Political Science I / Politics and Bureaucracy
Practice question · Put in order

Arrange these steps by which a statute becomes what the public experiences.

Hints
  1. Start with the text and end with the counter.
  2. The routines develop where the rules run out.
Show the answer
  1. A statute is passed setting out general provisions
  2. Officials draft regulations and guidance to apply it
  3. Front-line staff meet cases the rules do not determine
  4. Routines and rationing devices develop under resource pressure
  5. The routine is what citizens encounter as the policy
Why

Each step is a translation, and each translation loses and adds something. By the last step the policy as experienced may differ substantially from the policy as legislated, without anyone having disobeyed anything, which is what makes Lipsky's account so hard to answer with better rules.

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