Policy entrepreneurship on the street‐level: A systematic literature review

Abstract

What are the differences between policy entrepreneurship and street‐level policy entrepreneurship? The research on street‐level policy entrepreneurship is still in its infancy, yet in the past few years, it has received greater research attention. This article systematically reviews the current research published on this topic and compares it to previous findings on policy entrepreneurs. Our findings provide an analysis of street‐level policy entrepreneurs' characteristics, motivations, traits, and strategies, differentiating types of street‐level bureaucrats (SLBs). We also find three new strategies unique to SLBs: consistency over time, learning from others, and seeking legitimacy. We conclude by identifying the main differences between traditional entrepreneurs and street‐level entrepreneurs and providing suggestions for further research.

Discourses and bottom‐up policymaking in Europe and the EU

“…Contributing to the increasingly studied role of street-level bureaucrats in public policy (Arnold, 2013;Brodkin, 2012;Edri-Peer et al, 2023), Niva Golan-Nadir (2024) zooms in on a religion-directed food policy reform in Israel to answer what encourages civil servants to become policy entrepreneurs. Focusing on macrolevel factors, the paper argues that bureaucratic inefficiency, related societal pressure, and competition by other service providers encourages bureaucrats to engage more strongly for an issue and take on entrepreneurial strategies to increase its success.…”