What is the relationship between bureaucracy and political executive in the present scenario?

The conventional view of public administrations based on the assumption that administration and politics should be kept separate. Politics or policy-making is the proper activity of the legislative bodies and the administration is the proper activity of the administrators who carry out policies. In our country, the civil service conduct rules prohibit the government employees from active participation in political activities.

The role of the civil service has been changing from being a mere agent of the political executive to that of collaboration with it. The involvement of bureaucracy in political area is now widely prevalent. The processes of policy-making are no longer confined to the political executive.

The bureaucrats play an important role in policy formulation, this is sometimes because, the minister is rarely an expert in the work of his department on the techniques of public administration. In effect then it is the administrator who has a major role in framing the policy. Another reason for this can be attributed to the demands and pressure of political parties. The ministers are so caught up with power game and maneuvering for their survival, they have neither the time or inclination to guide, direct and control their department or bureaucracy.

It is very often seen that bureaucracy simply acts according to the dictates of the political executive without any independent examination of issues. This trend can be attributed to the ever growing political interference in the affairs of administration. Political interference and impartial administration do not co-exist.

While administrators do not perceive their role in policy-making as subservient to the political leaders because of their knowledge and expertise, yet they have to conform to the per-requisites of representative politics. The political leader claim to be the true representatives of the people and know what is good for them and because of their superior position succeed in dictating the terms to the bureaucrats.

Political interference’s in all matters including those where the statutory power is vested in the civil servants is a constant phenomenon. Therefore, whether these are collision or collusion between the political executive and the bureaucracy, in both cases it leads to organizational imbalance and ultimately, the governance suffers.