How does population size influence administrative performance? Evidence from Malta, Samoa, and Suriname

Public Policy and Administration, vol. 41, pp. 90–108

Abstract

Public administration scholars pay increasing attention to the role of context as a pathway to genuinely comparative analysis. Specifically, they focus on the economic, institutional and socio-cultural conditions in which administration takes place. Population size is an overlooked contextual factor despite the fact that existing studies often make implicit, positive assumptions about the effects of smallness on administrative performance. We investigate these assumptions by focusing on small, rather than large states across three dimensions: representativeness, transparency and service delivery. Drawing on unique qualitative data from three small states from different continents, Malta, Samoa and Suriname, we find that contra implicit assumptions, small population size does not have the overwhelmingly positive effects that much of the literature assumes. Rather, smallness tends to undermine legal-rational decision making and to facilitate patronage-based service delivery. These findings indicate that the contextual turn in public administration needs to pay more attention to the way population size shapes bureaucratic practice in all states, large and small.

Authors 4

1. Marlene Jugl corresponding

   Bocconi University

   Affiliation as printed

   Bocconi University

   Bocconi University, Milano, Italy

2. Wouter P. Veenendaal Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University

   Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

3. Jack Corbett

   Monash University

   Affiliation as printed

   Monash University

   Monash University, Clayton, Australia

4. Roannie Ng Shiu

   University of Auckland

   Affiliation as printed

   University of Auckland

   University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand