Street level bureaucrats

Development of law and policy assumes a straight line from the written word to actual implementation. But in reality it rarely works out like that.

This new article by Mikkel Funder (DIIS) and Martin Marani (University of Nairobi) examines how government officers are implementing Kenya’s environmental law in practice.

The article shows how local “street level bureaucrats” interpret and adapt the law in an effort to carry out their mandate under difficult conditions, while at the same time accommodating local realities and pressures. As a result, the “real” environmental law becomes a hybrid of formal and informal agreements and governance arrangements.

The article thereby highlights the important role of local civil servants as mediators of national laws and policies in development, and points to the ambiguous but strategic position that they occupy between the central state and the citizen.

The article is Open Access and can be downloaded from The International Journal of the Commons.