Role of civil services in a democracy

Role of civil servicesin a democracy

Democracy is a means for the people to choose their leaders and to hold their leaders accountable for their policies and their conduct in office. In a democracy the supreme power is vested with the people and is exercised directly by them or their elected agents. The elected agents have the authorization to govern the society for a specific period. The elected representatives cannot work alone or on their own and here the role of the civil services comes into play. The civil services with the deepest knowledge, experience and understanding of public affairs lends a helping hand to the elected representatives in formulating the policies and in turn implementing these policies. The changing needs of the society have led to an evolution in the role played by the civil services.

How and when the Indian Civil Services came into being

A body of government employees entrusted with the administration of the country, and mandated to carry out the policy of the government of the day may be termed as Civil Service and moreover it can also be termed as those branches of public service that are not legislative, judicial or military.

The public administration system in the country was prevalent from ancient times when the civil servants performed the role of servants of the king. The civil servants in the Mauryan administration were employed in the name of adhyakshas and rajukas. Kautilya’s Arthasastra throws light on the rigorous methods used to select civil servants in the ancient times.

Later during the medieval period they became state servants, who worked towards the development of land revenue system during the Mughal period. The East India Company had its own civil services to carry out its commercial functions. The civil service was set up by the British government primarily with the objective of strengthening their administration in India followed by adoption of developmental roles also.

It was in 1800 AD that the Indian Civil Services (ICS) came into being with the setting up of East Indian Company. The method adopted for recruitment to the service was by competitive examination but the method of entry was by nomination of the directors. The selected candidates would then be sent for a three-year course of education of the standards of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Later in 1853, the competition became an open one and the curriculum according to which the candidates were to be examined was such that Indians had little chance of competing successfully unless they were rich and had studied at a school in England. In 1885, the Indian National Congress was formed and their demand was to increase the number of Indians in the ICS. Giving in to their demands, the first curriculum was widened and finally in 1922 a parallel examination began to be held in India. So the result was that at the time of transfer of power, half the members of the ICS were Indians.

Civil Services in the Post Independence India

The initial years after Independence saw the strengthening of relations of mutual respect and understanding between the ministers and the civil servants. Neither of the two had to power or intention to encroach upon the other’s domain. However the succeeding years presented a different picture and the matters started changing for the worse. Some of the civil servants stopped giving impartial and objective advice to their ministers and often some ministers began to ignore advices which didn’t benefit and help them in their political interests. At the same time began the strategy to get favors in return for modulation in their decision making.

Materialism and greed got over the values and as a result political neutrality which was the hallmark of the civil service in the pre-Independence era as well as the period post independence gradually came to an end. This led to the phenomenon of ‘politicization of the civil service’ in India. As India has adopted the British model it has the advantages of being an independent, permanent and impartial civil service system. Below listed are the advantages of having an independent, permanent and impartial civil service:

·         The spoils system (also known as the patronage system) has the tendency to be reduced to a system of patronage, nepotism and corruption. Therefore having a credible recruitment process through an impartial agency provides a defense against such abuse.

·         The public policy today has become a complex exercise requiring in-depth knowledge and expertise in public affairs. A permanent civil service provides continuity and develops expertise as well as institutional memory for effective policy making.

·         A permanent and impartial civil service is more likely to assess the long-term social payoffs of any policy whereas the political executive may have a tendency to look for short term political gain.

·         A permanent civil service helps to ensure uniformity in public administration and also acts as a unifying force particularly in vast and culturally diverse nations.

·         A permanent civil service like any other reputable profession is likely to evolve over time an ethical basis for its functioning.

The above mentioned points listed the advantages and now let’s understand the importance of civil services in a democracy which will enable you to build opinion about the roles the civil services can and cannot play in a democracy.

Importance of Civil Services in a democracy

India is a constitutional democracy and one of the basic elements of Indian governance architecture is the concept of an impartial, honest, efficient and fearless civil service. Civil services form the backbone of the Indian Administration System. The importance of civil services stems from its service presence throughout the country and the role it plays in binding the various sections together.

Their role is effective policy making and later on regulation of the policies. They ensure that there is effective coordination between the institutions of governance. They work for fulfilling the development objectives of the welfare state so any failure or shortcomings in fulfillment of these objectives are attributed to the failure of civil services.

Thus the civil servants were and are needed to ensure proper functioning of the government and the society. The government needs machinery to formulate and implement policies and civil services acts as that machinery.

Since now we know the importance of civil services in a democracy let’s move ahead to the role it plays in the sound functioning of a democracy.

