This is as good a time as any to post a paper I've been working on with @LindseyGailmard: The Persistence and Fragility of Bureaucratic Capacity.
We ask: what makes bureaucratic capacity persist, and what makes *threats* to bureaucratic capacity hard to reverse?
We ask: what makes bureaucratic capacity persist, and what makes *threats* to bureaucratic capacity hard to reverse?
Comments
1/ Bureaucracies depend on *team production.* Producing good outcomes requires good people in multiple positions. No produces good outcomes alone.
3/ Civil service protections. If an agent enters bureaucracy as a junior, they can stay as a senior if they want to.