Repairing the State: Policy Repair in the Frontline Bureaucracy

• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Author: Ayesha Masood,Muhammad Azfar Nisar
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13414

Research Article

256Public Administration Review • March | Apri l 202 2

Abstract: Research on street-level bureaucrats has identified their role as policy entrepreneurs through the adoption

and advocacy of policy innovations. This article adds to this research by underscoring how street-level bureaucrats use

creativity and improvisation to find contextual solutions for emergent local policy problems in response to scarcity. We

suggest that these practices of policy repair allow frontline bureaucracies to deal with personnel, process, and material

scarcity and maintain public service delivery even in resource-scarce environments. Using ethnographic data from

Punjab, Pakistan, we show that this repair work is collaborative, client-centered, and motivated by compassion and

kindness. Our research indicates that emergent and improvised policy repair allows frontline bureaucracies to be

resilient and responsive to scarcity and changing service demands. Our findings further suggest that inclusion of street-

level bureaucrats in formal policy decisions can help develop context-specific solutions to emergent problems of public

service delivery.

Evidence for Practice

• Street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) face multiple types of scarcity during policy implementation—material

scarcity, where they do not have enough equipment or space for their work; process scarcity, where officially

sanctioned menu of routines or procedures do not account for local situations; and personnel scarcity, where

they do not have enough workforce or expertise for their tasks.

• SLBs do policy repair—use creativity and innovation in their day-to-day work to find local and

contextualized solutions for their localized service limitations, to overcome scarcity, and to deal with the

vulnerability of bureaucratic systems.

• Allowing SLBs to use creativity and improvisation for local and emergent problems can create more robust

and resilient public service delivery systems.

• Repair requires implicit and local knowledge of bureaucratic systems; inclusion of SLBs in formal policy

decisions is necessary to develop context-specific solutions to emergent problems of public service delivery.

Street-level bureaucracy has been a long-standing

focus of public administration and policy

research. This research has highlighted different

aspects of street-level bureaucrats’ (SLBs) work,

such as resource scarcity (Brodkin2012; Hupe and

Buffat 2014), high workload, and uncertain job

requirements (Lipsky1980[2010]), where they must

make challenging, yet influential, decisions about the

allocation of resources and services (Maynard-Moody

and Musheno2000; Nisar and Masood2019). In

doing so, SLBs must also grapple with competing

values held by themselves (Keiser2010), their

clients (Maynard-Moody and Musheno2000), their

peers (Gofen2014; Oberfield2010, 2014), and

their managers and supervisors (Henderson and

Pandey2013). Importantly, SLBs are denied the

moral distance available at other tiers of bureaucracy,

as they must interact with their clients while making

these challenging decisions (Nisar and Masood2019).

Given the inevitable discretion available to them, this

makes SLBs critical determinants of implementation

(Brodkin2012; Lipsky1980[2010]) and the social

justice footprint of public policies (Epp, Maynard-

Moody, and Haider-Markel2014; Masood and

Nisar2021; Nisar2018a; Nisar2018b).

While this long line of research has provided valuable

insights about the conditions of work that SLBs

face, various aspects of their discretionary decision

making, and how it impacts policy objectives, there

is limited understanding of how SLBs use creativity

and improvisation during their work. Research on

street-level entrepreneurship highlights how SLBs

can become actively involved in creating new,

formal policies and in the adoption of innovative

implementation strategies. However, this research

primarily focuses on transformative innovations

by a few motivated workers under favorable

Ayesha Masood

Muhammad Azfar Nisar

Suleman Dawood School of Business, Lahore University of Management Sciences

Repairing the State: Policy Repair in the Frontline

Bureaucracy

Muhammad Azfar Nisar is an associate

professor in the Suleman Dawood School of

Business, Lahore University of Management

Sciences, Pakistan. His research interests

include street-level bureaucracy,

administrative burden, and social inequity.

Email: azfar.nisar@lums.edu.pk

Ayesha Masood is an assistant professor

in the Suleman Dawood School of

Business, Lahore University of Management

Sciences, Pakistan. She is interested in the

intersection of street-level bureaucracy,

administrative burden, and gender.

Email: ayesha.masood@lums.edu.pk

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 82, Iss. 2, pp. 256–268. © 2021 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13414.