Bureaucratic prioritizing among clients in the eyes of the public: Experimental evidence from three countries
通过丹麦、荷兰和新西兰2655名居民的联合实验，研究公众对教师如何优先排序学生的看法，发现公众的规范偏好与描述性信念及实际教师行为大体一致。
Abstract In response to workloads and service demands, frontline workers often prioritize among their clients when delivering public services. This article examines the implications of such bureaucratic prioritization on democratic governance, specifically the public's attitudes toward how frontline workers prioritize among clients. Using data from a pre‐registered, rank‐based conjoint survey experiment conducted among residents ( n = 2655) in Denmark, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, we explore two key aspects of bureaucratic prioritization from the public's perspective: (1) citizens' preferences on how teachers should prioritize among students and (2) citizens' beliefs about how teachers do prioritize among students. Our findings reveal general alignments between the public's normative preferences, their descriptive beliefs, and the prioritization tendencies of real‐life teachers as documented in previous research. We discuss the implications of these results in terms of administrative legitimacy and the governance perspective of New Public Service.