Comparative and Development Administration Questions and Answers

Answer: D

Actual behaviour similar to formal expectations is not a characteristic of the Sala model. Riggs described the sala as the administrative sub-system of a prismatic society, marked by formalism, which is a gap between the formal rules and actual behaviour, and by nepotism and institutional corruption.

Institutional corruption, nepotism and formalism are characteristics of the sala, so they are wrong as answers. In the sala the actual behaviour differs widely from the formal rules, which is the reverse of the last option.

Answer: B

The official key gives the Civil Aeronautics Board as the last of these independent regulatory commissions in the United States. Of the four, the Federal Power Commission came in 1930, the Federal Communications Commission in 1934 and the Maritime Commission in 1936, and the Civil Aeronautics Board in 1938, so it is the latest to be created. I did not check the dates in a source.

The other three are earlier by these dates, so the key rejects them.

Answer: A

The Masterman Committee, set up in Britain in 1948, dealt with the political activities of civil servants. It examined how far civil servants could take part in politics, and its report led to the grouping of civil servants into politically free, intermediate and restricted classes.

The functioning of the Whitley Councils, which are joint bodies of employers and staff, and the reorganisation of administration are matters for other bodies, such as the Fulton Committee on the civil service. So the first option is the answer.

Answer: B

The Enterprise Act, 2002 was passed in the United Kingdom. It reformed competition law, set up the Office of Fair Trading on a statutory footing and the Competition Commission's tribunal, and brought in rules on cartels and bankruptcy.

The United States, France and India have their own competition laws, such as the Sherman Act and the Competition Act, 2002, but the Enterprise Act is British, so the key accepts the UK.

Answer: D

WEHAB stands for water and sanitation, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity and ecosystem management, the five areas Kofi Annan stressed at the 2002 Johannesburg Earth Summit. This is (ii), (iii), (v), (vii) and (viii), option D.

Option A includes agro-industry and plain water, B includes employment, housing and biotechnology, and C includes biotechnology. These are not the five named areas. Water and Sanitation is a single item in WEHAB, so the combined item (ii) is used and not the plain item (i).

Answer: A

The official key says development administration in India, traced to the Community Development programme begun in October 1952, started on the recommendations of the Krishnamachari Committee. V. T. Krishnamachari was the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission and chaired a committee associated with the programme. I could not verify the link in a source, so the key is followed.

The Administrative Reforms Commission was set up in 1966, later than 1952, and the Mahalanobis model is a plan model for the Second Plan. The Project Appraisal Committee is not tied to the programme.

Answer: B

Decision making under development administration is supposed to be flexible and innovative, which is (i) and (iii). Development goals call for quick adaptation to changing situations and for new ideas and methods, so rigid rules do not help.

Centralized decision making and rigid procedure belong to traditional or regulatory administration. Options that include (ii) or (iv) are therefore wrong.

Answer: B

The key gives code B, (ii) (iv) (iii) (i): regulatory administration with routine operations, orientation to efficiency and economy with emphasis on individual performance, task orientation with concern for security and playing safe, and a sharp hierarchical structure with a strict, authoritative climate of mistrust. I could not trace these pairs to a single source, so the key is followed.

The other codes pair the hierarchical structure with resistance to change or with individual performance, which the key rejects.

Answer: C

The feature common to New Public Administration and Development Administration is that both are change oriented. New Public Administration, which arose from the Minnowbrook conference of 1968, wanted administration to bring about social change and equity, and development administration is concerned with administering programmes of social and economic change in developing countries.

An ecological perspective is the central point of the comparative approach of Riggs, effective coordination is a general principle of organisation, and serving organisational interests is the opposite of the outward-looking aims of these two fields. So the third option is correct.

Answer: A

All four statements describe the independent regulatory commissions of the United States. They are regarded as arms of the Congress, as islands of autonomy, since they are outside the control of the President and the departments, as the fourth branch of the Government, since they combine legislative, executive and judicial powers, and as headless, since they are collegial bodies that do not come under any single head.

Every option that leaves out one of these four is therefore incomplete, and the first option is correct.