Street-level Bureaucracy in Times of Democratic Backsliding

Street-level bureaucracy is both responsible and accountable for providing locally-defined populations with services of sustained significance, including education, health and policing. In many ways, citizens interact and experience the government during the direct delivery of services. Thus, street-level bureaucracies basically serve as the operational arm of the state. Democratic backsliding imposes varied challenges on bureaucrats in general, and on street-level bureaucrats, who often consider themselves as professionals, who follow professional standards and ethics. How democratic backsliding affects the direct-delivery of these vital public services is the focus of this panel. Because democratic backsliding differs in different countries, comparative perspective on changes in direct-delivery in different countries and settings will allow a better understanding of citizens' encounters with the state. The panel is committed to theoretical and methodological pluralism thus welcomes contributions from different conceptual frameworks, various analytic approaches, and diverse research designs that explore street-level bureaucracy in varied policy sectors all around the world.