Bureaucratic Practices Research Articles

Discipline

With Discipline, we focus on techniques and mechanisms that advance corporeal, attitudinal, and behavioural docility and thereby contribute to contemporary processes of social differentiation and exclusion. Exploring the intersection of migration policy and welfare governance, we discuss disciplinary measures deployed at the intersection of welfare and migration regimes with the aim of understanding how internal border and welfare controls discipline poor non-citizens by criminalising certain kinds of behaviour. Drawing on concepts including micro-violence and micro-aggression, this keyword looks at bureaucratic practices, their justifications and their consequences for non-citizens, before moving on to theorise how such practices have come to permeate the wider society. Disciplinary systems of welfare governance depend on the threat of punishment: individuals are prompted to discipline themselves because they could become the object of disciplinary power at any moment. Such disciplinary techniques are efficient, productive, and subtle, and can result in the increasingly ‘automatic’ internalisation by non-citizens of certain kinds of behaviour.

Suspicion and surveillance

In this article we focus on contemporary processes of social differentiation and exclusion at the intersection of migration policy and welfare governance. The keyword pair looks at bureaucratic practices, their justifications, and their consequences for non-citizen subjects’ paths and moves on to theorise about the permeation of these practices into society. We discuss the effects of the suspicion-surveillance nexus on the observed body and mind and how they operate in support of increasingly intrusive practices. Rather than debating the legality of such practices and the inequalities and power relations they imply, we focus on the possibilities of control as discourses become technologised.

The Time of the Chancery: Normative and Discretionary Dating in 7th–8th-century Arabic Epistolography

Abstract One of the signs of the early implementation of shared bureaucratic practices across the newly established Islamic empire are the highly standardized formulaic features of seventh- and eighth-century Arabic official documents. At the same time, the use of dates and dating formulae appears to have been less closely regimented compared to other components of Arabic documentary templates. This article offers an overview of the different dating formulae used in the early Islamic official correspondence with an emphasis on patterns of difference (e. g., how norms for date formulations varied depending not only on the function of the document but also on the issuing office, scribe, recipient, direction of the communication). In particular, it is argued that the comparatively high variability of dating formulae suggests that the dates were not considered to be a structural part of documentary templates and were therefore more prone to respond to social variables, such as corporate designs of single chanceries and scribal styles. Furthermore, evidence suggests that dating formulae (or the absence of a date) reflect the register of written communication.

Implementation of the Plavon Program in Population Administration Services

Background: The increasing reliance on technology in public service delivery has led local governments to adopt e-government systems. Specific Background: This study explores the implementation of the PLAVON e-government program in a rural context, addressing the operationalization of such systems in local governance. Knowledge Gap: Existing research highlights e-government frameworks, yet the challenges and successes of community-level implementation remain underexplored. Aims: This research aims to analyze PLAVON's implementation, focusing on standard operating procedures (SOPs) and community engagement. Results: Findings reveal that structured SOPs enhance efficiency and transparency in public services, enabling self-service for citizens. Novelty: This study offers insights into the challenges and strategies of rural e-government implementation. Implications: Results underscore the importance of tailored bureaucratic practices and community involvement, providing valuable lessons for similar programs in rural areas. Highlights : Efficiency: Structured SOPs enhance the efficiency of public service delivery. Transparency: Clear procedures foster transparency in administrative processes. Community Involvement: Active participation of local citizens is crucial for successful implementation. Keywords: E-Government, PLAVON, SOP, Community Engagement, Rural Implementation

Which client is worthy of using discretion? Analysing storytelling practices of Dutch street-level bureaucrats in inter-departmental settings

