Send message to Author

Paper short abstract:

Examining welfare delivery in the Philippines through governmentality and administrative burden frameworks reveals how street-level bureaucrats mediate between state power and citizen dignity, shaping how marginalized populations access and experience social protection programs.

Paper long abstract:

This research examines how street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) mediate between state power and citizen dignity in welfare delivery through the dual lens of Foucauldian governmentality and administrative burden theory. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed how governmental practices and administrative requirements can either enable or constrain citizens' access to vital social protection, particularly affecting their sense of dignity.

The study examines how power dynamics manifest in citizen-state interactions through administrative burdens—such as learning, compliance, and the psychological costs that citizens face when accessing social welfare. Drawing from Foucault's concept of governmentality, it investigates how these burdens function as governmental techniques that shape citizen behavior and legitimize state control. Of particular interest is how citizens internalize norms and adjust their conduct based on administrative requirements, reflecting Foucault's concept of subjectification.

The initial findings of qualitative research conducted in local governments in Laguna, Philippines, reveal how governmental practices create visible and invisible barriers to access, disproportionately affecting marginalized populations. It shows how administrative burdens serve not just as procedural requirements but as instruments of power that shape citizen identities and their relationship with the state.

The research has significant implications for creating fairer and more respectful methods of delivering social protection, especially in Global South settings where the dynamics of state-citizen power relations are often more evident.