Policy ambiguity and bureaucratic autonomy in the age of democratic governance

Ambiguity is an often-overlooked concept in bureaucracy, but as a latent variable it accounts for many of the institutional features and flaws that tend to have the attention of scholars and practitioners. As decisions move through systems, ambiguity allows actors to decide how to manifest the purposes and goals of government within a narrow space connected to their scopes of authority; but how they use that authority depends on how they interpret their autonomy. While policymakers’ intents or organizational goals are a guiding light in many cases, ambiguity leaves bureaucrats with leeway to decide what policies or procedures mean and how to execute their job tasks in the face of uncertain and fluid conditions. Bureaucracies, thus, obtain a degree of autonomy in that they have discretion to decide what is important and how to translate their value judgments into actions. While some ambiguous policies provide more autonomy to bureaucracies, others curtail that autonomy. However, this all depends on how public servants come to interpret the situation and their authorities to act. In this chapter, the author outlines the concept of ambiguity, examines interpretation as a factor in bureaucratic autonomy, and discusses how this impacts bureaucratic relationships.