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Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory Advance Access published online on February 18, 2009
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, doi:10.1093/jopart/mun040
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

The Impact of Red Tape on Governmental Performance: An Empirical Analysis

Gene A. Brewer

University of Georgia

Richard M. Walker

University of Hong Kong and Cardiff University, Wales

Address correspondence to the author at cmsbrew{at}uga.edu.

This study investigates the impact of red tape on governmental performance in the context of English local government. Both the red tape and performance constructs are multidimensional, so relationships between the concepts and their several dimensions are examined in detail. The results show that different types of red tape have varying impacts on governmental performance but that these effects are somewhat weaker than public management theory and conventional wisdom suggest. Moreover, some types of red tape affect some dimensions of performance in surprising ways. For example, internal red tape has limited effects on efficiency but inflicts considerable damage on equity. The results also show that red tape is a subject-dependent concept—known in the literature as stakeholder red tape. We contend that this alternative conceptualization of red tape opens new vistas for understanding the concept and should be explored further. The implications for public management research and practice are discussed.


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