A Review of the Anthropological Literature on the Civil Service
This paper reviews anthropological literature on the topic of how and why civil services function as they do. The paper considers the formal and informal rules that structure bureaucratic practice, including the effects of institutional history or...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/492901496250951775/A-review-of-the-anthropological-literature-on-the-civil-service http://hdl.handle.net/10986/26953 |
| Summary: | This paper reviews anthropological
literature on the topic of how and why civil services
function as they do. The paper considers the formal and
informal rules that structure bureaucratic practice,
including the effects of institutional history or culture.
The review examines how bureaucrats understand or experience
their work, such as the rules that guide them; the clients,
bosses, or employees with whom they interact; and their own
actions. Finally, the review considers what methodological
or ethical challenges are posed by the study of
bureaucracies. The first section explores normative
expectations of organizational practice and how they shape
scholars’ accounts of the nature of bureaucratic power. The
second section focuses on bureaucratic decision making,
scrutinizing how institutional goals manifest in specific
practices. The third section considers how sociocultural
structures bear on bureaucratic practice, including the
question of how organizational history and culture might
complicate efforts at institutional reform. The fourth
section engages with questions of knowledge production,
ignorance, and indeterminacy, reviewing recent literature
that questions the presumed role of bureaucracies and states
as producers of knowledge. The fifth section explores the
conceptual and practical methodological challenges faced by
field researchers at institutions, and points toward key
areas for future research. |
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