Bureaucratic and Ethnic Pluralism: the Nigerian Experience

Date of Graduation

Summer 1984

Degree

Master of Science in Public Administration

Department

Political Science

Committee Chair

David Heinlein

Abstract

The thesis of this work is that the apparent failure of bureaucracy in Nigeria (as in other developing states in Africa) is a consequence of arrested political development, and not, as supposed, of moral or managerial incompetence. Drawing upon Fred W. Riggs' prismatic model, the investigation demonstrates that variant patterns of bureacratic behavior in these developing countries have an internal logic of their own. The deviations do not represent an imperfect incorporation of modern administrative practices so much as they reflect the realities of the political and social context. Given the incompleteness of the state's authority, the performance of the civil service is explicable as a calculated effort of actors to optimize self-interest.

Subject Categories

Public Administration

Copyright

© Amaefule Santiago Uchegbu

Citation-only

Dissertation/Thesis

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