ABSTRACT

This paper explores the SERVICOM reform, which was instituted in 2004 to fight the corruption and inefficiency considered to plague the Nigerian Civil Service. Using the method of ‘following the policy’, the paper demonstrates the meaning of SERVICOM for its various stakeholders: United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) officers, Nigerian bureaucrats, SERVICOM officers and citizens. The paper also shows how SERVICOM is made in the indeterminate bodily movements and social interactions of street-level bureaucrats rather than in the policy models crafted by experts. Not only has SERVICOM been incoherently implemented, it has also has been characterised by excessive rhetoric, which has constructed the idea of a good-willed technocratic state, eliciting ambivalence and catharsis in public discourse. Further, DFID officers have construed the reform as a success. This research provides an ethnographic perspective on how transnational ‘good governance’ initiatives in Africa are translated on the ground.

摘要

本文探讨了SERVICOM改革，该改革于2004年发起，旨在打击困扰尼日利亚公务员制度的腐败和效率低下。本文使用“遵循政策”的方法，证明了SERVICOM对于其各个利益相关者的意义：英国国际开发部（DFID）官员，尼日利亚官僚，SERVICOM官员和公民。本文还显示了SERVICOM是如何通过街头官僚的不确定的身体运动和社会互动而不是专家制定的政策模型制成的。SERVICOM不仅被不一致地实施，而且还具有夸张的措辞，从而构筑了一个善意的技术官僚国家的思想，在公共话语中引起矛盾和宣泄。进一步，英国国际发展部的官员认为改革是成功的。这项研究为如何在非洲转化跨国的“善治”倡议提供了人种学视角。