Handbook of Bureaucratic Autonomy: Politics, Resources, Power(Elgar Handbooks in Public Administration and Management)

Bringing together an array of expert scholars, this perceptive Handbook presents an in-depth overview of bureaucratic autonomy across the globe. It examines the opportunities and implications of autonomy at the institutional, organizational and individual level, highlighting diverse perspectives as well as avenues for future research. Exploring a variety of concepts, methods, and approaches to bureaucratic independence, this volume provides a comprehensive explanation of the agency model and delves into core issues such as measuring and explaining bureaucratic autonomy. Chapters draw on detailed case studies from Europe to Sub-Saharan Africa, analyzing the impact of commercialization, collaborative governance and policy ambiguity on political control. Raising key theoretical and empirical questions, the book ultimately underscores the need to consider normative issues including those surrounding accountability and the consequences of autonomy. The Handbook of Bureaucratic Autonomy is an invaluable resource for students and academics in public administration and management, public policy, political science, regulation and governance, and organization theory. It will also greatly benefit policymakers and public sector administrators seeking a deeper understanding of developments in bureaucratic autonomy.

Table of Contents:
Contents Preface xii PART I INTRODUCTION 1 Understanding bureaucratic autonomy: existing approaches and the way forward 2 B. Guy Peters 2 Civil servants’ conceptions of bureaucratic autonomy 24 Min Han Kim and Kyungdong Kim PART II THREE LOCALES FOR AUTONOMY Section 2.1Bureaucracy as an Institution 3 The military as an autonomous actor: sources, dimensions, and dynamics 41 Zeki Sarigil Section 2.2The Autonomy of Organizations 4 The politics of organizational autonomy: contrasting bureaucratic politics and depoliticization 61 Erik Hysing 5 The agency model and autonomy 77 Tom Christensen and Per Lægreid 6 Assessing agency autonomy 94 Muiris MacCarthaigh and Abiha Zahra 7 The autonomy of international bureaucracies 114 Michael W. Bauer and Jörn Ege Section 2.3Individual Bureaucrats 8 The autonomy of senior civil servants 131 Katarína Staroňová and Marek Rybáň 9 The relative autonomy of street-level bureaucrats 149 Peter Hupe 10 Bureaucratic polarization theory 176 João V. Guedes-Neto PART III THEORIES OF BUREAUCRATIC AUTONOMY 11 The synergetic model: mixing stewardship and principal–agent theory 192 Sandra van Thiel 12 Trust, populism, and the independence of regulatory agencies 208 Martino Maggetti, Fabrizio Di Mascio and Alessandro Natalini 13 Studying the politics–bureaucracy nexus beyond bureaucratic autonomy: vertical policy integration and policy performance 218 Christoph Knill, Yves Steinebach and Xavier Fernández-i-Marín 14 Diverse positions, diverse autonomies: bureaucrats as policy actors in the policy arena 235 Lihi Lahat and Tanja Klenk 15 Bureaucratic autonomy: lessons from historians 247 Edward C. Page PART IV MECHANISMS FOR BUREAUCRATIC AUTONOMY 16 Policy entrepreneurship within street-level bureaucracies 261 Ofek Edri-Peer and Nissim Cohen 17 Policy Ambiguity and Bureaucratic Autonomy in the Age of Democratic Governance 276 Luke Fowler 18 Bureaucratic Autonomy in the Age of Collaborative Governance 290 Jacob Torfing 19 Bad bureaucrat: administrative autonomy and bureaucracy bashing 302 Jon Pierre 20 To may and to shall: studying administrative autonomy from a law-as-data approach 312 Daniel Carelli 21 Seeking autonomy through commercialization: power sector governance in Sub-Saharan Africa 324 Maxfield J. Peterson PART V APPROACHES TO BUREAUCRATIC AUTONOMY 22 Aspects of autonomy in the bureaucratic vocation 349 Paul Du Gay 23 Bureaucratic autonomy and accountability 368 Christel Koop PART VI CONCLUSION 24 Further Research on Bureaucratic Autonomy 386 B. Guy Peters

About the Author :
Edited by B. Guy Peters, Maurice Falk Professor of Government, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh, US

Review :
‘From street-level discretion, over agency autonomy and regulatory independence to institutional design, this indispensable Handbook offers a sweeping and richly detailed review of what we need to know about bureaucratic autonomy across contexts, in different settings as well as in relation with recent evolutions, like populism, bureaucracy bashing, collaborative governance and commercialization. Written by renowned scholars and taking different perspectives from political science, public administration, policy studies, history and law, this Handbook is an essential reading for students, scholars, and practitioners of public governance seeking to understand—and shape—the real-world dynamics of autonomy, accountability, and administrative power.’ ‘He did it again. In a career of 50+ years Guy Peters has consistently addressed big questions in public administration, policy, and political science. This edited volume on bureaucratic autonomy is just another pearl in a long string of publications. Authors from all continents explore conservative and progressive perspectives. What a treat!’