The Experts below are selected from a list of 83148 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Kenneth J Meier - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
Bureaucracy in a democratic state a governance perspective
2006Co-Authors: Kenneth J Meier, Laurence J OtooleAbstract:Here, Kenneth J. Meier and Laurence J. O'Toole Jr. present a timely analysis of working democracy, arguing that Bureaucracy—often considered antithetical to fundamental democratic principles—can actually promote democracy. Drawing from both the empirical work of political scientists and the qualitative work of public administration scholars, the authors employ a "governance approach" that considers broad, institutionally complex systems of governance as well as the nitty-gritty details of Bureaucracy management. They examine the results of bureaucratic and political interactions in specific government settings, locally and nationally, to determine whether bureaucratic systems strengthen or weaken the connections between public preferences and actual policies. They find that bureaucracies are part of complex intergovernmental and interorganizational networks that limit a single Bureaucracy's institutional control over the implementation of public policy. Further, they conclude that top-down political control of Bureaucracy has only modest impact on the activities of Bureaucracy in the U.S. and that shared values and commitments to democratic norms, along with political control, produce a Bureaucracy that is responsive to the American people.
-
representative Bureaucracy organizational strategy and public service performance an empirical analysis of english local government
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2005Co-Authors: Rhys William Andrews, George Alexander Boyne, Kenneth J Meier, Laurence J Otoole, Richard M WalkerAbstract:The theory of representative Bureaucracy suggests that organizations perform better if their workforces reflect the characteristics of their constituent populations. The management literature implies that the impact of representative Bureaucracy is contingent on organizational strategy. Our empirical evidence on English local government is inconsistent with the basic theory of representative Bureaucracy but supports a moderating effect of organizational strategy. Representative Bureaucracy is negatively associated with citizens' perceptions of local authority performance. However, organizations pursuing a prospector strategy are able to mitigate this negative relationship.
-
representative Bureaucracy and distributional equity addressing the hard question
The Journal of Politics, 1999Co-Authors: Kenneth J Meier, Robert D Wrinkle, J L PolinardAbstract:Research on representative Bureaucracy has failed to deal with whether or not representative bureaucracies produce minority gains at the expense of nonminorities. Using a pooled time-series analysis of 350 school districts over six years, this study examines the relationship between representative Bureaucracy and organizational outputs for minorities and nonminorities. Far from finding that representative Bureaucracy produces minority gains at the expense of nonminorities, this study finds both minority and nonminority students perform better in the presence of a representative Bureaucracy. This finding suggests an alternative hypothesis to guide research: that representative bureaucracies are more effective than their nonrepresentative counterparts.
-
Bureaucracy and Democracy: The Case for More Bureaucracy and Less Democracy
Public Administration Review, 1997Co-Authors: Kenneth J MeierAbstract:It hasn't been my aim to tell people what to think...I have tried, rather, to tell them how to think -- specifically, of course, about public administration. The United States is facing a serious problem with the interface between its Bureaucracy and its electoral institutions.(1) Politicians often run for office by campaigning against the Bureaucracy. The current antibureaucratic buzzword "reinventing government, replaced the cost-benefit analysis of the Reagan/Bush administrative presidency (Durant, 1992), which replaced Carter's civil service reform and reorganization. Zero-base budgeting, management by objectives, program planning budgeting systems, civil service reform, and reinventing government are all efforts to convince us that Bureaucracy is the problem with governance in the United States.(2) If we could just somehow get Bureaucracy under control, we could balance the budget, eliminate poverty, reinvigorate the education system, and cure male pattern baldness. Missing in the political debates is any serious assessment of Bureaucracy, its performance, its pathologies, or its promise.(3) In comparison to other industrialized democracies, however, the United States Bureaucracy appears to be much smaller and leaner (Rose, 1985). It relies more on the private sector to deliver goods and services. It is composed of technocrats rather than administrative elites. And, I will argue that it is both reasonably effective and at the same time highly responsive to legitimate political demands. The problems in American government, in my view, are not problems of Bureaucracy but problems of governance.(4) In contrast to what is adequate (some might even argue excellent) performance by the Bureaucracy (Goodsell, 1983), the performance by our electoral institutions has been dismal. As an illustration, Congress and the president have been engaged in a futile 25-year battle to balance the budget. Tilting at economically forecasted windmills, different Congresses and different presidents have agreed to balance the budget (Gramm-Rudman); have acquiesced in deficits nearing three hundred billion dollars; have perpetrated the myth that one can balance the budget without either raising taxes or cutting spending;, have on numerous occasions shut down the federal government; but have accomplished little more than to make Alan Greenspan's job more difficult. As the electoral institutions have eliminated the feasibility of sensible fiscal policy, a Bureaucracy (the Federal Reserve) has compensated. In the policy fields of health care, affirmative action, budget deficits, crime, drugs, and so on, electoral institutions have been unable either to provide a deliberative forum for resolving political conflicts, or to adopt good public policy.