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Democracy and the Neutrality of Public Bureaucracy

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Democratization and Bureaucratic Neutrality

Abstract

The average civil servant lasts approximately 30-40 years in an Administration. Opinions about him change three to four times during this period, from seeing him as a useful instrument, then as an obstructive force and finally as a full-fledged interlocutor. This paper discusses changing views on the neutrality of public administration and different ideas on the appropriate role of the bureaucracy in a democracy. It will go into the subjects of subservience, representativeness, the division of responsibilities by specialization and the reduction of the size of bureaucratic tasks as ways of avoiding the paradox of bureaucracy and democracy. March and Olsen put the problem aptly when they said: ‘Everyone “knows” that policy making and administration should be kept distinct. At the same time, everyone “knows” that policy making and administration cannot be kept distinct and that the distinction itself is difficult to make precise’ (1989 p.141).

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Authors
  1. Michiel S. de Vries
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Free University, Amsterdam, Netherlands

    Haile K. Asmerom (Senior Lecturer) (Senior Lecturer)

  2. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil

    Elisa P. Reis (Professor of Political Sociology) (Professor of Political Sociology)

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© 1996 the estate of the late Haile K. Asmerom

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de Vries, M.S. (1996). Democracy and the Neutrality of Public Bureaucracy. In: Asmerom, H.K., Reis, E.P. (eds) Democratization and Bureaucratic Neutrality. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24808-7_4

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