Abstract
We expect our governance systems to be robust. When they are challenged by internal or external actors, ideally they are sufficiently flexible and appropriately thought out to cope and function for the betterment of society. A governance system incapable of resisting challenges is soon replaced—or so we would hope. Unfortunately, lived experiences for many find that bureaucratic inertia gives a new meaning to robustness—the system survives and continues to roll on despite its flawed integrity. Robustness as a value thus has two interpretations—it is good when it protects the processes of governance from spurious challenges; and robustness is bad when a techno-rational mindset violates the integrity of governance to cause harm to the governed.
Robustness (n.) The condition or quality of being robust (in various senses); sturdiness, hardiness; strength. (OED)
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Notes
- 1.
Acknowledgements: The concept of bureaucratic animosity grew from a conversation between professor’s Glen Withers and Adam Graycar at The Australian National University, later related to the author. It was further developed for the International Institute of Administrative Sciences (IIAS) Quality of Governance (QuGo) Study Group meetings.
- 2.
The term citizen/clients captures the concept of people and organizations subjected to bureaucratic animosity in both the singular and plural forms. The term also includes entities that interact with bureaucracies who are not strictly citizens of the state running the bureaucratic system.
- 3.
Total percentages exceed 100% because the same matter can address multiple forms of conduct.
- 4.
For an example of this, see YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8XLVKIW-Ds, where in this case, the Irish police officer chose to de-escalate a problem rather than engage in bureaucratic animosity—of course it must be borne in mind that the police officer knew he was being filmed.
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Masters, A. (2020). Robustness and the Governance Sin of Bureaucratic Animosity. In: Paanakker, H., Masters, A., Huberts, L. (eds) Quality of Governance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21522-4_9
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