The Politics-Bureaucracy Interface in Developing Countries

The political-bureaucratic interface has been the subject of much academic interest. However, research has tended to focus exclusively on wealthy institutionalized democracies, with little attention given to the political-administrative relationship in developing countries. Evidence on reform processes in poorer nations increasingly points to the importance of interactions between politicians and bureaucrats. Drawing on this work, this paper provides a systematic overview of the political-bureaucratic relationship in developing countries. The paper makes two contributions. First, it introduces a typology of political-bureaucratic relations based on four models – collaborative, collusive, intrusive, and integrated – and discusses examples of each. Second, it analyses the main factors associated with different models of political-administrative relations, and considers how countries can move from one model of relations to another. The paper, therefore, provides a much needed entry point for scholars and development policymakers to better understanding the relationship between politicians and bureaucrats in developing countries.