街头官僚自由裁量决策的道德困境与公众归责倾向

Moral Dilemmas of Street-Level Discretion and Public Blame Attribution

公众通过社交媒体对街头官僚的自由裁量决策发表看法并对负面后果进行归责,已成为一种普遍现象。在同样出现负面后果的自由裁量决策中,公众是否会依据自由裁量决策的议题属性形成差异的归责倾向?论文探讨公众如何对具有道德困境属性的街头官僚自由裁量决策的负面后果进行归责,通过一项多案例研究,以及一项调查实验研究发现:(1)公众在面对具有显著道德困境属性的自由裁量决策时,更不倾向归责于街头官僚且更能够容忍负面后果;(2)公众在对具有道德困境属性的自由裁量决策进行归责中存在两种心理机制,具体是“对负面后果的积极归因”和“较少的愤怒情绪”。研究实证结论表明,在街头官僚自由裁量决策出现负面后果时,政府旨在回应社会问责压力的强力问责举措并不总能获得公众的支持。在对引起公众关注的自由裁量负面后果实施问责时,地方政府应根据议题属性做出区分。

The public expresses opinions about the discretionary decision-making by street-level bureaucrats,and attributes blame for the negative consequences of discretionary decision-making.This paper investigates how the public attributes blame for the negative consequences of discretionary decision-making and whether the nature of officials discretion influences that blaming.Employing the methods of multiple-case study and survey experiment,this paper finds that:(1)the public is less inclined to blame street-level bureaucrats in discretionary issues involving moral dilemmas;and(2)two psychological mechanisms play a role in the public s blame attribution for the negative consequences of discretionary decision-making involving moral dilemmas,specifically“positive attribution of negative consequences”and“less anger”.The practical implication of this paper is that when governments enforce accountability for the negative consequences of street-level bureaucrats discretion,a distinction needs to be made based on the nature of the discretionary issue.