Policy implementation and refugee settlement: The perceptions and experiences of street-level bureaucrats in Launceston, Tasmania

2020 ◽  
pp. 144078332093158
Author(s):  
Ivan James ◽  
Roberta Julian
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
Professional Experience ◽  
Qualitative Investigation ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
Settlement Policy ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

The roles played by professional frontline service providers in the implementation of refugee settlement policy in Australia have not been researched in depth. Australia plays a leading part in settling 18,740 refugees annually. This qualitative investigation interviewed 20 professionals engaged in this activity in Launceston, Tasmania and employed Lipsky’s concept of ‘street-level bureaucrats’ to explicate their decision-making processes as they implemented public policy. The findings suggest that the majority of participants contextualised and individualised the delivery of benefits and services. In doing so, their worldviews, values, and professional experience led them to ‘turn a blind eye’, ‘bend the rules’, or even engage in bureaucratic versions of guerrilla warfare to achieve what they believed to be the best outcome for their clients. This research is significant because it demonstrates that street-level bureaucrats may escape the constraints of neoliberal managerialism by exercising creative beneficent discretion that aligns with policy objectives.

scholarly journals The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the performance of street level bureaucrats in Brazil

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Spanghero Lotta ◽  
Giordano Morangueira Magri ◽  
Ana Carolina Nunes ◽  
Beatriz Soares Benedito ◽  
Claudio Aliberti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Justice System ◽  
The Public ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Care Access ◽  
Structural Problems ◽  
Health And Social Care ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Government Level

Abstract: Dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic requires that the State make hard decisions that involve the action of bureaucrats who interact with the population through the implementation of public policy, the street-level bureaucracy (SLB). In this paper, based on a mixed- method exploratory study, we analyze how the daily performance of street-level bureaucrats in different policy areas- health and social care, access to the justice system, public security and education - has changed during the pandemic. We also explore the repercussions of those changes. Based on the analysis of the perceptions of bureaucrats, changes in their work and in their relationship with the public, we identify three categories that illustrate the dynamics of SLB work during the pandemic: the SLB who faces the crisis on the front lines; the SLB who suffers the effects of the pandemic, but whose work does not require her to face it directly; and the SLB who began to work remotely. We conclude that, during the pandemic, SLB suffered in varying degrees an aggravation of structural problems, such as their removal from decision-making processes - now restricted to the highest government level - and the exacerbation of already existing conflicts and ambiguities.

Poll Worker Decision Making at the American Ballot Box

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 714-718
Author(s):  
Mara Suttmann-Lea
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Matching Law ◽  
Election Law ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Signature Matching ◽  
American Elections ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
The City ◽  
Depth Interviews

Street-level bureaucrats set the terms for policy implementation and often operate under limited oversight. In American elections, poll workers are the street-level bureaucrats tasked with implementing a jurisdiction’s laws for verifying voter eligibility. Using in-depth interviews with 24 poll workers from the city of Chicago, this article assesses how poll workers make decisions about voter eligibility under Illinois’ signature-matching law. Respondents discussed a range of considerations used when they examine voter eligibility. The evidence I present suggests they rely on personal perspectives and experiences in their evaluations. Respondents also offered a range of responses for how they would proceed in the instance of a mismatching signature—including requesting voters provide identification even though it is not a requirement in Illinois unless a voter is challenged. Broadly, these results illustrate how poll workers’ subjective interpretations of election law shape their decisions and can lead to idiosyncratic applications of election law.

scholarly journals What motivates street-level bureaucrats to implement the reforms of elected politicians?

