Beyond the WEIRD World : linking Bureaucracy and Democracy in Developing Countries

Abstract

Calls to make public administration research more relevant beyond the Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD)1 world are frequent, but neglect a perennial yet timely topic: the relationship between bureaucracy and democracy. This even though public administration theorists have long argued that democratic principles and practices are at the core of modern bureaucracies. This article aims to lay a foundation for addressing this deficit. It first synthesizes the many ways in which the bureaucracy-democracy nexus has been discussed in the “Western”- centric public administration literature at the macro-, meso-, and micro-levels and identifies a set of core assumptions. Then, drawing on literature on and from the Global South, it discusses the applicability of these assumptions outside the WEIRD world, suggests possible modifications, and outlines a set of research questions that can advance our understanding of the democracy-bureaucracy nexus in developing and developed countries alike.