The Political Economy of Administrative Burdens: A Theoretical Framework for Analyzing the Organizational Origins of Administrative Burdens

• Author: Rik Peeters
• Date: 01 April 2020
• Published date: 01 April 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/0095399719854367
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095399719854367

Administration & Society

2020, Vol. 52(4) 566 –592

© The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/0095399719854367

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Article

The Political Economy

of Administrative

Burdens: A Theoretical

Framework for Analyzing

the Organizational

Origins of Administrative

Burdens

Rik Peeters1

Abstract

Most research on administrative burdens focuses on measuring their impact

on citizens’ access to services and benefits. This article fills a theoretical

gap and provides a framework for understanding the organizational

origins of administrative burden. Based on an extensive literature review,

the explanations are organized according to their level of intentionality

(deliberate hidden politics or unintended consequences) and their level

of formality (designed into formal procedures or caused by informal

organizational practices). The analysis suggests that administrative burdens

are often firmly rooted in a political economy of deeply engrained structures

and behavioral patterns in public administration.

Keywords

administrative burdens, bureaucracy, red tape, street-level bureaucracy

1Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), Mexico City, México

Corresponding Author:

Rik Peeters, Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), Carretera México-

Toluca 3655, Colonia Lomas de Santa Fe, Mexico City 01210, México.

Email: rik.peeters@cide.edu

854367AASXXX10.1177/0095399719854367Administration & SocietyPeeters

research-article2019

Peeters 567

Introduction

The administrative burdens approach has in recent years rejuvenated the

study of street-level bureaucracy. Instead of focusing on the perspective of

bureaucrats, the study of administrative burdens takes a citizen’s “experi-

ence of policy implementation as onerous” (Burden, Canon, Mayer, &

Moynihan, 2012, p. 741) as the starting point of analysis. It thereby departs

from the red tape literature (e.g., Bozeman, 2000), which has been mostly

concerned with the paperwork and regulations that affect bureaucrats’ work

and organizational performance (Heinrich, 2016). This has sparked new

attention for the barriers that citizens face in getting access to rights and

services (Moynihan, Herd, & Harvey, 2015). However, its focus has been

mostly on identifying and conceptualizing burdens and less on understand-

ing their existence and nature. As Bozeman (1993) said back in 1993 about

studies on red tape, “most research and theory has treated it as an indepen-

dent variable” (p. 274). The same holds true today for studies on administra-

tive burden. The objective of this article was to develop a theoretical

framework that identifies the key variables and most important organiza-

tional origins of the emergence and persistent existence of administrative

burdens. Besides a theoretical contribution, this article also helps understand

why burdens can be so complicated to reduce.

Rooted in the policy feedback tradition, the literature on administrative

burden stresses that barriers in the access to rights and services affect citizen-

ship, democracy, and social equality (Moynihan & Herd, 2010, p. 654;

Peeters & Nieto Morales, in press). “Bureaucratic encounters” (Kahn, Katz,

& Gutek, 1976) determine whether people can actually get access to the ser-

vices they are entitled to. Administrative burdens may be onerous but ulti-

mately surmountable and may also lead to “administrative exclusion”

(Brodkin & Majmundar, 2010). They extend beyond a material loss of time

and money and also affect people’s “orientations toward the institutions and

policies of government” (Mettler & Soss, 2004, p. 62) and their social capital

and participation (Bruch, Marx-Freere, & Soss, 2010; Wichowsky &

Moynihan, 2008). Moreover, administrative burdens tend to have a “bigger

bite” in developing countries (Heinrich, 2016) and affect vulnerable people

disproportionately (Brodkin & Majmundar, 2010; Heinrich & Brill, 2015;

Nisar, 2018). In other words, administrative burdens are “consequential” and

“distributive” (Herd & Moynihan, 2018).

These and other studies have made a strong case for the importance of

studying administrative burdens. However, the further development of this

field of research requires a stronger theoretical foundation to understand the

origins and mechanisms of administrative burdens. This is important for two