Referral systems collapse into circularity when every agency is equally overwhelmed

Evidence

This works to the satisfaction of all when resources are available in other agencies, but it turns into a referral merrygo-round when other agencies become similarly inundated. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 970

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does the referral merry-go-round simply redistribute clients or actually strip them of any service at all? Worth chasing for the speed-of-routinization claim.
• XREF: connects to: Under-staffed agencies exploit new service centers as referral outlets rather than partners — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 971; Judges overused diversion programs beyond capacity because administrators depended on referrals — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 196

Broader Connections

• Judges overused diversion programs beyond capacity because administrators depended on referrals #complicates (0.75) — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 196