Concentration of Authority and Rent Seeking Behaviour in Bureaucracy: An Evidence of Ineffective Governance in Bangladesh
Abstract
Political leadership and public administration run the government of Bangladesh. Political wing is short tenured under a democratic system, but the public administration is permanent. An administrative process in Bangladesh made bureaucracy most powerful in the country. It has accountability to none but has controlling authority on all components of state including political leadership. This absolute power gives unlimited opportunity to administrative bureaucracy and other parts of the public administration of the country for exercising rent seeking behaviour. This paper evaluates the experience of common people of the country who used to interact with public administration for receiving public services using primary data collected through a field survey. The level of rent seeking is very high in public administration. The four major types of rent seeking behaviour among public officials are bribe, nepotism, and favouritism, use of official power to mischief common people and negligence to official duties and responsibilities. People used to suffer from rent seeking behaviour uniformly irrespective of their level of income and educational status. The root of rent seeking is the administrative bureaucracy. People face financial loss, delays in getting services from officials. It is necessary to reduce absolute power of public bureaucracy to control rent seeking of public administration.
Downloads
References
Hossain, M. A. (2017). Bureaucratic System in Bangladesh. Review of Public Administration and Management, 5(2), 1000214. Huque, A. S. (2011). Accountability and governance: strengthening extraâ€bureaucratic mechanisms in Bangladesh. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 60(1), 59-74. Huque, A. S. & Rahman, M. T. (2003). From Domination to Alliance: Shifting Strategies and Accumulation of Power by the Bureaucracy in Bangladesh. Public Organization Review, 3(4), 403-418. Islam, R. (2016). Bureaucracy and Administrative Culture in Bangladesh. In A. Farazmand, Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Cham: Springer. Landry, D. (2016). The Downfall of Democracy in Bangladesh. Retrieved from The Diplomat: https://thediplomat.com/2016/07/the-downfall-of-democracy-in-bangladesh/ Luechinger, S., Stephan, M. & Stutzer, A. (2008). Bureaucratic Rents and Life Satisfaction. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 24(2), 476-488. McChesney, F. S. (1987). Rent Extraction and Rent Creation in the Economic Theory of Regulation. The Journal of Legal Studies, 16(1), 101-118. Mollah, M. A. (2011). Growth and Development of Civil Services and Bureaucracy in Bangladesh: An Overview. South Asian Survey, 18(1), 137-156. Montinola, G. R. & Jackman, R. W. (2002, January). Sources of Corruption: A Cross-Country Study. British Journal of Political Science, 32(1), 147-170. Pempel, T. J. (1998). Regime Shift: Comparative Dynamics of the Japanese Political Economy. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Persson, T.& Tabellini, G. (2004). Constitutions and Economic Policy. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 18(1), 75-98. Rashid, A. K. (2014). The role of the bureaucracy in policymaking in Bangladesh. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, 36(2), 150-161. Shelley, M. R. (2014). Prime Ministerial autocracy? Retrieved from The Daily Star: http://www.thedailystar.net/prime-ministerial-autocracy-14563 Smith, J., Obidzinski, K., Subarudi, L. & Suramenggala, I. (2003). Illegal logging, collusive corruption and fragmented governments in Kalimantan, Indonesia. International Forestry Review, 5(3), 293-302. UNESCO. (2018). EDUCATION. Retrieved from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-educationsystems/quality-framework/technical-notes/concept-of-governance/ Zafarullah, H. & Huque, A. S. (2001). Public Management for Good Governance: Reforms, Regimes, and Reality in Bangladesh. International Journal of Public Administration, 24(12), 1379-1403. Zafarullah, H. & Siddiquee, N. A. (2001). Dissecting Public Sector Corruption in Bangladesh: Issues and Problems of Control. Public Organization Review, 1(4), 465-486.
Copyright (c) 2018 Sayada Jannatun Naim, Abu Hena Reza Hasan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of a revised paper, the editorial team edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.
This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.
