Bureaucratic Involvement Research Articles

The Effects of Policy-Interested Bureaucrats on State and Local Policymaking

From 1971 to 2023, 19 states, 24 counties, and 105 cities passed Source-of-Income Anti-Discrimination (SOI) laws, outlawing landlord discrimination against tenants receiving rental assistance. I present a theory of bureaucratic involvement in state and local policymaking, arguing that policy-interested local bureaucratic agencies—signaled by participation in a national membership organization—elevate mission-relevant policy problem definitions to the legislative agenda and motivate the passage of legislation. I present results from a Cox Proportional Hazards Model which demonstrates that SOI laws are significantly more likely to be enacted in cities, counties, and states associated with a public agency which is a member of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, even compared to jurisdictions associated with non-member Public Housing Authorities of similar sizes.

Educational Reforms in Pakistan: A Comparative Study of Civil-Military Regimes (1999-2018)

The study is based about comparison of civil-military regimes (1999-2018). The main objective of the study is to explore the educational reforms/policies and analyze the internal / eternal factors related to failure of educational system in Pakistan. Education plays a usually role in the advancement and protection of National Identity. However, being ideological state the Western countries considered Pakistan nurturing anti west approaches amongst a few Muslim countries. They claimed that Muslim countries included Pakistan majority of children getting Madaris education, where they produced extremists, fundamentalists and Islamic Jehadists. The radicalization concept was converted into technical education through Education Sector Reforms (ESR) 2002, education for all. This article sheds light on the educational reforms/policy of civil-military governance regimes 1999-2018 of Pakistan with a major focus education for all, introducing technical education and Madaris reforms to achieve 80% literacy rate. These education sector reforms did not fruitful due to involvement of bureaucrats for making policies and ignored educationist in the relevant field specialists. After 2010, the 18th amendment in the 1973 constitution of Pakistan the slogan of civilian governance compulsory education for the children from ages five to sixteen (free education for all). Here millions of children still have not registered in education to achieve the target. There are so many other flops like religious factors and sectarian violence. Through 18th Amendment the school education is the subject of provincial matter.

Turf Wars in Foreign Policy Bureaucracy: Rivalry between the Government and the Bureaucracy in Turkish Foreign Policy

Abstract This paper, using examples from Turkish foreign policy between 2002 and 2014, argues that the fragmentation in foreign policymaking due to adopting different foreign policy ideas, that is, ideas of the elected leadership and the bureaucracy, is likely to generate competition between the state agencies that constitute the foreign policy bureaucracy. If there is backlash in the bureaucracy to realize the government's revisionist foreign policy goals, then the government aims to transform the bureaucracy by empowering certain small bureaucratic units, that is, missionary agencies. Once the degree of conflict between the government and the bureaucracy becomes severe, then the elected officials opt to work with the established bureaucratic agencies to speed up the decision-making processes. The analysis based on a series of interviews conducted with sixty-one Turkish foreign policymakers shows that the turf war in the foreign policy bureaucracy is a conceptual framework for comprehending how elected officials use bureaucratic tactics to undermine the involvement of bureaucrats in decision-making processes. Finally, the study contributes to current debates on populism and the presidentialization of foreign policy by showing that the foreign policy bureaucracy is not immune from the anti-elite, anti-establishment rhetoric of governments.

“Who Will Write for the Inuit?”

This article examines the circumstances surrounding the first publication of an Indigenous novel in Canada, namely Uumajursiutik unaatuinnamut by Markoosie Patsauq, in 1969-70 It describes the context of the federal government’s cultural policy, in particular within the then Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and how this impacted relations with Inuit generally speaking, but also how it set the stage for bureaucratic involvement in the production of an English adaptation of Patsauq’s text, widely known today as Harpoon of the Hunter. Finally, we present our own rigorous new translations, titled Hunter with Harpoon/Chasseur au harpon, done in collaboration with the author and based on his original Inuktitut manuscript, suggesting some more ethical practices for working with Indigenous source texts.

Entrepreneurial passion and venture profit: Examining the moderating effects of political connections and environmental dynamism in an emerging market

This article analyses the contingent factors which influence the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and venture profit. While research on entrepreneurial passion is burgeoning, studies that analyse contingent factors and boundary conditions surrounding entrepreneurial passion theory are sparse. Moreover, we know very little about how the influence of entrepreneurial passion on venture outcomes might vary in emerging markets, typically characterised by higher levels of bureaucratic involvement and institutional deficiencies. We extend entrepreneurial passion theory by testing a contingent model that evaluates the influence of political connections and environmental dynamism on the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and venture profit. More specifically, we examine the role of passion on venture profit and the moderating impact of political connections and perceived environmental dynamism. Using time-lagged data from 231 small businesses in Ghana, we find that political connections amplify the potency of passion as a driver of venture profit. In addition, we find that this interaction is conditioned by environmental dynamism; specifically, the moderating effect of political connections on the relationship between entrepreneurial passion and venture profit is stronger when dynamism is high. Our fine-grained analysis increases the conceptual scope and generalisability of entrepreneurial passion to non-Western contexts.

