En osäker eller rätt(s)säker organisation? En hypotesprövande idealtypsanalys om gräsrotsbyråkraternas handlingsfrihet inom Arbetsmarknadsverket
(2006)Department of Political Science
- Abstract
- Ever since Lipsky wrote about street-level bureaucrats in 1980 the main belief has been that certain characteristics of their jobs make it exceptionally difficult to severely reduce their discretion. However, discretion comes at a price and if public servants abuse their power the legitimacy of government is at risk and ultimately even the democracy.
This thesis address this question by analysing the Swedish employment service which in the beginning of 2001 started a project called ?Af Sverige? trying to improve internal rule of law. By comparing two local and fairly equal jobcentres and how the street-level bureaucrats within use their discretion, I seek to find support for my hypotheses that organizing local jobcentres according to the... (More) - Ever since Lipsky wrote about street-level bureaucrats in 1980 the main belief has been that certain characteristics of their jobs make it exceptionally difficult to severely reduce their discretion. However, discretion comes at a price and if public servants abuse their power the legitimacy of government is at risk and ultimately even the democracy.
This thesis address this question by analysing the Swedish employment service which in the beginning of 2001 started a project called ?Af Sverige? trying to improve internal rule of law. By comparing two local and fairly equal jobcentres and how the street-level bureaucrats within use their discretion, I seek to find support for my hypotheses that organizing local jobcentres according to the principles of machine bureaucracy plays a significant part in reducing discretion.
My findings show that a jobcentre characterised by strict rules, few units, good communications and a forthright manager who delegates formal power to the employees results in a stricter and more uniform application of regulations among the street-level bureaucrats. My conclusion is therefore unambiguous. Organization plays a vital part in reducing discretion as well as it constitutes a key factor in shaping street-level bureaucrats into the kind of public servants that act according to rule of law and thereby strengthening legitimacy of government and democracy. (Less)
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http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1327567
- author
- Karlsson, Per
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2006
- type
- H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
- subject
- keywords
- Street-level bureaucrats, Discretion, Most similar system design, Organization, Rule of law, Political and administrative sciences, Statsvetenskap, förvaltningskunskap
- language
- Swedish
- id
- 1327567
- date added to LUP
- 2006-09-06 00:00:00
- date last changed
- 2006-09-06 00:00:00
@misc{1327567,
abstract = {{Ever since Lipsky wrote about street-level bureaucrats in 1980 the main belief has been that certain characteristics of their jobs make it exceptionally difficult to severely reduce their discretion. However, discretion comes at a price and if public servants abuse their power the legitimacy of government is at risk and ultimately even the democracy.
This thesis address this question by analysing the Swedish employment service which in the beginning of 2001 started a project called ?Af Sverige? trying to improve internal rule of law. By comparing two local and fairly equal jobcentres and how the street-level bureaucrats within use their discretion, I seek to find support for my hypotheses that organizing local jobcentres according to the principles of machine bureaucracy plays a significant part in reducing discretion.
My findings show that a jobcentre characterised by strict rules, few units, good communications and a forthright manager who delegates formal power to the employees results in a stricter and more uniform application of regulations among the street-level bureaucrats. My conclusion is therefore unambiguous. Organization plays a vital part in reducing discretion as well as it constitutes a key factor in shaping street-level bureaucrats into the kind of public servants that act according to rule of law and thereby strengthening legitimacy of government and democracy.}},
author = {{Karlsson, Per}},
language = {{swe}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{En osäker eller rätt(s)säker organisation? En hypotesprövande idealtypsanalys om gräsrotsbyråkraternas handlingsfrihet inom Arbetsmarknadsverket}},
year = {{2006}},
}