Democracy Administered: How Public Administration Shapes Representative Government
Abstract
How does representative government function when public administration can reshape democracy? The traditional narrative of public administration balances the accountability of managers, a problem of control, with the need for effective administration, a problem of capability. The discretion modern governments give to administrators allows them to make tradeoffs among democratic values. This book challenges the traditional view with its argument that the democratic values of administration should complement the democratic values of the representative government within which they operate. Control, capability and value reinforcement can render public administration into democracy administered. This book offers a novel framework for empirically and normatively understanding how democratic values have, and should be, reinforced by public administration. Bertelli's theoretical framework provides a guide for managers and reformers alike to chart a path toward democracy administered.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Bureaucracy has its own sources of legitimacy based on expertise, delegated authority, and concern for the common good.
“Bureaucracy, it is argued, has its own sources of legitimacy, which are based on expertise, the delegated authority, and the concern for the common good.”
From The Guardian State: Strengthening the public service against democratic backsliding (2024) · cites this paper as Bertelli, 2021
Bureaucracies transform democratic values into societal values during administrative implementation and uphold norms of impartiality, neutrality, effectiveness, and expertise.
“Not only do bureaucracies transform democratic values into societal values during the process of administrative implementation; a bureaucracy also upholds norms of impartiality, neutrality, effectiveness, and expertise.”
From The Guardian State: Strengthening the public service against democratic backsliding (2024) · cites this paper as Bertelli, 2021
Bertelli (2021) argues that administrative agencies play a significant but underappreciated role in shaping public policy and the implementation of democratic decisions.
“More recently, Bertelli pursues this line of reasoning when he argues that administrative agencies play a significant -but underappreciated -role in shaping public policy and the implementation of democratic decisions.”
From The Guardian State: Strengthening the public service against democratic backsliding (2024) · cites this paper as Bertelli, 2021
Cites
A “Selection Model” of Political Representation*
Mansbridge, J. (2009) · Journal of Political Philosophy · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9760.2009.00337.x · Cited by 563 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The Guardian State: Strengthening the public service against democratic backsliding
Yesilkagit, K., Bauer, M., Peters, B. G., & Pierre, J. (2024) · Public Administration Review · doi:10.1111/puar.13808 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Bauer, M. W. (2025) · Public Administration Review · doi:10.1111/puar.70028 · Cited by 19 · see citing works
“…is important because public administrations are not merely passive implementers of policy (Olsen 2006; Stivers 2008); they are the organizational backbone of liberal democracy—tasked with upholding legality, impartiality, and accountability across political cycles (Bertelli 2021; Bauer 2024c).”
Collaboration or Hierarchy: Experimental Evidence on Governance Modes and Legitimacy Perceptions
Hillo, J., Vento, I., & Sjöblom, S. (2024) · Journal of Public Affairs · doi:10.1002/pa.2952 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
- Authors
- Bertelli, A. M.
- Affiliations
- Pennsylvania State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bertelli, Anthony Michael
- Venue
- Cambridge University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 2021-08-20
- OpenAlex
- W4206300930
- Cited by
- 51
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 7.18
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Public Policy and Administration Research
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Public Administration and Governance
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Political Theory and Democracy
- Keywords
- public administration, representative government, democracy, accountability, administrative discretion, democratic values, value reinforcement, public administration reform
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
