Bureaucracy and Crisis of Development in Prismatic Cum Post-Colonial African States: An Ethical Review

Abstract

The continued and fragile existence of administrative states in Africa had been attributed to the government’s inability to deliver on the needs and demands of the constituents. African states, like other states that emerged through social contracts, had been bequeathed with enormous functions upon her citizens, and the actualization and delivery of these functions are paramount concerns of its bureaucracy, which has failed to reposition itself to provide the needful indicators of development in the administrative states of Africa. The history of Africa’s bureaucracy and bureaucratization regimes had never delivered on the good promises and dividends of democracy and national development; rather, it has retarded and brought about an intractable crisis in the development of Africa. However, it is against this backdrop that the purpose and thrust of the study is to adequately investigate and appreciate the nexus between bureaucracy and development in Africa, its role in continued existence of post-colonial economies. Methodologically, the study utilized qualitative method while generating its data and the framework of analysis was strictly anchored on Riggsian theory of prismatic society. The findings of the study had revealed that the inability of the various administrative states in post-colonial cum prismatic societies to accentuate development strides was holistically tied to variables of bureau pathetic behaviour. The study strongly recommends, among others, an orientation, training and capacity building for national growths and development.