000 01974pab a2200157 454500
008 180718b1997 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100 _aRiggs, Fred W.
245 _aModernity and bureaucracy
260 _c1997
300 _ap.347-53
362 _aJul-Aug
520 _aIn this article, Fred Riggs examines the concept of modernity (particularly in the context of industrialization, democratization, and nationalism), and how it has helped shape the administrative states we know today. Industrialization has vastly expanded both the tasks assigned to all contemporary governments and the resources (domestic and international) placed at their disposal. This has not only increased the need for efficient and humane public administration, but it has also magnified the necessity for bureaucratic power in order to ensure competent and impartial management of public affairs but, regrettably, it also enhances opportunities for corruption and mismanagement. The effect of democratization has been to replace monarchs with representative institutions capable of controlling and directing increasingly complex bureaucracies - while ensuring officials the autonomy and stable guidelines they need. When these institutions fail to function effectively, as they often do, public administration can collapse and, in many cases, angered public officials, led by military officers, seize power and establish bureaucratic politics marked by corruption and even greater inefficiency. Nationalism has played a fundamental role in the creation of modern democracies. Unfortunately, however, in many countries, including the United States, strains generated by imperial conquests and mass migrations have now created a host of inter-ethnic tensions and pitifully weak states where traditional concepts of public administration based on assumed national unity are put to severe tests. - Reproduced
650 _aBureaucracy
773 _aPublic Administration Review
909 _a34888
999 _c34888
_d34888