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Cited by 186Public Policy and Administration ResearchPublic Administration and GovernanceManagement and Organizational Studies

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 11 of the 11 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The Power of the Street-Level Bureaucrat in Public Service Bureaucracies

Prottas, Jeffrey Manditch·1978·Urban Affairs Quarterly
DOI 10.1177/107808747801300302
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Abstract

The difficulties of controlling the daily behavior of low level bureaucrats has been widely appreciated by both administrators and academic students of bureaucracy. This article provides a theoretically oriented explanation for this fact. Building on the concept of "boundary actor," it places the source of the low level bureaucrat's power in his/ her unique role as mediator between the bureaucracy and its "street-level" environment. The bureaucracy's dependence on its street-level bureaucrats for the efficacious transla tion of its environmental inputs (citizens) into processable units (clients) provides the bureaucrat with the leverage to interfere in the organization's "enforcement sequence." By manipulating the information available to the organization about its clients, the street-level bureaucrat can limit the agency's ability to influence his/ her own behavior. The mechanisms and the political environment of this manipulatory activity are discussed in detail.

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Crossref · 10.1177/107808747801300302

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Citations

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Show all 11 references

Research works printed but not linked: 31

  1. 1952, Amer. J. of Sociology, 57, 128
  2. Bing, S., 1970, The Quality of Justice in the Lower Courts of Metropolitan Boston
  3. Blau, P., 1955, The Dynamics of Bureaucracy: a Study of Interpersonal Relationships in Two Government Agencies
  4. Brintnall, M., 1971, Administrative control of teachers
  5. Derthick, M., 1975, Uncontrollable Spending for Social Services
  6. 1970, The Influence of Federal Grants
  7. Downs, A., 1966, Inside Bureaucracy
  8. Goffman, E., 1976, Asylums
  9. Greer, B. (1971) "Teaching," pp. 9-16 in B. R. Cosin (ed.) School of Society. Cambridge: MIT Press.
  10. Handler, J., 1971, The "Deserving Poor."
  11. Harris, R., 1975, The New Yorker
  12. Hill, D., 1974, The art of 'muddling through': policy-making and implementation in the field of welfare
  13. Holt, J., 1964, How Children Fail
  14. Hosticka, C., Presented to the American Society of Public Administrators, National Conference on Public Administration
  15. Jacobs, G. (1970) "Life in the colonies: welfare workers and clients ," pp. 240-260 in G. Jacobs (ed.) The Participant Observer: Encounters with Social Reality. New York: George Braziller.
  16. Kohl, H., 1968, 36 Children
  17. Kozol, J., 1967, Death At An Early Age
  18. Lipsky, M., 1969, Toward a theory of street-level bureaucracy
  19. Mechanic, D., 1968, Medical Sociology
  20. R. Cloward, 1971, Regulating the Poor
  21. Pressman, J., 1973, Implementation
  22. Prottas, J., 1976, People processing and power: the street-level bureaucrat in public service bureaucracies
  23. M. Lipsky, 1974, The administrative intake process in Veterans Administration hospitals
  24. Pynoos, J., 1974, Breaking the rules: the failure to select and assign public housing tenants equitably
  25. Reiss, A., Jr., 1972, The Public and the Police
  26. Rubinstein, J., 1973, City Police
  27. Skolnick, J., 1960, Justice Without Trial
  28. Thompson, J., 1967, Organizations in Action
  29. U.S. Department of Commerce, 1973, Public Employment in 1972
  30. Westley, W., 1970, Violence and the Police
  31. Zimmerman, D. (1969) "The practical basis of work activities in a public assistance organization," pp. 236-267 in D. Hasen (ed.) Explorations in Sociology and Counseling. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

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Metadata

Authors
Prottas, J. M.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Prottas, Jeffrey Manditch
Venue
Urban Affairs Quarterly
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
1978-03
Volume
13
Issue
3
Pages
285-312
ISSN
0042-0816 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1177/107808747801300302
OpenAlex
W2023512779
Cited by
186
References
11
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 1
FWCI
25.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
Urban Affairs Quarterly (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Public Administration › Public Policy and Administration Research
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Public Administration and Governance
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
Keywords
street-level bureaucrats, bureaucratic control, information manipulation, administrative discretion, political context, public service delivery

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