Street-level agencies justify their actions as always serving clients’ best interest

Evidence

The services and procedures of street-level bureaucrats are presented as benign. 3 Actions affecting clients are always taken in their best interest. Clients are expected to be grateful for benefits they receive. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 866

Categorization

• DEFINE: Names the ‘ideology of benign intervention’ — a key conceptual label for how agencies legitimate discretionary power.