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Technical Assistance and Administrative Reform in Colombia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Lynton K. Caldwell
Lynton K. Caldwell
Affiliation:
Syracuse University
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Extract

A public administrative system is the product of its environment—particularly of its political environment. It is not discrete, but is an aspect of this same environment, affecting and affected by the tendencies of the society of which it is a part. In the rapidly changing present, the complex of social pressures and tensions have created over large areas of the globe an unsettled environment for public service. At a time when effective public administration is more than ever needed to reduce areas of social conflict by achieving generally acceptable solutions to accumulating social problems, the public service in many countries lacks the unity of purpose and technical skill to meet the challenge.

This is notably true where nations, undergoing rapid social transition and attempting uncertainly through democratic government to bring traditional values and practices into line with contemporary needs, must mediate amidst a variety of pressures and counter-pressures. Democratic administration is never easy, even in countries with long histories of democratic government and with well-developed techniques of organization and management. Where the spirit and practice of democratic self-government have not become a living part of the environment and where the political tendencies of the community are contradictory or obscure, the situation of the democratic public official is truly difficult.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , June 1953 , pp. 494 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1953

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References

1 Government; Foreign Relations; Justice; War; Finance; Agriculture; Labor; Health; Commerce and Industry; Education; Mines and Petroleum; Posts and Telegraph; and Public Works.

2 This development is not entirely novel. As early as 1923 the Colombian government adopted certain financial and monetary measures recommended by a mission from the United States headed by Professor Edwin W. Kemmerer of Princeton University.

3 The Basis of a Development Program for Colombia (Washington, D. C.: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 1950), p. xvGoogle Scholar.

4 Ibid., p. 347.

5 Ibid.

6 Comite de Desarrollo Economica, Informe Final—Septiembre 1950—Agosto 1951 (Bogotá, 1951)Google Scholar.

7 Reorganization de la Rama Ejecutiva del Gobierno de Colombia (Bogotá: Imprenta Nacional, 1952)Google Scholar.

8 See Mendershausen, Horst, “Economic and Fiscal Problems of a Colombian Department,” Inter-American Economic Affairs, Vol. 6, pp. 49–89 (Spring, 1953)Google Scholar; also Caldas en 1952: Informe de la Mission Currie al Gobernador del Departamento (Manizales, Imprenta Departamental, 1952)Google Scholar. Since the Caldas study several departmental surveys have been projected by the National Planning Council and a five-year development program for Atlantico has been completed.

9 The inter-related character of the several aspects of technical assistance was discussed by Martin, Roscoe C., “Technical Assistance: The Problem of Implementation,” Public Administration Review, Vol. 12; pp. 258–66 (Autumn, 1952)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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