Bureaucracy at the state level: the quest for responsibility

Abstract

This thesis replicates Herbert Kaufman's study of the administrative behavior of federal bureau chiefs at the state level. Kaufman asserted that bureau chiefs are not as autonomous as we depicted. Their behavior is confined by the legal, institutional, political and operational constraints. This thesis supports Kaufman's findings--except that it's more optimistic about the occurrence of innovative changes in public agencies.

This study looks at six state agency heads of the State of Virginia. Their behavior is examined from the conception of "responsibility." Chapter One argues that responsibility connotes two aspects of meaning: objective and subjective. Objective responsibility is ensured through the constraints placed on bureaucrats. Contents of these constraints are examined in Chapter Two. The findings show that these agency heads are behaving in ways consistent with the limits set by the constraints.