-organized and well-developed party system is essential. Otherwise, India should be prepared for arbitrary rule of bureaucracy or status quo behaviour of bureaucracy. In the absence of an effective party government, bureaucracy can seize the initiative and exercise effective power in the country. Or in the absence of political leadership, bureaucracy also starts playing safe and exercising the cautious role of implementing rules and procedures. Politics and parties have a direct impact on the working of bureaucracy in the country. That a weak and fragmented party system is dysfunctional to the political system goes without saying.

The authority of the minister over his department does not rest solely on the legal or constitutional system of the country. He derives his authority from his political position. If a Prime Minister is very strong, politically the unquestioned leader of his party, and gives full support to his colleagues

in the cabinet, his ministerial control over the civil service can prove effective. Thus, the first prerequisite for the effective political control of bureaucracy is the political strength of the leader or head of government. If the Prime Minister is the leader of an uneasy. a coalition of diverse and antagonistic parties, he may not be able to provide strong and effective leadership, and the result of such a situation may be a weakening of political control over the bureaucracy. A Prime Minister of a coalition of parties may have to spend more time settling inter-party disputes. If a Prime Minister is. unsure about his maintenance of power, and is struggling for survival, he cannot provide effective leadership to public administration. A camel may have a weak Prime Minister but some strong and able ministers. It is also possible that a strong Prime Minister may have certain weaklings in his cabinet.

Our concern is what the ultimate political system, in a parliamentary democratic system of cabinet government, is congenial to the exercise of effective political control over the bureaucracy. Further, a minister’s capacity to be effective vis-a-vis bureaucracy depends upon his relationship with the Prime Minister and his position in the party. If a minister has a strong base in the party, and if he enjoys full confidence in them on he has the requisite political strength to deal with bureaucracy. No doubt, a minister’s abilities are a very important factor in his dealings with the civil service, but his abilities alone will not cut much ice if he lacks political strength. In the department civil servants are aware of their minister’s standing in the party, and his relationship with the Prime Minister. If a minister is a political non-entity, his abilities may not prove a great enough asset to him in his dealing with the civil service. Civil servants in a department realize that a politically strong minister can be excellent protection against hostile criticism, and can also help them in “climbing up.” Civil servants are always manoeuvring for jobs in an important. ministry, and with an important minister. To sum up, a minister’s control over the bureaucracy is dependent upon his political strength, which in itself depends on the strength of the party system in a democratic country.

Impact of the Fourth General Elections 1967

The Fourth General elections of 1967 shattered the twenty years’ monopoly of power enjoyed by the Congress Party. At the same time, the Indian voters did not give any clear verdict in favour of any viable national alternative to the Congress Party rule. Due to the absence of any such alternative, all sorts of alliances and coalitions were forged by the opposition parties to replace the Congress Party for forming governments in the various states of India. These coalition governments which emerged on the Indian scene as an alternative to the Congress Party rule were short-lived. Personal antagonisms of the coalition leaders, programmatic contradictions and conflicts, lack of experience to manage in a responsible manner affair of the government (a task to which they were new), and individual party ambitions led to serious clashes and conflicts among the coalition partners resulting in the dissolution of legislatures and holding of new elections in Bihar, West Bengal, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. Even after these “mini general elections of 1969,” the political situation remained as confused as at the time of the general elections of 1967. In some of these States, again, the voters gave no verdict either in favour of the Congress or in favour of any other political party. Again much time was spent in for going coalitions that experienced the same stresses and strains as their short-lived predecessors. Besides this, the inter-party tensions and conflicts among coalition partners became so acute that in Kerala in 1969 some of the coalition partners withdrew their support and formed an alternative government without the Communist Party of India (Marxist) which was a major partner in the coalition. In less than a year of the working of West Bengal Coalition government, the Chief Minister of the State, Ajoy Mukherjee, went on a fast against his government whom he described as “barbarous and indecent.” Moreover, the CPI (M), a member of the West-Bengal coalition government, took the stand that the Chief Minister of a coalition government is not first among equals; he is equal among equals, and he has no supervisory role in the functioning of other government departments. Its meaning is that in a coalition government all partners are equals running of a department is the responsibility of the minister concerned, and the Chief Minister has no right to interfere in the internal matters of a department. Thus, rivals in politics found it difficult to arrive at a working relationship to run a coalition government.

