Street-Level Bureaucracy, 30th Anniversary Edition: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Service

by Michael Lipsky

Overview

First published in 1980, Street-Level Bureaucracy received critical acclaim for its insightful study of how public service workers, in effect, function as policy decision makers, as they wield their considerable discretion in the day-to-day implementation of public programs. Three decades later, the need to bolster the availability and effectiveness of healthcare, social services, education, and law enforcement is as urgent as ever. In this thirtieth anniversary expanded edition, Michael Lipsky revisits the territory he mapped out in the first edition to reflect on significant policy developments over the last several decades. Despite the difficulties of managing these front-line workers, he shows how street-level bureaucracies can be and regularly are brought into line with public purposes. Street-level bureaucrats—from teachers and police officers to social workers and legal-aid lawyers—interact directly with the public and so represent the frontlines of government policy. In Street-Level Bureaucracy, Lipsky argues that these relatively low-level public service employees labor under huge caseloads, ambiguous agency goals, and inadequate resources. When combined with substantial discretionary authority and the requirement to interpret policy on a case-by-case basis, the difference between government policy in theory and policy in practice can be substantial and troubling. The core dilemma of street-level bureaucrats is that they are supposed to help people or make decisions about them on the basis of individual cases, yet the structure of their jobs makes this impossible. Instead, they are forced to adopt practices such as rationing resources, screening applicants for qualities their organizations favor, "rubberstamping" applications, and routinizing client interactions by imposing the uniformities of mass processing on situations requiring human responsiveness. Occasionally, such strategies work out in favor of the client. But the cumulative effect of street-level decisions made on the basis of routines and simplifications about clients can reroute the intended direction of policy, undermining citizens' expectations of evenhanded treatment. This seminal, award-winning study tells a cautionary tale of how decisions made by overburdened workers translate into ad-hoc policy adaptations that impact peoples' lives and life opportunities. Lipsky maintains, however, that these problems are not insurmountable. Over the years, public managers have developed ways to bring street-level performance more in line with agency goals. This expanded edition of Street-Level Bureaucracy underscores that, despite its challenging nature, street-level work can be made to conform to higher expectations of public service.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780871545442
Publisher:	Russell Sage Foundation
Publication date:	04/08/2010
Pages:	299
Sales rank:	757,688
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

MICHAEL LIPSKY is senior program director of Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and advocacy organization, and an affiliate professor at Georgetown University.

Table of Contents

Preface: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services xi

Acknowledgments xxi

Part I Introduction

1 The Critical Role of Street-Level Bureaucrats 3

Conflict over the scope and substance of public services 4

Conflict over interactions with citizens 8

2 Street-Level Bureaucrats as Policy Makers 13

Discretion 13

Relative Autonomy from Organizational Authority 16

Differences Between Street-Level Bureaucrats and Managers 18

Resources for Resistance 23

Part II Conditions of Work

Introduction 27

3 The Problem of Resources 29

Demand and Supply, or Why Resources are Usually Inadequate in Street-Level Bureaucracies 33

4 Goals and Performance Measures 40

Goals 40

Performance Measures 48

5 Relations with Clients 54

Nonvoluntary Clients 54

Conflict, Reciprocity, and Control 57

The Social Construction of a Client 59

6 Advocacy and Alienation in Street-Level Work 71

Advocacy 72

Alienation 75

Implications of Alienation 79

Part III Patterns of Practice

Introduction 81

7 Rationing Services: Limitation of Access and Demand 87

The Costs of Service 88

Queuing 95

Routines and Rationing 99

8 Rationing Services: Inequality in Administration 105

A Comment on the Ubiquity of Bias 111

9 Controlling Clients and the Work Situation 117

Husbanding Resources 125

Managing the Consequences of Routine Practice 133

10 The Client-Processing Mentality 140

Modifications of Conceptions of Work 142

Modifications of Conceptions of Clients 151

Part IV The Future of Street-Level Bureaucracy

11 The Assault on Human Services: Bureaucratic Control, Accountability, and the Fiscal Crisis 159

Holding Workers to Agency Objectives 162

Accountability and Productivity 170

Street-Level Bureaucrats and the Fiscal Crisis 172

12 The Broader Context of Bureaucratic Relations 180

Contradictory Tendencies in Street-Level Bureaucratic Relations 188

13 Support for Human Services: Notes for Reform and Reconstruction 192

Directions for Greater Client Autonomy 193

Directions for Current Practice 196

The Prospects and Problems of Professionalism 201

Keeping New Professionals New 204

14 On Managing Street-Level Bureaucracy 212

An Evolving Policy Environment for Street-Level Bureaucracy 212

Shaping Street-Level Bureaucrats' Performance 221

Investing in Street-Level Bureaucrats 229

Conclusion 236

Notes 239

Index 267