Abstract Multiple welfare states are re-emphasising the need for street-level bureaucrats’ (SLBs) discretion to stimulate responsive service provision. However, little is known about how SLBs with diverse backgrounds in inter-departmental settings deliberate what it means to use discretion well when different rules, eligibility criteria, and interpretations apply to a client. We address this gap by investigating the stories that participants of a Dutch policy experiment told each other to justify which clients should be granted a flexible interpretation of entitlement categories amid scarcity. We found that ‘caretakers’ used the ‘victim of circumstances’ and ‘good citizen’ plot-type to convince ‘service providers’ that the use of discretion was the right thing to do, whereas the latter used the ‘not needy enough’ or ‘the irresponsible citizen’ plot-type for contestation. Our analysis shows that storytelling helped SLBs to make sense of and bring cohesion to complex situations. Moreover, the analysis shows how stories can have a strong emotional appeal and create a sense of urgency to act collectively, yet can also create divisions and opposition among SLBs. As such, storytelling influences how SLBs think and feel about the client, themselves, and each other, and influences how discretion is used at the front-line of public policy.

Pobrecitos: Determinations of deservingness in the Costa Rican asylum process

AbstractThis article examines how Costa Rica's asylum process enacts bureaucratic bordering, shaping refugee deservingness through intertwined logics of security and humanitarianism. Based on fieldwork from 2016 to 2022, the analysis focuses on two areas: daily interactions between asylum officials and applicants, and the bureaucratic practices in humanitarian aid distribution. The first case analyzes a form of micro‐level bureaucratic bordering in the ways officials draw on racialized understandings of cultural, social, and economic differences to categorize asylum seekers as deserving or undeserving. The second explores how a restructured aid system, with NGOs as filters, erects bureaucratic barriers that complicate access to services for asylum seekers. Both cases demonstrate how deservingness is determined through the interplay of institutions, actors, and procedures, reflecting broader trends of the intersection of security and humanitarianism in migration management, ultimately marginalizing those least equipped to navigate the bureaucratic complexities of the asylum system.

Impediments to Effective Leadership in Public Service: A Case of Administrative and Political Challenges in County Governments in Kenya

This study addresses the substantial challenges facing leadership effectiveness in Kenya's county governments, focusing on bureaucratic inertia, political interference, resource limitations, and issues with meritocratic appointments that undermine governance and public trust. The research aimed to comprehensively analyze these barriers and propose actionable strategies for improvement. What are the primary administrative impediments to effective leadership in public service within county governments in Kenya? How do political dynamics influence leadership effectiveness in the public service sector at the county level? And what strategies can be implemented to overcome these impediments and enhance leadership effectiveness in county governments? The research questions were: Grounded in theories of transformational and transactional leadership the study explores the contrast between these leadership styles in overcoming the identified challenges. The study employs a mixed-methods approach. Qualitative data from interviews and case studies, alongside quantitative insights gathered through surveys of county officials, public servants, and community leaders, provide a holistic perspective. Purposive sampling ensured diverse participant viewpoints were captured because it allows for targeted sampling. Key findings using Likert scale of 1-5 underscore significant impediments to effective leadership: bureaucratic inertia (rated 4.0), political interference (3.9), resource constraints (3.8), insufficient training (3.7), and political appointments lacking meritocracy (4.2), corruption (4.1), fraudulent academic credentials (3.5), patronage (3.8), and tribalism (3.7). These findings reveal systemic challenges that hinder leadership effectiveness and governance outcomes. In conclusion, entrenched bureaucratic practices, external political pressures, and systemic flaws in leadership appointments hinder effective governance in Kenyan county governments. Addressing these issues necessitates comprehensive reforms, including transparent appointment processes, strengthened anti-corruption measures, strategic resource allocation, and enhanced professional development for public service leaders. From the findings the study recommends implementing transparent and merit-based appointment systems, bolstering anti-corruption efforts, prioritizing targeted resource allocation, and investing in continuous leadership development programs. These measures are crucial for fostering transparency, accountability, and sustainable development in Kenya's county governments

(Un)Credible citizen: citizenship dispossession, documents and the politics of the rule of law

