Abstract:
Bureaucracy plays a vital role, which is similar to that of the other major stakeholder in the field–politicians,
in the policy making process. Therefore, likewise political representatives, bureaucracy should be
characterized by the societal make-up in order to ensure democracy in the administration. In this context, the
concept of representative bureaucracy has been significantly employed in both developed and developing
countries to address the problems of diversity and particularly, guarantee the inclusiveness in the
governmental services for a more responsive public administration. This paper examines the representative
characteristics of the colonial bureaucracy following the structural and functional adjustments introduced to
the early civil service administration of Sri Lanka. In this process, the main focus given towards redefine the
concept of representative bureaucracy following the broad interpretations available over the notion of
representation and concluded into two interrelated formations as passive and active representative
bureaucracy in which bureaucrats share same demographic origins and policy outputs produce benefit for
the people. Even though in a colonial context of administration, this study observed some commendable steps
taken to ensure the passive-representative features of bureaucracy mainly through the system of recruitments
and promotions, local administration and the process of Ceylonization of the Civil Service in Sri Lanka.
