BUREAUCRACY AND RED TAPE
BARRY BOZEMAN
GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
PRENTICE HALL, UPPER SADDLE RIVER, NEW JERSEY
07458
CONTENTS
PREFACE
1
xi
RED TAPE AS A BUREAUCRATIC PATHOLOGY
What This Book Is About
2
Why Study Red Tape?
3
Concepts of Red Tape
5
Herbert Kaufman's Red Tape Concepts
6
Beneficial Red Tape
8
Red Tape as Pathology
10
Resolving the Confusion of Pathology versus Benefit
A Working Definition of Red Tape
12
Conclusion
13
2
IN SEARCH OF NORMAL BUREAUCRACY
Bureaucracy Is, Bureaucracy Should Be
16
Weberian Bureaucracy
17
Weberian Bureaucracy and Normal Bureaucracy
"Normal" Bureaucracy
20
Is Weberian Bureaucracy Normal?
21
The Normal as Pathological
21
Bureaucratic Loathing
22
Generalized Scapegoating
23
20
1
11
14
vi
CONTENTS
Big Government Backlash
23
Reasoned Antipathy: Why Reasonable People Dislike
Bureaucracy
24
Structure, Freedom, and Bureaucracy
25
Structure as Constraint: What Does Structure Accomplish
and at What Cost?
25
Bureaucratization and Standardization of Treatment
27
Bureaucracy and Delays
28
Bureaucracy and Ambivalence
29
Normal or Pathological Bureaucracy? A Case Study
30
Diagnosis: "Normal" Bureaucracy or Pathology?
30
Conclusion
34
3
BUREAUCRATIC PATHOLOGIES AND REFORM
37
Reform at the Millennium
37
Systemic Pathology
38
People Pathology
39
Merton and the "Bureaucratic Personality"
40
Systems Failures in Management, People Failures in Workers
42
The Pathologies
43
"First Generation" and "Second Generation" Pathologies
45
Theories of Bureaucratic Pathology
46
The Goal Ambiguity Model
46
The Utility Maximization Model
49
Property Rights and Principal-Agent Models
51
The Maladaption Model
55
Pathology Models and Reform
57
A Philosophy of Bureaucratic Reform: The Case of the Government
Performance and Results Act of 1993
58
Conclusion
62
4
RULES AND RED TAPE
64
Formalization as Physiology, Red Tape as Pathology
Why Formalization Is Important
65
A Rules-Based Theory of Red Tape
69
Anatomy of a Rule
69
A Language of Rules
73
65
CONTENTS
vii
Assessing the Effects of Rules: Red Tape and Compliance
Rule Density and Rule Incidence
78
Bureaucratic Pathology: Red Tape Concepts
81
Red Tape Defined: "No Redeeming Social Value" 82
Which Concept? 83
Conclusion
84
5
RULES "BORN BAD": RULE-INCEPTION RED TAPE
76
86
Rule-Inception Red Tape
86
Incorrect Rule Forecasts
87
Illegitimate Functions
89
Negative Sum Compromise
90
Negative Sum Process
92
Autocracy and Participatory Red Tape as a Trade-Off
94
Overcontrol
94
Managerial Overcontrol
95
Political Overcontrol
96
Overcontrol and Illegitimate Functions: A Red Tape
Trade-Off?
98
Federal Procurement: An Illustration of Rule-Inception Red
Tape
100
The Moral of the Story?
101
High Compliance and High Opportunity Cost Rules
104
Conclusion
104
6
RULES "GONE BAD": RULE-EVOLVED RED TAPE
The Evolution of Rules
106
Organizational Phantoms
107
Organizational Entropy and the Disintegration of Systems
for Rules-Based Behavior
107
Rules to Red Tape: Reasons for Rule-Evolved Red Tape
110
Rule Drift
111
Implementation Change
113
Change in the Functional Object 115
Change in the Rule's Ecology
116
Rule Strain
117
Rule Incompatibility
118
106
viii
CONTENTS
A Model of Red Tape Origins
Conclusion
124
7
118
GOVERNMENT RED TAPE
125
Red Tape as a Piece of the "Publicness Puzzle"
126
Public-Private Differences in Red Tape
126
Generic Red Tape: An External Control Model
127
External Control and Government Red Tape
129
Political Authority and Procedural Safeguards
129
Breadth of Mission
130
Research on Red Tape and Publicness
131
The National Administrative Studies Project
132
Red Tape in Public Organizations: Research Results
132
Conclusion
138
8
RED TAPE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
140
Environmental Policy as a Balancing Act: Legislative Background
of the Clean Air Act Amendments
141
Federal Air Quality Policy Prior to the 1990 Clean Air Act
Amendments
142
The Policy Setting: Title V and the Clean Air Act
Amendments
143
Title V in Context
144
Title V Implementation
145
Title V Permitting and Sources of Rule-Inception Red Tape
146
Interview Data
146
Key Concepts and the Title V Context
147
The Rule
147
Compliance
150
Assessing Title Vs Rule Inception Red Tape
152
Incorrect Rule Forecasts
153
A Case in Point: Public Participation and Public
Information
153
Red Tape and "Over-Control" 157
CONTENTS
ix
Change in the Rule Ecology
159
Title Vasa Red Tape Remedy?
161
Conclusion
162
9
CUTTING RED TAPE: A BALANCE MODEL
OF BUREAUCRATIC REFORM
164
Some Premises for Red Tape Reform: From Economy and Efficiency
to a Balance Model
165
Elements of a Balance Model
168
What Can Managers Do about Red Tape?
169
Communicate the "Functional Object" of the Rule
170
Question Authority! Identify the Rule's Purposes
171
Develop Criteria for the Formal and the Informal
171
Test the Rule Forecast
172
Develop Sunset Rules
173
Consider the Technological Fix
174
Provide for Participation by the "Oligarchy
of the Interested"
175
Seek External Stakeholders' Views
176
The Red Tape Audit
176
Rules Identification
178
Rules Source Sorting
178
Stakeholder Identification
179
Stakeholder Process
180
Rules Assessment
180
Rules Reformation
181
Conclusion
182
Few Government-Wide Reforms Are Original
or Innovative
182
One Size Does Not Fit All
183
Most of Us Prefer to Buy Locally
183
GLOSSARY
REFERENCES
INDEX
185
187
204