Impact of Globalization on Administrative and Development Ethics

Ques 25. The actions of public administrators have the forces of law and coercive power of Government behind them. Do you think administrators could claim similar authority in a globalized world ?

Ans. Sovereignty of the so called Sovereign countries is shrouded in mystery. Literally we are Sovereign but practically we are not.

Administrators work under the command of the Govt. and implement rules formulated by the Govt. but Govt. themselves are bounded through various treaties internationally.

Even those countries which have dictatorial regimes were influenced by the concept of the modern day bureaucracy of the globalized World. The Arab uprising which originated from Tunisia is one example of it.  Recent protests in Hong Kong for autonomous elections is another example. The same was also seen in pre independence in colonial India when our leaders took encouragement by seeing the power of Japan and thought that they can also be free and powerful.

The crux is that coercive power of officials will imbue a sense of dissatisfaction among masses in today's globalized world and their administration should be more rational than authoritarian.

Also Govt. are bounded by severed human rights treaties if they are a member of U.N.O. which most of them are. This leads to presence of social organizations like Red Cross in a country which to some extend check the totalitarian traits. If due to some reason you are not adhering to the human rights positions then sanctions can be put against you as in case of Sri Lanka, Myanmar and many countries of Africa Continent. So definitely administrators can not claim similar coercive authority in globalized World.

Ques. 26. Examine the implications of globalization for administrative ethics and development ethics.

Ans. Administrative ethics deals with how well a society and political system is being run a nd Development ethics deals with looking after the poor and marginalized sections of the society.

Globalization effects on Administrative Ethics – With the opening up of Indian economy in 1990 many businesses were privatized and PSU’s were dis-invested. Monopolistic control of the Government was dilated. This increased the administrative ethics, reduced corruption and red tapism as now the business model was more commercial and profit oriented. Concept of RTI from Sweden and PIL from USA have further assisted in the growth of administrative ethics. They were in use in Sweden (1766) and USA (1960) and were introduced in India in 2002 and 1979 respectively. RTI and PIL can be said to be the side effects of Globalization to some extent. Administrative ethics imbibes in it the principles of PCA, NPM and neo taylorism. Also the onset of globalization has propounded decentralization, further jeopardizing vested centralized  interests.

Globalization effects on Development Ethics – Globalization means privatization which is a sort of transformation from socialist to capitalistic pattern. Profit oriented business may tend to marginalize the poor and downtrodden of the society as now the market policies are not directed towards them. So the Govt. of the hour has to make sure that proper safeguards are present to ensure development of unprivileged population be it social or economic.

Concept like Generic drugs, limited subsidies, maintenance of National Biodiversity Population Register, recent refusal of India to ratify Multilateral Trade Agreement of WTO, Minimum Support prices for farmers all manifest the concept of Development ethics in administration. 

So we can say that administrative ethics are improved by Globalization whereas Development Ethics checks the negative tendencies of Globalization.