Michael Lipsky
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By: Russell Sage Foundation Publications
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Street-level Bureaucrats as Policy Makers 5 out of 5 stars.
19 of 19 people found this review helpful.
In this book, Lipsky examines the critical role of street-level bureaucrats in the policy-making and/or policy implementation process. The traditional model of public policy theory assumes that policy choices are made by the elected political executives and the implementation of those choices are left to the jurisdiction of bureaucrats. Lipsky challenges this line of argument/belief on the basis that since street level bureaucrats have a wide area of "discretion" when they perform their jobs they must be seen as the persons who actually make the policy choices rather than only implement those choices. Public service workers who interact directly with citizens in the course of their jobs, and who have substantial discretion in the execution of their work are called street-level bureaucrats (p. 3). And, public service agencies that employ a significant number of street-level bureaucrats in proportion to their work force are called street-level bureaucracies (p. 3). Teachers, police officers, intake workers in social security offices are some examples of street-level bureaucrats.
Based on the acceptance that those officials, so-called street-level bureaucrats, have a great autonomy from organizational control and the resources to resist any kind of top-down control/pressure (with the help of civil service laws that make it very difficult, if not impossible, to fire any worker) the author focuses his attention on how these human service workers behave under the conditions of their work context. The conditions of the work in which street-level bureaucrats find themselves surrounded are characterized with as follows:
1. Resources are chronically inadequate relative to the tasks workers are asked to perform.
2. The demand for services tends to increase to meet the supply.
3. Goal expectations for the agencies in which they work tend to be ambiguous, vague or conflicting.
4. Performance oriented toward goal achievement tends to be difficult if not impossible to measure.
5. Clients are typically non-voluntary; partly as a result, clients for the most part do not serve as primary bureaucratic reference groups. (pp. 27-8).
The above-enumerated conditions are of critical importance because they affect largely the policy formation (not formulation) in "reality". The first two conditions force the street-level workers to "ration" services in such a way so as to reduce the excessive demand on services that increase with the increase in supply, a very similar rationing mechanism to that of being assured by the "price" mechanism in the profit sector. With this rationing in mind, discrimination becomes an inseparable part of the job of street-level bureaucrats in that since the resources available for distribution are not limitless, some clients are or should be served at the expense of exclusion of others. The third condition forces the street-level bureaucrats to define their jobs in such a way that reduces the role conflict for them and provides a foundation on which to define their mission. The last two conditions make it very difficult for street-level bureaucrats to change their behavior patterns in the short run-the fourth condition allow street-level bureaucrats to avoid any allegation regarding their performance and the fifth condition helps them to shut their eyes to the demands of clients, because clients have "nowhere" to go if they are unsatisfied with the service they receive. This is the general framework of the book.
Having demonstrated how street-level bureaucrats behave, Lipsky concentrates his attention on the reform propositions. First of all, the author tries to explain why reforms that bring new performance measurement/control devices for street-level bureaucracies are highly subject to failure. Lipsky demonstrates how street-level bureaucrats change their behaviors in order to satisfy new performance criteria although not necessarily to the benefit of policy objectives, mainly based on Peter Blau's (1955) analysis. What Lipsky offers, instead, is that the structure and context of the work must be changed or reformed in order to produce expected results. Also, strengthening the citizens (setting the conditions that will make the citizens one of the reference groups for street-level bureaucrats, rather than clients to be processed) is one of the considerable offers of the author.
Published originally in 1980, this book has received a great deal of attention in the field. Some authors, for example C. Goodsell (1983), attacked on the arguments of Lipsky, especially on those related to the alleged "discrimination" made by street-level bureaucrats. It should be kept in mind that Lipsky does not attack on the street-level bureaucracy and bureaucrats, but he tries to explain the "background" that motivates the behavior patterns of street-level bureaucrats. I found the arguments very coherent and, having compared the theory with my own experiences, I agreed in many points with the author.
Whether you would agree or not with the line of arguments of the author, I believe this book is worthy of reading, especially for students and practitioners of the public policy. Highly recommended.
