The Politics of Bureaucracy

Public sector organizations and public officials at various levels of government are key players in the policy process. Civil servants and political appointees are deeply involved in policy formulation, regulatory agencies are delegated wide-ranging discretionary powers, and street-level bureaucrats crucially influence policy outputs and shape the public image of the government. At the same time, bureaucracy itself is decisively affected by political decision-making, for instance through structural or personnel management reforms. Indeed, much of the literature on the ‘administrative factor’ in the policy process deals with the tension between political control and bureaucratic self-interest by investigating the drivers of bureaucratic behaviour. The goal of this Section is to push this research agenda forward by explicitly adopting a political science perspective on public administration to study how political processes affect public bureaucracies, and vice versa. The Section consists of eight Panels, each (co)chaired by experienced colleagues, and several of them being connected to established research groups and projects. The Section Co-Chairs are associate professors in Political Science in Oslo (Bach) and Lausanne (Maggetti), see their ECPR personal profiles for more information. The Politics of EU Multi-Level Administration Morten Egeberg (Oslo), Jarle Trondal (Kristiansand, Oslo) Focusing on the executive branch, the EU's administration encompasses the Commission services, the EEAS, EU agencies and agency networks and other relationships to national administrations. The Panel invites Papers on the politics of structuring and staffing this administration, and on how structure and staff composition impact on (multi-level) governance processes, such as political steering and accountability, policy development, the relative importance of supranational and national concerns, the degree of harmonization of implementation practices across member states, and the possible spreading of 'good governance' across Europe. National Bureaucracies and Transnational Policy Diffusion Jale Tosun (Heidelberg), Martino Maggetti (Lausanne) The literature on policy diffusion has paid scant attention to the role of national bureaucracies in facilitating or impeding the adoption of policy innovation originating from another jurisdiction. To advance our knowledge of how bureaucracies and bureaucratic politics matters for transnational policy diffusion, this Panel invites Papers that offer insights on the conceptual understanding of bureaucracies’ role in policy diffusion; the conditions of bureaucratic influence; empirical illustrations on how national bureaucracies matter; and new venues for advancing the theorizing on diffusion processes including national bureaucracies. The Many Politics of Structural Choice. Explaining Inertia and Changes in the Organization of Western European Governments Philippe Bezes (CNRS, Sciences Po Paris), Oliver James (Exeter) This Panel analyses patterns of inertia and dynamics in the structure and organization of Western European governments. It sets out the interactions between administrative structural changes and political rationales (especially electoral, partisan constitutional and policy-oriented logics) drawing on the key theoretical perspectives of structural choice to policy attention dynamics, path dependency or coalition governance. Papers apply these or similar perspectives empirically, including to identify specificities of European parliamentary systems as regards change in organizational states. Policy Instruments and Public Accountability Claudio Radaelli, Claire Dunlop (Exeter), Alessia Damonte (Milano) Accountability is a lever of performance and governance, but the field is quite fragmented. The Panel invites Papers on accountability that draw on explicit theorizations of social mechanisms connecting policy instruments to preferences and actors. The aim is to go beyond the descriptive approach to accountability and explore different vectors of public accountability. We will discuss the observable implications of the theorized mechanisms, inviting empirical Papers comparing sectors or countries, but with a focus on specific policy instruments like freedom of information, judicial review, notice and comment, or impact assessment. The Politics of Bureaucratic Reputation Koen Verhoest (Antwerp), Heidi Houlberg Salomonsen (Aarhus) The notion that bureaucratic organizations are strategic players in politics has been discussed for many years, yet only in the past decade did bureaucratic reputation theory emerge as a systematic approach to analyse the strategic behaviour of public organizations. Bureaucratic reputation is an intangible asset strategically used by bureaucratic organizations to achieve positive outcomes. While the evidence is mounting that reputation is a major driver of bureaucratic behaviour, research has only begun to scratch the surface of this perspective. The Panel aims for both theoretical-conceptual and empirical Papers. Bureaucratic Politicization and Its Consequences 
Jan-Hinrik Meyer-Sahling (Nottingham), Tobias Bach (Oslo) Politicized bureaucracies select distinct candidates into the state, alter the incentives of those recruited into the state and reshape social norms in public sector organizations. As such, politicization can affect the quality of public service delivery, corruption and state capacity, among others. Yet, to date, empirical evidence on the behavioural and attitudinal consequences of bureaucratic politicization for individual public servants is rather thin. This Panel invites contributions which seek to fill this gap and welcomes Papers which take large-n, experimental and biographical approaches to studying bureaucratic politicization. The Effects of Civil Service Management Practices on Bureaucratic Attitudes and Behaviour
Christian Schuster (University College London), Tiina Randma-Liiv (Tallinn) Civil service management practices – how public servants are recruited, paid and promoted, for instance – are central in shaping the attitudes and behaviour of public servants. As such, management practices contribute importantly to state capacity and the quality of public service delivery. Yet, to date, empirical evidence on the attitudinal and behavioural effects of civil service management practices is surprisingly thin. This Panel invites contributions which seek to fill this gap and welcomes, in particular, Papers which take large-n and experimental approaches to studying the effects of civil service management practices. Collaboration in Crisis? Governmental Responses to Challenging Contexts Lise H. Rykkja, Julia Fleischer (Bergen) This Panel examines how public administrations are transformed to enhance collaboration in policy design and service delivery, within government but also through the participation of public, private and societal actors. It analyses collaboration in and by governments, with a special emphasis on the contextual challenges of novel information technologies, crises, and transboundary challenges such as security, immigration and climate change. The Panel invites Papers assessing the institutional and individual drivers and barriers for collaboration practices within governments (internal) and between public, private and societal actors (external), and studying the effects of collaboration for legitimacy, accountability and government efficiency.