Bureaucracy in Comparative Perspective

Throughout the world and at all levels of government, public bureaucracies play a major role in politics and public policy. They create and administer law, deliver welfare benefits, collect taxes, provide security and protect us from risks of all types. How well they do this helps to determine the effectiveness of government and the quality of democracies. Adopting a comparative perspective on bureaucracy, this course examines how and why the structures, capacities, effectiveness and accountability of bureaucracies vary significantly in different places and at different times. Why do some administrative organizations become politicized and corrupt while others establish strong meritocratic
administration and effective performance? Why do some bureaucracies develop their own power base and become relatively autonomous while others are subject to elaborate political oversight and micromanagement? This course examines how bureaucracy works in different countries and in different policy sectors in both the global north and the global south.