Bureaucracy Involvement In Local Election In Konawe Selatan District

Local Election often makes the bureaucratic apparatus face a dilemma, between being neutral or being involved in politics. Ideally and based on the rules of law, bureaucracy requeired to behave professional and neutral from politics. Despite that in reality it is difficult fot the bureaucratic aparatur to be neutral, moreover when they faced with the temptations and pressures of power. This article highlights the involvement of bureaucracy on local election in Konawe Selatan District, by outlining the modes of bureaucratic involvement, and identifying factors of bureaucratic involvement. This study found that the bureaucrats involved in the Lokal Election were state civil servants and village government officials. Factors that encourage bureaucratic involvement are: the status of incumbent regional head candidates who remain active during the implementation of the elections, the lure of promotion for the bureaucratic apparatus, weak sanctions by the State civil apparatus commission and regional head candidates, and weak supervision and enforcement of election supervisory agencies (Bawaslu and ranks).

AGENTS, PRINCIPALS, OR SOMETHING IN BETWEEN? BUREAUCRATS AND POLICY CONTROL IN THAILAND

AbstractIn the aftermath of the 2006 and 2014 Thai coups, observers declared the resurrection of the bureaucratic polity. Bureaucrats, though, remained influential even during the period of 1992–2006, when elected politicians were thought to command the Thai state. Bureaucratic involvement in politics poses a challenge for dominant political science theories of politician–bureaucrat relationships, which draw heavily from principal–agent frameworks. I apply agency theory to Thailand, testing three different hypotheses derived from the theory. Examining legislative productivity and control over bureaucratic career trajectories, I find that elected politicians increasingly acted as principals of the Thai state from 1992 through 2006, and to a lesser degree from 2008 to 2013. Thai bureaucrats, though, have frequently engaged in the political sphere, blunting political oversight and expanding their independence vis-à-vis politicians. This suggests that the principal–agent model overlooks the range of resources that bureaucracies can bring to bear in developing countries, granting them greater autonomy than anticipated. As such, theories of the politician–bureaucrat relationship in developing states need to better account for the mechanisms through which bureaucrats exercise policy discretion and political influence.

Comment on “Error and Regulatory Risk in Financial Institution Regulation”

Comment on “Error and Regulatory Risk in Financial Institution Regulation”

Electoral Proximity and the Political Involvement of Bureaucrats: A Natural Experiment in Argentina, 1904

In this paper, I use a slightly modified version of the Becker–Stigler model of corrupt behavior to explain bureaucratic political involvement. Since bureaucrats prefer higher rewards and not to support losing candidates, we expect them to become politically involved near elections – when rewards are expected to be higher, and information more abundant. Taking advantage of a natural experiment, I employ differences-in-means and differences-in-differences techniques to estimate the effect of electoral proximity on the political involvement of justices of the peace in the city of Buenos Aires in 1904. I find a large, positive, and highly local effect of electoral proximity on their political involvement, with no appreciable impact in the months before or after elections.

Human Development in Pakistan and Bureaucratic Predicaments

Pakistan’s persistent ailing condition in the realm of human development raises major concerns about its governance mechanism. The problem seems to exist in the formulation of decentralization policies combined with delays and failures in implementation caused by political interests and inefficiency of the administrative machinery. This article attempts to highlight the current situation of human development in Pakistan using three basic indicators—education, health, and poverty levels—using evidence from data. It further develops a theoretical framework of bureaucratic involvement in public service provisions and problems faced by implementing agencies by identifying lacunas in the legislation of devolution plan.

Exploring corrupt practices in public sector management: the case of Nigeria

The public sector is that part of economic and administrative life which deals with the delivery of goods and services by and for government, whether national, regional or local. Socio-political and economic developments in Nigeria have been distorted by high levels of corruption conducted and condoned by bureaucrats and by the political elite since its independence in 1960. This paper locates bureaucratic anti-social financial practices within a structure-agency interaction framework to argue that the inter-relationship between human actors and their social context both constrains and enables predatory practices, and it considers how this inter-relationship causes these anti-social practices to take place. The evidence shows that the involvement of bureaucrats and the political and economic elite in corrupt practices in Nigeria is facilitated by poor institutional structures and by a lack of will on the part of the Nigerian Government to curb financial crime. The paper also makes suggestions for reform.

