Vague agency goals reflect society’s own contradictions, not administrative sloppiness

Evidence

However, while agency goals may be unclear or contradictory for reasons of neglect and historical inertia, they may also be unclear or contradictory because they reflect the contradictory impulses of the society the agency serves. Schools attempt to instruct, but they also inculcate attitudes toward social behavior and citizen.- ship. They do this not because educators are fuzzy but because both these objectives are favored by parents (and because there is no convincing case that they are mutually incompatible). — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1194

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to literatures on pluralistic goal ambiguity in public administration and to the reader’s question of whether cultural narrative lags bureaucratic practice.
• SEED: Angle: ‘Fuzzy goals are features, not bugs’ — why the reformist drive to clarify objectives may be quietly anti-democratic.