Public Bureaucracy Research Articles

Beyond the revolving door: professional paths of accredited parliamentary assistants after the European parliament

ABSTRACT Based on the study of the professional careers of 439 parliamentary assistants of the 7th parliamentary term (2009–2014), we identify their different career patterns, especially after leaving the European parliament. We show which factors (social, biographical) influence mobility within the field of Eurocracy. We assess the importance of public/private circulation. Beyond the notorious ‘revolving doors’ and the question of the transfer of information from EU institutions to private interests, we show that parliamentary assistants form a group of specialised intermediaries of EU affairs who, after having acquired specific knowledge and know-how at the heart of European policymaking, are able to convert these assets in different sectors (public bureaucracies, private companies, or NGOs), at the EU level or in the member states. Such mobility illustrates the blurring of the public/private divide, and the hybridisation of EU governance. We thus shed new light on the structuring of the field of Eurocracy and the circulation of professionals within it.

Why Good Governance Implementation in the Post-Taliban Administration in Afghanistan Failed?

The article examines the obstacles and issues that led to good governance failure in Afghanistan in the past two decades. Afghanistan received considerable aid from the West in general and the USA in particular. Despite two decades of international community support, democracy and good governance were not institutionalised. Politics continues to be dominated by big money, goons and people with little background and training in informal politics. Power and authority were concentrated at the top echelons of government. Corruption has become so endemic that it has engulfed the entire society. President Karzai and President Ghani ethnicised the government and missed several opportunities to achieve democracy, good governance and economic growth in the past two decades. Lack of independence of the judiciary, accountability and transparency in the affairs of the State is a significant impediment to good governance implementation. The human rights situation remains unsatisfactory. One of the pressing problems of governance is the politicisation of the public bureaucracy, which adversely affects states performance. Notably, President Ghani failed to provide the country with a vision mission or to serve the nation with commitment and dedication. Bad leadership style led to the state collapse on 15 August 2021, as President Ghani fled the country and Taliban fighters captured the political power in Afghanistan.

Public sector innovation teams: Experience from field‐level bureaucracies

How public sector innovation teams take on innovation assignments has attracted insufficient attention from researchers. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the experiences of innovation teams in field‐level bureaucracies in a non‐Western context. In‐depth interviews with 62 public bureaucrats involved in 31 district and subdistrict innovation teams in Bangladesh reveal that the team members lack innovation orientation and team‐building activities, both constraining their innovation performance. It contributes to the innovation literature by explicating that several hostile organizational practices constrain team members' innovation orientation and team‐building activities, which preclude them from being proper innovation teams, affecting their innovation performance.

Peran Kepemimpinan Transformasional Dalam Merespons Tantangan Modern di Lingkungan Birokrasi Publik Pemerintah Provinsi Sumatera Selatan

This research examines the role of transformational leadership in addressing modern challenges in the public bureaucracy of South Sumatra Province. Through a qualitative approach and single case study, field data successfully revealed the dynamics of leadership and the challenges faced in achieving transformational goals at the provincial level. Findings highlight the imbalance in focus on government vision and mission, lack of employee participation and engagement, challenges in technology implementation accompanied by human resource limitations, and policy instability due to the politicized local leadership selection system. Policy recommendations include aligning vision and mission to prioritize public service, efforts to increase employee participation, investment in technology-related human resource capacity development, and advocacy for reforming the local leadership selection system. Conclusion, these findings provide a comprehensive insight to guide improvements in leadership and policies in South Sumatra Province in addressing modern challenges in the public bureaucracy environment. Keywords: Modern Challenges, Public Bureaucracy Transformational Leadership,

The ideational robustness of bureaucracy

Abstract To better understand why bureaucracy is still going strong despite a century of scorn, this article asks: How has the bureaucratic governance paradigm managed to achieve its ideational robustness in the face of consecutive waves of criticism and societal challenges? This question is answered by studying the combination of a broad range of ideational robustness strategies that have enabled bureaucracy to weather the storm and stay relevant and praiseworthy in the eyes of public governors. The article describes the core components of the bureaucratic governance paradigm and reviews four consecutive waves of criticism before explaining the ideational changes that have enabled the relative stability of public bureaucracy based on the adaptation and innovation of its content and scope. In addition to summarizing key debates about public bureaucracy, the article develops six ideational robustness strategies that may be used to study other core ideas in public governance.

