When Politics Meets Bureaucracy: Rules, Norms, Conformity and Cheating by Christian Lo

Author:Christian Lo [Lo, Christian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781526136688
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 50673170
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2021-01-05T00:00:00+00:00

Thou shalt be objective

Weber asserted that administrative honor was vested in civil servants’ ability to execute the will of their political leadership rather than engage in political fighting, sine ira et studio, without scorn and bias, and that “in principle a system of rational debatable ‘reasons’ stands behind every act of bureaucratic administration, namely, either subsumption under norms or a weighing of ends and means” (Weber 1968:979). In the study's two municipal organizations, Weber's ideal type of the objective and rational administrator was most conspicuously expressed through the normative value attached to the municipal administrator's ability to conduct a “factual assessment” (saklig vurdering).

The factual assessment was understood as the opposite of a political assessment. However, as both were understood to be capable of swaying a policy process one way or the other, the separation between the two forms of assessments was seldom clear-cut. An example follows from Johanne, another mid-level administrator interviewed during fieldwork in one of the municipal organizations:

Researcher:  What is it that makes a statement political, I mean, where do you draw the line?

Johanne:  Yes. If I [for example] had a strong opinion on the school structure, and we were talking about it, then I would … [as] I might have some ability to influence the outcome of it, as I'm present in all the meetings of the municipal executive board. And even though I have an [administrative] function there, it could be understood as political if I have an opinion on that matter. If I go out and say that we “we should [restructure schooling in our municipality] because there are fewer kids, and you have to understand that,” and start to argue with politicians […] the general public, and inhabitants. Then I'm thinking that I would be political.

Researcher:  You are thinking in terms of arguing?

Johanne:  Yes, and also in terms of trying to influence […]. If I try to influence a process because I want it moving in one direction, then, I'm moving into politics. But, of course, it could also be factual. It could be from a factual standpoint that “that's not a good idea because I think that,” or that I have some other [factual] reason for it. That's one of those places to draw a line.

Researcher:  Between a factual position and a political one?

Johanne:  Yes.

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