Risk-averse Bureaucracy, White Rhinos, Orwell and China- Window#2
How much do politicians interfere in bureaucracy? How should India approach the Indian Ocean region? Why are White Rhinos becoming extinct? and more
Hey! Welcome to the second edition of the Window Watch newsletter. Through this newsletter, we hope to bring you interesting stuff to read. From research papers to random threads on Twitter, we will do the heavy lifting of curating and sending them to you. Read, watch, learn and enjoy!
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Research Corner:
What’s up with Bureaucracy?
Most of you would have heard about the recent tussle between the Union and the West Bengal government. For those who missed it, here is a summary from The Indian Express
(Mamta) Banerjee, accompanied by Bandyopadhyay(then Chief sec), had skipped the meeting(review meeting on Cyclone Yaas chaired by the prime minister), but interacted with the Prime Minister for a few minutes and submitted two reports.
After the episode, Bandyopadhyay, a 1987-batch IAS officer, was recalled and asked to report in New Delhi on May 31.
The state government refused to release Bandyopadhyay. On May 31, he resigned from the services and, within hours, was made adviser to the Chief Minister.
This is not the first time that a government is trying to transfer a bureaucrat whom it does not like nor would this be the last. In fact, transfers and ‘punishment posts’ are the norm in bureaucracy. Lakshmi Iyer and Anandi Mani in their paper titled Travelling Agents: Political Change And Bureaucratic Turnover In India find that an average tenure of an IAS officer is just 16 months. They also find that only 56% of officers complete more than one year in one job.
This is cause for great concern. Factors like these drastically bring down efficiency in bureaucracy. Sneha P et al discuss exactly this in their latest working paper on Bureaucratic Indecision and Risk Aversion in India.
Prospect theory is used as a framework to understand bureaucratic indecision. It basically states that loss hurts more than gains. And as with all economic concepts today, it is also expressed in mathematical form.
p(G)*v(G) + p(B)*v(B) (if the value is positive, one must choose the good outcome)
[probability of good outcome*value of good outcome + probability of bad outcome*value of bad outcome]
The paper suggests that even if the value is positive, bureaucrats are choosing not to go with the good outcome. They suggest that there is a higher focus on routine tasks, coordination failures, and a deterioration in the quality of service delivery because of this risk aversion and indecision. The paper goes on to discuss the reasons for such an aversion to risk.
The organisational design of bureaucracy, its institutional norms and culture and political interference and pointed out as the broad factors for such risk aversion.
Here, we will discuss political interference.
The authors cite a 2010 survey of civil servants. The results reveal important insights. Almost 35% of officers have considered resigning, and almost 80% of them cite political interference as the reason. About 75% mention frustration in the job as reasons for such consideration. All these play a role in how public service is delivered in India.
Civil servants, however, seem to work well when they work with politicians who
(i) are aligned with the party in power
(ii) command a large vote-base
(iii) are the sole representative liaising with the bureaucrat.
But in most cases, one bureaucrat is stuck between different politicians, therefore there are negative effects on efficiency.
This interference increases as one moves up the power ladder. Have a look at the graph below.
Another problem which we touched upon earlier is the punishment posts transfer. These disincentives any autonomous decision making and critical thinking. The officers are expected to toe whatever their political bosses are saying. Naturally, officers tend to become sycophants who value proximity with the politician more than public service.
The above graph from Iyer and Mani 2012 illustrates the fact. Each regime change is characterised by an increased number of transfers.
The paper also discusses other important factors stifling public service efficiency. It raises interesting questions like Are Indian bureaucrats risk-averse by selection? and exploring the problems with how incentives are aligned for the bureaucrat.
The paper also puts forth and discusses some recommendations to resolve these issues. These include transparency in decision making, indexing public sector wages in sink with the market, management training modules etc. Check out the paper to know more.
P.S: With all this talk about bureaucratic inefficiency and political interference, one must not lose track of the fact that we are in a democracy. Politicians are supposed to hold power over bureaucrats as only the former is accountable to the public. This, however, should not give a clean chit to abuse of political power.
Ladakh Crisis and India’s maritime Interest
Even after a year, there are no conclusive reasons for China's intention behind the Eastern Ladakh stand-off with India. The crisis has opened up a plethora of questions for people concerned with India's National Security policies. Arzan Tarapore's recently published paper analyses the events that have taken place in the last year and their security implications for India both in the near term as well as in the future.
India and China find themselves entangled to restore the status quo ante in the border conflict in Eastern Ladakh. After multiple rounds of talks and consultations at various levels, both Indian and Chinese forces settled on a mutual agreement to disengage troops from the north and south banks of Pangong Tso. The last talks failed to achieve any significant breakthrough resulting in a stalemate. India has been insisting on a disengagement process for the remaining friction points. The Chinese have been blocking PP-10, 11, 11A, 12 and 13 from being accessed by Indian troops for patrols in the strategic Depsang plains. Further, the Chinese refuse to pull back from the other friction points such as Hot Springs and Gogra which they see as vital positions to observe Indian posts.
India's continental approach to defying its adversaries has stressed the concentration of men, material and money towards our northern borders. As a result, India's attention towards the Indian Ocean has been that of a step-motherly approach. The present crisis has further implicated this situation. Arzan Tarapore recommends a three-pronged approach to handle the China problem with a far-sighted approach.
Check out the paper if you're interested.
THE CRISIS AFTER THE CRISIS: HOW LADAKH WILL SHAPE INDIA’S COMPETITION WITH CHINA
Nature Corner:
Humans and Nature; Water and Oil
There are species, or rather were many species that existed comfortably until humans walked into the scene.
Animals and birds that survived climate change, meteors, Ice Age and other extremely hostile living conditions, have gone without a trace because of the unbalanced Human-Nature interactions.
How funny is this? Certain species have gone extinct just because humans wanted a taste of their flesh.
The latest addition to the list of animal species that couldn't withstand the 'Human Factor' is the Northern White Rhino. With the last male Rhino passing away in 2018, the chances of keeping the species alive are becoming extremely bleak. There may be plans to make more rhinos in the lab.
But the fact remains that humans do not mix well with other species on the planet.
Opinion Corner:
Orwell and Sullivan
In 1946 George Orwell wrote the famous essay ‘Politics and the English Language’. It discusses the importance of language in politics and how clear writing is vital for healthy discourse.
American political commentator Andrew Sullivan uses Orwell’s essay as a framework to assess today’s writings. From unnecessary jargons to complex sentences, Andrew discusses the problems with examples. Check it out if you are interested in writing. Also, don’t miss the original essay; it should be a part of ‘essential reading’ for anyone interested in writing non-fiction.
Our Politics And The English Language
Podcast Reco:
Yascha Mounk discusses Islam, Liberalism and politics with author Mustafa Akyol. They explore liberal thought in the history of Islam, discuss why the West (Christianity) was able to adopt liberalism easier than the Islamic world and so on.
And Finally
'How to name it?' Just as the album is titled, it is very challenging to name the effect Ilayaraaja has on people. This Indian-Western fusion album by Isaigani, as he is widely called, was released in 1986. Listen to it and take your mind off all the chaotic stuff happening around us
That’s all for this week. Please feel free to use the comment section to express your opinions and discuss. If you would like to contribute and write for us, kindly get in touch with us at article19fos@gmail.com