The power to transform structures: power complexes and the challenges for realising a wellbeing economy

This article draws on different strands of existing scholarship to provide an analytical framework for understanding the barriers to achieving a well-being economy. It explores the interplay between agential and structural power, where some actor-coalitions can reproduce or transform pre-existing structures. Conversely, these structures are strategically selective, favouring some actors, interests, and strategies over others. Making sense of this interplay between agential and structural power, the article introduces the notion of power complexes—time-space-specific actor-coalitions with common industry-related interests and the power to reproduce or transform structures in a given conjuncture. To understand the historical “becoming” of today’s political-economic terrain, the article provides a regulationist-inspired history of the rise, fall, and re-emergence of four power complexes: the financial, fossil, livestock-agribusiness, and digital. They pose significant threats to pillars of a wellbeing economy such as ecological sustainability, equ(al)ity, and democracy. Subsequently, today’s structural context is scrutinised in more detail to understand why certain actors dominate strategic calculations in contemporary power complexes. This reveals strategic selectivities that favour multi- and transnational corporate actors over civil society, labour movements, and public bureaucracies. The article then examines firm-to-state lobbying as a strategy employed by corporate actors within today’s structural context to assert their interests. It presents illustrative cases of Blackstone, BP, Bayer, and Alphabet. Finally, it explores implications and challenges for realising a wellbeing economy based on post-/degrowth visions. It emphasises the double challenge faced by such a wellbeing-economy actor-coalition. On one hand, it has to navigate within contemporary modes of regulation that favour corporate strategies of capital accumulation while, on the other, it must confront the self-expanding and extractive logic of capital. In this context, three key challenges are outlined: the need to form unconventional strategic alliances, operate on various spatial dimensions simultaneously, and institutionalise alternatives to firm-to-state lobbying to influence policymaking.

The Influence of the Militarisation of Bureaucracies during Bolsonaro's Government on Public Opinion about the Brazilian Armed Forces

This paper examines the consequences of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's strategy of appointing military officials to high‐level positions within the federal executive branch and its effect on public opinion about the Armed Forces. The main argument is that the outsized role of the Armed Forces in the Bolsonaro administration harmed public perceptions of the Brazilian military. Despite the robust recruitment process in the public bureaucracy, Bolsonaro found a way to surround himself with ideologically extreme bureaucrats at the highest level. The study explores the systematic approach of enhancing military personnel's presence in the government and hypothesises about declining levels of trust in the Armed Forces. The paper draws on data from three waves of the Brazilian survey ‘A Cara da Democracia’ (The Face of Democracy) to show that the population's level of trust in the Armed Forces decreased during Bolsonaro's tenure. Furthermore, the Brazilian survey data also suggest that lower trust in the Armed Forces is robustly associated with dissatisfaction with Brazilian democracy.

Social Choice and Citizen Participation: Bringing Democratic Theory to Public Administration

Recent years have seen a rapid growth of interest in the inclusion of citizen participation in the work of public institutions, advancing a well-established literature in public administration, which aims to reconcile the goals of public bureaucracies with those of democracy. Consequently, a rich body of literature and empirical work has emerged, which explores the extent to which the aspirations of the literature are reflected in practical experiences of participatory initiatives. In this article, we argue that this literature would benefit from a deeper connection with democratic theory. In particular, we suggest that our ability to make assessments over the functioning of citizen participation initiatives would be strengthened by a closer engagement with the contributions made by social choice theorists. We aim to promote a constructive dialogue, suggesting that considering social choice perspectives in analyses of participation might allow the claims made by proponents of citizen involvement in public administration to be strengthened considerably.

