Factors that contributed to increasing importance of civil service in modern day society

  • The scientific and technological development:They have led to revolutionary changes in transportation and communication system. The invention of telephone, telegraph, railways and airways has made big government and large scale administration possible.
  • Industrial revolution:It brought about certain changes in society. It led to the growth of large scale industries and factory production, over-crowded industrial towns and urban slums. The factory system also resulted in certain evils such as growth of capitalism, large scale unemployment, exploitation of labour etc. In the interest of socio-economic justice, governments in the developed and developing countries have to assume new responsibilities to set right the bad effects of the above evils. The tasks and responsibilities as well as the importance of civil service have thus vastly increased.
  • Economic Planning:Modern governments have resorted to planning as a method of achieving economic development and goals of welfare state. The new responsibilities relating to planning activities, i.e., plan formulation and implementation and creation of elaborate necessary administrative machinery have naturally widened the scope of public administration. However, in the new liberalized economic reforms, planning as a method of economic development and the administrative functions relating to it are gradually getting diminished.
  • Calamities and crisis:Natural calamities such as earthquakes, floods, droughts and cyclones have also enhanced the importance of civil services. In the event of occurrence of such natural calamities, the public administrators have to act quickly and undertake rescue operations in order to prevent loss of life and property of the affected people. Thus crisis management is an important function of public administration.
  • Population and the problems of metropolitan cities: The rapid growth of population in almost all the countries of the world, especially in developing countries, has complicated the problems of providing food, shelter, education, health and sanitation etc. to the people. Also, the growth of metropolitan cities has created certain problems peculiar to them. Some of the problems include congestion, growth of slums, housing scarcity, insufficient water supply, increasing urban crime rate etc. $he responsibility for tackling these acute social and economic problems has resulted in the increase in the sphere of activity of civil service.
  • Emergence of welfare state: As a welfare state, governments have to perform major functions such as dispenser of social services, a provider of essential commodities, a manager of key industries and banking services and a controller and regulator of private economic enterprises and activities. This has naturally increased the importance of civil service