The Effect of Personality on Bureaucratic Behavior in the Case of South Korea

Abstract

When public administration in developing countries is compared to that of modern Western develope d countries, several distinctive characteristics can be observed. One finds in developing countries an excessive degree of centralization caused by unwillingness to delegate authority and lack of administrative initiative, discontinuity of administrative program, lack of consistency in governmental policy, nepotism, favoritism, lack of cooperation and coordination among administrative agencies involved in an execution of public policy, substantial discrepancy between formally prescribed rules and regulations and actual application of those rules; other discrepancies between administrative theories and practices such as between authority and control, and personalization of .administration in general. The nature of such administration has been analyzed by a number of social scientists. Fred W. Riggs identified it with "the prismatic" or "the sala model," characterized mainly by "formalism" in which administrative laws and regulations invoke other meanings in actuality and do not reflect reality; a hierarchical position of authority tends to differ from an actual power position; any changes in theory do not bring with it concomitant changes in administrative practices. While making "double talk" possible, such formalistic nature rules all functions such as (1) personnel administrations, in which nepotism and family or kinship institutions provide a formal basis of government; (2) a related practice of official discrimination in favor of his own community and against members of other communities," what Riggs called "poly-communalism";