The Political Determinants of Administrative Burden Across the States

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Abstract

Individuals’ experiences with means-tested public policies, such as Medicaid health insurance or food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), can have important impacts on their lives. Accessing these programs can be a difficult, demoralizing experience, which previous work has shown results in decreased political participation (e.g., Soss 1999). However, the administration of such programs is not uniform across governmental entities or individuals across the U.S. Some states or localities require more paperwork or verification documents than other states, and the street-level bureaucrats’ administering the programs may treat certain types of individuals differently than others due to their own personal biases or preferences.

In my dissertation work, I explore how means-tested program administration across several public policies impacts political attitudes and behavior. In this paper, I examine the political factors and correlates of administrative burden of federal policies that are implemented by the states, including Medicaid. My original measure of administrative burden considers the learning, compliance, and psychological costs associated with applying for and enrolling in public programs, relying on Herd and Moynihan’s concept of burden (2018). This measure spans policies and time and varies across states and counties.

This paper details my operationalization of administrative burdens and explores their relationship with political variables that may impact the creation of burdens themselves: the states’ political leaders’ ideology, the public’s ideology and attitudes about welfare recipients, generosity of the public programs themselves, and more.

The relationship between the administrative state and the public is important due to the constant and intense interaction individuals have with the administrative state. This paper provides evidence of why we observe such great variation of administrative burden across the states.

Author

• Meredith Dost, Harvard University