The Policy Capacity of Bureaucracy

Abstract

Bureaucracy is one of the oldest institutions of a government system. Its role and importance have grown immensely in modern government systems. Bureaucrats or public administrators are indispensable in the policy decision making process in the 21st century. From the early conception as a branch of government responsible for the implementation of policy decisions and everyday functioning, bureaucracy has assumed a more active role in the policymaking process. It has gone through many reforms; however, these reforms have been largely incremental and static. While the external environment or the problems faced by bureaucracy is continuously evolving, the change in bureaucracy has not been in the same proportion. In the 21st century, many issues confronting bureaucracy are not only wicked but also global in nature. Moreover, challenges posed by technological disruptions and long-term processes such as climate change put bureaucracy at all levels of a government in a far trickier position than their earlier envisaged basic functions. In dealing with such challenges, the policy capacity of bureaucracy cannot be taken for granted. There are often significant gaps in capacity to anticipate a policy problem, to ensure coordination and preserve legitimacy, to translate global issues at local levels, and to learn from the past. It is crucial to strengthen analytical capacity at the individual and organizational level, operational capacity at the organizational level, and political capacity at the systems level to address these gaps. Tackling capacity gaps systematically would enable bureaucracy to design and implement policy and administrative reforms with a long-term vision of adaptation and evolution instead of merely in reactive mode. The policy capacity framework presented in this article is useful in identifying the capacity gaps that inhibit bureaucracy from evolving and the remedies to address these gaps.

The Political Economic Sources of Policy Non-design, Policy Accumulation, and Decay in Policy Capacity

“…The second avenue relates to the level of policy capacity at various levels especially during crisis periods (Capano et al, 2020). Here, the role of bureaucracy appears to merit greater scrutiny as various recent studies have emphasized the fundamental role capable and resourceful bureaucracy can have in effective instrument choice and policy implementation (Fernández-I-Marín et al, 2021; Shubham et al, 2021; Wegrich, 2021). The third avenue relates to principled and pragmatic crisis response (Boin & Lodge, 2021).…”

Capacidad administrativa e implementación de la política de cohesión de la UE

“…Wu et al (2015) distinguen seis tipos de capacidades, combinando los siguientes dos criterios: carácter de la competencia (que podría ser analítica, operacional o política) y nivel de la competencia (individual, organizacional o sistémico). Shubham et al (2021), por su parte, brindan un marco de capacidades para la elaboración de políticas a fin de tomar decisiones que permitan superar estas carencias de modo eficaz. Con relación a las habilidades de las burocracias para completar la ejecución del presupuesto y otras políticas, para Shubham et al (2021) serían clave las capacidades para movilizar recursos financieros y humanos, el compromiso con la gestión por objetivos y basada en el rendimiento, la coordinación interna y la rendición de cuentas administrativa.…”

“…Shubham et al (2021), por su parte, brindan un marco de capacidades para la elaboración de políticas a fin de tomar decisiones que permitan superar estas carencias de modo eficaz. Con relación a las habilidades de las burocracias para completar la ejecución del presupuesto y otras políticas, para Shubham et al (2021) serían clave las capacidades para movilizar recursos financieros y humanos, el compromiso con la gestión por objetivos y basada en el rendimiento, la coordinación interna y la rendición de cuentas administrativa. Estos autores apuntan que, en el nivel micro, debe contarse con empleados públicos con conocimiento y competencias para el análisis de políticas y la evaluación, así como personas en la dirección política que conozcan los procesos de políticas públicas y las posiciones de los actores clave y que sean buenas negociadoras y constructoras de consensos, además de hábiles comunicadoras.…”