Definitions
Street-Level Bureaucrats
Street-level bureaucrats are “public service workers who interact directly with citizens in the course of their jobs, and who have substantial discreation in the execution of their work” (Lipsky 1980).
Discretion
Michael Lipsky (1980) and Tony Evans (2010) define discretion as the “extent of freedom a worker can exercise in a specific context and the factors that give rise to this freedom in that context.” Thus, the freedom or authority to make judgments and to act as one sees fit. Power to decide or act according to one’s own judgment.
Introduction
In his study “Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public services,” Michael Lipsky in the 1980s argued about the behavior of front-line workers in policy agencies; the scholar (Lipsky 1980) referred to these front-line staff as “street-level bureaucrats.” Street-level bureaucrats are considered pivotal...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Beek J (2016) Producing stateness: police work in Ghana. Brill, Leiden
Bronitt SH, Stenning P (2011) Understanding discretion in modern policing.
Davis KC (1969) Discretionary justice: a preliminary inquiry. LSU Press, Baton Rouge
Evans T (2010) Professional discretion in welfare services: beyond street-level bureaucracy, (Contemporary Social Work Series), Ashgate Publishing Ltd., Surrey, England.
Evans T (2016) Professional discretion in welfare services: beyond street-level bureaucracy. Routledge.
Feldman MS (1989) Order without design: information production and policy making, vol 231. Stanford University Press, Stanford
Fleisher CS (1991) Using an agency-based approach to analyze collaborative federated interorganizational relationships. J Appl Behav Sci 27(1):116–130
Freidson E (2001) Professionalism: The third logic. London: Polity Press
Hill M, Hupe P (2002) Implementing public policy: governance in theory and in practice. Sage, Thousand Oaks
Huber JD, Shipan CR (2002) Deliberate discretion?: The institutional foundations of bureaucratic autonomy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Hupe P, Hill M (2007) Street-level bureaucracy and public accountability. Public Adm 85(2):279–299
Jay M (2005) Songs of experience: modern American and European variations on a universal theme. Univ of California Press, Berkeley
Jensen MC, Meckling WH (1976) Theory of the firm: managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. J Financ Econ 3(4):305–360
Keiser LR (2010) Understanding street-level Bureaucrats’ decision making: determining eligibility in the social security disability program. Public Adm rev 70(2):247–257
Lipsky M (1980) Street-level bureaucracy: dilemmas of the individual in public services. Russell Sage Foundation, New York
Matti S, Sandström A (2013) The defining elements of advocacy coalitions: continuing the search for explanations for coordination and coalition structures. Rev Policy Res 30(2):240–257
Meyers MK, Vorsanger S (2007) Street-level bureaucrats and the implementation of public policy. In: Guy Peters B, Pierre J (eds) The handbook of public administration. Sage, London, pp 153–163
Sandfort JR (2000) Moving beyond discretion and outcomes: Examining public management from the front lines of the welfare system. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 10(4):729–756
Sekwat A (2000) Principal-agent theory: a framework for improving health care reform in Tennessee. J Health Hum Serv Adm:277–291
Sevä M (2015) The decisive role of street-level bureaucrats in environmental management. Doctoral dissertation, Luleå tekniska universitet
Sherman LW (1984) Experiments in police discretion: scientific boon or dangerous knowledge? Law Contemp Probl 47(4):61–81
Tummers L, Bekkers V (2014) Policy implementation, street-level bureaucracy, and the importance of discretion. Public Manag Rev 16(4):527–547
Tummers L, Bekkers V, Steijn B (2009) Policy alienation of public professionals: application in a new public management context. Public ManagRev 11(5):685–706
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Akosa, F., Asare, B.E. (2017). Street-Level Bureaucrats and the Exercise of Discretion. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3353-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_3353-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences