{"id":689,"date":"2013-02-25T09:34:49","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T09:34:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rulesofreason.wordpress.com\/?p=689"},"modified":"2013-02-25T09:34:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T09:34:49","slug":"bureaucrats-as-policy-makers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=689","title":{"rendered":"Bureaucrats as Policy-makers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyone loves bitching about bureaucrats but few know what it is exactly that they do. Ed Page<\/a>‘s new book<\/a> ‘Policies without Politicians’ provides plenty of insights. As I mention at the end of this book review, everyone who theorizes or\u00a0criticizes bureaucrats should read the book as a reality check. A shorter version of the review is forthcoming in West European Politics later this year<\/del>.
\n***<\/p>\n

This book is about the making of decrees such as the Alcohol Disorder Zones in the UK, Salmon critical\u00a0habitats in the US, Horse Medicines in the EU and Women’s Organizations in Sweden. If you suspect\u00a0these issues are rather prosaic, you are not alone. And this is precisely the point. This book is about the\u00a0making of policies in the absence of sustained attention by politicians. It is a study of how bureaucrats\u00a0make rules when mostly left to their own devices. It is an exploration into the nature and limits of\u00a0bureaucratic discretion to regulate our lives.<\/p>\n

The main conclusion, based on an analysis of 58 issues in six political systems, is that the\u00a0freedom enjoyed by civil servants and their insulation from political control are in practice severely\u00a0limited if not completely illusory, even when it comes to the relatively minor issues discussed in the\u00a0book. Admittedly, this is a rather prosaic conclusion as well, but one that is comforting, timely andimportant. It is comforting to the extent that it dispels the popular myth of the faceless bureaucrats\u00a0controlling our lives. It is timely because theories of policy-making and politico-administrative relations\u00a0have became increasingly preoccupied with issues like bureaucratic drift, shirking, delegation costs, and\u00a0the like with little evidence that these actually matter in real life. Finally, the conclusion is important in
\nview of the continuing tendency of political science to ignore the pedestrian reality of everyday policy making\u00a0which although lacking the suspense of high politics comprises the bulk of the activities of states\u00a0and public organizations.<\/p>\n

The book contains an introduction, six empirical chapters covering policy-making in France,\u00a0Britain, Germany, Sweden, the United States, and the European Union, and a conclusion. In this review I\u00a0will follow the opposite route by first summarizing part of the generalizations offered in the last part,\u00a0then focusing on some of the country-level insights, and finally commenting on the approach of the\u00a0book.<\/p>\n

Studying the origin and passage of a moderately large sample of secondary legislation (decrees),\u00a0Edward Page concludes that politicians generally get their way even if their attention towards the issues\u00a0is sporadic. Bureaucrats anticipate the preferences of their political masters and adjust the text of the\u00a0decrees to the politicians’ explicit or assumed wishes. Moreover, bureaucratic discretion is severely\u00a0constrained by precedent, existing legal codes, and procedural rules for the preparation of legislation, in\u00a0addition to the need to anticipate and avoid political vetoes. And if for most of the decrees political\u00a0direction is passive, there is a tendency for the relatively important ones to be developed under direct
\nand active political guidance.Contrary to theoretical expectations, the technical and scientific character of many of the issues\u00a0is not sufficient to exclude political involvement (p.153). Also running against some popular theoretical\u00a0ideas based on principal-agent modeling is the observation that it was never an ‘alarm’ set off by\u00a0interest groups (p.151) that brought political attention to an issue. Again, bureaucrats tend to detectand anticipate potential conflicts and solve them before they offer the decrees for final approval. But it
\nis internal norms rather than external scrutiny or outside interests that are most important in keeping\u00a0the bureaucrats in check, according to the book (p.165).<\/p>\n

