People’s Participation

I) In Control Over Administration

In a Parliamentary democracy the final power rests with the people. The people have the authority to control the Administration through their representatives. This is chiefly done by.sensitising the elected body, i.e. the parliament at the Union level and the State Legislature at the State level. Citizens exercise control over Administration through parliamentary questions, debates, discussions and various other parliamentary devices.

Control By The Community

Every popular Government is ultimately responsible to the people. Administrative accountability in a democratic set up derives its legitimacy form the people at large. Although adequate controls are exercised on administration by the Legislature, Executive and the Judiciary, yet the importance of 1. Peoples’ Participation in control cannot be undermined.

In a democracy there are various ways and means through which people exercise control over administration.

The formal methods of community control over administration are : Elections, Pressure Groups, Advisory Committees, Referendum, Recall and Public Opinion.

Elections : Election is a suitable means for choosing legislators and Chief-Executives who represent the people in determining public policies. In a Presidential form of government, the very election of the Chief-executive is in the hands of the people themselves. Here, the control of the Chief-executive by the people is direct. In a cabinet form of government, the chief executive is held responsible by the elected representatives of the people. Thus, the control here is indirect. In a democracy, if the government becomes unresponsive to the people’s needs, corrupt and inefficient, it can easily be thrown out of power by means of elections.

Pressure Groups : The pressure groups refer to a section of the public that is organised and active in the pursuits of some special interests which its members joined to promote. Usually it is a group of industrialists and traders with organised commercial interests. These pressure groups bring pressure upon the legislature through “lobbying’ and upon the administration through liaison officers.

The activities of pressure groups are sometimes useful to the Administration. They may convey to the administration the reactions of the people to administrative decisions in time and may thus enable it to adjust its policy and activities so that there may be no opposition from those particular interests.

Advisory Committees : The government appoints various advisory committees, councils or boards at different levels of administration. These councils or committees consists of important citizens and its representatives of a special interests. They function as a liaison agency between the public and officials. They interpret the feelings and interests of the people to Omnicians aims and purposes of the official activities to the public. They also help in secums of the common citizens in the formulation and administration of policy, thus exercising an indirect control.

Referendum : People also exercise control over administration through the device of referendum. It is a direct democratic process in which a proposed law or a draft constitutional amendment is put to popular vote, in order to ascertain the will of the people, as they are the ultimate political sovereign. If they endorse the proposals by a majority it becomes law, and if they reject it then the proposals is dropped. The device of referendum is used in Switzerland.

Recall : Recall is another control device in the hands of the people. It is the device by which people can call back an appointed executive officer before the completion of his normal term if he ceases to enjoy their confidence. This device is used in several states of USA, in Switzerland and in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Vigorous Public Opinion : The most effective means of community control over administration is a vigorous and informed public opinion. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. If the people are politically lazy and indifferent to what goes on in the administration, they will soon lose their rights and administration will become despotic. The community has to become conscious of its rights and obligations before it can exercise any influence over administration. There should be enlightened public opinion. Decentralization of administration may provide the local community with a better opportunity of intimately understanding and influencing the conduct of public business by the official.

II) In Development Administration

Peoples participation in development administration signifies the direct involvement of people in the process of administering development programmes meant for bringing about socio-economic changes in the society. It embraces the following dimensions.

Participation in decision-making
Participation in implementation
Participation in monitoring and evaluation
Participation in sharing benefits

People participate in development administration through various mechanisms like Panchavati Raj institutions, cooperative institutions, mahila mandals, farmers service societies. Youth forma and other voluntary/non-governmental organisations.

People’s participation in development administration is beneficial in various respects:

It provides the administration with a wealth of information on local socio-cultural, economic ecological and technical conditions. This information is highly useful in the Process planning, programming and implementing of development programmes.
It leads to the selection of those projects which are of direct relevance to the people.
It facilities mobilisation of local resources in the form of money, labour, materials and so on which are very essential for the programme’s success.
It acts as a safeguard against the abuse of administrative authority and thus reduces the scope for corruption in the operation of programmes.
It prevents the hijacking of programme benefits by richer and powerful sections due to the involvement of poorer and weaker sections of the society. Thus, it leads to the equitable distribution of benefits.
It makes the local community easily accept the developmental change and more tolerable to + mistakes and failures.
It reduces the financial burden on government by sustaining the programmes even after the withdrawal of its support. They can be managed by the volunteers or community-based workers.
It enhances the ability and competence of the people to assume responsibility and solve their own problems. It develops a spirit of self-reliance, initiative and leadership among the people.
It promotes esprit de corps in the community and thus strengthens democracy at the grassroots level.

However, various factors limit the degree and effectiveness of people’s participation in administration, particularly in development administration. They are :

Aristocratic and mechanical bureaucracy
Unfavourable socio-economic environment like casteism, communalism, poverty, illiteracy and so on.
Negative political interference
The constraints of time
Role of middlemen ( pyravikars) and sycophants
Corruption and low standards of conduct-in-administration
Faulty administrative procedures
Lack of participative culture.