Favoring certain clients denies minimal services to those left off agency rolls.
Evidence
Certainly to the beneficiaries of these orientations it represents responsiveness. However, the dilemmas of street-level bureaucracy remain unresolved. Workers who undermine intake practices by favoring some clients deny minimal services to those who fail to get entered on the agency rolls. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1110
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: Frames bureaucratic responsiveness and arbitrariness as structurally inseparable — every act of individualized mercy reallocates denial to someone else.
- XREF: Directly supports the reader’s hypothesis: discretion institutionalizes differential treatment faster than formal policy can correct it. — connects to: Bureaucrats concentrate scarce resources on clients deemed salvageable — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 780; Frontline agencies award scarce resources to clients who threaten disruption. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 1029
Broader Connections
- Bureaucrats concentrate scarce resources on clients deemed salvageable
#expands(0.85) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 780 - Frontline agencies award scarce resources to clients who threaten disruption.
#expands(0.80) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1029