While inter-party rivalries led to drift and directionlessness in the coalition governments in the various States, intra-party rivalries led to disintegration and fragmentation of the political parties in the country. Groups and factions within a party raised banners of revolt against either the leadership or the party policies and announced the formation of a separate party. All canons of party organization were thrown to the wind by the factions in the Congress Party, the Communist parties, and the Samyukta Socialist Party. The impact of the erosion of party discipline was felt not only in the States but also at the centre where the Congress Party government was reduced from a majority to a minority government in 1969 when its 62 members of the Lower House walked out of it.

Thus, disintegration and proliferation of parties have made all Indian political parties regional, resulting in a coalition as a model of government both at the centre and in the States (some States being exceptions to this rule for the present). Since all political parties have a regional base (or character), and also since some purely regional parties are emerging very powerful like the DMK, Akali Dal, and the Telugu Desam the central cabinet will always be a coalition • cabinet for quite some time to come. Another important facet of the emerging political pattern of India is that the coalition at the centre will have to depend either on the extreme left or on the extreme rightist parties. In a conflict-ridden society, where consensus on fundamentals is absent, centrist parties will be challenged by extremist political parties. With extremist parties playing quite an important role in Indian politics, the coalition governments will always be under stress and strain. Any compromise arrived at by the “Coalition cabinets” will be challenged and may disintegrate the coalition. An alternative to a coalition government can be a minority party government. In our model, it hardly makes a difference. A one-party majority government can face public pressures-both of the extreme left and right better than coalition or minority governments. Thus, coalition governments in India will be unstable and short-lived. This can be surmised based on experiments with coalitions at the State and Central levels in India. Worst than this will be the situation where coalition governments may seek survival in maintaining the status quo. India needs not only stable governments but strong governments with programs of social and economic development of the country. If the poverty of centuries has to be wiped out, modernization and industrialization of the country have to be accelerated, the need is for socially conscious cabinets and not of status quo cabinets. Will it be possible to get such governments in a coalition system? If the coalition experiment in the Indian States is any guide, the coalition partners were so busy in manoeuvring individual party interests that the survival of such governments always remained a question mark. And when coalitions collapsed under the weight of their contradictions and rivalries, no one was surprised. If this drama of instability is repeated at the centre, if the Prime Minister is relegated to the position of “equal among equals,” if parties are busy in manoeuvring to keep themselves in power or to dislodge the coalition from power, India enters into an era of weak central governments.

The Indian democratic system depends on the effective leadership of the Prime Minister, but coalition governments may be leaderless governments. In our system we expect the minister to provide leadership to his department and exercise effective control over the bureaucracy. But can a minister, who is not sure how long he will remain in the cabinet, exercise effective control over the bureaucracy? Parliament, the public and the Press look to the minister for providing policy initiatives to his department, for ensuring that the policies are being rightly implemented, for correcting the erring civil servants and ensuring clean administration to the country. If coalition cabinets are busy manoeuvring their survival, where is the time for the minister to guide them. direct and control his department or bureaucracy? There are numerous illustrations at the State level to prove the contention that when the survival of the cabinet is not assured, ministers have to get involved more in party issues than in supervising their departments.

