Commentary: “Bureauphobia”: A New Conceptual Tool for Understanding Public Dissatisfaction

• Author: Ana Ruiz
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12637
• Published date: 01 September 2016
• Date: 01 September 2016

736 Public Administration Review • September | October 2016

Ana Ruiz is head of the Spanish National

Agency for the Evaluation of Public Policies

and the Quality of Services.

E-mail : anam.ruiz@aeval.es

Commentary

T he analysis carried out by Eloísa Del Pino,

Inés Calzada, and José M. Díaz-Pulido in

their article “Conceptualizing and Explaining

Bureauphobia: Contours, Scope, and Determinants”

can be very useful for public organizations committed

to promoting the quality of public services. Moreover,

if further studies build on this work to analyze the

determinants of citizen satisfaction with public service

in their own geographic contexts, its indirect utility

may be still greater.

Since 2006, the Spanish National Agency for

the Evaluation of Public Policies and the Quality

of Services (AEVAL) has been studying citizen

perceptions of public service performance. On that

basis, AEVAL has identified the key factors that

account for citizen satisfaction: certainty that a

procedure is properly managed, information provided,

professionalism and attention by public employees,

and prompt resolutions. Several studies and my own

observations confirm that recent contacts improve

citizen evaluations of public services. The Spanish

government has utilized this information to define

strategies to improve its social legitimacy.

The work by Del Pino, Calzada, and Díaz-Pulido

goes beyond traditional analysis of citizen satisfaction

with public services. They have identified and

analyzed a specific section of the population: the

“bureauphobes,” a group of citizens with “a negative

attitude toward public administration or civil

servants that persists even after positive encounters

and experiences.” Because this negative image of

administration is not related to the actual performance

of administrative services, the contribution of these

authors can help us understand why these citizens do

not react to service improvement as expected.

The article notes that the variable with the closest

relationship to bureauphobia is distrust of private

Ana Ruiz

Spanish National Agency for the Evaluation of Public Policies and the Quality of Services, Spain

“Bureauphobia”: A New Conceptual Tool

for Understanding Public Dissatisfaction

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 76, Iss. 5, pp. 736–737. © 2016 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12637.