Dynamics of rural development administration

Policy-makers as well as practitioners of Public Administration in developing countries are increasingly looking for new insights to improve the performance of field-level administrative functionaries working as change-agents. This pioneering field-study of a Village Panchayat in Rajasthan brings to bear upon the conventional studies of Development Administration a new set of tools and concepts from the discipline of Psychology with a view to evaluating the performance of the change agents who play an important role in implementing the development policies at the grass-root level.
The present study has gone beyond many earlier ones as it takes up for detailed analysis the problems of the perceptions, attitudes and performance of those members of the administration with whom the villagers come in touch on a day-to-day basis i.e. the patwari, the police, the lineman of the State Electricity Board, drivers and conductors, the village extension worker, the Executive Secretary, the school teachers, the malaria worker and the gram panchayat functionaries. The author has thus adopted the 'societal dynamic approach' which includes the interactional pattern of various subsystems operating within a village. What makes this study more realistic and down-to earth is the technique of participant observation for collecting the relevant information through informal talks with the rural-folk.
This volume will be of immense use to the policy-makers and field-level administrators, besides teachers and researchers in the discipline of Public Administration,