Challenging Colonial Administrative Behavior in Bangladesh

This book studies public policy and administration in Bangladesh. It studies how, despite recording high-levels of corruption persistently, some governments in least developed countries (LDCs) like Bangladesh have achieved impressive online transformation level, through digital, electronic or e-Government implementation. The book investigates the historical and political context, and examines the different policies and strategies adopted by successive governments of Bangladesh for facilitating digital service delivery transformation of traditional, paper-based, circuitous public service delivery processes. It reviews public administration reforms introduced over several decades, and other initiatives launched with the specific objective of improving service delivery management. The volume also contextualizes the new e-Government development initiatives in light of the various approaches such as traditional public administration, new public management, digital era governance, new public governance, and design thinking.

Drawing on a host of published and unpublished materials, interviews with senior public officials, academics, representatives of international donor agencies, think tanks and non-governmental organizations, and a survey of more than 400 plus bureaucrats, the book analyzes the progress of digital government in Bangladesh from a soft, behavioral perspective. It will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of public policy and public administration, politics, innovation, and South Asian studies. It will be an essential reading for bureaucrats and government officials, as well as think tanks and NGOs.