Discretion and Bureaucracy

Abstract

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Advancing Ethics-led Administrative Discretion in Public Administration: A South African Perspective

“…430-440). The Batho Pele principles (putting people first principles) are organised around manifest realities that "discretion is an invaluable characteristic of administrative [process]" ( [36], p. 221). Accordingly, the principles brazenly acknowledge that "discretion [is] not only as an inevitable but also a potentially highly beneficial feature of [administrative process], properly understood" ( [36], p. 221).…”

“…The Batho Pele principles (putting people first principles) are organised around manifest realities that "discretion is an invaluable characteristic of administrative [process]" ( [36], p. 221). Accordingly, the principles brazenly acknowledge that "discretion [is] not only as an inevitable but also a potentially highly beneficial feature of [administrative process], properly understood" ( [36], p. 221). Most profoundly, the principles support the shift towards the kind of culture of ethics-led discretion in service delivery that puts people first in the practice of public administration.…”

“…Thus, de Wee and Asmah-Andoh [34] believe that the "properly structured" Batho Pele principles could provide an attractive roadmap to a brighter future of the exercise of ethical discretion in the practice of public administration. Indeed, de Wee and Asmah-Andoh [34] are convinced that the ethical force of the future practice of public administration could find its elusive footing and rigour in "structured" Batho Pele principles, thus enabling public administrators "to act expertly, scientifically, or disinterestedly, much [more] expeditiously" ( [40], p. 168) in their "exercise of casuistical, prudential judgement in discretion" ( [36], p. 222). As Daly ([20], p. 99) emphatically puts it, future "administrative discretion and judgement should presumptively be exercised in a large and liberal way, not characterized by pedantry and pettifoggery".…”

The Art of Healthy Neurophilocommunication

“…In 1970, American sociologist and prominent critic of the medical profession Eliot Freidson stated that doctors intentionally hide information from patients in order to maintain their dominance and professional authority (Gay & Pedersen, 2020). Providing information in words that a layperson cannot comprehend can be interpreted as a failure of communication.…”

The Bureaucratic Ethos in Street-Level Work: Revitalizing Weber’s Ethics of Office

“…When rereading Weber's thoughts on bureaucracy in Economy and Society 100 years after its first publication, it is striking just how much attention he gives to the theme of expertise or specialist knowledge "qualified through examination and certified as such" (347) and gained through "the longest possible specialized training" (353). However, this insight has faded in recent receptions of bureaucracy, perhaps partly because of the now popular dichotomy between professionalism and bureaucracy that has been dominant since Parson's famous contestation of Weber's link between the authority of office and the authority of expertise in bureaucratic organizations (see Nass 1986;du Gay and Pedersen 2020). As Charles Perrow has famously argued (1972/2014: 53), Weber did not see any discrepancy between bureaucratic and professional values.…”