(5) The only political consensus appears to be that Bureaucracy is bad and needs to be restricted. The irony of the situation is that as the electoral branches stalemate, they act against the Bureaucracy -- the one part of government that has a capacity to govern. Public Administration's Sins Are Sins of Omission The governance problem can be blamed in part on the field of public administration. We have readily and enthusiastically helped to reorganize, reform, and reinvent Bureaucracy. We have worked suboptimizing wonders on the Bureaucracy but have long since passed the point of diminishing marginal returns. There are no more, if there were any, silver bullets that will slay the Bureaucracy dragon and magically improve governance in the United States. Most of the dragons have starved to death: few of the bullets hit anything. Intellectually the field of public administration made two mistakes that contributed to our current governance problem. First, in rejecting the politics/administration dichotomy, public administration was unambitious in its territorial claims. As scholars, we were happy to argue that the administrative process was inherently political and, therefore, we confined our study to bureaucratic politics. …
Richard M Walker - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
representative Bureaucracy organizational strategy and public service performance an empirical analysis of english local government
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2005Co-Authors: Rhys William Andrews, George Alexander Boyne, Kenneth J Meier, Laurence J Otoole, Richard M WalkerAbstract:The theory of representative Bureaucracy suggests that organizations perform better if their workforces reflect the characteristics of their constituent populations. The management literature implies that the impact of representative Bureaucracy is contingent on organizational strategy. Our empirical evidence on English local government is inconsistent with the basic theory of representative Bureaucracy but supports a moderating effect of organizational strategy. Representative Bureaucracy is negatively associated with citizens' perceptions of local authority performance. However, organizations pursuing a prospector strategy are able to mitigate this negative relationship.
Rhys William Andrews - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
representative Bureaucracy organizational strategy and public service performance an empirical analysis of english local government
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2005Co-Authors: Rhys William Andrews, George Alexander Boyne, Kenneth J Meier, Laurence J Otoole, Richard M WalkerAbstract:The theory of representative Bureaucracy suggests that organizations perform better if their workforces reflect the characteristics of their constituent populations. The management literature implies that the impact of representative Bureaucracy is contingent on organizational strategy. Our empirical evidence on English local government is inconsistent with the basic theory of representative Bureaucracy but supports a moderating effect of organizational strategy. Representative Bureaucracy is negatively associated with citizens' perceptions of local authority performance. However, organizations pursuing a prospector strategy are able to mitigate this negative relationship.
J L Polinard - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
representative Bureaucracy and distributional equity addressing the hard question
The Journal of Politics, 1999Co-Authors: Kenneth J Meier, Robert D Wrinkle, J L PolinardAbstract:Research on representative Bureaucracy has failed to deal with whether or not representative bureaucracies produce minority gains at the expense of nonminorities. Using a pooled time-series analysis of 350 school districts over six years, this study examines the relationship between representative Bureaucracy and organizational outputs for minorities and nonminorities. Far from finding that representative Bureaucracy produces minority gains at the expense of nonminorities, this study finds both minority and nonminority students perform better in the presence of a representative Bureaucracy. This finding suggests an alternative hypothesis to guide research: that representative bureaucracies are more effective than their nonrepresentative counterparts.
Laurence J Otoole - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
Bureaucracy in a democratic state a governance perspective
2006Co-Authors: Kenneth J Meier, Laurence J OtooleAbstract:Here, Kenneth J. Meier and Laurence J. O'Toole Jr. present a timely analysis of working democracy, arguing that Bureaucracy—often considered antithetical to fundamental democratic principles—can actually promote democracy. Drawing from both the empirical work of political scientists and the qualitative work of public administration scholars, the authors employ a "governance approach" that considers broad, institutionally complex systems of governance as well as the nitty-gritty details of Bureaucracy management. They examine the results of bureaucratic and political interactions in specific government settings, locally and nationally, to determine whether bureaucratic systems strengthen or weaken the connections between public preferences and actual policies. They find that bureaucracies are part of complex intergovernmental and interorganizational networks that limit a single Bureaucracy's institutional control over the implementation of public policy. Further, they conclude that top-down political control of Bureaucracy has only modest impact on the activities of Bureaucracy in the U.S. and that shared values and commitments to democratic norms, along with political control, produce a Bureaucracy that is responsive to the American people.
-
representative Bureaucracy organizational strategy and public service performance an empirical analysis of english local government
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 2005Co-Authors: Rhys William Andrews, George Alexander Boyne, Kenneth J Meier, Laurence J Otoole, Richard M WalkerAbstract:The theory of representative Bureaucracy suggests that organizations perform better if their workforces reflect the characteristics of their constituent populations. The management literature implies that the impact of representative Bureaucracy is contingent on organizational strategy. Our empirical evidence on English local government is inconsistent with the basic theory of representative Bureaucracy but supports a moderating effect of organizational strategy. Representative Bureaucracy is negatively associated with citizens' perceptions of local authority performance. However, organizations pursuing a prospector strategy are able to mitigate this negative relationship.
