Ekonomski vidiki pritožb državljanov na ravnanje uradništva : primer uporabe policijskih prisilnih sredstev

slovenian

2006

volume 4, issue 2/3

Univerza v Ljubljani, Fakulteta za upravo
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

There has been a tendency of increased number of citizen complaints against bureaucratic activities in the majority of developed and democratic countries.The main reasons for this tendency are predominantly rising socio-economic inequality in modern societies and the emphasised issue of human rights, which contributes to larger awareness of people when seeking for their rights. In this context, the contemporary conflict theory stresses that bureaucracy is nowadays often seen as an instrument of politically and economically privileged classes through which they exercise social control over marginalised groups of population. Consequently, it is to be expected that this would imply strained relations between bureaucracy and those marginalised social groups. This can be also observed in increased number of citizen complaints against bureaucratic activities, in particular those ones that are impartially seen as unfunded, and are filled primarily to gain some benefit or to avoid responsibility. Besides, strained relations could also affect the confidence in bureaucratic impartiality, thereby causing that citizens see complaints as useless and are averted to fill them. Consequently, these two problems (so-called over- and under-reporting) cause that citizen complaints can be a very poor indicator of the quality of bureaucratic work and ouput for their biasness. Moreover, focusing on citizen complaints as a tool of bureaucratic quality monitoring can be very problematic, since they can be useful tool for measuring bureaucratic productivity and work effort. Namely, if bureaucrats perceive that they are monitored primarily through citizen complaints against their activities, they can be compelled to avoid those complaints by simply reducing their work effort or becoming more prudent as the simplest ways to avoid making mistakes and subsequent complaints. The reduced work effort and growing cautiousness have been found in practice in many bureaucratic activities, in particular in regulatory agencies and police organisations.

27.02.2012