Sympathy and ethnic affinity drive discretionary favoritism in service delivery.

Evidence

First, some clients simply evoke workers’ sympathy or hostility. Like the Israeli customs officials, workers may be inclined to “give the underdog a break” or may favor clients with similar ethnic backgrounds, as when racial or ethnic favoritism prevails in discriminatory decision making. The Boston Housing Authority workers who tended to favor white elderly applicants probably were responding to both ethnic and sympathy appeals when they selectively provided them with critical information. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 794

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the reader’s existing work on how street-level discretion in housing allocation reproduces racial ordering — the BHA case is a direct instance. — connects to: Subtle emotional cues in routine encounters ration who feels entitled to demand a service. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 689; Unbounded service obligations force workers to ration care using implicit worthiness standards. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of…, 805