Discretion As An Adaptive Device: From Expert Rule Structures To Negotiated Service Delivery

Abstract

This policy case study of Bolivia's Zero Malnutrition Program addresses gaps in understandings of the promises and pitfalls of rational and adaptive forms of public problem solving in low-income countries. I argue that pleas to shift social change processes toward more responsive strategies must first understand why rational management strategies continue to dominate. Alternatively, we need to identify concrete adaptive strategies policy actors can, and actually do implement in practice. I consider these questions in Bolivia from the perspective of national planners who design policies, mid-level supervisors who manage programs, and frontline staff charged with program delivery. Using a grounded theory approach, methods included participate observation, document review, secondary data analysis, semi-structured interviews, "scuttlebutt informants", "itinerant actors" and action research. My findings suggest that rational planning behavior may often be a reaction to complex social change processes - coping mechanisms - instead of an approach policy designers intentionally plan or impose on implementers. Alternatively, where practitioners approach the task with a more "adaptive" mindset, I argue that considerable guidance, commitment and, paradoxically, strategy, are necessary. My dissertation begins to add specificity to what we can tell practitioners who desire to apply adaptive strategies and what planners can do to structure policy designs differently. Findings also offer lessons for theory related to policy planning and implementation. Ultimately, I advance the idea of "developmental administration" for crafting the necessary support systems, capacity-building approaches, and deliberative mechanisms that can intentionally build the ability to facilitate, build learning and continuously reinforce adaptive responses.