Question : How does Ferrel Heady rationalize the three stages of development in comparative administration?
(2015)
Answer : Ferrel Heady has given the following four approaches to the study of Comparative Public Administration:
Ferrel Heady analysed developing societies by making use of comparative public administration to understand the administrative patterns of Less Developed Countries. The studies provided a model known as Fused Prismatic Diffracted society.
The Diffracted society is a society with high individuality while Fused society has very low individuality and has high herd or ....
Question : Critically examine the Riggsian concept of differentiation in the context of post-globalization era.
(2014)
Answer : Riggs defined development as a process of increasing autonomy of social system made possible by rising level of diffraction. Diffraction consists of two processes:
According to Riggs differentiation means existence of a situation in which every function has a corresponding specialised structure for its performance. E.g. political sub-system, administrative sub-system, economic sub-system etc. Nation’s boundaries are diminishing and world is slowly becoming a global village, in the era of globalization. The boundaries of different sub-systems ....
Question : “….in most cases….newly independent states, of the nations of Africa, Asia and Latin America, despite their differences…are in transition.” (Ferrel Heady). What common features are indicative of characteristics of their Administrative patterns (cultures)?
(2013)
Answer : Ferrel Heady has identified the following major characteristics of bureaucracy in developing countries:
The above characteristics mark bureaucracy as hierarchical, irresponsive to public needs, unrepresentative of the population at large and elitist in character.
Despite the fact ....
Question : “Comparative Public Administration both resembles and differs from modern organization theory”. Elaborate.
(2013)
Answer : In comparative (public) administrative studies, the unit of analysis is an administrative system. Therefore, the focus is either on the whole of an administrative system or on its various parts. Briefly, the subject matter of comparison would include following phenomena: i) Environment of the administrative system. ii) The whole administrative system. iii) The formal structure of the administrative system with a focus on the pattern of hierarchy, division of work, specialization, authority-responsibility network, decentralization, delegation, ....
Question : Comment on the reasons why universal theory remains elusive in comparative public administration.
(2012)
Answer : Comparative Public Administration is related with comparing the administrative systems of two countries while the international administration is related with study of administrative systems of international organizations such as UN and its related organizations. CPA thus tries to bring out universal theory of public administration. But that universal theory still remains elusive because of many reasons of which most prominent is that all public administration studies have taken place in the American continent specially in ....
Question : ‘Riggs’s classification of societies into fused, prismatic, and diffracted is built around the concept of differentiation.’ Analyze.
(2012)
Answer : Riggs originally classified the societies into fused, prismatic and diffracted on the basis of level of differentiation. The level of differentiation was measured through structural-functional approach in terms of new structures being formed for different functions.
Riggs did not only analyse prismatic society but also analysed diffracted society and used two standards for the analysis, differentiation and integration.
Differentiation means formation of new structure while integration means coordination in functioning of these structures. In his model, ....
Question : “The Prismatic model of Riggs is equally applicable to developing as well as developed society.” Comment.
(2010)
Answer : F. Riggs has developed the Fused-Prismatic diffracted model which applicable to the under developed, developing and developed also countries. According to Riggs development is autonomy of social systems made possible by a rising level of diffraction. This model was based on ecological approach.
Riggs considered various characteristics of prismatic society like heterogeneity, formalism, overlapping and poly functionalism. According to him all these characteristics are present in the case of developing countries. But this model failed to ....
Question : “……non-western states often, if not always, have unbalanced politics, but these may not necessarily be bureaucratic politics.” Discuss.
(2009)
Answer : Unbalance polity in which bureaucrats dominate the politico–administrative system, despite the political leaders constitutional powers.
According to Riggs, prismatic society have unbalanced polity. As a result the ‘Sala’ officials play a more dominant role in the decision – making process. Due to such a concentration of power in the hands of bureaucrats there would be lack of response to the peoples need and requirement. On the basis of public-administration dichotomy the fundamental responsibility of the minister ....
Question : ‘Truly comparative administrative studies are empirical nomothetic and ecological.’ (Riggs) In this perspective, examine the current status of Comparative Public Administration.
(2008)
Answer : Comparative administrative studies cannot claim a long history. The comparative public administration has been widened and deepened by scholarly interest in the administration of third world countries, specially after World War II.
Comparative administration is basically interested in cross-cultural public administration. Fred Riggs is the major exponent of the comparative approach to public administration. As Riggs desired, CPA was to be ‘empirical, nomothetic and ecological that is, crudely, factual and scientific, abstracted and generalized, systematic and ....
Question : “Not to be comparative is to be naively parochial” (Riggs). Comment.
(2007)
Answer : Comparative public administration is the first major development in the post war evolution of public administration. It aims at the development of a more scientific public administration by building and strengthening theory in public administration. The quest for theory building in administrative studies with special focus on study of newly emerged third world countries was the hallmark of Riggsian studies.
For Riggs, any study of Public Studies cannot be confined to any particular society or culture. ....
