| This study is concerned with the place of the civil bureaucracy in its democratic context in Yemen. It is an exploratory analysis of the policy role of the senior civil servants who make up the senior administrative class in the civil service of Yemen. As such, its focus is primarily on the senior civil servants who direct and supervise the civil service rather than on the structure of civil service itself.;Three topics of current interest are examined. The first topic examined is the demographic composition and socio-economic backgrounds of the senior civil servants. The second topic explored is the influence of the senior civil servants on the public policy formulation process. The third topic explored is the extent to which the senior civil servants adhere to bureaucratic and democratic principles in their management of public policy.;All senior civil servants in Yemen were targeted for inclusion in the study. Of the total, one hundred one senior civil servants agreed to receive the questionnaire; eighty-six (85.1%) returned it.;The principal data collection methodology involved a self-administered questionnaire consisting of sixty-five questions. In order to analyze the data, various statistical measures were employed. For instance, standard frequency distributions and percentages were computed for every question. Also, the chi square test was used to search for significant relationships among variables.;Our findings suggest that an active involvement of the senior civil servants in the public policy formulation process poses a dilemma. Whereas policy making by the senior civil servants poses the threat of "power without responsibility," policy making by politicians poses the threat of "power without competence." The challenge, then, is to find a creative formula whereby the strengths of both senior civil servants and politicians are maximized while their weaknesses are minimized. It appears that Yemen has a long way to go to find such a creative formula. |
