POLS2010 Chap.7 Bureaucracies and Public Policy
Bureaucracies and Public Policy
This chapter covers how the state actually delivers policy. It begins with Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy, the shift from patronage to merit and the typical pathologies of red tape, groupthink and budget maximisation. It then treats control of the bureaucracy as a principal and agent problem, comparing spoils systems with New Public Management.
The policy half introduces the policy cycle as a heuristic, agenda setting through Kingdon’s streams, implementation from the top down and the bottom up, and policy diffusion.
The evidence half compares governance indicators with randomised trials and the cash transfer studies.
The tutorial question for the week asks how far regime type explains bureaucratic quality, comparing a democracy with a non-democracy, so the chapter’s material on merit recruitment, politicisation and governance indicators is arranged to support that comparison as well as exam answers on policy.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy
- 02
Merit, patronage and neutral competence
- 03
Shirking, sabotage and political control
- 04
Spoils systems and New Public Management
- 05
The five stages of the policy cycle
- 06
Governance indicators and their limits
- 07
Randomised trials and conditional cash transfers
Worked example · free
Placing events on the policy cycle
- 1The media campaign is agenda setting, and drafting options is formulation.
- 1Cabinet’s choice is adoption, and the independent review is evaluation.
- 1Implementation, turning the decision into action through agencies and street-level staff, is missing, and it is where much of the outcome is decided.
Key terms
- Ideal type
- An analytical benchmark that exaggerates the defining features of a phenomenon, as in Weber’s model of bureaucracy.
- New Public Management
- A reform approach that imports market methods into the public sector, such as performance contracts, internal markets and accountability for targets.
- Policy window
- In Kingdon’s model, the moment when problem, policy and politics streams converge and change becomes possible.
- Dissent-shirking
- An official quietly failing to implement a policy they disagree with.
- Street-level bureaucrat
- A frontline official, such as a caseworker or teacher, whose everyday discretion shapes how policy reaches citizens.
Bureaucracies and Public Policy FAQ
What is the principal and agent problem in bureaucracy?
Elected politicians, the principals, must rely on bureaucrats, the agents, who have more expertise and act out of sight. Agents may shirk or depart from the principal’s wishes, so politicians use appointments, incentives and rules to secure both competence and loyalty.
Can a country without full democracy have an effective bureaucracy?
Yes. Singapore scores highly on government effectiveness without being a full democracy, and several democracies perform badly on the same measure. How well a state is run and how it is governed politically are separate questions, and features such as merit recruitment and career officials can exist under different regimes.
Why are randomised controlled trials called the gold standard?
Random assignment makes treatment and control groups alike on average in everything, observed or not, so later differences can be attributed to the treatment. That gives high internal validity, although trials can be costly, raise ethical issues and may not travel to other settings.
What is the difference between top-down and bottom-up implementation?
Top-down accounts, associated with Pressman and Wildavsky, assume clear objectives cascade down a hierarchy. Bottom-up accounts, associated with Lipsky, stress the street-level bureaucrats who meet citizens and reshape policy in practice, so implementation becomes a negotiation rather than a transmission.
What is New Public Management?
It is a reform movement, prominent in English-speaking countries from the late 1970s, that brings market methods into government: outsiders on fixed-term performance contracts, smaller competing agencies and accountability for hitting targets. Critics such as Suleiman argue it can erode the neutral competence of the civil service.
Exam move
Treat this chapter as two linked halves and learn one diagram for each: the principal and agent relationship with Brehm and Gates’s three departures, and the policy cycle with its feedback loop. Prepare a comparison of spoils and New Public Management that states what each gains and costs.
For the essay question on regime type and bureaucratic quality, gather one democracy and one non-democracy with evidence from the governance indicators, and add the measurement caveat.
Finally, note where the cycle reappears in later weeks, especially Closing the Gap in Chapter 9. As a timed drill, take a policy you know, such as a cash transfer or a health programme, and trace it around the five stages of the cycle, naming who holds power at each stage and where a principal and agent problem could arise. Then add one sentence on how its effects could be evaluated with a counterfactual.
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