Cooking the books: Bureaucratic politicization and policy knowledge. Issue 1 (2nd May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Boräng, Frida; Cornell, Agnes; Grimes, Marcia; Schuster, Christian
• Is Part Of: Governance. Volume 31:Issue 1(2018)
• Page Start: 7
• Page End: 26
• Publication Date: 2017-05-02
• Subjects: Administrative agencies -- Periodicals; Civil service -- Periodicals; Public administration -- Periodicals; Policy sciences -- Periodicals; 350
• DOI: 10.1111/gove.12283
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0952-1895

Abstract

Abstract : Accurate knowledge about societal conditions and public policies is an important public good in any polity, yet governments across the world differ dramatically in the extent to which they collect and publish such knowledge. This article develops and tests the argument that this variation to some extent can be traced to the degree of bureaucratic politicization in a polity. A politicized bureaucracy offers politicians greater opportunities to demand from bureaucrats—and raises incentives for bureaucrats to supply—public policy knowledge that is strategically biased or suppressed in a manner that benefits incumbents reputationally. Due to electoral competition, we suggest that the link between bureaucratic politicization and politicized policy knowledge will be stronger in democracies than in autocracies. A case analysis of Argentina's statistical agency lends credence to the underlying causal mechanism. Time‐series cross‐sectional analyses confirm the broader validity of the expectations and show that the relationship is present only in democracies.