Bureaucrats play a critical role in managing governance and delivering public services, whether in democratic and authoritarian contexts. Leaders are responsible for managing bureaucrats—from assigning posts to evaluating performance—to ensure that state resources and services are directed to key constituencies. Focusing on Pakistan, a hybrid regime where military interventions often disrupt electoral politics and civilian governance, Staffing the State shows how controlling bureaucratic appointments allows politicians and civil servants to manage political uncertainty. At the same time, such control entrenches arbitrary patterns of governance such that democratic transitions stall and hybrid regimes persist.

Drawing on interviews, semi-participant observation, and newspaper archives, this book’s analysis reveals the significance of bureaucratic politics to political power, public sector performance and reform, and in determining democratic or autocratic trajectories. The findings extend discussions around indicators of democratic decay into more nuanced, complex explorations of the consequences of these politics for the permanent institutions of the state. Staffing the State will interest political scientists, scholars of South Asian politics and especially Pakistan, and those working at the intersection of politics and public administration.

Sameen A. Mohsin Ali is an Associate Professor in the International Development Department (IDD) at the University of Birmingham.