Bureaucracy In A Situation Of Cabinet Instability

The question is what happens to the bureaucracy in a situation of cabinet instability, Does bureaucracy exercise more powers in the cloak of ministerial responsibility? Is bureaucracy happy with such a situation? Ministers have less time now to interfere in departmental affairs, which are left to the bureaucracy to look after. Is it a healthy situation where the minister signs on the dotted line and accepts the policy advice of the civil servants? Bureaucracy as a group may be happy with such a political situation. Their power is bound to increase in the absence of effective checks by the minister. But from the point of view of a democratic political system, it is unfortunate that bureaucracy is allowed to make decisions with the minister’s merest formal approval. The form of democracy will be maintained but not its substance or spirit. The substance or spirit of a democratic government is that the supremacy of the minister in the real sense of the word should be maintained in decision-making. The minister should take full staff advice, but ultimately he should himself take the decision. Experts have to play an important role in administrative decision-making. All policy-making in administration needs active advice and collaboration of the civil service. But a minister has a final and real power of veto. Will he be exercising this real veto over his departmental advice when he is busy in inter-party fights in a coalition cabinet? India is going to face a very serious situation in the years to come, and it is worthwhile to examine the postulates underlying the minister-civil service relationship in the context of the changing political SCC country. It needs no assertion that bureaucracy should be under democratic control. Coalition cabinets may not be able to provide effective control over the bureaucracy. Hence, some alternative institutional arrangements have to be made to keep a proper balance of relationship of power between the minister and the bureaucracy.

Scope Of Coalition Administration

Keeping in mind that India is going to enter the phase of the coalition and unstable cabinets both at the Centre and in the States, a few suggestions are being advanced to keep the administration efficient and properly accountable. It must be said at the outset that at all the assumptions which underlie that Indian bureaucracy is false; or at best, they are a priori beliefs and not validated facts. In India, the myth of the infallibility of the generalist’ civil service has been unmistakably exploded many a time, but no action has been taken to reorganize the bureaucratic structure. In the Life Insurance Corporation Inquiry, both Justice Chagla and Vivian Bose Boards observed in unambiguous language that G.R. Kamat, ICS, failed to perform proper functions of the Chairman of the Life Insurance Corporation because he was new to the job and had no experience of the ways of the functioning of the stock exchange market. The basic issue is not of one ICS but the whole elite class of the higher civil service. They are not competent to manage complex economic, commercial, industrial and banking institutions owned and controlled by the State in India. Specially trained personnel, and not the generalist IAS, are needed to manage the complex activities undertaken by the modern globalised market economy.

Behind the supremacy of the generalist is the assumption of the anonymity and neutrality of the civil service in India. In a democracy, bureaucracy is neither neutral nor anonymous. Every articulate citizen knows who is the decision-maker. Mundhra’s representative in Delhi, Sodhani, was in continuous contact with H.M. Patel. Mundhra was writing letters to Patel. He was meeting Patel with requests for favours. All industrial houses have their contact men in Delhi who frequently meet the appropriate and concerned civil servants. The powers that be are well-known. Hundreds and thousands of civil servants in the Secretariats and field offices are issuing licenses, approving contracts and giving orders on crucial public issues. Are they anonymous

As far as neutrality of the civil service is concerned, it may be possible in a ‘consensus-based society like that of Britain where agreement on fundamentals exists and clashes and conflicts of interest are resolved within the system. In a conflict-ridden society, where forces of the extreme right and extreme left are trying to pull their weight to demolish the system, how can one believe that highly educated civil servants are neutral and will service every political party faithfully, fairly, and impartially?

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Urban Local Government

Undertanding and working on developing Urban local government and rural local government plays a very important role. In the era of globalization, the state is transforming. And urban local bodies in congested areas of big cities should be provided with different ways to transform. To explain the structure of urban local government, one needs to research at a deeper level, i.e; on the concepts and difference between rural local government and urban local government. Here are some urban local government notes comprising information about everything related to urban local govt, from its ministry to the global-local debate and new localism.

Global-Local Debate And New Localism

The 1990s have seen a twin development in India. In 1991, the country embarked on a course of liberalization, privatization, and globalization. In 1992, the Indian federal system was restructured through a constitutional amendment, to make it three-tiered and to empower the local state. While globalization can act in ways that make the market supreme, democratic decentralization can serve as a countervailing factor in that it empowers the people at the grassroots. Also, the global and the local could be seen as interdependent elements in a universal process, best exemplified as “glocalisation.

