“Good governance” is a term that has become a part of the vernacular of a large range of development institutions and other actors within the international arena. Almost all major development institutions today promote good governance as an important part of their agendas. In a well-cited quote, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that “good governance is perhaps the single …

Among other characteristics of state besides territory and population is government. The supreme power of the state is exercised by some political machinery through which the will of the state is formulated, expressed and enforced and this is what we call the government. The organization of the state in terms of functionality is divided into three branches: the legislative, executive …

Local government is a system of administration for small political units like districts, towns and villages. It operates within a larger framework under the constitution; the powers of local government are usually delegated by central government. The third tier of democratic set of governance is also democratically elected, and administers such matters as local environmental health, sanitation, transport, education and …

The concept of civil society is a political one and has been familiar to most political thinkers like Hobbes, Locke and Hegel. In earlier eras, the civil society had been distinguished as an organized society over which state rules. Such a distinction is not entirely valid, since the state itself is a part of society. The state institutions are bound …

Administrative Excesses & Quasi-Judicial Proceedings One often comes across seasoned bureaucrats having vast knowledge and experience of running public affairs at their credit, with their words exuding a pride of being honest and dedicated to service delivery and bringing significant changes in improving public service. I often seek guidance from them and also try to benefit from their knowledge and …

Liberalism as a set of social and political attitudes not associated with any political cult originated in 19th century in Europe. It does not identify itself with any political party though some parties profess this as a movement in their manifestos. Liberalism focuses on emancipation from feudal and monarchical control, further emphasizing on economic theory such as laissez faire. Freedom …

What is generally understood of strategy is a decision or action plan that covers all contingencies of a situation in any field, particularly public affairs. Strategy is basically the maximum utilization of available resources and the exploitation of potential force in an efficient way. Similarly, in an organization, strategic management involves organization’s engaging in strategic planning and then acting on …

Pakistan is home to more than 180 million people with 52% of them being females most of whom remain engaged, all through their life, in household work like rearing of children, looking after husband and other domestic chores. But their say in household affairs is negligible particularly in making of important decisions like for their children’s education, family planning, health …

How to manage time and workload to improve efficiency One of the main causes of stress that a public servant often faces in his service is mismanagement of time or failure in managing activities in time. There may be a number of reasons behind this phenomenon, ranging from time-wasters to lack of planning, organization or controlling activities in terms of …

 In fact, the new syllabus is an endeavour to elaborate the characteristics of each topic in the light of modern trends of public management as acquired through research, and are widely practiced the world over. The CSS aspirants, especially those who are still confused about selecting their optional subjects, should go through, at least once, the contents of the subject …