Let’s look beyond rules for reforms
notions of performance into procedural indicators like exam scores. True to character, rather than debate the relationship between exam scores and quality, the focus is on which scores are a better marker of quality.
A rarely debated but critical aspect of bureaucratic norms is the role of trust. Public commentary on bureaucracy has long focused on the trust deficit between citizens and the (non-performing) bureaucracy. Less discussed is the culture of distrust within the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy’s penchant for paper work and centralised decision-making is an illustration of this distrust. Ethnographies of the Indian bureaucracy have traced the roots of this culture of distrust to the dynamics of colonial rule and associated need to control local bureaucrats. Paper — files, written procedures, records — emerged as the primary instrument through which control was exercised. These instruments of control have not only continued in to the present but have been further entrenched, serving to create a legalistic system of accountability linked to rules, paper and procedures rather than the achievement of public service goals.
This culture of distrust has legitimised the exercise of coercive power within the bureaucratic hierarchy in ways that severely undermine the sense of professional worth of officials, particularly at lower levels of the bureaucratic chain, resulting in demotivation and apathy. In my own research on local bureaucracy, I have frequently heard frontline officials describe themselves as no more than powerless cogs in the wheel. This is ironic, given that government jobs are sought after precisely to access and exercise state power. Importantly, my research shows that subtle shifts in the exercise of power — when the district magistrates adopt a problem-solving, mentoring approach rather than a hierarchical one toward their subordinates, for instance — can serve to empower officers and build professional identities around service delivery goals.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rightly characterised India’s bureaucracy as a 19th century administration struggling to tackle 21st century challenges. But building a 21st century bureaucracy requires changing the frame of the current debate on reforms to move beyond rules to focus instead on institutionalising a new culture of trust and deliberation and building a sense of professional identity. By tinkering with rules, Modi is losing an important opportunity to do just this.
Yamini Aiyar is president and chief executive, Centre for Policy Research The views expressed are personal