Where external control fails, occupational self-monitoring must substitute for bureaucratic oversight.

Evidence

Who will watch the watchmen? The watchmen will watch themselves. The argument for professionalization comes down simply to the realization that control of occupational groups must come from within the individual members of the group if it cannot be dictated from outside. If streetlevel bureaucrats cannot be restricted in everyday functioning, then selfmonitoring’ must substitute for bureaucratic controls. — Michael Lipsky, Street-Level Bureaucracy, 1452

Categorization

• APHORISMS: The watchmen-watch-themselves formulation is a compact, portable maxim about the limits of supervision that is worth returning to.
• CANDY: A crisp, quotable line about who polices the police of the welfare state.