Two major power wielders the democrats and the bureaucrat share political power in varying degree in running the state machine called public administration. In theory, this dualism has been duly recognized. It ranges from no real problem in securing a civil service carrying out the will of the political masters to the little that can be done about bureaucracy as a fact of modern life. Gaetano Mosca, however, came up with a concept of independent countervailing power of trained citizenry to moderate both democratic and bureaucratic power.
This paper attempts to explain the theory in terms of the administrative initiatives undertaken by the five top persons in government Mujib, Zia, Ershad, Khaleda and Hasina as affecting the structure and functioning of public administration in Bangladesh.