Geographical Administrative Burdens: Shadows of Citizenship in Privatized Housing Societies of Pakistan

• In Event: Testing the Boundaries of Administrative Burden

Abstract

Background

Today, many urban citizens live in hybrid governance arrangements where they are subjected to different rules and regulations while accessing public services depending upon their place of residence. While citizens residing in one part of a city may be governed by rules made by the state, others may be subjected to regulations made by private organizations that oversee implementation of public service delivery in their domain. The implications of such heterogeneities of frontline public service delivery models remain largely understudied in previous scholarship on administrative burdens which almost exclusively considers the state as the primary architect of policies influencing the citizens.

Research Focus
This article analyzes geography-based heterogeneities of administrative burdens faced by citizens living in private housing societies of Pakistan. More specifically, it documents the experience of citizens residing in private housing societies as they try to access their fundamental rights (health, education, electricity and burial) guaranteed by the state but provided by private housing societies.

Research Methods
Data for this paper comes from an ethnographic study in Lahore, Pakistan focused on heterogeneities of citizenship based on geographical location. Data collection methods include direct and participant observation of citizen interaction with service providers as well as digital groups made citizen collectives about access to fundamental rights in private societies. Focus groups and interviews were also conducted with homeowners, residents living in rental houses as well as the management of two private housing societies in Lahore, Pakistan. 

Results
Our results indicate that different degrees of citizenship exist in private housing societies in terms of access to specific basic rights as well as exposure to administrative burdens while accessing such rights. This inequality exists along axes of gender, ownership status and social class. Moreover, access to affordable education and health facilities is not available to a majority of residents in these housing societies because of limitations in public policies governing such societies. Housing societies that aim to target rich residents deliberately prevent low-cost public or private schools and health facilities from being opened within their premises as branding policies. Importantly, basic aspects of democratic freedom like having a voice in decisions impacting them are also denied to many citizens due to their residential status as well as governmental mismanagement. Women, in particular, face the brunt of these limitations because of limitations in bureaucratic competence, socioreligious norms, and privatized policies around mobility, burial, and school enrollment.

Contributions

This article makes the following contributions. First, it illustrates how policies made by non-state actors (in this case, private housing societies) often end up being more important than government policies in an increasingly privatized urban landscape in many countries. Second, it shows how an intersection of publicly and privately imposed administrative burdens create inefficiencies and inequities among different social groups based even after death. Third, it presents evidence of administrative burdens that arise neither from hidden policymaking nor through biased individuals but through the inscription of socioreligious discourses in policy documents by public and private organizations.

Author

• Muhammad Azfar Nisar, Lahore University of Management Sciences
  Presenting Author