Do Justifications Affect Tolerance for Administrative Burdens? Evidence From a Survey Experiment Among Policymakers
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6452067 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aske Halling (0000-0002-3999-5047, Department of Political Science Aarhus University Aarhus Denmark), Steven Van De Walle (0000-0003-1531-7097, Public Governance Institute KU Leuven Leuven Belgium) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 12-26 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-19 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Policy and Administration (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0144-5596 • E-ISSN: 1467-9515 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/spol.13137 |
| OpenAlex | W4408679804 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 37 |
It is important to study what drives policymakers' tolerance for burdens because they adopt the policies and processes that organise citizens' encounters with the state. Relying on theories on account giving and rationale transparency, we argue that policymakers are more burden tolerant when provided with a justification for the existence of burdens. Drawing on the ordeal mechanism literature, we derive three justifications for administrative burdens: to target the neediest citizens, to combat fraud, and to protect public budgets. Using a survey experiment amongst local politicians in Flanders (Belgium), we show that policymakers indeed are more tolerant of burdens when they are provided with a justification. We show that burden justifications are more effectual in increasing burden tolerance amongst right‐wing than left‐wing policymakers and that they are more tolerated when justified to protect budgets. We find some evidence that tolerance for burdens increases when justified to target the neediest citizens, while fraud justifications do not affect burden tolerance
Affect (linguistics · Demographic economics · Economics · Political science · Public economics · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Psychology
Administrative burden, social construction, and public support for government programs
What makes us tolerant of administrative burden? Race, representation, and identity
Stealing in the Name of Justice
How difficult should it be? Evidence of burden tolerance from a nationally representative sample
Strategic sorting
Hostages to Compliance”
Administrative Burden in Citizen–State Interactions
The Political Economy of Administrative Burdens
Burden tolerance
The Effect of Administrative Burden on Bureaucratic Perception of Policies
How bureaucrats shape political decisions
Burdens, Sludge, Ordeals, Red tape, Oh My
Rationale and process transparency do not reduce perceived red tape
Green Tape and Public Employee Rule Abidance
Just or Unjust? How Ideological Beliefs Shape Street‐Level Bureaucrats’ Perceptions of Administrative Burden
Does Administrative Burden Influence Public Support for Government Programs? Evidence from a Survey Experiment
Personality and Public Administration
Human Capital and Administrative Burden
I paid into it with every paycheck I earned
Green Tape
Effects of Transparency on the Perceived Trustworthiness of a Government Organization
Why Do Policymakers Support Administrative Burdens? The Roles of Deservingness, Political Ideology, and Personal Experience
When Does Transparency Generate Legitimacy? Experimenting on a Context‐Bound Relationship
Transparency actually
Accounts
The Study of Administration
Demand Effects in Survey Experiments
Increasing Precision without Altering Treatment Effects
Interactional fairness judgments
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |