Legislatures delegate unresolved policy conflicts to the administrative level

Evidence

Agency goals may be ambiguous because the conflicts that existed when programs were orginally developed were submerged. A typical mechanism of legislative conflict resolution is to pass on intractable conflicts for resolution (or continued irresolution) at the administrative level. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 335

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the reader’s hypothesis: goal ambiguity gets pushed down to frontline bureaucrats precisely because legislators cannot resolve the cultural conflicts underneath. — connects to: Legislatures delegate unresolved political conflicts downward to administrators.; Agency discretion is delegated when legislatures cannot foresee future conduct — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 550
• QUESTION: This delegation passes conflict down rather than resolving it - worth tracing whether routinized administrative resolutions then lock in one side’s stereotype faster than the culture changes.

Broader Connections

• Legislatures delegate unresolved political conflicts downward to administrators. #corroborates (1.00)
• Agency discretion is delegated when legislatures cannot foresee future conduct #qualifies (0.85) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 550