ABSTRACT This article explores how states mobilise ideologies of the rule of law to legitimise, facilitate and obscure human rights violations, especially in the context of citizenship and migration. There is a global pattern of states using ostensibly legal means to undermine citizenship status of vulnerable minorities. In several national contexts, the invocation of the rule of law and the use of legal identity documents are interlocked. States have relied on the regimes of documentary citizenship as the legal face of citizenship deprivation. This article studies India's north-eastern state of Assam – one of the most striking instances of this pattern – where bureaucratic practices of citizenship adjudication have threatened the citizenship status of more than 3 million people. It shows that despite being centred around them, the administrators of documentary citizenship routinely disregard identity documents in their everyday functioning. It argues that India's ethnicised politics towards immigration constitutes contradictory attitudes towards identity documents. Officials imagine legal identity documents as legitimate and viable, and simultaneously compromised due to administrative corruption and complicity. This documentary doublethink engenders grave instability of citizenship status. The article illuminates how the rule of law – like the documentary regimes it sustains – is Janus-faced by producing and obscuring precarious citizenship.

Entangled contestations: transnational dynamics of contesting liberal citizenship in South Asia

ABSTRACT This paper investigates contemporary transformations of citizenship in India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar in their historical trajectories. More specifically, we focus on the contestation of liberal aspects of the respective citizenship regimes, in particular principles of non-discrimination on the basis of caste, race, gender, religion, or ethnic belonging as well as a high degree of legal certainty about one’s citizenship status. We advance two central arguments. Firstly, we argue that while often studied in isolation, the processes by which liberal citizenship is contested across the three countries bear remarkable similarities. We therefore develop a transnational comparative perspective to highlight the legal mechanisms and social logics by which citizenship regimes across the region are being transformed. Secondly, we argue that to capture these transformations, we need to complement the analyses of legislative changes with an investigation of socio-legal practices. This dual focus reveals how the interplay between seemingly innocent legislative changes and particular bureaucratic practices across all three countries produces zones of liminality, in which entire population groups experience increasingly precarious citizenship status. We theorise this production of liminal citizenship by focusing on the social lives of official documents and the proliferation of rules and regulations governing the respective citizenship regimes.

Spaces and challenges of citizenship

AbstractThis commentary engages the articles in the “Citizenship, Solidarity, and Nonbelonging” forum by discussing three points: citizen participation in and challenges to bureaucratic practices; the spatialities of citizenship and belonging; and the potentials for co‐optation of civic mobilization vis‐à‐vis the privatization of state responsibilities. It concludes that citizen mobilizations can effectively structure the terms of the debate and create new forms of belonging in the wake of inherited injustices.

Affects of Objectivity: Decision-Making Practices in the Dutch Asylum Procedure

This article explores the pursuit of objectivity in the Dutch asylum procedure, where asymmetrical forms of intimacy and techniques of suspicion are used to gather sensitive information from asylum applicants and evaluate their case files. Firstly, I examine the procedural design and how objectivity is pursued in producing distance, detachment, and the rotation of several Immigration and Naturalization Department (IND) officers in and out of applications. Secondly, I focus on the authority granted to a specific kind of trained IND subjectivity, well-versed in a critical and intuitive reading of the ever-suspected asylum applicant. By analysing the entanglement of objectivity and subjectivity, this study contributes to existing scholarship on the interplay between emotions and legal judgment, as well as to scholarship on borders and bureaucratic practices within contexts of heightened control and securitization. By doing so I challenge the notion of ‘emotion management’ as a means to enhance objectivity, arguing that pursuing objectivity in these state practices is not merely managed affective work; more crucially, it privileges affects of suspicion.