Nation-states function not only as political agencies in a complex system of power from world to local levels, but they have centrality because of their relationship to territory and population. If ‘sovereignty’ is of decisive significance, it is because the state can legitimately transfer power or sanction new powers both ‘above’ it through agreements between states to establish and abide by forms of international governance and below’ it, through the constitutional ordering within its territory in respect of the relationship of power and authority between levels of governments and civil society.

Governance is a function that can be performed by a wide variety of public and private, state and non-state, national and international institutions and practices. Governing powers cannot simply proliferate and compete. The different levels and functions of governance need to be tied together in a division of control. They need to be ‘sutured’ together into a relatively integrated system and in this, the nation-state assumes critical salience.

Viewed differently, the nation-state has become both too big and too small. It is too big to cater to citizens needs and hence the need for decentralization which spells more autonomy to local bodies. It is too small to deal with global trends. The state now plays the role of a facilitator or enabler, permitting localities to become arenas for testing, experimenting and working out policies. Localities, therefore, have become significant sites of action, Local policies and strategies are formulated not only to revitalise local structures but also to cut a positive image of cities to find a place in global ordering. Hence, there is a double movement, or globalization on the one hand and devolution, decentralization and localization on the other, which has been termed as ‘glocalisation’.

When globalization is modified by its contact with the local, new forms of interaction, making for interesting fusion and creativity to arise, resulting in a transformation of political and social life at the local level. Here, non-state, voluntary bodies play a significant role in the expanding political space. This is seen as a ‘double democracy’ of government and political life at both the global and local levels, forging authentic alternatives for the people. This kind of thinking is reflected in the debates of the General Assembly of the United Nations which recognized the importance of the local in the era of globalization. The World Development Report, 1999-2000 also focuses on globalization and localization and indicates that they raise new challenges as well as new opportunities for revitalising the local realm. Localisation, it asserts can lead to a decentralized government which can make for a more responsive and efficient local government.

In the context of development, mention must be made of the new wave of theoretical development described as New Localism. It is identified with the new local state and local activism. It concentrates on political-cum-administrative restructuring taking place, vertically in terms of centre-state-local relations and horizontally. though a redefinition of responsibilities between the state and organizations of civil society, between the public and private sectors at the local level. Horizontal restructuring looks at the participatory, facilitative, regulatory and adjustive roles that local governments can play in respect of the market.

Significant Issues On Indian Government

Here are some notes for significant issues on the Indian Government, regulatory commissions, and regulatory institutions.

Regulatory Commissions

The onset of liberalization in India in the early 1990s was the result of the internal local and balance of payments crises; as much as the ongoing process is of international speciality and global competition. The increasing reliance on market forces and price signals have altered the risk profile of economic activity and heightened the prospects of market failures. Independent Economic Regulators’ were gradually established to deal with the anticipated abuse of market power by private producers in inherently monopolistic sectors and to contain the Casey decentralized and complex transactions in the capital markets leading to risks, which lead to a systemic collapse.

There are two major segments in India now that have active independent regulators-the financial sector and infrastructure utilities. Prominent among the former are SEBI and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). Several regulators now oversee infrastructure sectors-Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), various State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), and the Tariff Authority for Major Ports (TAMP). These institutions have been effective in varying degrees and have transformed the landscape of the sectors under their respective ambits by activist actions or sustained chipping away of the current logjam of institutional barriers and market power of (public sector) incumbents.

The new regulatory commissions are different from those appointed in the past, like the Tariff Commission, Forwards Markets Commission, even the Disinvestment Commission. These were mostly ‘advisory’ in nature, or ‘restrictive’ in nature, implementing centrally planned outcomes. There were other statutory bodies like the Company Law Board, Board of Industrial and Financial ‘Reconstruction (BIFR), Debt Recovery Tribunal, and Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, which are quasi-judicial and have the power to enforce their decisions.

