Managerial Discretion in Government Decision Making: Beyond the Street Level provides a comprehensive discussion of managerial and executive discretion at all levels of government. Beginning with a discussion of moving beyond street-level discourse, this book sets the stage for studying managerial discretion. It examines aspects of expertise in discretionary decision making at the federal level, including several case examples to account for the wide usage of executive orders in managerial positions, and examines the formal roles of managers at state government levels, while highlighting the variations among state managers in their usage of discretion, with examples of state managers with too much discretion.
Next the book identifies key aspects of managerial discretion in local governments, including information on the applicability of discretion in school districts and its implications in decision making, discusses the myriad ways in which managers in local jurisdictions either individually or collectively make decisions within the parameters of state laws, board regulations, and/or council ordinances, and concludes with a discussion of how much discretion managers should have and dangers inherent in providing managers with too much discretion, and reinforces the discourses on accountability in public organizations.