Apparent fairness of queues makes clients accept fixed-resource rationing assumptions.

Evidence

Queues that depend upon first-come, first-served as their organizing principle elicit client cooperation because of their apparent fairness, but they may ration service by forcing clients to wait. When clients are forced to wait they are implicitly asked to accept the assumptions of rationing: that the costs they are bearing are necessary because the resources of the agency are fixed. They are also controlled by the social pressures exerted by others who wait. This is one of the functions of the line, waiting room, and other social structures that make it evident that others share the burden of waiting for service. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 693

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A dense, non-obvious point: the line’s legitimacy is itself the mechanism of consent, converting rationing into something clients internalize rather than resist.
• XREF: connects to: Expediency procedures double as hidden rationing of poor clients’ access — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 663; Procedures built for fairness double as insulation from clients’ human demands. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 734; Agency layouts and queues teach clients their socially expected level of service — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 491 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Agency layouts and queues teach clients their socially expected level of service #expands (0.90) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 491
• Procedures built for fairness double as insulation from clients’ human demands. #expands (0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 734