Bureaucracy and Democracy

B. Guy Peters Jon Pierre

University of Pittsburgh 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 poer to the
e#ecutive$ and ithin the e#ecutive the collegiality of cabinet is eroding in favor of greater poers
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 alays 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 beteen 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 netor!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
beteen state and society ould produce. It ould be a localized and sectorially'defined form of
democracy$ and might be even more s!eed toard 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.