Conceptualizing and Explaining Bureauphobia: Contours, Scope, and Determinants

• Author: José M. Díaz‐Pulido,Inés Calzada,Eloísa del Pino
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12570
• Published date: 01 September 2016
• Date: 01 September 2016

Conceptualizing and Explaining Bureauphobia: Contours, Scope, and Determinants 725

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 76, Iss. 5, pp. 725–736. © 2016 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12570.

José M. Díaz-Pulido holds a master ’ s

degree in applied economics and data

analysis from Essex University and a master

of laws degree from Complutense University

of Madrid. Currently, he is an external

expert for OECD-SIGMA and researcher at

Complutense University, Spain. Previously,

he was visiting researcher at Harvard

University, lecturer at King Juan Carlos

University, and director of the technical

division of the Spanish Evaluation Agency.

He has extensively researched public

opinion, public administration, and the

welfare state.

E-mail: jomdiaz@ucm.es

Inés Calzada holds a PhD in sociology

from the University of Salamanca, Spain,

and a master ’ s degree in methodology

for the social sciences from the London

School of Economics, United Kingdom. She

has extensively researched public opinion

toward welfare programs and also has

an interest in the development of new

methodologies for the social sciences.

She has been a lecturer in sociology at

Complutense University of Madrid, Spain,

and the University of Linköping in Sweden,

as well as a research fellow at the Spanish

National Research Council.

E-mail: ines.calzada@cchs.csic.es

Eloísa del Pino is senior research

fellow in the Institute of Public Goods

and Policies, Spanish National Research

Council, Spain. She holds a PhD in political

science from Complutense University of

Madrid. Previously, she held teaching

positions at King Juan Carlos University and

Autonomous University of Madrid in Spain.

She was also visiting researcher at the

CNRS in Bordeaux, France, the University

of Kent, United Kingdom, and Ottawa

University, Canada. Beyond her academic

positions, she was head of the Observatory

for the Quality of Public Services at the

Spanish National Agency for the Evaluation

of Public Policies in Spain. Many of her

publications have dealt with citizens’

attitudes toward public administration

and policies.

E-mail: eloisa.delpino@csic.es

Abstract : Several studies have described a perspective among citizens that entails a negative image of public

administration or civil servants that persists even after positive encounters and experiences. However, this ambivalent

attitude has rarely been studied empirically. The authors refer to this attitude as “bureauphobia” and seek to enhance

the existing literature through an analysis of its scope and root causes in Spain. The article analyzes two surveys

conducted in 2009 and 2010, elaborating two alternative measures of bureauphobia. The results are similar regardless

of the survey used and the specific operationalization of the concept: more than 20 percent of each sample exhibits a

perspective that combines a negative image of public administration and satisfaction with its performance. A general

attitude of distrust stands out among the variables associated with bureauphobia. Substantial regional variation is

evident in the extent of the phenomenon.

Practitioner Points

• Although bureauphobia is exhibited by a significant percentage of citizens, it is not a prevailing attitude.

• A negative image of public administration is not always related to the performance of administrative services.

Bureauphobes maintain their negative attitudes even after positive experiences with public administration .

• Bureauphobia does not seem to be based on the public or governmental nature of organizations and

professional groups, as one might suppose.

• There is a close relationship between bureauphobia and distrust of certain private sector employees.

A century ago, referring to his native Germany,

Max Weber wrote that “the problems with

which officials have to wrestle in their work

never become clearly visible. Their achievements

can never become understood and appreciated; one

cannot go beyond the sterile complaints against the

‘Blessed Saint Bureaucracy’ in order to replace it with

positive criticism” (1918, 181). This type of attitude

toward public administration is by no means unique

to Weber ’ s Germany. Both Goodsell in his seminal

The Case for Bureaucracy (1994) and Frederickson in

The Spirit of Public Administration (1997) refer to a

certain ambivalence among citizens that combines a

negative image of public administration and officials

with a positive evaluation of the actual performance of

public services based on direct, personal experiences.

More recently, similar phenomena have been observed

in the United States, Israel, Belgium, Japan, Norway,

and Spain (Berman 1997 ; Christensen and Lægreid

2005 ; Del Pino 2005; Goodsell 1994 , 2015 ; Kim

2005 ; Marvel 2015 ; Nachmias and Rosenbloom

1978; Nieto 1976 ; Van den Bulck 2000; Van de Walle

2004; Vigoda-Gadot, Aviv, and Vashdi 2010 ; Wills

1999 ). Moreover, this type of attitude is also reflected

in the popular media, including films and literature

across various countries and cultures (Goodsell and

Murray 1995 ; Lee and Paddock 2001 ; Villoria 2000 ).

Numerous scholars have thus identified a negative

view of public administration that is not necessarily

related to objective or subjective assessments of its

performance (for the United States, see Marvel 2015 ;

Van Ryzin 2011; for Spain, see Caínzos 2015 ). In

fact, this attitude is observed even in countries with

advanced governments that function reasonably well

and whose citizens are generally satisfied with public

services. What these authors and practitioners are

referring to is a specific ambivalent or contradictory

attitude consisting of a negative image of public

administration or civil servants that persists even after

positive encounters and experiences. In this article, we

refer to this type of attitude as “bureauphobia.”

Despite its apparent universality, we know little about

this contradictory view of public administration from

an empirical perspective. In this article, we depart

from previous research that has sought to measure the

extent and nature of similar attitudes, as well as from

studies (sometimes commissioned by practitioners

in public organizations) on citizen satisfaction with

Eloísa del Pino

Inés Calzada

Spanish National Research Council, Spain

José M. Díaz-Pulido

Complutense University, Spain

Conceptualizing and Explaining Bureauphobia:

Contours, Scope, and Determinants