Old and New: Street-Level Bureaucracy

• DOI: 10.1177/0095399718792087
• Date: 01 September 2018
• Author: Brian J. Cook
• Published date: 01 September 2018
• Subject Matter: Editorial

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399718792087

Administration & Society

2018, Vol. 50(8) 1071

© The Author(s) 2018

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DOI: 10.1177/0095399718792087

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Editorial

Old and New:

Street-Level Bureaucracy

The September 2018 issue of Administration & Society features five articles

concerned with street-level, or frontline, administration. Most of the articles use

case study methods to examine street-level bureaucracy with respect to specific

policy areas, administrator characteristics, or interactions and relationships.

In the May 1987 issue of Administration & Society, Scott T. Moore offered

a critique of what he regarded as the standard treatment of frontline decision

making in the research on street-level bureaucracy, dominated as it was at the

time by Michael Lipsky’s path-breaking work (Lipsky, 1980). Moore con-

tended that Lipsky’s portrayal of street-level bureaucratic decision making as

“ad hoc, reactive, and context dependent” (p. 76, emphasis in original) was

typical of “a general, if latent, frame of reference” that he called “bureau-

cratic discourse” (p. 77). He offered in contrast a political model or perspec-

tive on street-level bureaucrats, portraying them as “inventive strategists

seeking technical, social, and moral capacity and sophistication as well as

strategic success in negotiating ambiguous work settings” (p. 74). Moore saw

his alternative as offering insight into “the systematic ways through which

functionaries assimilate elements of their jobs and the motives with which

they deploy such actions,” increasing our understanding of complexities in

“the street-level arena” (p. 92).

For readers drawn to this issue, I offer a challenge: Read Scott Moore’s

article from 30 years ago and then consider whether, and if so to what

extent, the scholars whose research is reported in the current issue adopt a

political, in contrast to a bureaucratic, perspective on the actions of front-

line administrators.

Brian J. Cook

Virginia Tech

References

Lipsky, M. (1980). Street-level bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the individual in public

services. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Moore, S. T. (1987). The theory of street-level bureaucracy: A positive critique.

Administration & Society, 7, 74-94.

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