Role of Bureaucracy in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a democratic country. In a democratic country ministers are considered to execute almost all the policies.But in general, ministers may not be expert administrative.Most of them do not have the knowledge of administrative process and details. As a result most of them can not carry on the administration,even of their own departments without the help of civil servants.The government may change and if the permanent administrations are not there the whole administrative will receive a serious set back. That is why the administrative machinery is generally set up and the important departments are manned by the civil servants. They remain in touch with all the policies and have vast knowledge of the working of the departments.

Naturally a civil servant is supposed to aid and advise the minister in an honest manner so that the experienced minister may not be guided by his whims or by his likes and dislikes.

Now-a-days it has been noticed that civil servants are sometimes nothing more than puppets in the hands of the ministers. They carry out the orders of the ministers whether these are right or wrong. Many of a time they are threatened by political leaders to do certain things which are not in the public interest at all. If we examine the working of the government closely, we will find that to bureaucrats directly or indirectly are the real policy maker. They formulate recommendations for every policy decision that the government may announce. They support one or more alternative policies based on their experience so that they may approve it on the basis of their ideologies. Even when the policies are formulated by the political executive, details are worked out by the bureaucrats. It is seen that the hand of the political leaders or their guiders. In a developing country where the leaders have no political maturity, it is necessary that the bureaucrats should safe democracy against the authoritarian tendencies of the people in power. If bureaucracy becomes subservient to political executive, it can conspire to bring the downfall of democracy and installation of dictatorship in the country.

So the role of a bureaucrat in a democratic country is larger more complicated, demanding integrity and honesty of purpose which imply detachment and unselfish approach for the betterment and development of a country.