Politicians appear to be most often involved in the legitimation of decrees, but that does not\u00a0mean bureaucrats have a free hand during the agenda-setting stage. Not only did many decrees offer no\u00a0scope for policy deliberation at all, but in most cases there was almost no scope for choice whether to\u00a0introduce the proposal in the first place: proposals often followed automatically from prior\u00a0commitments in primary legislation, the need to update, codify, or clean up existing rules, or the\u00a0obligation to apply international norms and agreements. In this context the author is right to question\u00a0the relevance of theoretical concerns like bureaucratic drift and shirking, and ponder what would selfinterested
\nbureaucratic preferences even look like with regard to many of the policy issues discussed in\u00a0the book (p.160). If one looks for the influence of civil servants, it is not to be found in the supposedly\u00a0unconstrained discretion they enjoy in pushing their own agendas or preferences, but in the\u00a0routinization, regularization and adjustment of policy they perform (pp.168-170).<\/p>\n

These general patterns seem to be influenced by the national institutional context (pp.155-158)\u00a0and vary to some extent across the six political systems studied. Sweden appears to be the place where\u00a0politicians are most likely to get involved in the preparation of decrees even when one would expects\u00a0them not to. On the other end of the spectrum, the UK and Germany exhibit the lowest degree of direct\u00a0political involvement. In the German case, this stems from the fact that potential conflicts are solved in\u00a0different institutional arenas before the drafting of the decrees had even started. As for the UK, the\u00a0book posits a ‘general reluctance among politicians to get directly and actively involved in the activity of
\nrule-making ‘ (p.157). A surprising degree of political involvement (mostly as agenda selectors) is found\u00a0in the generally pluralist American system, in addition to the continual importance of the agency as the\u00a0central locus of organizational identity for American bureaucrats. The French system is found to be\u00a0unexpectedly ‘as close to interest group corporatism as it is to the traditional aloof ‘strong state”’ (p.44).<\/p>\n

But it is the chapter on the European Union that most strongly contradicts the popular perceptions and\u00a0received common, if not academic, wisdom. Page is clear that ‘the role of Commission bureaucrats as\u00a0[policy] initiators was highly limited’ (p.128), Commissioners often get directly involved, and there is\u00a0very little scope for independent action. Far from enjoying a bureaucrat’s paradise, civil servants in the\u00a0European Union appear to have very little substantial autonomy and influence.<\/p>\n

Although the synchronic comparisons between the six political systems and the diachronic
\ncomparisons with previous academic accounts suggest intriguing patterns, the book can pursue them\u00a0only as far. The study is unapologetically inductive, there is little effort to systematize the empirical mess\u00a0of real-word policy-making into variables, and the case selection is driven primarily by pragmatic\u00a0reasons. While this serves the exploratory objectives of the book well, it also posits limits on the\u00a0inferences and generalizations one can make. Since the sample of issues (decrees) is not (intended to\u00a0be) representative it is difficult to judge whether the case studies provide evidence for genuine change\u00a0in national policy-making styles (e.g. France, the US), or for systematic differences between \u00a0countries\u00a0(e.g. Sweden vs. the UK). Since the decrees researched differ across the six political systems, the\u00a0question why certain issues are left for bureaucratic policy-making (decrees) in one country but get in the social and political prime-time in others is left answered. Furthermore, by selecting only cases which\u00a0eventually resulted in a decree, the book might have overlooked potentially interesting cases where\u00a0(political) conflict stopped the development of policy in its tracks.<\/p>\n

