The Ultimate Policy Bureaucrat? An Ethnographic Study of Permanent Secretaries in Denmark

This study will assess the following: What constitutes the everyday life as a permanent secretary? By shadowing permanent secretaries in Danish ministries for 1 week at a time, the ambition is to dig deeper into the work tasks, roles, and responsibility facing this distinct group of bureaucrats in relation to different groups of collaborators. I will argue that as well as there is a distinct literature on front line workers, there should be a distinct literature on top bureaucrats – especially on the ones who work as the link between politicians and bureaucrats, whether they are called permanent secretaries, departmental secretaries, Secretaries-General, or something else again. Top bureaucrats influence our society and everyday life through their decisions and professional feedback to politicians, other administrators, external actors etc. They are the link between the political and the administrative. Even though some literature on permanent secretaries exists (See for instance Barberis, 1996; Hansen & Salomonsen, 2011) it remains scarce. Apart from Rod Rhodes observational study of permanent secretaries (2011), the literature using ethnographic approaches are even more rare. The fieldwork will be followed up by interviews with the current permanent secretaries as well as other relevant actors, such as ministers. The study will use an abductive approach, where the theoretic starting point will be principal-agent theory, Public Service Bargains, Aberbach, Putnam, & Rockman’s four images, and the description of the Weberian bureaucrat. However, the fieldwork will allow for an explorative aspect to the research on top of planned observational points. Barberis, P. (1996). The elite of the elite: permanent secretaries in the British higher civil service. Aldershot: Dartmouth. Hansen, M. B., & Salomonsen, H. H. (2011). The Public Service Bargains of Danish Permanent Secretaries. Public Policy and Administration, 26(2), 189-208. doi:10.1177/0952076710380767 Rhodes, R. A. W. (2011). Everyday life in British government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.