Bureaucracy and Democracy

B. Guy Peters University of Pittsburgh Jon Pierre University of Gothenberg

Bureaucracy and democracy are often considered antithetical properties of political systems. There is a large scholarly and popular literature arguing that bureaucracies are major problems limiting the capacity of democratic political systems to effectively respond to their citizens. In this panel e ill be pursuing the contrary argument that the public bureaucracy may be becoming the locus for democratic responsiveness in many political systems. The importance for bureaucracy for democracy in contemporary political systems arises in part from the ea!nesses of more conventional institutions of democracy. "or e#ample$ participation in elections has been falling rapidly in most democratic systems$ and membership in political parties in also declining. Parliaments have for some time been argued to be losing po er to the e#ecutive$ and ithin the e#ecutive the collegiality of cabinet is eroding in favor of greater po ers for the prime minister. Thus$ the usual instrumentalities of political democracy are$ if not failing$ certainly ea!ened. There is a more positive case to be made for the lin!age of bureaucracy and democracy. "irst$ public bureaucracies are major actors in ma!ing and implementing policy and therefore accountability has al ays been a crucial form of democracy$ but it becomes even more crucial hen other aspects of democracy are ea!ened. "urther$ the majority of contacts bet een the %tate and society occur through the public bureaucracy$ and these contacts are important for political inputs as ell as simply for administration of programs. This importance is especially evident given the development of a range of net or!ed forms of governing ithin particular policy areas. Programs such as &citizen engagement& and e'government often are largely directed at$ and managed by$ the public bureaucracy$ and provide opportunities for citizens to have more immediate and personalized redress of grievances against government than ould traditional forms of accountability. "urther$ deliberative democracy may be more possible vis'a'vis bureaucracies than ith the manifestly political components of government$ given that this form of decision'ma!ing ould not be seen as challenging conventional forms of representation. (lthough e have made a case for some democratic elements in contemporary public administration$ e also need to thin! carefully about the type of democracy that these contacts bet een state and society ould produce. It ould be a localized and sectorially'defined form of democracy$ and might be even more s!e ed to ard the affluent$ organized and articulate than are conventional forms of democracy. This proposed panel ould investigate these issues in a variety of political and cultural settings coming from )urope$ *orth (merica and (sia. The panel should advance our understanding of the nature of contemporary public administration$ as ell as contemporary democracy.