Bridging Levels of Public Administration: How Macro Shapes Meso and Micro

EasyChair Preprint no. 999

Abstract

Scholars recognize three levels of analysis in public administration: macro, meso and micro. But there is uncertainty about the connection between levels, and concern that a focus on one level means neglect of another. This paper addresses both questions. It will show how meso- and micro-level decisions about administration are embedded within macro-level decisions about the overall strategy for governing a state. To put it another way, it is impossible to understand the scope of choices available to administrators at the middle level of government, or on the front-line, without prior understanding of choices already made at much higher levels. So the study of different levels is complementary, not mutually exclusive. This statement has many implications: one has to do with reform and the diffusion of innovations at meso- and micro-levels. Reformers sometimes wonder why meso- or micro-level innovations do not carry from one state to another. The explanation is sometimes "lack of political will," but this is a thin and unsatisfying answer. A better answer is that innovations may conform to macro-level choices in one jurisdiction but collide with macro-level choices in another.

Keyphrases: Behavioral, intellectual history, Macro

@Booklet{EasyChair:999,
  author = {Alasdair Roberts},
  title = {Bridging Levels of Public Administration: How Macro Shapes Meso and Micro},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 999},
  doi = {10.29007/wp6k},
  year = {EasyChair, 2019}}