One of the primary characteristics of democratic administration is organised action. Prof. Appleby opines that “persons in high position must have a sense of action. They must try to get things done”.
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The motto of the civil servant should be service at any cost, not power at any price. Due the increase of entrepreneur activities of public administration connected with development. The administrator will have to play a more positive and dynamic role to enlarge people’s participation.
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Thus, to transform society from its relatively under developed social, cultural and political conditions to a well developed polity, the transformation must be planned one, in which, it is the business of government to be the principal planner, energiser, promoter and director of accelerated development effort.
That is why Joseph La Palombara gave a caution that “the time is evidently past when public officials were expected to sit on the developmental sidelines, limiting their roles to fixing of general rules and providing, certain basic services and incentives for those private extra preneurs, who are the major player in the complicated and exciting game of fashioning profound changes in economic and social systems”.
The governmental organs have to provide incentives for social change and also remove serious bottlenecks and correct imbalances which affect the system. Thus, the focus of public administration has, therefore, to change from the preservation of law and order to the achievement of targets, to accomplish, most rapidly with least waste and least failures.
To quote Fulton Committee Report “Technological progress and the vast amount of new
knowledge have made a major impact of these tasks and on the process of taking decisions.
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Setting a new airport, buying military supplies, striking a right balance between coal, gas,oil and nuclear powered, electricity in a new energy policy all these problems compel the administrative system to use new techniques to analysis, management and coordination which are beyond these not socially trained in them”.
It must be understood here that public administration is an integral part of development process. In order to be an Agent of change in the developing countries, public administration must have the capacity to forecast, project and understand.
The direction and tempo of major or significant changes in its environment, to plan for necessary or desirable changes, to adopt itself to changes demanded or planned by the political system and to innovate on its own.
Before taking up gigantic venture of initiating and administering developmental programmes the administrative system of these countries must undergo structural and attitudinal changes so as to acquire the right type of perception, attitudes change orientation, values and skills essential for the success of developmental activities.
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That is why Lord Fulton very rightly stated in a U.N. Seminar, it is not enough for a modern civil service, “to maintain the status quo, it must innovate and to innovate it must have a radar system, for scanning the future”.