Parabureaucracy: The case of Mexico's Servants of the Nation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Gonzalez-Vazquez, Alejandro; Nieto-Morales, Fernando; Peeters, Rik
• 署名单位: Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas A.C. (CIDE); Colegio de Mexico
• 刊物名称: GOVERNANCE-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POLICY ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0952-1895
• DOI: 10.1111/gove.12807
• 发表日期: 2024
• 关键词: politics-administration dichotomy; street-level bureaucracy; implementation; management; populism; POLICY

摘要

In the context of limited state capacity and a politicized public administration, democratic backsliding tends to exploit preexisting deficiencies in the functioning of the public sector. Whereas staffing managerial positions with regime supporters is well-documented, less attention has been paid to the structuring and staffing of street-level bureaucracies under a spoils system. In this article, we use document analysis and in-depth interviews to analyze the case of Mexico's Servants of the Nation -a group of more than 19,000 former party members and sympathizers hired by the government to perform street-level tasks- as an example of parabureaucracy: an auxiliary street-level organization designed to perform a wide variety of tasks directly related to the executive's political agenda. We argue that parabureaucracies are designed to sideline formal administrative command structures for the benefit of the government in power but may also serve as a means to bypass stifled and dysfunctional traditional bureaucracies.