Research on street-level bureaucrats has identified their role as policy entrepreneurs through the adoption and advocacy of policy innovations. This article adds to this research by underscoring how street-level bureaucrats use creativity and improvisation to find contextual solutions for emergent local policy problems in response to scarcity. We suggest that these practices of policy repair allow frontline bureaucracies to deal with personnel, process, and material scarcity and maintain public service delivery even in resource-scarce environments. Using ethnographic data from Punjab, Pakistan, we show that this repair work is collaborative, client-centered, and motivated by compassion and kindness. Our research indicates that emergent and improvised policy repair allows frontline bureaucracies to be resilient and responsive to scarcity and changing service demands. Our findings further suggest that inclusion of street-level bureaucrats in formal policy decisions can help develop context-specific solutions to emergent problems of public service delivery.

中文翻译：

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修复国家：前线官僚机构的政策修复

对街头官僚的研究通过采用和倡导政策创新，确定了他们作为政策企业家的角色。本文通过强调街头官僚如何利用创造力和即兴创作来为应对稀缺性的紧急地方政策问题寻找背景解决方案，从而增加了这项研究。我们建议，这些政策修复实践允许一线官僚机构处理人员、流程和材料的稀缺性，即使在资源稀缺的环境中也能维持公共服务的提供。我们使用来自巴基斯坦旁遮普邦的民族志数据表明，这项修复工作是协作的、以客户为中心的，并且受到同情和善意的激励。我们的研究表明，紧急和即兴的政策修复使一线官僚机构能够灵活应对稀缺和不断变化的服务需求。我们的研究结果进一步表明，将街头官僚纳入正式政策决策有助于针对公共服务提供的紧急问题制定针对具体情况的解决方案。