Bureaucratic Context of Public Administration

1
Lecture 6

• Bureaucratic Context of Public Administration

2
The Rise of Administrative StateBy David
Rosenbloom

• Growing expectations of citizens
• Growing influence of public administrators
• Constitutional roots of public administration
• Preamble of the US Constitution
• Political decisions to carry out public services
• General welfare, economic development, domestic
  tranquility

3
Weberian Bureaucracy

• Decision making based on fixed and official
  jurisdictions
• Formal and specialized education or training
  requirements for each position
• Hierarchical command structure
• Decisions made based on standard operating
  procedures (SOPs)
• Officials hold career positions
• Protection against political interference

4
Bureaucratic Structure and Personalityby Merton

• What is the chief merit of bureaucracy based on
  its structure and design?
• What is trained incapacity? Why is it considered
  dysfunctional behavior produced by bureaucracy?
• What causes the process of displacement of goals
  in the bureaucracy? Why is it dysfunctional?
• What causes bureaucratic overly conformity
  behavior?
• How does the depersonalization process of
  bureaucracy create conflict with the public?
• What type of informal organization developed
  under the bureaucratic system produce? Does it
  help bureaucratic organization to be more
  functional?

5
Street-Level BureaucratsBy Michael Lipsky

• Who are the street-level bureaucrats?
• What are the critical roles they play in the
  public policy process?
• Why have they become the central focus of
  political controversy?
• In what ways are street-level bureaucrats caught
  up in the conflict over scope and substance of
  public services?
• How can sources of conflict be generated by the
  interactions between street-level bureaucrats and
  citizens?
• Do you agree or disagree with Lipsky in terms of
  the important roles played by these bureaucrats?
  Are they really that powerful?