Bureaucracies & Bureaucratic Workers

Las dos caras de la administración racional burocrática en la obra de Max Weber: racionalización, dominación y democracia

by Eloisa del Pino

Ciencias Sociales, 19, 49- 93. (WITH CESAR COLINO).

Escrutando en la abundante, fragmentaría y a menudo escasamente sistemática obra de Weber, así como en la de sus... more Escrutando en la abundante, fragmentaría y a menudo escasamente sistemática obra de Weber, así como en la de sus analistas y críticos en diversas lenguas, los autores siguen la pista de! tema de la burocracia, una de las piezas centrales de toda la argumentación weberiana, resultado y motor del proceso de racionalización de las sociedades occidentales. Una diversidad de niveles analíticos y de grados de complejidad componen el tratamiento de esta temática; los autores nos presentan una visión ordenada y al mismo tiempo polémica de esta operación, cuyos alcances nos revelan la actualidad de la argumentación weberiana para la comprensión de la política en la modernidad.

Participation In Forestry: A Study of Peoples Participation on the Social Forestry Policy In Bangladesh: Myth or Reality?

by Saber Chowdhury

This study is an attempt to study and explore the extent of people’s participation in the SF policy of Bangladesh and... more This study is an attempt to study and explore the extent of people’s participation in the SF policy of Bangladesh and what are the roles of the main stakeholders: bureaucrats, Union Parishad and NGOs in ensuring the expected level of people’s participation in this
policy. In this regard, several hypotheses are developed and for answering these questions, a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods has been adopted. These questions can be explained or analyzed on the basis of some independent and
dependent variables. The dependent variable in this study is people’s participation, which is believed to be dependent upon certain actors and factors such as political and classical
bureaucrats, patron-client relationship between the participants, bureaucrats and local elites of SF policy, and socio-economic background of the SF farmers. It was assumed that variables would influence and affect who participates in SF programs and their level of participation. The above mentioned questions are addressed in the light of political and classical bureaucrats as concept analyzed by Putnam (1975, 87), as well as on the
basis of patron-client relationship, and theories of social capital.

In the study it is found that the people’s participation in the SF policy illustrates the dissonance between myths and reality. SF’s performance in achieving the participatory goals was poor. A number of common institutional and social problems seemed to have shaped the performance. Participation of the main target group the landless, women and disadvantaged class of the society is minimal in the project. The selection of the members in the SF policy is the responsibility of the local Union Parishad Chairman. But no certain rules were followed in selecting SF members. Classical nature of the bureaucrats (role-orientation), patron-client relationship among the stakeholders, poor socio-economic background, NGOs ineffective role, lack of trust to the institutions like Union Parishad and bureaucracy are the main reasons for lack of people’s participation in the SF project. Among these factors patron-client relationship among the stakeholders is found as the most dominate because this vicious network impede the extent of
people’s participation from the very beginning of the SF project to the last and demolishthat objectives of the government dreadfully.

Administrative capacity of Slovenian municipalities

by Miro Hacek

Co-authored with Irena Baclija
Lex Localis, vol. 7, no. 3. pp. 307–346.

A suitable quality level of the main functions and tasks of municipal administrations is a fundamental condition for... more A suitable quality level of the main functions and tasks of municipal administrations is a fundamental condition for the existence and development of every activity, not only for market-oriented organisations but also the public sector. Municipalities in Slovenia have not adopted a general policy on quality and it is therefore difficult to speak of the optimisation of work in a municipal administration, the efficiency and rationality of work, cost reduction, nor to evaluate the performance of an administration and the individual civil servants it employs. The authors of this article present the results of an empirical research project on administrative capacity carried out among the directors of Slovenian municipal administrations and an analysis of the topic in the context of reorganisation of local administrations. By means of the Administrative Capacity Index, they evaluate the degrees of individual municipalities’ administrative capacities and establish at what size (according to its population) a municipality can be regarded as capable of administration.