Management Practices and Implementation Challenges in District Education Directorates in Ghana

Background: Subnational actors and organizations are crucial mediators of policy implementation due to their proximity to schools. However, in low- and middle-income country contexts, little is known about their management practices and factors that shape the adoption of these practices to improve education delivery. Purpose: We explore the management context of five District Education Directorates in Ghana, and the factors that enable or constrain them to plan and implement policy. Participants: Forty-three interviews and focus groups with regional and district education officials, district political actors, and basic education school headteachers and teachers. Research Design: A qualitative study of semistructured interviews, focus groups, and education policy and planning documents. Analysis: To understand how policy implementation happens within complex, multitiered bureaucracies, our theoretical framework uses four management functions described in Williams et al. (2021) to explore two different paradigms of how to change public bureaucracies: target setting and prioritization; measurement and monitoring; accountability and incentives; and problem-solving. We coded and analyzed our data based on this framework and developed district-wide narrative memos to synthesize the findings. Findings: We identify three areas of (mis)alignment in management practices: across bureaucratic levels and among actors; around clear and consistent priorities for learning; in expected actions and availability of resources. These (mis)alignments can constrain or be leveraged by districts to improve education delivery in Ghana. Implications: We argue for better prioritization of goals toward learning and the efficient allocation of funds for management practices typical of effective organizations.

Ignoring by complying: How public officials handle hybridity to pursue the goals of new public governance

AbstractThe article draws on insights from the literature on street‐level bureaucracy to analyze how public officials experience and deal with challenges arising from hybrid governance. Empirically, we focus on managerial staff and front‐line workers employed in Danish employment service delivery organizations, respectively. We develop the term “ignoring by complying” to describe how informants pursue ideals associated with new public governance (NPG) in settings dominated by more than one governance logic. They comply with the minimum standards associated with the logics of public administration (PA) and new public management (NPM) in order to ignore such logics most of the time. The article thereby contributes to the growing bodies of literature on cross‐pressures in public bureaucracies, particularly by putting recent street‐level bureaucracy research in touch with literature on hybrid governance.

E-Governance for Functional Bureaucratization in Nigeria: Benefits and Challenges

This paper examined the challenges and potential benefits in e-governance for effective bureaucratization in Nigeria. The study through review of extant works in e-governance and bureaucracy assessed the concepts of bureaucracy, bureaucratization and e-governance. An instrumental case study research design was adopted for the study. Data for the study was collected through secondary sources, personal observations and interactions during conferences. Content analysis was utilized to analyze information generated. The paper, therefore found out that application of modern information and communication technologies stand to improve on public bureaucracy by infusing accountability, accessibility, and flexibility in public administration. These could be achieved through the use of close circuit cameras, computer applications and software as well as artificial intelligence in public offices. However, the challenges in tapping into this gold mine of technology in public administration in Nigeria ranges from inadequacy of skilled ICT personnels, corruption and bureaucratic resistance, poor/inconsistent policies and regulatory frameworks, inadequate public and digital awareness, inadequate ICT infrastructure and digital divide, among others. The study consequently recommended among others that government should provide modern ICT infrastructure, promote cybersecurity and theft consciousness and develop ICT policies in Nigeria.

