Frontline bureaucratic practice is structurally determined and reproduces state-citizen relations.

Evidence

I have argued that the determinants of street-level practice are deeply rooted in the structure of the work. Further, I have pointed out that streetlevel bureaucracies do not stand alone, but they reflect the character of prevailing organizational relations in the society as a whole. In turn, as a primary instrument of contact between government and citizens, streetlevel bureaucracies reinforce the relationships between citizens-both clients and workers-and the state. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1386

Categorization

• XREF: This is the book’s closing causal statement — the general claim about structure determining practice that the reader’s speed-differential hypothesis is trying to specify and test.