THE COMMITMENT OF SENIOR CIVIL SERVANTS TO DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS AND EQUALITY

by Miro Hacek

Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, No. 35 E/2012, pp. 93-106.

In modern democracies, senior civil servants have outgrown their classic role of mere implementers of orders given by... more In modern democracies, senior civil servants have outgrown their classic role of mere implementers of orders given by politicians. Both senior civil servants and politicians serve the same democratic state, and both are heirs to the democratic evolution. Our hypothesis is based mainly on the historically developed division of labor between bureaucracy and politics. Senior civil servants have never been tasked with creating the conditions for more democracy in the state, but instead with creating the conditions for a more effective and successful state. Given that political bodies in which politicians operate have been established as the institutionalized personification of democracy, the task of politicians is above all the promotion of democracy, its values and norms. We have tested that hypothesis on the case of Slovenian senior civil servants and politicians and found out, that both elites are favorable to political freedoms and political equality.

The Relationship Between Civil Servants and Politicians in a Post‐Communist Country: A Case of Slovenia

by Miro Hacek

Public Administration, Blackwell Publishing, Vol. 84, No. 1, 2006 (165–184).

In modern democracies, civil servants have outgrown their classic role as implemen- tors of the orders given by... more In modern democracies, civil servants have outgrown their classic role as implemen- tors of the orders given by politicians as their masters. They now play an increas- ingly important role in the exercising of authority – a role which depends to a great degree on politicians themselves. Based on classical politico-administrative divisions, the main hypothesis of this paper is to claim that, in the case of the post- communist country of Slovenia, politicians are in charge of policy-making and possess a dominant role over high-ranking civil servants, who are mere implementors of policy. To verify this hypothesis, we use several mutually complementary meth- ods and techniques, among them detailed empirical research. We find that the rela- tionship between members of Slovenia’s administrative and political elite does show competitive traits, but the conflict between the two groups is not such that would lead to a win-lose situation. Both high-ranking civil servants and politicians do in fact have a role as important and irreplaceable actors in the policy-making process.

Avec Ronan de Calan, « Paradoxes sur le commissaire. L’exécution de la politique religieuse de Charles IX (1560-1574) », Histoire, Economie et Société, 2, juin 2008, p. 3-20

by Jérémie Foa

Bolae

by Historically Digitized

La (non)-assimilation des Aborigènes dans la Nouvelle-Galles du Sud

by Bastien Bosa

Published in 'Le mouvement social', janvier-mars 2010

La notion d’assimilation a fait l’objet de nombreuses discussions ces dernières années à la fois en histoire coloniale... more La notion d’assimilation a fait l’objet de nombreuses discussions ces dernières années à la fois en histoire coloniale et dans des travaux portant sur l’immigration. Cet article a précisément pour ambition d’éclaircir l’usage de ce terme dans un contexte particulier, celui de la Nouvelle-Galles du Sud dans le Sud-Est de l’Australie. Il s’agira tout d’abord de revenir brièvement sur la genèse de cette politique, en insistant sur le fait qu’il a longtemps existé une incertitude, d’une part, autour du sens même de l’idée d’assimilation et, d’autre part, sur sa date d’introduction comme politique officielle. On montrera ensuite que si l’Aboriginal Welfare Board a cherché à faire admettre, à partir des années 1940, que les « métis » ne devaient pas être classés parmi les « Aborigènes » mais parmi les « Blancs », cette tentative de transformation du système de classification raciale a été un échec : elle butta sur des résistances de part et d’autre de la « frontière raciale » et, de façon générale, sur les nombreuses contradictions de la politique du Board.

« The “other” administration: patronage system and informal networks of power in ancient Egypt »

by Juan Carlos Moreno García

in J. C. Moreno García (ed.), Ancient Egyptian Administration (Handbuch der Orientalistik), Brill, Leiden-Boston (to appear in 2013).

At street level: Bureaucratic practice in the management of urban neighborhood change

by Jesse Proudfoot

(2008) Co-authored with Eugene McCann. Urban Geography 29, 4. Pp. 348–370.

