The dynamics between religion and state in public administration implementation theories has garnered scholarly interest over the past decade. However, these two realms of study are rarely combined. In this research note, I explore religion and, more specifically, the implementation of religion‐based policies by street‐level bureaucrats, as a public service like any other. I point to the more commonly studied aspect of this realm, namely the influence of personal religious tendencies on the exercise of discretion by the individual street‐level bureaucrat. Further, I discuss the supply of religion‐based services by street‐level bureaucrats in democracies, and the actions they are willing to take (such as promote co‐production or policy entrepreneurship) when religion constraints them from supplying certain public services.Points for practitionersStreet‐level bureaucrats are influenced by their religious perceptions during policy implementation.These workers may also be constrained by religion‐based policies during implementation, hence provide inadequate public services or not supplying them at all.Citizens may be dissatisfied with the inadequate services and the burdens it imposes on their lives.Street‐level bureaucrats who cannot supply certain services due to religion‐based constraints may take on co‐production or policy entrepreneurship strategies outside the standard scope of their job description in order to supply them.
{"title":"Religion and public administration at the micro level: The lens of street‐level bureaucracy theory in democracies","authors":"Niva Golan‐Nadir","doi":"10.1111/1467-8500.12626","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8500.12626","url":null,"abstract":"<jats:label />The dynamics between religion and state in public administration implementation theories has garnered scholarly interest over the past decade. However, these two realms of study are rarely combined. In this research note, I explore religion and, more specifically, the implementation of religion‐based policies by street‐level bureaucrats, as a public service like any other. I point to the more commonly studied aspect of this realm, namely the influence of personal religious tendencies on the exercise of discretion by the individual street‐level bureaucrat. Further, I discuss the supply of religion‐based services by street‐level bureaucrats in democracies, and the actions they are willing to take (such as promote co‐production or policy entrepreneurship) when religion constraints them from supplying certain public services.Points for practitioners<jats:list list-type=\"bullet\"> <jats:list-item>Street‐level bureaucrats are influenced by their religious perceptions during policy implementation.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>These workers may also be constrained by religion‐based policies during implementation, hence provide inadequate public services or not supplying them at all.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>Citizens may be dissatisfied with the inadequate services and the burdens it imposes on their lives.</jats:list-item> <jats:list-item>Street‐level bureaucrats who cannot supply certain services due to religion‐based constraints may take on co‐production or policy entrepreneurship strategies outside the standard scope of their job description in order to supply them.</jats:list-item> </jats:list>","PeriodicalId":47373,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Public Administration","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140146705","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-26DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8500.2001.tb00001.x
Spencer Zifcak
Contractualism, as concept and practice, may be defined in different ways (Yeatman 1995, 1998). In this article I am concerned with contracting out or outsourcing as it is otherwise known. That is, I focus upon the process whereby functions undertaken formerly by government are now performed by private or voluntary organisations in a contractual relationship with public service departments and agencies. Whereas departments and agencies once provided a full panoply of services directly, government purchasers now select providers by tendering competitively for an expanding range of employment, education, health, social welfare and local government services. Contractualism, then, involves the recon‐figuation of public service provision to favour quasi‐commercial rather than bureaucratic forms.*
{"title":"Contractualism, Democracy and Ethics","authors":"Spencer Zifcak","doi":"10.1111/j.1467-8500.2001.tb00001.x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2001.tb00001.x","url":null,"abstract":"Contractualism, as concept and practice, may be defined in different ways (Yeatman 1995, 1998). In this article I am concerned with contracting out or outsourcing as it is otherwise known. That is, I focus upon the process whereby functions undertaken formerly by government are now performed by private or voluntary organisations in a contractual relationship with public service departments and agencies. Whereas departments and agencies once provided a full panoply of services directly, government purchasers now select providers by tendering competitively for an expanding range of employment, education, health, social welfare and local government services. Contractualism, then, involves the recon‐figuation of public service provision to favour quasi‐commercial rather than bureaucratic forms.<jats:sup>*</jats:sup>","PeriodicalId":47373,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Public Administration","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139978956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-02-26DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8500.2001.tb00002.x
Michael Muetzelfeldt
This paper discusses ambiguities of mutual obligation at the levels of: defining the new political middle ground, policies for dealing with non‐compliance, the analytical frames that are used to support it, and discourses of contract. It concludes by locating these ambiguities within the cultural anthropological notion of symbol. As a symbol, mutual obligation has the power to confound its critics — criticism of the notion and its inconsistent policy prescriptions is generally not assessed as right or wrong, but rather is rendered irrelevant.
{"title":"The Facilitative State and the Symbolic Potency of Mutual Obligation","authors":"Michael Muetzelfeldt","doi":"10.1111/j.1467-8500.2001.tb00002.x","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2001.tb00002.x","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses ambiguities of mutual obligation at the levels of: defining the new political middle ground, policies for dealing with non‐compliance, the analytical frames that are used to support it, and discourses of contract. It concludes by locating these ambiguities within the cultural anthropological notion of symbol. As a symbol, mutual obligation has the power to confound its critics — criticism of the notion and its inconsistent policy prescriptions is generally not assessed as right or wrong, but rather is rendered irrelevant.","PeriodicalId":47373,"journal":{"name":"Australian Journal of Public Administration","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2024-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139978957","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}