Implementing affirmative action in public services: comparative administrative practice

Implementation patterns were observed by examining the public services of India, Malaysia, Nigeria and South Africa through the lens of affirmative action. In each of these countries, job reservation in public service has generated much debate, both for and against. The populations, from which public employees are drawn, have significant divisions along ethnicity/race, religion, language, and social groups such as class and caste. Each has a strong tradition of public service (inherited from the same British colonial power) and a career in public service is well regarded. Government employment is associated with social prestige, so there is keen interest and scrutiny of how affirmative action is implemented in service. Malaysia, the smallest among these four countries, has a population of 25 million, while South Africa’s population is 45 million. Nigeria (135 million) and India (1.06 billion) are among the ten largest countries in the world. Studying this mix of moderate and large-sized countries allows a probing of some of the complexities of affirmative action. Furthermore, these countries allow a check of whether the practice of affirmative action has changed much with time. India has been implementing affirmative action policies longer than any other developing or transition country, beginning in 1935 during British colonial times, and subsequently provided for in its constitution after independence in 1947. South Africa’s experiment was launched in the mid-1990s. Malaysia and Nigeria launched their own affirmative action policies in-between the other two countries. Taken together, this group of countries provides a range of practices that allow general lessons to be drawn.