ОЦЕНКА ВЛИЯНИЯ НА УПРАВЛЕНИЕ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ БЮРОКРАТИЕЙ НИГЕРИИ ЕЕ ПЛЕМЕННОГО И ЭТНИЧЕСКОГО СОСТАВА: КАДРОВЫЙ И ГОСУДАРСТВЕННО-ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЙ ПОДХОД

This paper uses empirical studies and case studies to examine the role of ethnicity and tribalism in the Nigerian public bureaucracy. The paper is anchored on social dominance theory and bureaucratic theory. The paper, based on a triangulation approach (content analysis combined with a survey), reveals that tribal affiliation, followed by religion, is the topmost factor influencing the composition and management of the Nigerian federal bureaucracy. The study reveals that ethnic and tribal ties between different ethnic groups have a significant impact on bureaucratic processes and administrative functions such as recruitment and appointments. The study reveals that bureaucrats in Nigeria use administrative discretion to alter public policies and influence public values in favor of their kinship. This causes public bureaucracy to become irrational, unethical, divisive, parochial, and unmeritorious as ethnic and racial prejudices and biases take precedence in the composition and management of the public sector. The paper recommends inclusive governance and must redesign the institutional structure by creating an overarching level of board management to oversee the affairs of the Federal Character Commission (FCC) to reduce its apparent politicization or skewness that contradicts the original tenets upon which it was founded.

O espaço da politização na estrutura do Governo Federal brasileiro, 1999-2021

Abstract What was the extent of the Brazilian president’s politicization space within the structure of the federal public bureaucracy from 1999 to 2021? The extent of this space is related to the importance of politicization as a strategy for controlling the bureaucracy, monitoring partners, and political accommodation, following the logic of coalition presidentialism. Thus, this article sought to measure it using a descriptive methodology based on data collected from the Federal Government’s Painel Estatístico de Pessoal, encompassing positions and functions within the government throughout the period. By considering all possibilities of appointments and designations made by the president for high-level positions, this article presented an innovative approach compared to previous Brazilian Political Science studies assessing politicization in the federal government. This approach led to the conclusion that the extent of the politicization space did not substantially decrease despite the reduction in senior management and advisory positions (known in Brazil as Cargos de Direção e Assessoramento Superior - DAS), in addition to revealing a new pattern of politicization characterized by increased use of funções de confiança exclusively held by career public servants and the valorization of these servants even in DAS positions.

Policy labs on the fringes: boundary-spanning strategies for enhancing innovation uptake

Governments around the world are increasingly launching policy labs to break the alleged inertia of public bureaucracies. Operating on the fringes of their parent organizations, however, public policy labs often live a secluded life with little or no subsequent organizational adoption of lab-designed policies. This research examines how lab managers enhance policy innovation uptake through boundary-spanning strategies and practices connecting public policy labs to their bureaucratic parent organizations. Based on a qualitative study of three Danish public policy labs, it coins and conceptualizes three boundary-spanning strategies for enhancing policy innovation uptake: agenda linking, arena linking, and actor linking. Analyzing how the lab managers carry out each of these strategies in practice, the study shows their respective strengths and weaknesses in building political-administrative support for lab-designed policies on multiple levels of the public bureaucracy. The study findings suggest that lab managers must strike the right balance between under- and over-integration of policy labs in the public bureaucracy in order to enhance innovation uptake, connecting the lab to bureaucratic agendas, arenas, and actors, without compromising the integrity of the lab as a creative space for the experimental co-design of public policies. Conceptualizing managerial strategies and practices for bridging the gap between policy labs and public bureaucracies, the study contributes not only to policy lab theory and practice, but also to the mounting collaborative governance, management and leadership literatures on the tensions and dilemmas arising at the interface between hierarchical government and interactive governance.

Ethics of Public Administration

One factor that significantly influences how well companies and public administration players carry out their operations is ethics. The ethical issues that arose, including nepotism, collusion, and corruption, made the implementation of public administration ethics in the Indonesian government bureaucracy crucial. The qualitative technique was employed in this study, with primary data coming from observations and secondary data coming from media and literary analysis. The public emphasized and criticized public bureaucracy throughout the reform era because, according to studies, a small number of Indonesian government officials lack responsibility in carrying out their powers, duties, and obligations. In addition to enforcing the law, the government must develop and apply public administration ethics for its bureaucratic machinery in order to tackle this issue.

