Street-Level Policymaking: Characteristics of Decision and Policy in Public Welfare

Abstract

The Oahu branch of the Public Welfare Division in the Hawaii Department of Social Services and Housing is examined to extend and refine the theory on street-level bureaucracy, specifically in terms of the policy-relevant choices exercised by street-level bureaucrats. From analysis based upon interviews and observation, the author concludes that policy obscurity and situational ambiguities contributed to the construction of numerous and distinctive regimens of pragmatic choices. The author also concludes that these choices are of a scale of significance beyond what is conventionally called discretion. Three types of street-level policymaking, the intervener, the withdrawn, and the student, are analyzed, and the source and content of the policy of each is examined. Each policymaking regimen represents a distinctive response to the setting of official policy and the operational pressures of doing public assistance work. Implications are then drawn for the theory of street-level bureaucracy, street-level policymaking, and the appropriate locus of reform.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Anderson, J. (1975). Public policy-making. New York: Praeger.

Barnard, C. (1938). The functions of the executive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bernard, S. , Butler, B. , & Eisenberg, D. (1979). Policy overload: The plight of the assistance payments worker. Administration in Social Work, 3(2), 219-232.

Brannon, D. (1985). Decision making in public welfare: Scientific management meets organized anarchy. Administration in Social Work, 9(1), 23-33.

Brodkin, E. (1986). The false promise of administrative reform. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Bryner, G. C. (1987). Bureaucratic discretion: Law and policy in federal regulatory agencies. New York: Pergamon Press.

Burns, T. , & Stalker, G. M. (1961). The management of innovation. London: Tavistock.

Cohen, M. , March, J. G. , & Olsen, J. (1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17(1), 1-25.

Davis, K. C. (1971). Discretionary justice. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

10.

Downs, A. (1967). Inside bureaucracy Boston: Little Brown.

11.

Gardiner, J. , & Lyman, T. (1984). The fraud control game. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

12.

Giddens, A. (1976). New rules of sociological method. New York: Basic Books.

13.

Goodwin, L. , & Moen, P. (1980). The evolution and implementation of family welfare policy. Policy Studies Journal, 8(2), 544-551.

14.

Gormley, W. (1989). Taming the bureaucracy: Muscles, prayers, and other strategies. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

15.

Heidenheimer, A. J. , Heclo, H. , & Adams, C. A. (1983). Comparative public policy (2nd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press.

16.

Hochschild, A. (1983). The managed heart. Berkeley: University of California Press.

17.

Hummel, R. (1987). The bureaucratic experience (3rd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press.

18.

Lipsky, M. (1980). Street-level bureaucracy New York: Russell Sage.

19.

Loomis, B. (1981). Congressional caucuses and the politics of representation. In L. Dodd , & B. Oppenheimer (Eds.), Congress reconsidered (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.

20.

Lynn, L. (1977). A decade of developments in the income-maintenance system. In R. Haveman (Ed.), A decade of federal antipoverty programs. New York: Academic Press.

21.

March, J. G. , & Simon, H. (1958). Organizations. New York: Wiley.

22.

Mills, G. (1981). Quality control in welfare administration: An analysis of payment error in AFDC. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

23.

Moore, S. T. (1987). The theory of street-level bureaucracy: A positive critique. Administration and Society, 19(1), 74-94.

24.

Muir, W. K. (1977). Police: Streetcorner politicians. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

25.

Patterson, J. (1980). America's struggle against poverty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

26.

Prottas, J. M. (1979). People-processing. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

27.

Rodgers, H. (1982). The cost of human neglect. Armonk, NY: Sharpe.

28.

Rothman, D. (1971). The discovery of the asylum: Social order and disorder in the new republic. Boston: Little Brown.

29.

Salamon, L. (1978). Welfare: The elusive consensus. New York: Praeger.

30.

White, O. (1969). Dialectical organization: Alternative to bureaucracy. Public Administration Review, 29(1), 32-42.

31.

Zeller, F. (1981). AFDC payment error rate case studies: Comparative analysis. Washington, DC: National Academy of Public Administration.

32.

Zimmerman, D. (1969). Tasks and troubles: Practical bases of work in a public assistance organization. In D. Hansen (Ed.), Sociology and counseling. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.