Bureaucratic Competence Research Articles

Dealing with Bureaucracy: The Effectiveness of Different Persuasive Appeals

This article reports findings from an experiment measuring the effectiveness of different persuasive appeals-normative, altruistic, reciprocal positive, and reciprocal negative-when dealing with different types of organizations. Log-linear analysis is used to compare the possible combinations of relations of organization types and persuasive appeals to various measures 'of effectiveness. The results support the exchange theory view that the client's bargaining power is the key factor behind an appeal's effectiveness. Comparison of actual measures of effectiveness with the clients' expectations, reported in previous studies, is used to discuss the existence of bureaucratic competence. Finally, the results reemphasize the claim that the bureaucrat's attitudes and behavior are less universalistic and impersonal than is stipulated by the Weberian model of ideal-type bureaucracy.

Machine Politics in Transition: Party and Community in Chicago.

Since 1932 elections and decision making in Chicago have been dominated by the Regular Democratic Organization of Cook County, led for a quarter of a century by the late Mayor Richard J. Daley. The extraordinary longevity of this Democratic machine provides the basis for this penetrating investigation into the nature of machine politics and grassroots party organization. For three years, Thomas M. Guterbock participated in the daily activities of the Regular Democratic Organization in one North Side Chicago ward in order to discover how political machines win the support of the urban electorate. Guterbock's participant observation data, supplemented by a sample survey of ward residents' attitudes toward, and contacts with the machine, provide convincing evidence that the most widely accepted notions of how political machines work are no longer correct. Contrary to conventional wisdom about the machine, Guterbock finds that the party does not secure votes by doing favors for people, nor do services rendered determine actual voting behavior. Instead, party loyalty is governed by such factors as social status, educational achievement, and bureaucratic competence. Guterbock finds that Democratic loyalists are drawn disproportionately from the ward's lowest strata. Ironically, the characteristics of these loyal Democrats contrast sharpely with the characteristics of those most likely to use party services. What keeps the machine going, then? To answer this question, Guterbock takes us behind the scenes for a unique look inside the ward club. He shows how members develop loyalty and motivation beyond concern for their own pocketbooks. And he analyzes the public involvement of machine politicians in neighborhood affairs, describing the skillful sometimes devious ways in which they appeal to their constituents' sense of community. By focusing on the interplay of party loyalty and community attachments, Guterbock is able to explain the continued hegemony of Chicago's political machine and its enduring image of legitimacy.

Hospital Pharmacy in Canada

The status of Canadian hospital pharmacy and the impact of national hospital insurance on its development are discussed. The provision of health care services for Canadians is shared by the federal and provincial governments. The federal government enacts protective and regulatory legislation, compiles health statistics, promotes research, and provides direct health care for those citizens for whom it is directly responsible. Each province is responsible for hospitals, the education and training of health care professionals, public health, and the financing and administration of health insurance for all its citizens. Largely because of line-item budget allocations and a bureaucratic tendency to equalize services for the whole population, funds for existing pharmaceutical services have been assured but the introduction of upgraded or innovative programs has been difficult to achieve. The result has been an even quality of health care services, including pharmacy, throughout the country and a deficiency in clinical pharmacy programs and the trained personnel to run them. The last decade has brought advances, however, as allocation methods have changed and both hospital and insurance administrators have recognized the patient benefits and cost effectiveness of many of the newer pharmacy programs. The main challenges facing Canadian hospital pharmacy are to upgrade clinical services and education and to improve managerial and bureaucratic competence among department directors.

Bureaucratic Competence and Success in Dealing with Public Bureaucracies

Clients of public service bureaucracies differ in their degree of bureaucratic competence–all those abilities related to bureaucratic interactions (e.g., ability to complete forms). Literature on service bureaucracies is reviewed, focussing on clients' bureaucratic competence, and on the use of normal cases (worker sterotypes)–a mechanism which may ease the bureaucrat's day. The possible value of bureaucratic competence for the client who is negatively typed is suggested. Data collected in a welfare office in New York support the hypothesis that clients' bureaucratic competence has some influence on their success. It is provocative to find in this instance that welfare, rather than aiding victims of particularism, somewhat favors those high in bureaucratic competence. These data also revealed a large degree of discretion in eligibility determinations. Widespread lower-level discretion and the importance of bureaucratic competence may be understood in terms of “interest-group liberalism” or the Piven and Cloward explanation of the elasticity of the welfare rolls.

Bureaucratic Competence and Success in Dealing with Public Bureaucracies

Bureaucratic Competence and Success in Dealing with Public Bureaucracies

The Economics of Earmarked Taxes

The Economics of Earmarked Taxes