Role of Civil Services – Traditional & Contemporary

The globalization of the society with the advancement in the information technologies has led to a dramatic change in the role of civil services. Their role is not restricted merely to maintenance of law and order and district administration. The problems of the 21^st century are of complex nature which requires proactive participation from the bureaucracy and therefore it is necessary to view the role of civil services from an entirely different perspective. It has to play both the traditional roles which it had been playing since its inception as well as the contemporary roles which are the need of the hour.

Traditional Roles

The traditional role played by civil services includes policy formulation as well as policy implementation. The elected representatives who represent the needs & requirements of the society form the policies with technical support of the civil servants who help them to fulfill the needs of the society.

·         As a Collector

The civil servants perform the function of collecting the revenue and maintenance of law and order. As a collector a civil servant performs the following functions:

i)      Land assessment

ii)     Land acquisition

iii)    Collection of land revenue

iv)   Collections of income tax dues, excise duties, irrigation dues, etc

v)    Distribution of agricultural loans

·         As a District Magistrate

As a district magistrate a civil servant performs the following functions:

i)      Maintenance of law and order

ii)     Supervision of the police and jails

iii)    Supervision of subordinate executive magistracy

iv)   Hearing cases under the preventive section of the criminal procedure code

v)    Supervision of jails and certification of execution of capital sentences

·         As a Coordinator for all the agencies in the district

A civil servant acts as the coordinating point for all the agencies at the district level. Also their office acts as the main coordinating hub between the state and the district.

·         As a Crisis Administrator

A civil servant may be looked upon as a savior in case any crisis happens. His strength, leadership and performance play a significant role in such a situation. It is during the crisis that the effectiveness and credibility of the district system is put to test and their energies are transformed into awakened and vibrant consciousness. As a crisis administrator he ensures his job is to ensure the disaster management during natural calamities such as floods, famines or epidemics, etc.

·         As a Development Officer

The development officer better known as the collector is handed over the role of development planning in the region where he is posted. In context of India, rural development was an essential precondition for the establishment of a welfare state. Several programs for the benefit of the downtrodden began with the Community Development programs in 1952.

In the task of economic development, the role of the collector is not that of an advisor or observer alone. The emphasis is on his leadership role in the extension and development activity. The collector with the assistance of the district level staff is responsible for the implementation of various development schemes. Thus, revenue collection is less important compared to development functions performed by the collector.

Contemporary Roles

More than the traditional roles, it is the contemporary role that demands greater attention of the civil services. Following are the contemporary roles the civil services need to focus on for smooth functioning of the society and the democracy in whole.

·         National Integration

Today maintaining the national integration and security has become a major challenge as the various extremists and separatist forces are a constant threat to it. A democracy consists of diverse and multi-culture people and this leads to the need to ensure that the unity in diversity is maintained. The civil services have to play an effective role in fostering an environment of tolerance and cooperation among the different sections of society. Cases of the suppression of minorities, voices demanding separation and hate speeches to mobilize people for communal rights have increased and this calls for stringent measures to curb such cases.

·         As a change agent for the society

In this age of ever increasing globalization and decentralization, the civil servants have become the agents of change, good governance and development administration at the very base of our democratic structure. Government attention has shifted from providing physical and human infrastructure enabling individual players to compete in the global markets. The objective of welfare administrate" has also shifted from welfare maximization to people empowerment. At the district level, DC expected to act as a facilitator in the developmental process rather than being a director a regulator as was during the previous regime.

For the process of globalization to be successful, it has to be inclusive. This will mean every section of society must be able to benefit from the process of reform. It requires immediate attention to issues of agriculture, rural development, health, education, infrastructure, focusing in particular, on the weaker sections and ensuring of communal harmony at all costs. Civil servants with their modern approach and attitude can reduce the influence of intermediaries between local producers and consumers and the international market through the use of computers and internet.

·         As a whistle blower

The civil servants need to act as the whistle blower against the malpractices and malfunctions in the administrative system which has become the accepted norms now. It is morally and ethically permissible for them to promote transparency and accountability into the system to remove corruption and all forms of mal practices.

Conclusion

Right from the ancient ages, the civil services played an important role in the Indian governance system but the modern history of Indian Civil Services starts from the British rule in India. Over the years their roles have changed drastically though they still perform the traditional roles given to them. The rate at which our economy is growing has led to a manifold increase in the quantum of work of the civil services. Performance expectations have increased in terms of both speed and quality. The Government is no longer seen merely as a law enforcer or a controller of national resources. Now people expect the government o ensure growth, development and smooth functioning of the economy. Globalisation has simply meant addition of various dimensions to the concept of governance and accordingly the civil servants have to be prepared to face the challenges arising out of globalization.