Bureaucratic regulation shapes cities in important ways. Yet certain aspects of how state regulation operates in urban... more Bureaucratic regulation shapes cities in important ways. Yet certain aspects of how state regulation operates in urban neighborhoods have been understudied in geography and cognate disciplines. This article focuses on one understudied group of state actors: property use, health, and liquor inspectors, part of a wider group of “street-level bureaucrats” who, through their face-to-face contact with the public, affect how and where regulatory enforcement gets done. Through a case study of inspectors in Vancouver, British Columbia, this study identifies the role of street-level bureaucratic practice in shaping urban neighborhoods and in managing neighborhood change. We discuss how street-level bureaucrats negotiate the constraints and pressures inherent to their practice while also exercising a degree of discretion. And we argue that these micro-level concerns are important to understanding how cities are produced but they must also be linked with analyses of wider processes that shape contemporary urban development.

Bureau of Fisheries: Approved Applications for permits

by Historically Digitized

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) is the government agency responsible for the development, improvement, management and conservation of the country's fisheries and aquatic resources. It was reconstituted as a line bureau by virtue of Republic Act No. 8550 (Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998). The bureau is under the Department of Agriculture.

Sofia Ner Gonzales Tirol No. 4431

The Bricks and Mortar of Revolutionary Administration

by Ralph Kingston

Project work: the legacy of bureaucratic control in the post-bureaucratic organization

by Damian Hodgson

Published in Organization, 2004

Much of the interest in post-bureaucracy' in both managerialist and critical circles resides in its perceived... more Much of the interest in post-bureaucracy' in both managerialist and critical circles resides in its perceived potential to break with the traditions of bureaucratic, hierarchical control in work organizations. In response to the challenges of the post-bureaucratic form, project management has been put forward by many as a tried-and-tested' package of techniques able to cope with discontinuous work, expert labour and continuous and unpredictable change while delivering the levels of reliability and control of the traditional bureaucracy. In this article I explore some of the contradictions and tensions within a department where such a hybrid' mode of control is implemented, embodying both bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic logics. In particular, I focus upon the discursive tactics employed to sell rebureaucratization' as debureaucratization', and the complex employee responses to this initiative. I argue that the tensions evident here cast significant doubt on the feasibility of a seamless integration of bureaucracy and the postbureaucratic.

Red Tape and Public Employees: Does Perceived Rule Dysfunction Alienate Managers?

by Leisha DeHart-Davis

Accounting for State Intervention. The Social Histories of Beneficiaries

by Monika Krause

Qualitative Sociology 33 (4): 533-547.

How does the state imagine the people? In what ways does it come to know the targets of its policies? This paper... more How does the state imagine the people? In what ways does it come to know the targets of its policies? This paper examines the transformation of the state through a focus on the visions implied in tools and practices of results-based management in state bureaucracies. When scholars have discussed the state’s vision or imagination they have often critically examined how the state constructs aggregates of the population as a whole.
But an emphasis on or critique of aggregation can only be the beginning of understanding the multiple and sometimes contradictory ways in which people are imagined in governance
today. Results-based management has created a new way in which the state imagines people. In some policy arenas citizens have been turned into “beneficiaries” through the practices of state managers. Beneficiaries differ from citizen in a number of ways: Citizens are thought to benefit from policies with broad goals; beneficiaries are shown to benefit from specific interventions. Citizens are owed service; beneficiaries are selected for intervention if it suits specific funding priorities. Citizens are the origins of politics and the end of policies; beneficiaries are a means to an organization’s success.

Gender Dimensions of Public Service Motivation

by Leisha DeHart-Davis

Can Bureaucracy Benefit Organizational Women?

by Leisha DeHart-Davis

Green tape: A Theory of Effective Organizational Rules

by Leisha DeHart-Davis

Green Tape and Public Employee Rule Abidance: Why Organizational Rule Attributes Matter

by Leisha DeHart-Davis

Gender and Organizational Rule Abidance

by Leisha DeHart-Davis