Abstract

This paper takes a comparism of the administrative system of Nigeria and that of the defunct Soviet Union. Using the Fred Riggs' Prismatic — Sala model of ecological analysis as its theoretical based, the paper contends that the socio-political and economic environment of societies shape and determine the principles and practice of administration in such societies. Data for this paper were sourced and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The paper explores the ecology of the societies under study and their administrative systems. It inquiries into whether or not their administrative systems conform to the Weberian ideal bureaucracy. It extrapolates their similarities and differences, challenges, prospects as well as lessons from the societies under study. The analysis reveals severe lacunas in the bureaucratic structure of both societies emanating from the ecological forces which surround the practice of administration in the societies under study. it was thus, recommended that, both societies pursue a revamping of their socio-political and economic structures as well as institutions so as to achieve a more diffracted and impersonal administrative system which enthrones merit, speciazation and impersonality as against the prevailing infamous norm of a politicized public service and its attendant corruption and ineptitude which pervades the administrative systems of both societies.