Understanding street-level bureaucracy gathers internationally acclaimed scholars to provide a state of the art account of theory and research on modern street-level bureaucracy, filling an important gap in the literature on public policy delivery and making it valuable text for students and researchers of public policy, public administration and public management.

Part One: Introduction;

Introduction: defining and understanding street-level bureaucracy ~ Peter Hupe, Michael Hill and Aurélien Buffat;

The inside story: street-level research in the US and beyond ~ Evelyn Z. Brodkin;

Part Two: Delivering services and benefits: street-level bureaucracy and the welfare state;

Discretionary payments in social assistance ~ Carol Walker;

Street-level bureaucracy and professionalism in health services ~ Stephen Harrison;

When and why discretion is weak or strong: the case of taxing officers in a Public Unemployment Fund ~ Aurélien Buffat;

Part Three: Agents of the state: street-level bureaucracy and law enforcement;

Law enforcement and policy alienation: coping by labour inspectors and federal police officers ~ Kim Loyens;

Law enforcement behaviour of regulatory inspectors ~ Vibeke Lehmann Nielsen;

Street-level bureaucrats and regulatory deterrence ~ Søren C. Winter and Peter J. May;

Part Four: Embedded in society: street-level bureaucrats as public actors;

Street-level bureaucrats and client interaction in a just world ~ Vicky M. Wilkins and Jeffrey B. Wenger;

‘Playing the rules’: discretion in social and policy context ~ Michael Musheno and Steven Maynard-Moody;

Personalisation and adult social work: recasting professional discretion at the street level? ~ Kathryn Ellis;

Part Five: The management of street-level bureaucrats;

Bureaucratic, market or professional control? A theory on the relation between street-level task characteristics and the feasibility of control mechanisms ~ Duco Bannink, Frédérique Six and Eelco van Wijk;

First-line supervisors as gate-keepers: rule processing by head teachers ~ Peter Hupe and Eva van Kooten;

Service workers on the electronic leash? Street-level bureaucrats in emerging information and communication technology work contexts ~ Tino Schuppan;

Part Six: The promise of professionalism;

Fulfilling the promise of professionalism in street-level practice ~ Paul van der Aa and Rik van Berkel;

Professionals and discretion in street-level bureaucracy ~ Tony Evans;

The moment of the street-level bureaucrats in a public employment service ~ Christopher Osiander and Joss Steinke;

Part Seven: Conclusion;

Conclusion: the present and future study of street-level bureaucracy ~ Peter Hupe, Michael Hill and Aurélien Buffat.