Politics and Administration in South Asia : A Study of Politicization of Bureaucracy

The modern democratic states are built upon the bureaucratic structure that undergrid these states, although there is a vast difference in bureaucratic traditions and cultures in between developed and developing democratic and democratizing societies. As a developing region, South Asia has a longstanding tradition of bureaucratic organization. The traditional bureaucracies were “patrimonial” in nature, where loyalty was valued more than professionalism. However, the replacement of the concept of modern “rational-legal” bureaucracy in traditional societies like South Asia was initiated by the colonial master rulers or imperial powers following the conceptualization of modern bureaucracy by Max Weber. Their (colonial rulers) intention was to establish a “steel frame” of administration in South Asia so that their hegemony remains intact even after the breakdown of colonial hegemony. The role of bureaucracy in governance is not a new phenomenon in the discourse of politics and