Question : Explain the meaning, significance, and models of comparative Public Administration.
(2004)
Answer : Comparative public administration is the first major development in the post war evolution of public administration. It aims at the development of a more scientific public administration by building and strengthening theory in public administration.
Comparative public administration stands for cross-cultural and cross-national public administration. It has two basic motivational concerns: (1) Theory building and (ii) administrative problems of the developing countries. Ferrell Heady describes the period of the late 1960’s as the heyday of the ....
Question : How did Fred W. Riggs conceptualise the interaction between the administrative system & their environment?
(2002)
Answer : Administration does not function in isolation from its environment. It influences it and is influenced by it. The understanding of the dynamics of this process of interaction between the two is necessary for the understanding of the administration. The approach adopted is known as the ecological approach. This approach was purely developed by F.W. Riggs.
Riggs analysed the relationship between administrations and economic, social, political, technological and communication factor in a larger perspective. To understand the ....
Question : Critically comment on Riggsian Prismatic Sala model of administration of developing societies. To what extent Indian Administrative system exhibits prismatic characteristics.
(2001)
Answer : F.W. Riggs has given Prismatic Sala model; he is very interested in the Administrative System of developing third world countries especially after colonialism. So, he has given Prismatic Sala model. Prismatic Stands for developing countries according to his model and Sala stands for Administrative Subsystem of developing countries.
Riggs views Administrative System or subsystem of whole system of social unit, like political subsystem, economic subsystem. He also holds view that these subsystems influence each other in ....
Question : Critically examine the approach and methodology adopted by F. W. Riggs in his study of prismatic and sala societies. What is valid-content of Raj Krishna’s criticism of refraction?
(2000)
Answer : In the field of discipline of public administration Riggs contribution is very significant. He has given a very comprehensive theoretical contribution in the development of discipline of public administration. Especially his contribution toward comparative public administration and development administration.
He viewed public administration is influenced by its environment and in return environment is also influenced by public administration. Now to understand public administration he has given certain approach to study the whole aspect of public administration, ....
Question : “Political environment conditions administrative system”. – (F.W. Riggs).
(2000)
Answer : This statement of F.W. Riggs was given taken into account the ecological aspect of an organisation, which include political environment as well.
F. W. Riggs in his Administration Model gave various characteristics of various societies, which termed Fused, Prismatic and Diffracted.
Riggs selected imperial China and pre-revolutionary sequence Thailand as examples of to represent his concept of fused society. In such Society the royal family plays a very important role in the administration of the country.
In Prismatic ....
Question : “Instead of looking inward in their own values and requirements, the Asian countries looked outward.” Comment.
(1999)
Answer : Public administration owes its present status mostly due to contributions from writers and thinkers of USA or Europe. Their thoughts were influenced by their experience in their countries. Public administration as it was cultural specific and its orientation was towards the culture of the west.
When development assistance was given to countries in Asia through UN, it was felt that a modern public administration was necessary to efficiently utilize the financial aid. The techniques of public ....
Question : Critically comment on the function of administrative capabilities with reference to developing countries.
(1999)
Answer : The developing and developed countries are two broad regions at mesa scale, in public administration for the study of administrative system. The comparative public administration movement, led to a study of the administrative system of many developing countries and studies revealed that the administrative system, which these countries had, were not suited to the task of economic and social development upon which they had started. When the pace of development did not come up to ....
Question : What according to Riggs, are the three important characteristic features of the prismatic society?
(1996)
Answer : The three important characteristic features of the prismatic society are ‘formalism’, ‘heterogeneity’ and ‘overlapping’.
Formalism: It implies the extent to which a discrepancy exists between the prescriptive and descriptive, between formal and effective power, between the impression given by constitution, law and regulation, organization charts and statistics and actual practices and facts of government and society. The greater the discrepancy between the formal and effective, the more formalistic is a system.
A prismatic society is characterized by ....
Question : “A major problem with comparative public administration is that it has been behavioural”. Comment.
(1995)
Answer : Comparative public administration has been described as the theory of public administration applied to diverse cultures and national setting and the body of factual data by which it can be examined and tested. F. W. Riggs opines that the term ‘Comparative’ should be used, only for empirical, nomothetic studies.
The basic contribution of the comparative study is that it has helped eliminate the narrowness of provincialism and regionalism of the subject of public administration. It has ....
Question : Riggs’ key concepts have alerted the researcher that Weberian bureaucracy might not be entirely predictive of behaviour in most Third World Countries.
(1995)
Answer : Riggs’ ecological approach to the public administration was initiated by J.M. Gaus, Robert A. Dahl and Merton long before Fred Riggs. But it was Riggs who made a significant contribution to its approach. This type – approach relating toadministration with different environment sought many unanswered questions especially about Weberian’s bureaucracy and its applicability in the developing countries.
A number of critics like Peter Blau believed that Weberian model of bureaucracy cannot be applied to administrations of ....
