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As an instrument of development and social change, the state in developing nations plays a significant role. As "a set of institutions that possess the means of legitimate coercion", it "monopolises rule-making ...through the medium of an organised government" (World Bank, 1997: 20). Government is state in action; an organised body politic-embodying a formal structure of organisations, an assembly of elected and mainly appointed personnel, and a range of routines and activities to attain an array of goals for sound governance, development and human welfare. In addition to performing time-honoured traditional functions, such as regulatory control, corrective action and revenue generation, the components of the executive arm of the government, including the bureaucracy, are involved in nation-building activities, implementing policies towards economic and social progress and managing development and welfare projects. The machinery of government is expected to be engaged in the efficient management of facilities and services, in developing modernising skills, in encouraging people's participation in community development, and the like. Constitutional legitimacy and autonomy bestow upon it the obligation to use formal procedures in generating compliance of institutions and individuals (Rosenau, 1997). |
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