Copenhagen Lectures:

Jack Knight from Washington University, St. Louis. is the first guest in the Copenhagen Lecture Series arranged by the International Center for Business and Politics

The Role of Bureaucracy in a Constitutional Democracy

In this lecture I will address the role of bureaucracy in a constitutional democratic system. If we start from the view that democracy entails governance that is related in some important way to the values and interests of the citizens themselves, what role do we envision for bureaucrats in the enactment and implementation of public policy? In answering this question I will contrast the main models of bureaucratic activity in the political economy literature and discuss the implications of the different models for democratic decision-making. I will give particular attention to the following questions. How do we justify an independent role if any, for bureaucracy? How do we balance discretion and constraint in the institutional framework? How do we establish criteria of accountability? And to whom do we want bureaucrats to be accountable?

Jack Knight has for many years been in the top of the leading scientists within the area of institutional theory called rational choice. In this connection he has worked closely together with Nobel award winner Douglass C. North from the same university. Jack Knight is connected to Center in Political Economy at Washington University and is a visiting professor at International Center for Business and Politics, CBS. His most known books are Institutions and Social Conflict (1992), Explaining Social Institutions (1995) and The Choices Justices Make (1997). His latest book is Courts, Judges and Politics (2005)

He has also published a great number of articles in leading journals and serves on the editorial boards of Rationality and Society and The American Journal of Political Science.