Street-Level Bureaucracy and Administrative Burden: Discretion, Access and Unequal Citizenship

This panel seeks to engage in a thoughtful exploration of how public policies are both enacted and experienced through the interactions between frontline officials and citizens. Drawing on insights from street-level bureaucracy and administrative burden research, we invite contributions that may address a variety of important topics, including discretion, coping strategies, rule interpretation, learning and compliance costs, psychological impacts, non-take-up of services, and issues of unequal access to resources. We also welcome discussions around bureaucratic representation, discrimination, trust, co-production, and the organizational pressures that shape frontline behavior. Our aim is to foster a comprehensive dialogue encompassing studies on welfare, healthcare, migration, education, policing, and justice, while considering both in-person and digital formats. Additionally, we encourage comparative research across diverse organizations, social groups, policy sectors, and administrative systems, with particular interest in perspectives from the Global South.