Making Bureaucracy Work

Akshay Mangla is Associate Professor of International Business at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. He specializes in comparative politics, political economy, development, public institutions, education, social welfare, and South Asia.

• Part I. Introduction, Puzzles and Theory: 1. Introduction: bureaucracy and the politics of implementing primary education; 2. Bureaucratic norms: a theory of implementation; 3. The state and primary education in India; Part II. Implementing Primary Education in Northern India: 4. How legalistic bureaucracy generates uneven implementation; 5. How deliberative bureaucracy facilitates adaptive implementation; 6. Norm persistence: exit, voice and bureaucratic inertia; 7. Norm change: conflict and commitment on the front lines of reform; Part III. Comparative Extensions and Implications: 8. The argument in comparative perspective; 9. Conclusion: reimagining bureaucracy for inclusive development; Appendix: researching bureaucracy and frontline public services.

'In Making Bureaucracy Work, Mangla delves deeply into the local implementation of education policy in some of India's poorest states to ask when governments are able to deliver social services to their citizens and, ultimately, to improve social outcomes. His novel answer to this vitally important question focuses on how bureaucratic norms, which vary markedly across different localities, drive better implementation of government education policies. Paradoxically, a commitment to 'legalism,' which compels bureaucrats to strictly enforce rules and administrative hierarchies, can hinder school monitoring, among other tasks, reinforcing inequalities, whereas norms of 'deliberation' are more flexible, encouraging pragmatic responses to policy challenges. Based on deep ethnographic research, Mangla zooms into the local politics of service delivery in ways that few scholars have done, advancing our knowledge of how social outcomes actually improve - or fail to improve - on the ground.' Melani Cammett, Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University