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Bureaucratic Quality and the Gap between Implementation Burden and Administrative Capacities

Bibliographic Data

ID3373235
AuthorsXavier Fernández-I-Marín (0000-0002-9522-8870, Universitat de Barcelona, corresponding author), Christoph Knill (0000-0002-8562-2102, LMU Klinikum, corresponding author), Christina Steinbacher (0000-0003-4881-2983, LMU Klinikum, corresponding author), Yves Steinebach (0000-0001-7453-7204, University of Oslo, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume118
Issue3
Pages1240-1260
Publication date2024-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Political Science Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-0554 • E-ISSN: 1537-5943
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0003055423001090
OpenAlexW4388538320
LanguageEN
Citations received33
References cited52

Democratic governments produce more policies than they can effectively implement. Yet, this gap between the number of policies requiring implementation and the administrative capacities available to do so is not the same in all democracies but varies across countries and sectors. We argue that this variation depends on the coupling of the sectoral bureaucracies in charge of policy formulation and those in charge of policy implementation. We consider these patterns of vertical policy-process integration an important feature of bureaucratic quality. The more the policymaking level is involved in policy implementation (top-down integration) and the easier the policy-implementing level finds it to feed its concerns into policymaking (bottom-up integration), the smaller the so-called "burden-capacity gap." We demonstrate this effect through an empirical analysis in 21 OECD countries over a period of more than 40 years in the areas of social and environmental policies

Bureaucracy · Business · Democracy · Economic system · Economics · Political science · Politics · Process (computing · Public economics · Quality (philosophy · Computer Science · Policy Transfer and Learning · Public Administration · Public Policy and Administration Research · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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Unique citing works33
Citations per year11
Citation span2023 - 2026 (4)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 33

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