When the State Meets the Street : Public Service and Moral Agency

When The State Meets The Street Probes The Complex Moral Lives Of Street-level Bureaucrats: The Frontline Social And Welfare Workers, Police Officers, And Educators Who Represent Government's Human Face To Ordinary Citizens. Too Often Dismissed As Soulless Operators, These Workers Wield A Significant Margin Of Discretion And Make Decisions That Considerably Affect People's Lives. By Combining Insights From Political Theory With Ethnographic Fieldwork As A Receptionist In An Urban Anti-poverty Agency, Bernardo Zacka Shows Us Firsthand The Predicament In Which These Public Servants Are Caught Up. Public Policy Consists Of Rules And Regulations, But Its Implementation Depends On How Street-level Bureaucrats Interpret Them And Exercise Discretionary Judgment. These Workers Are Expected To Act As Sensible Moral Agents In A Working Environment That Is Notoriously Challenging And That Conspires Against Them. Pressed To Cope With The Pressures Of Everyday Work, They Often And Unknowingly Settle For Reductive Conceptions Of Their Responsibilities. Zacka Examines The Factors That Contribute To This Erosion Of Moral Sensibility And What It Takes To Remain A Balanced Moral Agent In Such Adverse Conditions.-- Street Level Discretion -- Three Pathologies: The Indifferent, The Enforcer, And The Caregiver -- A Gymnastics Of The Self: Coping With The Everyday Pressures Of Street-level Work -- When The Rules Run Out: Informal Taxonomies And Peer-level Accountability -- Impossible Situations: On The Breakdown Of Moral Integrity At The Frontlines Of Public Service. Bernardo Zacka. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. When the State Meets the Street probes the complex moral lives of street-level bureaucrats: the frontline social and welfare workers, police officers, and educators who represent government's human face to ordinary citizens. Too often dismissed as soulless operators, these workers wield a significant margin of discretion and make decisions that profoundly affect people's lives. Combining insights from political theory with his own ethnographic fieldwork as a receptionist in an urban antipoverty agency, Bernardo Zacka shows us firsthand the predicament in which these public servants are entangled. Public policy consists of rules and regulations, but its implementation depends on how street-level bureaucrats interpret them and exercise discretionary judgment. These workers are expected to act as sensible moral agents in a working environment that is notoriously challenging and that conspires against them. Confronted by the pressures of everyday work, they often and unknowingly settle for one of several reductive conceptions of their responsibilities, each by itself pathological in the face of a complex, messy reality. Zacka examines the factors that contribute to this erosion of moral sensibility and what it takes to remain a balanced moral agent in such difficult conditions. Zacka's revisionary portrait reveals bureaucratic life as more fluid and ethically fraught than most citizens realize. It invites us to approach the political theory of the democratic state from the bottom-up, thinking not just about what policies the state should adopt but also about how it ought to interact with citizens when implementing these policies. This book probes the complex moral lives of street-level bureaucrats: the frontline social and welfare workers, police officers, and educators who represent government's human face to ordinary citizens. Too often dismissed as soulless operators, these workers wield a significant margin of discretion and make decisions that considerably affect people's lives. By combining insights from political theory with ethnographic fieldwork as a receptionist in an urban anti-poverty agency, the author shows firsthand the predicament in which these public servants are caught up. Public policy consists of rules and regulations, but its implementation depends on how street-level bureaucrats interpret them and exercise discretionary judgment. These workers are expected to act as sensible moral agents in a working environment that is notoriously challenging and that conspires against them. Pressed to cope with the pressures of everyday work, they often and unknowingly settle for reductive conceptions of their responsibilities. The author examines the factors that contribute to this erosion of moral sensibility and what it takes to remain a balanced moral agent in such adverse conditions.--description provided by publisher Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Street-Level Discretion Chapter 2: Three Pathologies. The Indifferent, the Enforcer, and the Caregiver Chapter 3: A Gymnastics of the Self. Coping with the Everyday Pressures of Street-Level Work Chapter 4: When the Rules Run Out. Informal Taxonomies and Peer-Level Accountability Chapter 5: Impossible Situations. On the Breakdown of Moral Integrity at the Front Lines of Public Service Conclusion Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index Bernardo Zacka probes the complex moral lives of street-level bureaucrats—the frontline social and welfare workers, police officers, and educators who represent government’s human face to ordinary citizens. Too often dismissed as soulless operators, these workers wield significant discretion and make decisions that profoundly affect people’s lives.