Cause of death coding in asthma

BackgroundWhile clinical coding is intended to be an objective and standardized practice, it is important to recognize that it is not entirely the case. The clinical and bureaucratic practices from event of death to a case being entered into a research dataset are important context for analysing and interpreting this data. Variation in practices can influence the accuracy of the final coded record in two different stages: the reporting of the death certificate, and the International Classification of Diseases (Version 10; ICD-10) coding of that certificate.MethodsThis study investigated 91,022 deaths recorded in the Scottish Asthma Learning Healthcare System dataset between 2000 and 2017. Asthma-related deaths were identified by the presence of any of ICD-10 codes J45 or J46, in any position. These codes were categorized either as relating to asthma attacks specifically (status asthmatic; J46) or generally to asthma diagnosis (J45).ResultsWe found that one in every 200 deaths in this were coded as being asthma related. Less than 1% of asthma-related mortality records used both J45 and J46 ICD-10 codes as causes. Infection (predominantly pneumonia) was more commonly reported as a contributing cause of death when J45 was the primary coded cause, compared to J46, which specifically denotes asthma attacks.ConclusionFurther inspection of patient history can be essential to validate deaths recorded as caused by asthma, and to identify potentially mis-recorded non-asthma deaths, particularly in those with complex comorbidities.

Memahami Dinamika Administrasi Publik dan Implementasi Kebijakan

Abstract. This study aims to explore and analyze the factors that lead to the persistent discrepancy between policy formulation and effective implementation in public administration.
 By utilizing secondary data obtained from various scientific sources, this study uses qualitative research methods to provide insight into the complex dynamics that influence the outcome of policy implementation.
 The findings of this study emphasize several key factors influencing policy implementation. First, bureaucratic structure and organizational processes are identified as elements that significantly affect implementation results. This study reveals that inefficient bureaucratic practices and systemic barriers often hinder effective policy translation into practice. Moreover, the role of leadership in ensuring the successful implementation of policies in public administration emerges as another important factor. Effective leadership, with its ability to mobilize resources and inspire commitment, plays a critical role in driving successful policy implementation. Furthermore, political factors were found to greatly influence the dynamics of policy implementation. Research shows that political instability, self-interest, and ideological conflict can hinder effective policy implementation, leading to sub-optimal outcomes. To bridge the gap between policy formulation and implementation, this study outlines the main strategies. This strategy includes improving communication channels, stakeholder engagement, capacity building, and cultivating a culture of accountability and transparency within the administrative system.
 In conclusion, this research sheds light on the complexities surrounding policy implementation in public administration. By understanding the multifaceted nature of the problem and adopting strategic interventions, policymakers can work towards achieving a more effective and efficient policy implementation process.
 Keywords: Bureaucratic structure; Organizational processes; Policy implementation; Political factors, Public administration

How does population size influence administrative performance? Evidence from Malta, Samoa, and Suriname

Public administration scholars pay increasing attention to the role of context as a pathway to genuinely comparative analysis. Specifically, they focus on the economic, institutional and socio-cultural conditions in which administration takes place. Population size is an overlooked contextual factor despite the fact that existing studies often make implicit, positive assumptions about the effects of smallness on administrative performance. We investigate these assumptions by focusing on small, rather than large states across three dimensions: representativeness, transparency and service delivery. Drawing on unique qualitative data from three small states from different continents, Malta, Samoa and Suriname, we find that contra implicit assumptions, small population size does not have the overwhelmingly positive effects that much of the literature assumes. Rather, smallness tends to undermine legal-rational decision making and to facilitate patronage-based service delivery. These findings indicate that the contextual turn in public administration needs to pay more attention to the way population size shapes bureaucratic practice in all states, large and small.

Bureaucratic sludge: Bureaucratic tasks and procedures leading to experiences of strain

AbstractIn light of the recent conceptual debate about the administrative burdens framework, this article introduces the ‘bureaucratic sludge framework’ as a complementary theoretical approach for social policy and public administration research. The framework enable researchers to pursue novel research questions about for instance the interplay between administrative procedures, informal bureaucratic practices and public employees' experiences of strain and thus addresses a conceptual gap in the field. The article presents a non‐normative conceptualisation, proposing a typology of bureaucratic tasks—information seeking, assessment, implementation, and emotional labour—that may impose cognitive‐affective strain. Finally, a research agenda is outlined, and the bureaucratic task typology is proposed as a conceptual point of departure for researchers to empirically explore and audit practical instances of bureaucratic sludge in their contexts to further theorise and advance our understanding of the phenomenon. Social welfare is considered as an especially fruitful context within which to pursue this research agenda.

