Tag: administrative burden

The ontology, origin, and impact of divisive public sector rules: A meta-narrative review of the red tape and administrative burden literatures

A rule is divisive when its legitimacy is contested and divisive rules are an enduring theme of public administration research. For over three decades, this research has been shaped by red tape theory, which conceptualizes divisive rules as those which consume an organization’s resources but fail to advance its goals. Recently, however, the administrative burden framework, which prioritizes the impact of divisive rules on citizens and links their origins to political motives, has grown in popularity. We take stock of the last decade of research on red tape and administrative burden using the meta-narrative review methodology. We identify five narratives within the two research traditions and discuss their distinct research questions, theoretical mechanisms, privileged actors, and rule assumptions, as well as their strengths, limitations, and practical implications. These insights are leveraged to analyze the origins, impact, and ontology of divisive public sector rules. We also raise research questions with cross-cutting relevance to the red tape and administrative burden research traditions.

Campbell, J. W., Pandey, S. K., & Arnesen, L. (2023). The ontology, origin, and impact of divisive public sector rules: A meta-narrative review of the red tape and administrative burden literatures. Public Administration Review, 82(2), 296–315. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13527

What factors underlie burden tolerance in South Korea? Policy implementation domain, administrative efficiency, and bureaucratic personality

Although administrative burden has been studied in relation to social policy, the experience of policy implementation as onerous is relevant to all policy domains, and citizens can experience burden in virtually any encounter with the state. Moreover, perceptions of administrative burden can be influenced by administrative values, such as efficiency. Burden tolerance captures an individual’s belief that the compliance, learning, and psychological costs associated with policy implementation are legitimate and functional, and consequently their willingness to impose these costs on policy targets. We hypothesise that burden tolerance is conditioned by both policy implementation domain and the efficiency of the implementing organisation. Additionally, we link bureaucratic personality, or the tendency to view rules as intrinsically desirable and legitimate, to burden tolerance. We test our hypotheses using a representative sample of South Korean citizens and a survey experiment. Our results suggest that, first and contrary to our expectations, policy domain does not affect burden tolerance. Second, knowledge about inefficiency negatively affects tolerance. Third, bureaucratic personality is positively related to tolerance. We also discuss the contextual aspects of administrative burden, and particularly how the East Asian and Korean policy context may have implications for the generalisability of the administrative burden concept.

Campbell Ahn 2023 Policy domain, efficiency, and administrative burden.

Campbell, J. W., & Ahn, Y. (2023). What factors underlie burden tolerance in South Korea? Policy implementation domain, administrative efficiency, and bureaucratic personality. Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration, 45(4), 362–384. https://doi.org/10.1080/23276665.2023.2228435