Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services
2010 · Russell Sage Foundation
Overview
A frontline implementation perspective on discretion and constraint.
Core Question
How are public policies enacted under frontline constraints?
Central Argument
Case-level implementation is shaped by discretion, client interaction, resources, demands, and organisational conditions.
Theoretical Contribution
Anchors Street-Level Bureaucracy's account of delivered policy.
Theory Relationships
- Street-Level Bureaucracy — founding text
Reading Focus
- Establish public-service implementation and consequential discretion.
- Do not treat discretion as automatically good, bad, or unconstrained.
Legal Access Path
- Open the authoritative bibliographic record — Use the linked publisher, DOI, university, journal, library, or institutional record to locate lawful access through a library or the rights holder.
Sources & verification
- VerifiedThe linked record verifies this work's bibliographic details and lawful access route. — Lipsky, M. (2010). Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services (30th anniversary expanded ed.). Russell Sage Foundation.
- Editorially ReviewedThe central argument, theoretical contribution, relationship, and reading emphasis are bounded Syntag editorial syntheses, not quotations or claims of universal consensus.
- Research GuidanceReading priorities should be adapted to the research question, prior knowledge, access, and disciplinary guidance.
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