Panchayati Raj and rural development in Andhra Pradesh, India

Agriculture development requires a perspective that would harmoniously blend macro-level needs and organizations. Vigorous national policies to promote agricultural development, giving it a strong technological base and adequate resources, are desirable and essential. The national policies that put all their eggs in the administrative basket are not likely to succeed for they lead to the weakening of political institutions. Furthermore, as long as there is no transformation in the political-administrative institutions, national policies will remain ineffective. More and more administrative institutions are being created to attend to development work but they resemble old institutions and retain a built-in elitist bias. Therefore, to make the administration more responsive, nonbureaucratic institutions have to be strengthened in order to effect the diffusion of political power. Public servants serve the public very poorly as a rule when that public is poor, illiterate, unenfranchised politically, and without prestige.