Claims of unrepresentativeness function as bureaucratic defenses against client organizing

Evidence

However, these assertions are most usefully regarded as defenses against client organization, intended to diminish their influence among potential recruits or third parties whose support is sought, or to lay the groundwork for an intransigent official response. In the past decade prison inmates, black high-school students, and welfare recipients all have been regularly subject to such official responses when they have attempted to organize. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 864

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the reader’s interest in how administrative framing preempts challenges before they consolidate. — connects to: Institutions invoke client-centered justifications their actual structure contradicts — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 346; Agencies label client organizations unrepresentative to justify suppressing them — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 863

Broader Connections

• Agencies label client organizations unrepresentative to justify suppressing them #corroborates (0.95) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 863