1. The Relationship Between Politics and Bureaucracy
Kedar Bahadur Adhikari
Secretary
Office of The Prime Minister and Minister Council
22 August, 2017

2. Outline Relationship Between Politics And Bureaucracy
Issues and Challenges of Nepalese Bureaucracy in political change
Power and Politics interface in the context of transition
Conclusion

3. Relationship Between Politics and Bureaucracy
Widrow Wilson first mention about relation of Politics and Bureaucracy in 1887 in his essay "The study of administration. "
The field of administration is a field of business. It is removed from the hurry and strife of politics.... Administration lies outside the proper sphere of politics. Administrative questions are not political questions. Although politics sets the tasks for administration, it should not be suffered to manipulate its offices.”

4. Relationship Between Politics and Bureaucracy.....
Often describe in the context of the political process. Distinction is made between the two stages of policy making and policy implementation. Classic approaches assume that public administration has a pure function of Policy Implementation, Policy prescribes the goals which the administration will have to attain.

5. Relationship....
Modern era administration has more role than policy implementation. administration also has an essential influence at the stage of policy-making, for instance by
(a) unofficially initiating or even pre]-formulating parliamentary motions,
(b)commenting on political initiatives,
(c) playing the leading part in the drafting of legal texts, and
(d)exerting an influence on the preparation of the annual budget bill.

6. Relationship....
Economically motivated New public Management Theory describe it as Principal /Agent Theory where Principal represent politics and Agent represent Administration. In this Theory, politics as the “principal” concludes agreements with the administration as the “agent” about the services to be provided.

7. Relationship....
Inventory of NPM instruments: result measurements, reporting systems, rating systems and accreditation systems and similar measures are intended to reduce the information disadvantage of politics, and incentives such as bonus/malus models, incentive agreements, performance -linked pay, etc., are intended to bring the administration’s interests into line with those of politics. In this way, NPM severs the informal (opaque) ties between administration and politics but compensates for this with formalised reporting and incentive systems(Schedler andProeller 2000: 83 ff-

8. Relationship....
Paullitt and Bouckaert choose Minister – Mandarian model which describe the relation between politics and administration. They select two distinguishing features for relations between ministers andmandarins (officials):–
degree of integration: this indicates the strength of the integration of the ministers’and officials’ careers. The authors’ thesis states that reforms are easier to implement in integrated systems since both groups have a comparable education/training back-ground and incentive systems;–

9. Relationship....
degree of politicisation: this indicates the strength of the politicisation of leading administrative positions. The authors’ thesis states that reforms are easier to implement in more highly politicised systems since politicians and senior officials are more likely to be in agreement. However, a lower degree of politicisation tends to lead to a more stable situation.

10. Strength of Nepalese Bureaucracy in political Change
Handled every transition successfullly (After Democratic movement of 2046, Decade long Insurgency, after movement - changing from king regime to Federal now in Federal Set up and settling peace agreement)
Accepted the change and worked hard to stabilize political change.
Took lead on economic liberalization, second generation reform, Famous administrative reform after 2046.
Shown highest capacity at the time of transition,Always cooperative with political change.

11. Issues and Challenges of Nepalese Bureaucracy in Political Change
Unstable Political Environment
Goals not Clear. Changes according to the change of government. Not focusing on prepared long term plan(Three year/five year Plan, Ministerial vision/mission, etc)
Not ready for change ( it happens regularly)
Less innovative

12. Issues and Challenges of Nepalese Bureaucracy in Political Change
Low morale thus less productivity
fear factor of transfer
Rent seeking behavior

13. Issues on Institutionalizing Federalism
Defining clear functional role of three tier government
Restructuring of Federal set up of Administration
Transfer of fund, function and functionaries to constitutionally defined tiers of government
Establishing sound legal and institutional framework
Capacity building of three tier government in changing context

14. What has been done so far
Local level restructuring took place
Local government election held in 6 provinces.
Election Constituency determination Commission working for defining new election constituency
Unbundling of constitutionally annexed function of governments
Policy Directive committee in the Chairmanship of Prime Minister formed.

15. What has been done so far
Coordination Committee under the chairmanship of Chief secretary
A high level committee on administrative committee formed in the Chairmanship of Kashiraj Dahal
Employee Adjustment bill in Parliament

16. Interface between Politics and Bureaucracy
Politics govern, Bureaucracy supports. Sometime Interchangeable roles
Bureaucracy loves to be within Constitutional, legal, institutional framework but Politicians want to go beyond. Good for development but create conflicts.
Politicians are thinker but bureaucracy are implementer.
Politicians comes from any discipline, Bureaucrats need specialized knowledge

17. Where can we find meeting points
from Bureaucracy side:
discuss clearly on constitutional arrangements and the organisational goals with politicians before reaching any decisions
update politicians on assignments and responsibility regularly
make a working calender mentioning majot instittutional function to be carried out
Update on progress. Discuss failures and start again
suggest innovation, change that revitalize organization and benefit to the people
disseminate the important achievement publicly through political leaders

18. Where can we find meeting points
from political side:
Lead from the front
Ensure professionalism rather than proximity of political edeology
set the goal of ministry that minister want to achieve within a certain time frame. Motivate managers and team accordingly
Instigate innovation into organization. Do policy dialogue within and outside organization before reaching major policy decision.
Make a important decision involving senior management

19. Conclusion
Politics is above all the sphere thus need to take leadership winning confidence of bureaucracy and society at large. Bureaucracy should support the politician in attaining political and institutional desire/goals. Both sector need to hand in hand.