Street-Level Bias: Examining Factors Related to Street-Level Bureaucrats’ State or Citizen Favoritism

Abstract

Administration of street-level bureaucrats requires prior knowledge of what affects their use of discretion. However, there is a lack of understanding as to what influences their decision-making when choosing between claims made by the state or by its citizens. Without such knowledge, public administration at the street-level can sustain the perception that street-level bureaucrats have a state-preference bias, lowering citizens’ view of public service delivery by those perceived as the face of governance. This study focuses on decisions street-level bureaucrats make when resolving disputes between citizens and other state officials. Using real-world resolutions made over three decades by lower-court judges in Israeli civil tax disputes, the findings reveal a link between factors associated with street-level bureaucrats’ common characteristics and state favoritism in their resolutions. The findings also imply that policymakers who want to mitigate such outcomes can use citizen administrative participation-based influencers to promote street-level bureaucrats’ pro-citizen tendencies.

Commitment and Coordination: Studies on the Implementation of Poverty Alleviation Policies in Makasar City

“…Commitment needs to be accompanied by hard work and sincere work, such as supervising aid distribution so that aid can be delivered to people experiencing poverty. Therefore, it requires good governance (Tambunan, 2006;Maulana, I.D., Jainuri, Hardini, 2019), social, economic, and political stability (Prayitno, H. & Santoso, 1996), and the critical role of street-level bureaucrats (Bardach, 1977;Lipsky, 2010;Gershgoren & Cohen, 2023) in policy implementation, and emphasizes the importance of informal approach, and collaboration with them (Winter, Soren S., 2003).…”