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Side Effects of Bureaucratic Formalism: Some Administrative Aspects of CAP Implementation in Greece
Author(s) -
Papadopoulos Dimitris A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
sociologia ruralis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.005
H-Index - 84
eISSN - 1467-9523
pISSN - 0038-0199
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9523.1997.tb00051.x
Subject(s) - bureaucracy , discretion , formalism (music) , administrative discretion , public administration , agency (philosophy) , political science , business , law , sociology , politics , art , musical , social science , visual arts
Bureaucratic formalism is widely sanctioned among Greek administrators as the ultimate means for the ‘protection’ of a public agency from extra‐institutional interferences. This paper aims at challenging this position by drawing on the way certain CAP measures are implemented by a public agency at regional and local level. On the basis of an analysis of the diversified institutional discretion provided to bureaucrats in charge of CAP measures' implementation, it is concluded that in certain, particularly high, discretion administrative areas, bureaucratic formalism cannot actually ‘protect’ the public agency. Moreover it triggers off the mobilization of extra‐institutional social networks surrounding the public agency. In these terms, the particularly high‐discretion administrative areas represent the most ‘administratively sensitive areas’ of its regulatory apparatus.