The Art of Improvisation and Street-Level Bureaucracy

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 68
Author(s):  
Lauren Bock Mullins
Keyword(s):  
Bureaucratic Discretion ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Similarities And Differences ◽  
New Framework ◽  
Street Level Bureaucracy

This article explores the similarities and differences between the art of improvisation and street-level bureaucracy. By offering a new framework that points out the similarities between bureaucratic discretion and improvisation, we see how street-level bureaucracy has artistic elements, which can be helpful in expanding our understanding of this phenomenon.

A case study of bureaucratic discretion: heterogeneous application of market entry regulation in Germany

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Petrik Runst
Keyword(s):  
Market Entry ◽  
Case Managers ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Entry Regulation ◽  
Quantitative Evidence ◽  
Bureaucratic Discretion ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Actual Application ◽  
Uniform Manner

Abstract All law is relatively coarse after its initial implementation as the legislature cannot foresee all contingencies that can arise in the actual application of the law. Therefore, decisions need to be made by street-level administrators as novel and particular circumstances arise. Economists have largely ignored the political science literature on street-level bureaucrats, such as policemen, welfare case managers, or regulatory agents. I present a case study in the context of market entry regulation in Germany. Qualitative and quantitative evidence suggests that bureaucratic discretion exists, that is, administrative actions can be found on different ends of a decision space, and that its effects are potentially large. Administrators do not apply legislation in a uniform manner and we observe a systematically different application of rules across subnational jurisdictions.

scholarly journals Shaping migration at the border: the entangled rationalities of border control practices

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christin Achermann
Keyword(s):  
Social Reality ◽  
Structuration Theory ◽  
Cost Calculation ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Border Control ◽  
Organisational Theory ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Everyday Work ◽  
Street Level Bureaucracy

AbstractThis article analyses how border guards as members of a state organisation shape the movement of non-nationals into the territory of a nation state. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the Swiss Border Guard (SBG), it explores the rationalities—understood as stabilised ways of reasoning and acting—that characterise practices within this state organisation. Combining organisational and structuration theory with a street-level bureaucracy perspective allows for a differentiated analysis of the various facets of border guards’ everyday work. Four rationalities of border-control practices are identified and compared: security, humanitarian, cost-calculation, and pragmatic rationality. I argue that, by considering both the specific goals and imperatives of border control and the characteristics of street-level bureaucrats acting within a state organisation, these entangled logics explain the complex and incoherent social reality of border control. More generally, the results contribute to organisational theory by pointing to the importance of taking into account that multiple entangled rationalities structure the practices of an organisation’s members.

scholarly journals Dimensions of Discretion: Specifying the Object of Street-Level Bureaucracy Research

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2-2013) ◽  
pp. 425-440
Author(s):  
Peter Hupe
Keyword(s):  
Public Policies ◽  
The State ◽  
Street Level ◽  
Street Level Bureaucracy

At the street level of the state public policies get their final form and substance. This being so, discretion is a key concept. The goal of this article is to specify discretion as a research object in the study of street-level bureaucracy. Therefore the theoretical views on discretion prevalent in juridical and other disciplines are explored. Discretion appears to be a multi-faceted concept. This finding has consequences for the analysis of discretion in the explanation of what happens in street-level bureaucracies.

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