In person icon Bureaucratic Overload and Administrative Capacity: Consequences, Coping Mechanisms, and Reform

Abstract

Public administrations are facing an increasing mismatch between growing policy demands and stagnant or declining bureaucratic capacity (Fernández-i-Marín, 2024). The expansion of regulatory frameworks and policy mandates has not been accompanied by a proportional increase in resources, leaving agencies struggling with workload pressures, implementation challenges, and internal strain (Knill et al., 2024). This panel explores how administrative organizations manage overload, the consequences for governance effectiveness, and potential pathways for reform. The panel brings together papers that empirically and theoretically examine the burden-capacity gap in public organizations. It addresses key issues such as: How does persistent overload affect bureaucratic resilience, expertise, and long-term institutional stability? What role do slack resources play in buffering organizations against overload, and how do they impact bureaucratic performance? How do bureaucracies cope with overload in ways that may exacerbate inequalities among citizen-clients, particularly through mechanisms like policy triage? What explains variations in bureaucratic processing speed, and how do administrative procedures shape decision-making timeframes, particularly in critical policy areas like the energy transition? By drawing on quantitative and qualitative evidence from multiple countries and administrative settings, this panel aims to advance our understanding of bureaucratic overload as a structural governance challenge. Papers in this panel offer comparative insights into how different administrations cope with limited capacity, the institutional consequences of prolonged overload, and the conditions under which administrative reform efforts succeed or fail. This panel contributes to broader debates on state capacity, public administration, and regulatory governance, offering new perspectives on how bureaucracies can navigate increasing pressures without sacrificing effectiveness or equity.

Title	Details
Bureaucratic overload, slack resources, and performance auditing	View Paper Details
Inequality effects of bureaucracies’ coping with overload	View Paper Details
The power of administrative procedures: Energy infrastructure permitting across 27 EU member states	View Paper Details
Causes and Consequences of Organizational Overload: The Bureaucratic Burden-Capacity gap	View Paper Details
Policy capacity and policy sequencing for durability: What analytical and operational capacities are needed for steering feedback processes that shorten the time gap between introduction and ratcheting-up of policy ambition?	View Paper Details