Rethinking Bureaucrats in the Policy Process: Criminal Justice Agents and the National Crime Agenda

Policy scholars have noted that bureaucrats can play an important role in defining policy alternatives. Few studies, however, examine the extent of their involvement in this process. This study contributes to public policy scholarship by offering a framework for understanding the strength of bureaucratic involvement in the process of defining problems and policy alternatives. Using witness data from congressional hearings on crime between 1947 and 1998, I find that federal, state, and local criminal justice bureaucrats have come to occupy a central role in the process of defining policy alternatives. In addition, I find that the centrality of criminal justice actors comes at the expense of interest groups, community organizations, and citizens/victims. Implications for criminal justice policy and understanding bureaucratic involvement in the policy process are discussed.

Growth Slowdown in Bureaucratic Economic Systems: An Issue Revisited

Bureaucratically organized systems tend to be less efficient than economies in which agents are free to choose their output targets, as well as the means to meet them. This paper presents a simple model of planner-manager interactions and shows how bureaucratic economies can end up in a low-effort, low growth equilibrium even though they may have started in a high-effort, high-growth equilibrium. The empirical evidence from eight Central and Eastern European countries during 1948-89 is consistent with our model results, namely, that the growth decline was systemic in nature. The results are applicable to countries in other regions with heavy bureaucratic involvement in the economy.

Growth Slowdown in Bureaucratic Economic Systems: An Issue Revisited

Bureaucratically organized systems tend to be less efficient than economies in which agents are free to choose their output targets, as well as the means to meet them. This paper presents a simple model of planner-manager interactions and shows how bureaucratic economies can end up in a low-effort, low-growth equilibrium even though they may have started in high-effort , high-growth equilibrium. The empirical evidence from eight Central and Eastern European countries during 1948-49 is consistent with our model results, namely, that the growth decline was systemic in nature. The results are applicable to countries in other regions with heavy bureaucratic involvement in the economy.

Growth Slowdown in Bureaucratic Economic Systems: An Issue Revisited

Bureaucratically organized systems tend to be less efficient than economies in which agents are free to choose their output targets, as well as the means to meet them. This paper presents a simple model of planner-manager interactions and shows how bureaucratic economies can end up in a low-effort, low-growth equilibrium even though they may have started in high-effort , high-growth equilibrium. The empirical evidence from eight Central and Eastern European countries during 1948-49 is consistent with our model results, namely, that the growth decline was systemic in nature. The results are applicable to countries in other regions with heavy bureaucratic involvement in the economy.

Discourse and Destruction: The City of Philadelphia versus MOVE.

In the early 1980s, the radical group MOVE settled into a rowhouse in a predominantly African-American neighborhood of west Philadelphia, beginning years of confrontations with neighbours and police over its anti-establishment ways and militant stance against all social and political institutions. On May 13, 1985, following a period of increased MOVE activity and threats by neighbours to take matters into their own hands, the city moved from bureaucratic involvement to violent intervention. Police bullhorned arrest warrants, hosed down the rowhouse, sprayed tear gas through its walls and dropped explosives from a helicopter. By the end of the day, eleven MOVE members were dead, an entire block of the neighbourhood was destroyed, and Mayor Wilson Goode was calling for an investigation. How did this struggle between the city and MOVE go from memos and meetings to tear gas and bombs? And how does the mandate to defend public order become a destructive force? Sifting through the hearings that followed the deadly encounter, Robin Wagner-Pacifici reconstructs the conflict between MOVE and the city of Philadelphia. Against this account, in which the participants - from the mayor and the police officers to members of MOVE and their neighbours - offer opposing versions of their aims, assumptions and strategies, Wagner-Pacifici develops an analysis of the relation between definition and action, between language and violence. Was MOVE simply a radical, black separatist group with an alternative way of life? Or was it a terrorist cult that held a neighbourhood and politicians hostage to its offensive language and bizarre behaviour? This book shows how competing definitions of MOVE led to different strategies for managing the conflict.

In search of Saraswati: The ambivalence of the Indian academic

College teachers in India are the focus of this article. Working conditions, attitudes, and their organizational milieu are surveyed. Data for this article are provided by a case study of the University of Bombay. The ambivalent role of the college teacher as an individual with an inadequate income, declining social status, and yet the pretensions of professionalism is a theme of this article. The Indian teaching community has been called on to function in a rapidly expanding higher education system but with inadequate resources. This situation has led to declining standards of education in general, and in a demoralization of the academic community in particular. A tradition of bureaucratic involvement in academic affairs and only a limited amount of academic freedom have further retarded the growth of a profession and effective teaching community.