Bureaucracy is not just bad and bureaucrats should certainly not rotate jobs like politicians. Nevertheless, it certainly isn t quit right if officials set the terms under which they consider collaborating with their superiors. Fact is, a good and consistent policy needs a good administration in order to achieve continuity and build up long-term know-how. However, in order not to get overly dependent of the bureaucracy, politicians need to account for the problem that officials have a significant knowledge advantage. In the US there is a massive turnover of officials after a change in political power. Switzerland takes the medium position with only the highest-ranking functionaries being chosen according to their political standing. In Japan however, even top-bureaucrats withstand all political change and are in position to dictate their terms to newly elected ministers. So even though the real effects of these hearings are likely to be modest Hatoyama’s recent transparency initiative is very welcomed. At the least it triggers public interest and scrutiny in a once completely hidden-away yet paramount factor explaining Japans difficulty to reform and the non-efficient use of public funds.
Source: New York Times
