Public administration and conflict management in plural societies: the case for representative bureaucracy

✍ Scribed by Milton J. Esman

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 125 KB
• Volume: 19
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-2075
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-162x(199910)19:4<353::aid-pad86>3.0.co;2-b

✦ Synopsis

Public administration aects the management of ethnic con¯ict by (1) the criteria employed in recruitment to state bureaucracies and (2) policies and practices that determine the distribution of the bene®ts and costs of government among members of competing ethnic communities. The goals pursued by mobilized ethnic communities include domination, secession, integration, power-sharing and minority rights, each of which is implemented by state-sanctioned policies and practices. Recent experience with civil and military bureaucracies in India and South Africa, two highly pluralistic and con¯ict-prone societies, suggests that ethnically representative bureaucracy, though by no means trouble-free, contributes to the legitimacy of government by demonstrating that members of all ethnic communities can and actually do participate in the administration of public aairs.