Bureaucratic encounter, voice behaviour and citizen satisfaction

ABSTRACT This article investigates whether citizens’ satisfaction with public service is related to citizen – state encounters, and how voice behaviour shapes this relationship. We provide empirical support for our hypotheses with an original nationwide survey among 5,000 citizens in China. We find that individuals who experienced unfair bureaucratic treatment tend to have lower satisfaction with government performance in public services. We also present evidence that citizens’ vertical and horizontal voice significantly mitigates the negative impact of unfair bureaucratic practices. This study provides insight into the unequal outcomes of citizen-state interaction, emphasizing the significant role of citizen voice in the fairness-satisfaction link.

From bureaucratic practice to competing policy: examining the durable and redistributive nature of land regularization politics in Bangalore

This article examines the politics of land regularization pushed for by lower and middle-income groups across various sites post the expansion of Bangalore in 2006, which has created numerous non-master planned settlements, especially in peri-urban areas. I argue for a rethinking of the debates on urban informality in Global South urbanisms through a focus on this politics. I describe the production of the urban through an ethnography of land’s social and administrative embeddings, which pays close attention to the historical and competing claims on land and the institutional complexity of bureaucracy. I also foreground the interpretative frames of residents, rather than planning codes. This methodological approach reveals how non-plan actors channelize various bureaucratic modalities, including higher state spaces, in order to negotiate and co-produce land policy. In sum, the article reveals how this mode of urbanization arises due to the state’s need to navigate complex rival claims on land and residents’ push for more equitable redistribution. This contests the sweeping diagnosis of land grab, failures of Master Planning, and the reckless extension of free markets on land, which usually frame analyses of urban informality.

Categorizing land: an account of leftover land in Patna

This paper is an account of Bihar State Housing Board (BSHB) and its role in allocating housing and land from the 1970s onwards in Patna. The housing board typifies the bureaucratic practices of property-making at its best and demonstrates how the bureaucracy strategically aligned itself with caste-driven state politics. The unstable nature of forward–backward caste-based partisan politics meant politicians made unceasing efforts to garner support to stay in power including that of the bureaucrats who had far more control and knowledge about administration rules. By creating the discretionary category of chit-put land, loosely translated as leftover or not useful for anyone, an elaborate rationale was created for land allocation. This flexibility was used for carving out new land parcels for the high-income and middle-income category in Patna. The board dexterously encroached on the land allocated for the urban poor in whose name the land acquisition was undertaken at the outset. Using minutes of the meetings of BSHB, the paper also argues for alternative approaches for drafting and mapping the spatial history of a non-metropolitan city without a master plan and maps.

Equivocating Houses: Kinship, Materiality, and Bureaucratic Practice in Post-earthquake Nepal

Equivocating Houses: Kinship, Materiality, and Bureaucratic Practice in Post-earthquake Nepal

Being Bhil: The politics of becoming indigenous in India and Pakistan

ABSTRACT This article, based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival data, examines the limits of indigeneity and the role of the nation state in unintentionally fostering or discouraging identity formations of certain kinds. It focuses on Bhils, the largest ‘tribal’ group in South Asia with a population of around 17 million, to ask why they are seen as ‘indigenous’ in India though not in Pakistan. It shows how the colonial category of ‘tribes’ for the Bhils has been sustained and strengthened in postcolonial India due to institutional and bureaucratic practices, vernacular publications, upper-caste and transnational activism while a different set of actions by the state of Pakistan have resulted in absence of such ‘regimes of discipline.’ This divergent scenario is contrasted with a field view of the rural countryside by describing the complexity of self-identity and claims-making of the Bhils around the Narmada Valley, India and Tharparkar, Sindh province, Pakistan. The identity claims of the Bhils in both the countries, ranging from Kshatriya (upper-caste warriors) to Dalits (formerly ‘untouchable’ castes) show striking similarities, though also differ at times and is mostly at odds with the global indigeneity discourse and the administrative categories.