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-160
Author(s):  
Don S. Lee ◽  
Soonae Park
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Implementing Change ◽  
Local Politicians ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Insight Into

The aim of this article is to explore the motivations of street-level bureaucrats when implementing change initiated by elected politicians. We analyse experimental data on more than 1,800 local civil servants from all 243 local governments in South Korea and find that street-level bureaucrats are more likely to implement change instigated by local elected politicians when their own policy positions are reflected in the reforms. Moreover, the degree to which street-level bureaucrats are likely to execute reforms instigated by local politicians is greater when bureaucrats perceive themselves as having more freedom to exercise discretion. These findings reveal a behavioural insight into the conditions in which bureaucrats are more likely to respond to change championed by elected politicians versus conditions where they are more likely to follow existing rules in the policy implementation process.

scholarly journals Walking the Talk of Social Equity? Street-Level Bureaucrats’ Decisionmaking About the Provision of Personal Resources

2021 ◽  
pp. 027507402110505
Author(s):  
Einat Lavee
Keyword(s):  
Public Administration ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Social Equity ◽  
Personal Resources ◽  
Personal Resource ◽  
Social Service Providers ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

While public administration scholars argue that core values of social equity are exceedingly important in service provision, less is known of how these values are practised on the frontline in the contemporary public administration. Research points to a dual trend: together with practices aimed at increasing clients’ wellbeing, public service workers’ decisions about allocating public resources are guided by moral perceptions of worthiness, leaving behind the most weakened populations. The current study aims to decipher this duality, analyzing street-level bureaucrats’ decisionmaking about providing personal resources to low-income clients, in order to examine whether the pursuit of social equity is manifested in informal practices. Drawing on indepth qualitative interviews of social service providers in Israel, we found that decisionmaking about personal resource provision is grounded in two distinct sets of values. Alongside a pattern of providing resources to deserving clients, street-level bureaucrats also provide them to clients typically considered undeserving. These latter practices are aimed at decreasing social inequality, demonstrating that social service providers often walk the talk of social equity.

Occupational Therapists as Street-Level Bureaucrats: Leveraging the Political Nature of Everyday Practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca M. Aldrich ◽  
Debbie Laliberte Rudman
Keyword(s):  
Service Providers ◽  
Occupational Therapists ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats ◽  
Professional Power ◽  
Exercise Of Discretion

Background. As front-line service providers who often work in systems regulated by governmental bodies, occupational therapists can be conceptualized as “street-level bureaucrats” ( Lipsky, 1980/2010 ) who effect and are affected by policy. Purpose. Drawing on understandings from a study of long-term unemployment, this article proposes that occupational therapists, as street-level bureaucrats, respond to inter-related policies and systems in ways that can perpetuate, resist, or transform opportunities for doing and being. Key Issues. By highlighting practitioners’ everyday negotiation of governmental, organizational, and professional power relations, the notion of street-level bureaucracy illuminates the political nature of practice as well as the possibilities and boundaries that policy can place on ideal forms and outcomes of practice. Implications. Framing occupational therapists as street-level bureaucrats reinforces practitioners’ situatedness as political actors. Mobilizing this framing can enhance awareness of occupational therapists’ exercise of discretion, which can be investigated as a basis for occupation-focused and emancipatory forms of practice.

The Missing “M Word”

2016 ◽  
pp. 106-135
Author(s):  
Jennifer M. Randles
Keyword(s):  
Policy Implementation ◽  
Family Stability ◽  
Life Chances ◽  
Primary Resource ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Resource Parents ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

This chapter shows how the Thriving Families program sought to reconcile the tension between parents’ views of marriage as something they could not afford and the policy’s goal of promoting marriage as a route to greater economic and family stability. As street-level bureaucrats who shape healthy marriage policy implementation, Thriving Families instructors deliberately avoided talk of marriage and instead emphasized committed co-parenting as the primary resource parents had to support their children’s life chances. In doing so, staff and instructors emphasized the value of something parents presumably had within their control—the quality of their relationships and parenting—over the jobs and money they did not.

Which Clients Inspire or Reduce the Trust of Street-Level Bureaucrats?

2021 ◽  
pp. 009539972110616
Author(s):  
Maayan Davidovitz ◽  
Nissim Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Service Providers ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucrats

Which types of clients increase or decrease the trust of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs)? Using interviews and focus groups with two groups of Israeli social service providers—teachers and social workers—and comparing them, —we develop a theoretical framework for determining the types of clients who evoke and reduce the trust of SLBs. Our findings indicate that there are seven types of clients who inspire or diminish this trust: —cooperative, honest, familiar, benevolent, aggressive, open, and manipulative. We discuss the significance of our findings for the implementation and outcome of public policy and suggest several avenues for future research.

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