000 01773pab a2200169 454500
008 180718b1997 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100 _aZambo, Benoit Ndi
245 _aThe African civil service: a crisis of cultural identity - the case of the Cameroons
260 _c1997
300 _ap.345-61
362 _aSep
520 _aSince their indigenization, African civil services have not enjoyed an honourable reputation. Whatever the Sub-Saharan country, the litany of grievances attributed to the authorities remains constant: they are corrupt, pernickety, inefficient, populist, often repressive and, invariably, impertinent. Generally, these civil services were set up on the basis of a rational, legal, bureaucratic-type model, imported from the old mother countries. Presupposing the universality of this rationality, the instigators of these services did not doubt their functionality, already proven in the particular countries of origin. Despite the continuing technical assistance in the intervening decades and the manifold reforms, the dysfunctional character of the African civil services remains. This article further proposes setting down markers. After a survey of the context, the statement of the problematic and the presentation of the approach, the article, based on the case of The Cameroons, focuses on three points: the phenomenology of the culture of the Cameroon civil service, Administration Publique Camerounaise (APC); the genetic factors and the mental context of the culture of the APC; and proposals for a reinvention of values and professionalism in the civil service in Sub-Saharan Africa
650 _aCivil service - Africa
650 _aCivil service
773 _aInternational Review of Administrative Sciences
909 _a36560
999 _c36560
_d36560