Comparative Perspectives on Bureaucracy in the Global South

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Bureaucracies play a central part in shaping the political, economic and social development of nations. Along with direct involvement in policymaking and policy implementation, bureaucracies can indirectly influence citizen behaviors and trust in the state. On the other hand, bureaucracies can face political interferences, perhaps more so in countries with comparatively weak institutions. Yet, bureaucracies also vary widely in their capacity to fulfill their policy mandates and promote citizen rights. Understanding the political and organizational drivers of varied bureaucratic performance is even more critical at a moment when public institutions in developing countries are under political pressure.

Our panel, Comparative Perspectives on Bureaucracy in the Global South, explores these themes by examining how bureaucracies respond to political pressures as well as shape political behavior in developing countries. The four papers engage distinct, but interrelated questions on bureaucratic performance over a wide range of governmental functions: How do bureaucratic agencies effectively implement Covid-19 vaccine policies and counter attacks against public health experts? In education, what accounts for the rapid growth in public school provisioning alongside low quality services and citizen exit to the private sector? How do local bureaucrats who are critical gatekeepers of public programs and resources respond to citizens demanding accountability? Finally, how do women police officers respond to gender disparities and pursue inclusion in the police bureaucracy? The four papers analyze bureaucratic processes and performance by drawing on a rich array of field-based evidence from Brazil and India. Our panel also highlights the advantages of methodological pluralism by studying bureaucracy through multiple methods and analytical lenses.

In polarized environments, how do bureaucracies fend off attacks from political leaders? Jessica Rich examines this question through a case study of Brazil’s Covid-19 vaccine program. While studies suggest that cross-cutting political support enables agencies to retain their policymaking and regulatory capacity, such support may be insufficient for countering attacks on policy implementation. She argues that bureaucracies can gain leverage against such attacks by securing economic and societal support, protecting them at different stages of the implementation process. Based on media and government reports, in-depth interviews, and descriptive statistics, the study shows how Brazil’s Covid-19 vaccine program overcame executive obstruction by relying on multiple sources of support.

What explains the rapid expansion of education alongside chronically low quality and high levels of exit to the private sector? Emmerich Davies investigates this puzzle in the context of India’s primary education system. He argument centers on the Indian state’s “top-down” mode of education expansion, involving the creation of parallel bureaucratic and administrative structures designed to quickly hire teachers and ensure local fund disbursement. While helping to raise external resources, he argues, that top-down expansion circumvented the voice of citizens and public employees, which undermined institutional legitimacy. His study relies on a paired case comparison of two state-level education programs, traces major national programs to expand education (1986-2002), along with elite interviews of civil servants, officials from the World Bank and other agencies.

How can citizens demand accountability from local bureaucrats, who are critical gatekeepers of public resources but who are formally answerable to senior officials and politicians, as well as frequently overburdened? Tanu Kumar and Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner argue that citizen “undersight” (bottom-up claim-making) can focus officials’ attention. However, responsive bureaucratic action also requires citizens to activate the threat of scrutiny from higher levels of government. The argument relies on multimethod field research in rural India: qualitative fieldwork, a survey of over 1,200 local public officials, along with video and vignette experiments. It offers a novel, citizen-led pathway to bureaucratic responsiveness.

How do women pursue inclusion within public bureaucracies, especially in conditions of institutionalized patriarchy? Akshay Mangla examines this question in the context of police agencies in India. He theorizes inclusion as a relational process that generates tensions between women’s social obligations and professional aspirations. Managing such tensions, he argues, involves relational work, the leveraging of social ties within and beyond the workplace to gain growth opportunities and recognition on the job. The argument is based on extensive fieldwork: shadowing women police recruits over their first 18 months on the job, officer interviews and multi-sited observations of everyday work conditions.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Individual Presentations

• Bureaucratic Resilience to Executive Attack: Brazil's COVID-19 Vaccine Success - Jessica Rich, Marquette University

• Policy Drift in the Mass Expansion of Indian Education - Emmerich Davies, Harvard University

• How Citizen Claim-Making Generates Bureaucratic Responsiveness in Rural India - Tanu Kumar, Claremont Graduate University; Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner, University of Virginia

• Women Police Officers, Relational Work and the Pursuit of Inclusion in India - Akshay Mangla, University of Oxford

Chair

• Alison E. Post University of California, Berkeley

Discussants

• Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner University of Virginia

• Guillermo Toral IE University