Organizational stability and resocialization in public administrations: Theory and evidence from Norwegian civil servants (1986–2016)

AbstractThe organizational theory approach to public administration emphasizes that organizational features of public bureaucracies shape civil servants' role perceptions and opinions. This study brings forward a novel refinement of this theoretical framework by arguing that such processes of organizational resocialization require intertemporal consistency of the organizational environment. We empirically test this proposition by combining individual‐level longitudinal data from a panel of Norwegian civil servants (1986–2016; N ≈ 375) with information about organizational changes in ministerial structures since 1945. Using individuals' task portfolio as our main organizational “influencer” of interest, we confirm that the impact of individuals' task portfolio on their role perceptions only strengthens over time for individuals working in ministries with a high level of organizational stability. This finding adds an important scope condition—namely, intertemporal stability—to the traditional organizational theory argument about what shapes civil servants' role perceptions and opinions.

Telework in public organizations: A systematic review and research agenda

AbstractAfter a relatively slow policy intervention and scholarly take‐up, recent developments created the urgency for massive efforts to implement and regulate telework in public organizations. We contribute to this debate through a systematic review of 120 studies across disciplines. Findings from our analysis reveal a few established antecedents of telework, including individual characteristics like family responsibilities and expected productivity, but also organizational aspects like supportive leadership, and contextual features like natural disasters. Self‐reported productivity and work‐life balance stand out as telework's most widely studied outcomes, although evidence is often conflicting when coming to the effects of telework. We present our results by distinguishing pre‐ and post‐pandemic findings. Complementing our systematic review, we engage in a generative exercise by identifying emerging debates on telework in public bureaucracies. We conclude by indicating future research directions.

Political time in public bureaucracies: Explaining variation of structural duration in European governments

AbstractStructural duration conveys stability but also resilience in central government and is therefore a key issue in the debate on the structure and organization of government. This paper discusses three core variants of structural duration to study the explanatory relevance of politics. We compare these durations across ministerial units in four European democracies (Germany, France, The Netherlands, and Norway) from 1980 to 2013, totaling over 17,000 units. Our empirical analyses show that cabinets' ideological turnover and extremism are the most significant predictors of all variants of duration, whereas polarization in parliament as well as new prime ministers without office experience yield the predicted significant negative effects for most models. We discuss these findings and avenues for future research that acknowledge the definition and measures for structural change as well as temporal aspects of the empirical phenomenon more explicitly.

Caught Between Epistemology and Field-Conditions: Travails of Young Qualitative Policy Researchers in India

The qualitative approach is immensely helpful in policy research as it provides a comprehensive, contextually grounded, and nuanced understanding of policy processes and issues. It is characterized by certain epistemological imperatives that demand the collection of rich, diverse data and a thick description of the context. However, conducting fieldwork to collect data required to fulfill these imperatives poses diverse and stiff challenges, especially for young policy researchers in the Indian context. In this background, this paper argues that, while epistemological principles require qualitative researchers to collect rich and diverse data, the researcher’s social identity and the socio-political ground reality in the field pose significant challenges for young policy researchers in collecting field data. More specifically, the paper discusses the challenges posed by different elements of the researcher’s social identity like economic class, caste, gender, and education. It also discusses the challenges posed by different elements of the socio-political ground reality in the field such as socio-economic inequality, gatekeeping, and by politics played by field-level actors like primary contacts, community leaders, participant groups, and public bureaucrats. It draws from the thematic analysis of fieldwork experiences documented (in the form of fieldnotes and different types of memos) by three Indian researchers (including two females) who were collecting qualitative data for three previous and separate qualitative research projects. This fieldwork was carried out in two different states in India. The discussion in this paper will prove helpful, especially to young qualitative researchers, in planning and executing their fieldwork in developing countries, especially in India.

Influence of Transactional Factors on Political Interests on the Performance of the Public Bureaucracy

Influence of Transactional Factors on Political Interests on the Performance of the Public Bureaucracy