Administrative discretion is a fundamental, but unresolved, issue in American public administration. It is especially important in terms of changes in our administrative state and in society. Information technology and E-Government will shape the understanding and practice of discretion, but discretion is determined ultimately by the dominant political culture and discourse that is subject to social trends. The five articles in this symposium are reviewed in this introductory essay.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AberbachJoel D. & RockmanBert A. (1988). Mandates or Mandarins? Control and Discretion in the Modern Administrative State.Public Administration Review, (March / April): 606–612.
2.
ApplbaumArthur Isak (1992). Democratic Legitimacy and Official Discretion.Philosophy and Public Affairs, 21 (Summer): 240–274.
3.
BarberBenjamin R. (2001). The Uncertainty of Digital Politics: Democracy's Uneasy Relationship with Information Technology.Harvard International Review, Spring, 42–47.
4.
BarthThomas J. & ArnoldEddy (1999). Artificial Intelligence and Administrative Discretion: Implications for Public Administration.Americal Review of Public Administration, 29(4)332–351.
5.
BernsteinMarver (1955). Regulating Business by Independent Commission.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
6.
BovensMark & ZouridisStavros (2002). From Street-Level to System-Level Bureaucracies: How Information and Communication Technology is Transforming Administrative Discretion and Constitutional Control.Public Administration Review, 62(2)174–184.
7.
CoxRaymond (2000). Creating a Decision Architecture.Global Virtue Ethics Review, 2(1)19–55.
8.
DanzigerJames N., DuttonWilliam H., KlingRob & KraemerKenneth L. (1982). Computers and Politics: High Technology in American Local Governments.New York, Columbia University.
9.
FountainJane E. (2001). Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change.Washington, D. C.: Brookings Institution Press.
10.
GoodnowFrank J. (1905). The Growth of Executive Discretion.Proceedings of the American Political Science Association, Volume 2, Second Annual Meeting: 29–44.
11.
LowiTheodore (1967). The End of Liberalism.New York: Norton.
12.
RobertsAlasdair (2002). Administrative Discretion and the Access to Information Act: An “Internal Law” on Open Government.Canadian Public Administration, 45(2)175–194.
13.
ScottPatrick G. (1997). Assessing Determinants of Bureaucratic Discretion: An Experiment in Street-Level Decision Making.Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, 7(1)1–22.
14.
SpenceDavid B. (1999). Agency Discretion and the Dynamics of Procedural Reform.Public Administration Review, 59(5)425–442.
15.
WestWilliam F. (1984). Structuring Administrative Discretion: The Pursuit of Rationality and Responsiveness. American Journal of Political Science, 28(2)340–360.
16.
WilsonWoodrow (1887). “The Study of Administration.” In LinkArthur S., ed., The Papers of Woodrow Wilson.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 359–380.
17.
WrightSkelly (1972). Beyond Discretionary Justice.Yale Law Journal, 81 (January): 575–597.