These points are as much suggestions for future research as they are criticisms of the current\u00a0volume. The book is quite clear about its own limitations deliberately positioning itself as an inductive\u00a0exploration. And it achieves its purpose rather well. As the author notes, it is difficult to produce a good\u00a0book describing cases which are dull and boring by definition, but, although not gripping, the text\u00a0manages to provide just enough detail and institutional context to keep the reader interested. In fact,\u00a0the short presentations of the six policy-making systems contained in each of the country chapters make\u00a0the book suitable for primary or complementary reading for academic courses on comparative\u00a0bureaucracy and comparative public policy. But above all, the book<\/a> should be required reading, and a
\nreality check, for all those who theorize and criticize bureaucracy and bureaucrats for their alleged\u00a0discretion in regulating our lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyone loves bitching about bureaucrats but few know what it is exactly that they do. Ed Page‘s new book ‘Policies without Politicians’ provides plenty of insights. As I mention at the end of this book review, everyone who theorizes or\u00a0criticizes bureaucrats should read the book as a reality check. A shorter version of the review is forthcoming in West European Politics later this year. *** This book is about the making of decrees such as the Alcohol Disorder Zones in the UK, Salmon critical\u00a0habitats in the US, Horse Medicines in the EU and Women’s Organizations in Sweden. If you suspect\u00a0these issues are rather prosaic, you are not alone. And this is precisely the point. This book is about the\u00a0making of policies in the absence of sustained attention by politicians. It is a study of how bureaucrats\u00a0make rules when mostly left to their own devices. It is an exploration into the nature and limits of\u00a0bureaucratic discretion to regulate our lives. The main conclusion, based on an analysis of 58 issues in six political systems, is that the\u00a0freedom enjoyed by civil servants and their insulation from political control are in practice severely\u00a0limited if not completely illusory, even when it comes to the relatively minor issues discussed in the\u00a0book. Admittedly, this is a rather prosaic conclusion as well, but one that is comforting, timely andimportant. It is comforting to the extent that it dispels the popular myth of the faceless bureaucrats\u00a0controlling our lives. It is timely because theories of policy-making and politico-administrative relations\u00a0have…<\/p>\n

Continue readingBureaucrats as Policy-makers<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[7,37],"tags":[62,107,108,109,171,209,481,487,503,532,594],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7g3hj-b7","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":602,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=602","url_meta":{"origin":689,"position":0},"title":"Why EU Commissioners Are Poor Politicians","date":"November 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Note: a highly-opinionated \u00a0piece re-posted from the EU blog I contribute to EU Commissioners might be seasoned bureaucrats but make for lousy politicians. Viviane Reding, currently responsible for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, and Commissioner since 1999 (!) is surely a masterful mandarin, but doesn\u2019t play the politics game very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "EU governance"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":664,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=664","url_meta":{"origin":689,"position":1},"title":"Antifragility goes to Davos","date":"February 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A sample of statements made at the 2013 meeting of the world leaders in\u00a0Davos\u00a0(as reported by\u00a0Felix Salmon): \u201c[We have] removed the tail risk from the euro\u201d Mario Draghi (European Central Bank) 'There is no tail risk anymore' Oli Rehn (European Commission) \u201cIn Europe, the tail risk has been moved off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "economic policy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=52","url_meta":{"origin":689,"position":2},"title":"Governing by Polls","date":"October 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The study of policy responsiveness to public opinion is blossoming and propagating. Work published over the last two years includes\u00a0the 2010 book\u00a0by Stuart Soroka and Chris Wlezien (Canada, US and the UK),\u00a0this paper by Sattler, Brandt, and Freeeman on the UK, \u00a0this\u00a0paper on Denmark, my own\u00a0article on the EU, Roberts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Policy making"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":74,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=74","url_meta":{"origin":689,"position":3},"title":"The decline of the death penalty","date":"October 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I just finished reading\u00a0'The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence' (link, link to book's website)\u00a0by Frank Baumgartner, Suzana De Boef and Amber Boydstun. It is a fine study of the rise of the 'innocence' frame and the decline of the use of capital punishment in the\u00a0US\u00a0(I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Death penalty policy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":88,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=88","url_meta":{"origin":689,"position":4},"title":"Concentration of control in the global economy","date":"October 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"All\u00a0conspiracy theorists know that the global economy is concentrated in the hands of a few. But even they will be blown away by this paper which maps the network of global corporate ownership and control. Here is the (somewhat understated) abstract: \"The structure of the control network of transnational corporations\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "economic policy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1041,"url":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/?p=1041","url_meta":{"origin":689,"position":5},"title":"Books on public policy","date":"October 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a list of recommended books on public policy, including introductory textbooks and more advanced texts, including handbooks and books on more specific topics within the field of public policy analysis. Introductory textbooks: Knill, C., & Tosun, J. (2012).\u00a0Public policy: A new introduction. Macmillan International Higher Education. Howlett, M.,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "public policy"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-design.dimiter.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}