ABSTRACT
One area of consensus in the sea of literature on African states, governments, and public services is the significant divergence between the official norms that govern these institutions and the actual behaviour of their employees, regardless of whether the literature emanates from the field of political science, anthropology, sociology, or administrative science, and regardless of the theoretical currents present and scientific positions taken in this literature. Across the board there is acknowledgement that legislation, regulations, procedures, specifications, and organizational structures, all of which have largely been patterned on Western models, are rarely adhered to by government officials and users alike (see Erdmann; VonDoepp, both this volume).