The first statutory independent regulatory commission was the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), established in January 1992. The first regulator for infrastructure utilities was the Orissa ERC, established in 1996. This was followed by TRAI in 1997 and TAMP. CERC was established in 1998. Many states have also established their own Electricity Regulatory Commissions. Before this, publicly owned monopolies operating infrastructure utilities were ‘regulated’ either by themselves or some other arm of government. The Ministry of Finance, the Department of Company Affairs (DCA), and the RBI, besides the individual stock exchanges, were the regulators in the financial sector. The Department of Telecom (DoT) was the regulator in the telecom sector under the Indian Telegraphic Act (1885) and the India Wireless Telegraphic Act (1933).

The State Electricity Boards (SEBs) and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) ‘were the electricity regulators under the Electricity Supply Act (1948) and the India Electricity Act (1910). The Directorate General (Shipping) at the centre and respective state governments were the port regulators under the Indian Ports Act (1908) and the Major Ports Trusts Act (1963).

Most regulators came into existence after the reform process was underway. SEBI is the only regulator (apart from the fledgling IRDA) that was set up conterminously with the restructuring of the market. The scope and functions of the regulators also differ widely across sectors. Independent regulators do not make policy-that in the domain of government-but they do formulate the rules of the game and the conditions for a level playing field for the players in their respective sectors. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been mandated to regulate the ‘sector as a whole. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) has licensing powers for interstate transmission of electricity.

Selected Regulatory Institutions In India

Securities And Exchange Board Of India (SEBI)

The functioning of the stock exchanges in India has shown many weaknesses, with long delays, lack of transparency in procedures and vulnerability to price rigging and insider trading To counter these shortcomings and deficiencies and to regulate the capital market, the government of India set up the Securities Exchange Board of India in 1988. Initially, SEBI was set up as a non-statutory body but in January 1992 it was made a statutory body. SEBI was authorized to regulate all merchant banks on issue activity, lay guidelines and supervise and regulate the working of mutual funds and oversee the working of stock exchanges in India. SEBI, in consultation with the Government, has taken a number of steps to introduce improved practices and greater transparency in the capital markets in the interest of the investing public and the healthy development of the capital markets.

Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India (TRAI)

in early 1997, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) was established under the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act 1997 to regulate telecommunications services and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, The establishment of the regulator was considered necessary in the context of liberalization and private sector participation in the telecom sector and to provide a level playing field for all operators,

By amendments made in early 2000 to the TRAI Act, the entire telecom regulatory framework, and the disputes settlement mechanism were strengthened. Besides bringing about clarity in the role and functions of the Regulatory (TRAI), certain additional functions were also entrusted to it. A separate disputes settlement body known as the Telecom constituted for expeditious settlement. Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal was also of disputes.

Electricity Regulatory Commissions (ERCS)

There are now many State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) besides the Central ERU: The Orissa ERC is the oldest, established in 1996, and the CERC was created in 1998, through the ERC Act. The central commission regulates bulk electricity tariffs up to the boundaries of states and interstate transmission tariffs. The CERC also has powers to license private investment in transmission, with the consent of the public sector, Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. (PGCIL), which is a state monopoly. Tariffs for generation, transmission, distribution within a state, as well as purchase and supply, are regulated by the respective SERC. It is also a mandate for CERC to develop a competitive market for bulk electricity.

Tariff Authority For Major Ports (TAMP)

As in the other sectors, an anticipated shortage of capacity in ports and a paucity of public funds was expected to result in severe bottlenecks in an area deemed in the 1990s to be critical to India’s growth exports. Private participation and investment were, therefore, considered essential.

To address the concerns of private operators of discriminatory treatment and charges by the incumbent Port Trusts, a port regulator-TAMP-was established in 1997. With the Port Laws (Amendment) Act in April 1997, which repealed significant portions of the Major Port Trusts Act (1963), TAMP was vested with powers of fixing tariffs. There are now terminals, jetties, and other services being provided by major international port operators in many of the major ports. In the meantime, many private and public industrial enterprises, sensing the difficulty of ensuring the timely movement of their freight cargoes through the major ports, decided to set up their own ports and specialized terminals, Intra- and inter-port competition is expected to increase rapidly.

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