Explorations in Bureaucratic Responsiveness

Abstract

Drawing upon relevant literature, this chapter examines the concept of bureaucratic responsiveness and attempts to delineate the major parameters of the concept, the principal theoretical and methodological limitations of various approaches, and the main questions that have been overlooked or inadequately addressed. The first perspective, which is the one adopted by most of the recent literature on bureaucratic responsiveness, sees the bureaucracy as a representative of the public, and defines bureaucratic responsiveness in much the same fashion as legislative responsiveness. The major alternative perspective toward bureaucratic representation emphasizes the responsibility of the bureaucracy to "represent" the state in interactions with the public. Although research that deals explicitly with bureaucratic responsiveness is relatively limited, a considerable amount of empirical research that has implications for responsiveness does exist. The chapter delineates the models used in conducting much of that research, with examples taken from various studies to illustrate the important problems associated with this field of research.

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