Comparative Perspectives on Bureaucracy in the Global South

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Bureaucrats play a central part in shaping the political, economic and social development of nations. Along with their direct involvement in policymaking, bureaucrats indirectly influence citizen trust in the state. Yet bureaucracies also vary widely in their capacity to fulfill their policy mandates and promote citizen rights. Understanding the drivers of varied bureaucratic performance is critical at a moment when politics is rife with polarization and misinformation, at the same time as populist presidents are seeking to undermine the state.

Our panel examining how bureaucracies in developing countries respond to political pressures, shape policy, and influence political behavior. The four papers engage distinct, but interrelated questions on bureaucratic performance over a wide range of governmental functions: How do bureaucratic agencies effectively counter attacks against public health experts? What strategies do public prosecutors deploy to fend off political corruption, and what are the consequences for societal trust in the state? What accounts for the rapid growth in public school provisioning, in a broader context of low-quality services and high levels of citizen exit to the private sector? Finally, how do new theoretical perspectives on bureaucracy help to explain the uneven performance of the state in developing countries? The papers in this panel draw on a rich array of field-based evidence from Brazil and India, showcasing a variety of research methods and analytical lenses.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Individual Presentations

• The Sources of Bureaucratic Resilience against Executive Attack - Jessica Rich, Marquette University

• The Political Economy of Oversight: Evidence from Brazil - Guillermo Toral, IE University

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

• Varieties of Bureaucracy: Rethinking the State’s Role in Development - Akshay Mangla, University of Oxford

Chair

• Alison E. Post University of California, Berkeley

Discussant

• Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner University of Virginia