Changing Bureaucracies. Adapting to Uncertainty, and how Evaluation Can Help, By Perrin, Burt and Tyrrell, Tony (Eds) (New York: Routledge, 2021). ISBN: 978–1–003‐10058‐4 (ebk)

• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Author: Patria Lancer Julnes
• Date: 01 January 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13579

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13579

Changing Bureaucracies.

Adapting to Uncertainty, and

how Evaluation Can Help

By Perrin, Burt and Tyrrell, Tony (Eds)

(New York: Routledge, 2021). ISBN:

978–1–003-10058-4 (ebk)

Patria de Lancer Julnes

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Correspondence

Patria de Lancer Julnes, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA.

Email: patriajulnes1@unm.edu

As one can surmise from the title of this edited book, Burt

Perrin, Tony Terrell and their contributors offer an opti-

mistic view about bureaucracies. Instead of joining the

choir of critics of bureaucracy, the authors recognize the

complexity and turbulence of current times and the chal-

lenges that public bureaucracies face. They do not

expound on the values and virtues of bureaucracy in-

depth as one can find plenty of literature on the subject;

chiefly among them are the multiple versions of Charles

T. Goodsell’sThe Case for Bureaucracy and the latest rendi-

tion (2015), The New Case for Bureaucracy. Rather, Perrin

and his colleagues acknowledge that bureaucracy, as a

form of organization with all its strengths and inherent

limitations, is here to stay but needs to change. And for

the authors, systems of knowledge creation such as pro-

gram evaluation and performance measurement can be

valuable in helping bureaucracies confront complex chal-

lenges, adapt to emerging situations, and succeed in

addressing them.

Although this volume was written before the COVID-19

pandemic, in hindsight, the optimism of this book, both

about bureaucracies changing and the role that evidence

can play, was and remains well-founded. The common crit-

icism is that government institutions are incapable of

adaptation due to rigidity, fragility, and government action

geared to maintaining the status quo (Pelling & Manuel-

Navarrete 2011). The COVID-19 pandemic, however,

showed that government institutions, and society in gen-

eral, have an enormous capacity for flexibility, adaptation,

and quick response, at least in the face of imminent harm

to humans. From universities to hospitals, city councils, fed-

eral agencies, and local communities, organizations

responded with various forms of adaptation and

innovation.

Perhaps some of the most impressive examples of

adaptation, innovation, and flexibility included moving

functions of government and society to the virtual world

with lighting speed and the development and manufactur-

ing of vaccines in record time. These involved quick reas-

sessment, decision-making, and collaboration among many

governance networks, including government bureaucracies.

Klasche (2021) has argued that successful COVID-19 gover-

nance responses were the result of constant learning and

adjustment “to the new realities”(p. 3). Program evaluation

and performance measurement help with needed learning

and adjustment because they can provide the evidence to

strengthen bureaucracy’s capacity to prepare for contingen-

cies, respond when the unpredictable happens, and, as

argued by Stack (2018), develop new evidence to under-

stand the conditions under which different programs and

interventions work.

Lest we think that embedding program evaluation and

systems of performance assessment in bureaucracies is an

easy task, there are well-documented challenges. Examples

include the tension between program evaluation and

accountability, the political nature of decision-making and

the demand for evidence-based decision-making, the scope

of the evaluation and the appropriateness of the policy sub-

ject to evaluation (Bray et al., 2020). Moreover, as stated by

Kathy Newcomer in the foreword of the book, it is hard to

change organizational culture. The professional experiences

and research of Perrin, Tyrell and contributing authors

demonstrate that these tensions continue to exist. However,

the authors provide suggestions for overcoming these

challenges.

While the book primarily covers experiences in the

European and international development contexts, the

lessons and guidance apply to other bureaucratic con-

texts as well. As stated by Perrin in the concluding chap-

ter, though there are differences from one context to

another, bureaucratic systems tend to be very similar.

This edited volume consists of 12 chapters. In the first

chapter, Tyrrell presents the rationale for the book. At its

core, the book seeks to help improve government by mak-

ing government institutions more responsive to the rapidly

changing needs of the people they serve. According to Tyr-

rell, the book was born out of frustration with bureaucratic

behavior concerning public organizations’[lack of] use of

available evidence or strict adherence to preconceived

notions about what a program should achieve or what

should be measured while disregarding emerging needs

and opportunities. Instead, Tyrrell sees the rapid changes

and complexity enveloping governments across the globe

as arguing for public bureaucracies to be nimble. Thus, the

central questions of the book: “how (or, perhaps even

whether) bureaucracy can continue to adapt…and, more

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