Who puts the thorn in the citizen’s flesh? Sources underlying administrative burden in a developing country

ABSTRACT

This article identifies and analyses sources of administrative burden in the context of developing countries. We explore the case of Bangladesh’s online birth registration system, which has been causing inconveniences for its citizens. By employing qualitative research techniques such as netnography, interviews, and newspaper text analysis, this study analyses and identifies sources causing administrative burden in Bangladesh, and categorises them into two broad groups: state-generated (e.g., strict screening policy, partial digitalisation, redundant documentation, mistakes and correction hassles, and corruption) and citizen-generated problems (e.g., delay in submitting a certificate and broker dependency). When these two sources are acute, they can impose “deprivation costs” on citizens.

KEYWORDS:

• Administrative burden
• citizen behaviour
• state-citizen interaction
• administrative burden costs
• deprivation costs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data retrieved through different methods will be provided upon request.

Additional information

Funding

There was no funding to conduct this research

Notes on contributors

Shehreen Amin Bhuiyan

Shehreen Amin Bhuiyan is currently employed as a full time lecturer at the Department of Public Administration at the University of Dhaka. Previously, she served as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Public Administration at Jagannath University and also a Research Associate at the South Asian Institute of Policy and Governance (SIPG) at North South University. Ms Amin has recently completed her MSC degree from the SOAS, University of London in Development Studies, being awarded the Commonwealth Shared Scholarship. She has keen interest in the research areas of Public Policy, Good Governance, Development, Administration and Gender Studies.

Hasan Muhammad Baniamin

Hasan Muhammad Baniamin is currently employed at a full time Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and Sociology (PSS) at North South University. He had earned his PhD and MPhil degree from the University of Bergen, Norway and is also an esteemed member of the Editorial Board of Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration. He has made exemplary contribution in the field of public policy and administration through his remarkable academic articles. His research interests include areas like Administration, Governance and Trust, Bureaucracy and service delivery