Activating Government

Abstract

In the previous chapter we saw that various problematizations of classical, hierarchical bureaucracy performance of the provision of public services. This problematization in turn contributed to the formulation of the need for various measures ensuring better performance or value-for-money. Whether correct or not, notions of skewed economic incentives and information asymmetry were taken as proof of the need for reforming the ways in which the public administrations are governed. Chapter 3 also showed how the critique of the Weberian style of hierarchical bureaucracy pointed to the inadequacy of the latter in unleashing the energies and innovative forces of public administrations and the citizens they serve. From the vantage point f psychological and, later on, certain strands of political science, the constitutive elements of Weberian-style bureaucracy, such as hierarchy, rule-following, sachlichkeit, impartiality and predefined career patterns are seen as impediments to mobilizing the resources, support band self-steering capacities of civil servants and societal groups alike. Accordingly, we have seen the development of bodies of organizational psychology and political science together with a wide set of technologies of agency that in various ways try to answer the problem of how to govern in ways that nurture flexibility, agency and autonomy in order to meet society’s changing and generally increasing demands for public services.