Thinker of the Day | Morroe Berger
Work – Bureaucracy and Society in Modern Egypt
Views – Berger challenged the idea that bureaucracy can be understood only through formal structures. Social, political and cultural conditions influence administrative behaviour.
– Administrative institutions cannot be isolated from the society in which they operate. The behaviour of bureaucrats reflects the social environment, values and political institutions.
– In developing societies, bureaucracy becomes an important instrument of modernisation and nation-building, but inherited administrative structures may not automatically produce modern administrative behaviour.
for e.g. The office of District Collector illustrates Berger’s argument the same formal administrative institution can operate differently across regions because of local political structures, caste dynamics, social expectations and administrative culture.
Berger demonstrates that bureaucracy is not an isolated administrative machine its functioning is shaped by the social and political environment in which it operates.
