Face-to-face discretion is irreducible in street-level public service work.

Evidence

In street-level bureaucracies there is an irreducible requirement that public employees interact with citizens to determine the nature and extent of public services they should receive and to provide those services through interactions with them. If this is the case we are challenged to obtain accountability when bureaucratic mechanisms are inadequate and inappropriate. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1451

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the core structural feature — irreducible interaction with citizens — that defines street-level bureaucracy and forecloses simple accountability fixes.
• XREF: Connects to the earlier chapters on discretion as the defining condition of street-level work rather than an aberration to be engineered away.