Study On Regulations Of Street-level Bureaucrat’s Administrative Discretion

The street-level bureaucrat’s administrative discretion is an outlying problemin administrative circles, this problem is brought out first by the American scholarMichael Lipsky. Lipsky thinks that the street-level bureaucrats who are at thebottom of administrative organization are not the simple executors of laws andregulations, they are “policymakers” of laws and regulations. The street-levelbureaucrats are able to become the “policymakers”, because they have a certainadministrative discretion, they can influence or even decide how to distribute thepublic resources. Lipsky thinks that the street-level bureaucrats’ behaviors have agreat influence on the implementation of state laws and regulations, their worksconstitute the government’s direct outputs, their image to some extent is the imageof the government.Therefore, how to reasonably regulate the street-levelbureaucratic behavior, and to prevent them from the abuse of administrativediscretion power is very necessary.In order to standardize the street-level bureaucratic discretion, the traditionalpractice which is based on human nature “evil” hypothesis is to build perfectexternal constraint mechanism to control the behavior of street-level bureaucratsand supervise their administrative discretion. For example, we made more detailedlaws and regulations to compress the living space of street-level bureaucraticdiscretion, or took the part of street-level bureaucratic discretion into the scope of judicial examination. These practices have made some achievements, but alsobrought some questions. Such as severe external control makes the street-levelbureaucratic behavior is becoming more and more rigid, they are becoming rulesrelying on psychology, but the enthusiasm and flexibility in the law enforcementprocess are greatly reduced. In order to solve this problem, the author as moral formen for precondition thinks we can reasonably regulate the behavior ofstreet-level bureaucrats through the administrative ethics. The construction ofadministrative ethics can improve the street-level bureaucratic administrativeethics quality, improve their moral self-discipline ability, strengthen their internalself control ability, and make up the deficiency of the external control mechanism.And how to reasonably regulate the street-level bureaucratic behavior is the job ofthis paper.This paper, besides the introduction and conclusion, consists of four parts.The first part is the basic Introduction about street-level bureaucrat and itsadministrative discretion in this paper. First of all, the author analyzes theconnotation of street-level bureaucrat, defines its concept, and analyzes thecharacteristics of the street-level bureaucrat. Second, the author points out thecore problem of street-level bureaucrat that is their administrative discretion. Byanalyzing the connotation of administrative discretion, The author has revealedthe characteristics of street-level bureaucratic administrative discretion, and haspointed out the inner mechanism of abusing the street-level bureaucraticadministrative discretion. Finally, the author has anatomized the regulationmeasures to the street-level bureaucratic behavior in the past, such as legislationcontrol and judicial control and administrative control, etc, the author has revealedthese measures’ value at the same time, and pointed out these measures’ defects.After that, the author put forward this article core idea: we can reasonably control the street-level bureaucratic administrative discretion through administrativeethics.The second part of this paper analyzed the characteristics of street-levelbureaucratic administrative discretion from the perspective of administrativeethics, demonstrated the rationality of controlling the street-level bureaucraticadministrative discretion through administrative ethics methods. First, the authordeeply analyzed the meaning and function of the administrative ethics, then theauthor who based on the moral of people and the ethics of public administrationanalyzed the theoretical basis of controlling the street-level bureaucraticadministrative discretion through the administrative ethics methods, and revealedthe possibility of this regulation. Finally, the author analyzed the ethicalcharacteristic of the street-level bureaucratic administrative discretion, explicitlypointed out the rationality and feasibility and the internal logic of administrativeethics methods controlling on the street-level bureaucratic administrativediscretion: that is to achieve the heteronomy and self-discipline to unity throughthe administrative ethics methods.The third part of this paper analyzed the current situation of controlling thestreet-level bureaucratic administrative discretion in our states. First, the authoranalyzed the measures what were taken in our country at present to control thestreet-level bureaucratic administrative discretion, these measures were dividedinto three categories, namely the legislative control, administrative control andjudicial control. At the same time, the author also analyzed these measures, andpointed out some problems and defects of these measures. Then, the author fromthe perspective of administrative ethics analyzed the superiority of administrativeethics methods on controlling the street-level bureaucratic administrativediscretion, that could supply a gap on the methods at present which were used tocontrol the street-level bureaucratic administrative discretion in our country. The fourth part of this paper is the conclusion, the author from theperspective of administrative ethics, constructed the methods on controlling thestreet-level bureaucratic administrative discretion. In my opinion, if we want theadministrative ethics to play a role, we must construct the system ofadministrative ethics. We can strengthen the moral self-discipline ability ofstreet-level bureaucrats from improving the moral quality of street-levelbureaucrats, we can internalize and strengthen correct administrative ethics to thestreet-level bureaucratic faith by implementing the institutionalization ofadministrative ethics, we can ensure the effective operating of the administrativeethics by implementing administrative ethics responsibilities. And then, we canhave a positive inside control on the street-level bureaucratic administrativediscretion.