Administrative Burden: Learning, Psychological, and Compliance Costs in Citizen-State Interactions

2014/02/27 by Donald P. Moynihan, D. Moynihan, Pamela Herd +3 · 1 voice · 44 citations
Social Sciences · #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Policy Transfer and Learning #Public Policy and Administration Research

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/jopart/muu009

openalex publication_date 2014/02/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

This article offers two theoretical contributions. First, we develop the concept of administrative burden as an important variable in understanding how citizens experience the state. Administrative burden is conceptualized as a function of learning, psychological, and compliance costs that citizens experience in their interactions with government. Second, we argue that administrative burden is a venue of politics, that is, the level of administrative burden placed on an individual, as well as the distribution of burden between the state and the individual, will often be a function of deliberate political choice rather than simply a product of historical accident or neglect. The opaque nature of administrative burdens may facilitate their use as forms of “hidden politics,” where significant policy changes occur without broad political consideration. We illustrate this argument via an analysis of the evolution of Medicaid policies in the state of Wisconsin. Across three Governorships, the level of burden evolved in ways consistent with the differing political philosophies of each Governor, with federal actors playing a secondary but important role in shaping burden in this intergovernmental program. We conclude by sketching a research agenda centered on administrative burden.

Citations

• From Policy to Polity
• Outcomes, Process, and Trust of Civil Servants
• Administrative Exclusion: Organizations and the Hidden Costs of Welfare Claiming
• Policy Work: Street-Level Organizations Under New Managerialism
• Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services
• Differences between caregivers and noncaregivers in psychological health and physical health: A meta-analysis.

Cited by

• Policy’s role in democratic conflict management
• The Bite of Administrative Burden: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation
• Children of a Lesser God: Administrative Burden and Social Equity in Citizen–State Interactions
• Administrative Burden’s Mass Political Effects: How the Administration of Medicaid and Elections Shapes Mass Voter Turnout
• Easing administrative burden in the public safety net: insights from a trauma-informed housing programme
• A Tale of Two Programs? Stigma and Administrative Burdens in CHIP and Medicaid
• A randomized controlled trial on the effect of administrative burden and information costs on social inequalities in early childcare access in France
• ‘Why organizations leave money on the table: explaining non-demand for EU funds’
• From Passive Recipients to Active Participants: A Systematic Literature Review of Citizen Participation in Street‐Level Bureaucracies
• The Double Burden of School Choice
• Client credibility judgment: A source of inequity in street‐level implementation
• Losing Out: How the Public Assesses Coverage Loss due to Administrative Burden
• Do public administration reforms increase trust in government in transitional settings? Evidence from Ukraine
• Future Challenges of Public Administration
• Compliance under distrust: do people comply less when they feel distrusted?
• Does personality matter in social media? An approach to factors influencing citizen-given importance towards use by public administrations
• Experiences of Administrative Burden in Context: Exploring Differences Across Countries, Policy Domains, and Socio‐Demography
• Bureaucratic redundancy and administrative burden: Evidence from public‐private partnerships (PPPs) in China
• Behavioral strategies for reducing corruption: from regulation to choice architecture
• Interventions to reduce bureaucratic discrimination: a systematic review of empirical behavioural research
• En route to “zero bureaucracy and invisible government”: a conjoint analysis of the effects of transforming the state-citizen interface on the favourability of public administration in the digital era
• What Reasoning Do Frontline Professionals Use Around Citizen‐Clients' Socioeconomic Status: Exploring the Mechanisms
• Between Benefits and Burdens: Navigating the Dutch Landscape of Childcare Allowances From a Migrant Perspective
• Administrative burden alleviation and business ecosystem promotion: Evidence from China's company survey
• Exploring Government‐Citizen Interaction in Public Service Performance Assessment: Trade‐Offs, Synergies, and Critical Issues
• How effective are behavioral interventions to increase the take‐up of social benefits? A systematic review of field experiments
• How middle managers perceive and articulate the discrepancy between socio-health service delivery goals and practice
• Administrative Errors and Race: Can Technology Mitigate Inequitable Administrative Outcomes?
• Monthly unconditional income supplements starting at birth: Experiences among mothers of young children with low incomes in the U.S.
• An Unstable Hierarchy: Departmental Dynamics in Local Government Organizations
• Application of Natural Language Processing to Determine User Satisfaction in Public Services
• How is artificial intelligence shaping the labor demand of firms? ——evidence from text-mining analysis of listed companies
• "I thought it was my mistake, but it's really the design'': A Critical Examination of the Accessibility of User-Enacted Moderation Tools on Facebook and X
• Burdens, Sludge, Ordeals, Red tape, Oh My!: A User's Guide to the Study of Frictions
• U.S. Visa Bureaucracy and Its Burdens Among Early Career Scholars
• Alice in Wonderland: Consumer Peril in Navigating the Antipoverty Service Ecosystem
• Rationing by Inconvenience: How Insurance Denials Induce Administrative Burdens
• Digital Transformation, Administrative Burden, and Citizen–State Interactions: A Case of the Old Age Allowance Policy in China
• Impact of perceived corruption on stress: Does social capital serve as an administrative resource?
• Explaining Burden Reduction in Municipal Service Delivery: The Case of Streamlined Electric Vehicle Charger Permitting in California
• Institutional environment and passive co-production: exploring the roles of government deterrence and social norms
• Red Tape, Rule Legitimacy, and Public Service Motivation: Experimental Evidence From Korean Citizens
• Getting Your Foot in the Door: The Impact of Public Sector Fellowships on Career Trajectories
• Learning by proxy: How burdensome policies shape policy implementors' views of government

Discussions

• Administrative Burden Theory: Bureaucratic friction isn’t incompetence. Its policy. Bureaucrats impose “ordeal mechanisms” (learning costs, compliance costs, and emotional costs) to reduce uptake (s [bsky, 3 points, 1 comments]

Related

• The Political Economy of Administrative Burdens: A Theoretical Framework for Analyzing the Organizational Origins of Administrative Burdens
• Administrative Burden in Citizen–State Interactions: A Systematic Literature Review
• Administrative Burdens in the Social Safety Net
• Administrative Burden’s Mass Political Effects: How the Administration of Medicaid and Elections Shapes Mass Voter Turnout
• Policymaking by Other Means