Dennis L. Dresang

Ethnic Politics, Representative Bureaucracy and Development Administration: The Zambian Case *

Ethnic groups argue that a certain proportion of administrative positions should be filled by their members. This concern assumes that a bureaucrat applies to his tasks the values and interests of his social background. Evidence from Zambia, a country in which ethnic and regional differences have been highly politicized, suggests that this assumption lacks empirical support. The fundamental guidelines that appear to shape administrative behavior in Zambia are the calculations of what must be done to achieve individual career advancement. Administrators are, in addition, constrained from pursuing parochial interests by the range of authority and discretion attached to their particular positions. Although bureaucrats do not appear to provide ideal representatives for ethnic interests, the ethnic composition of the most visible echelons of the government is of critical political significance. This is particularly evident in a country like Zambia where ethnically defined groups are contending for positions in the new postcolonial society. The symbols of power can be as important as power itself.

Diffusion of Civil Service Reform: the Federal and State Governments

Concepts and strategies for improving public personnel management emanate from all levels of government and diffuse from one jurisdiction to another. Rarely is the diffusion random. This study identifies the patterns of diffusion among state governments in the periods immediately before and after the passage of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1979 and suggests reasons for those patterns.

Comparable worth, pay equity, and public policy

Introduction Theoretical Overview Wage Inequities in Sex-Segregated Occupations Political Factors Influencing Pay Inequity in State and Local Governments Comparable Worth and Job Evaluation Implementing Comparable Worth: Some Case Studies Conclusion Bibliography Index

Sequences of Change and the Political Economy of Public Corporations: Kenya

HERE IS A WIDESPREAD ASSESSMENT throughout Africa and Asia that the promotion of economic growth is too important for the people to leave in the hands of the private sector. Yet, economic development has proved an elusive task for the regular units of the public bureaucracy alone. An increasingly common response to this dilemma is to establish public enterprises with mandates to operate as commercial organizations while at the same time serving the demands of the nation as expressed by its political leaders. Our concern here is with the response of public corporations to fundamental changes in the nature of the political elite and the direction of public policy. Public corporations are quasi-autonomous agencies, free from civil service regulations, detailed public treasury procedures, or ministerial supervision. Public enterprises are not, however, insulated from the dynamics of their political environment. They are an integral part of the political process.