Review of Administrative Burden

Just finished reading Administrative Burden by Pamela Herd & Don Moynihan and it’s great and super foundational in understanding the ways barriers are erected to block public services. I love the elemental blocks and definitions the authors provide. Hell, I use the term “administrative burden” very often in conversations about work. So, yes, I agree with what the authors propose - and I would love to see a harder push to address the social & emotional aspects that inspire people to employ administrative burdens.

I’m no history buff, but I’ve followed the history of this country and know that racism and bigotry have never been fully addressed. So, they shape shift to turn the entirely intolerable into something more palatable. Consider the high-level flow of American history:

1865: Slavery is bad y’all! But we’re not equal - let’s make new laws and call em Jim Crow laws. Also, sharecropping is cool and ethical.

1930: Let’s improve access to homeownership - but not so much for Black people… Let’s redline em and keep em away from us and no real chance for economic growth.

1965: We should stop calling Black people the N-word… How about ‘thug’?

1980’s: We might not be able to enslave them, but hey? We can throw em all in prisons!

Sadly, hate in America just continues shifting into newer, more hidden forms. And, in my opinion, administrative burdens is just another form of oppression fueled by hate. If, as recommended by the authors, monitor and measure administrative burdens, we’ll solve today’s problem, but be a few steps behind the next manifestation of hate-filled oppressive actions.

Stopping hate in America has been the shittiest game of whack-a-mole ever played. We take a few steps forward as a nation, only to see something else insidious emerge. Then we’re setback a few steps, if not worse.

Back to the book, I do agree that evaluating administrative burdens with rigor and evidence will improve things. But, if there’s no healing done to prevent the next oppressive bullshit from being created, then today is administrative burdens and tomorrow it’s something new, sick, and twisted that no one could’ve seen coming.

My rationale is heavily influenced by the fact that we are emotional creatures. The Righteous Mind does a fantastic job of laying out the different ways that logic alone is not enough to stop emotions spun up by fear. Plus, we’ve seen it - new laws have been created time and time again. But that’s not enough. Racism and hatred of many forms just festers until it finds a new shape that does substantial harms.

All in all - the book is great and establishes fundamentals to inform the field of policymaking.
The impact would go much, much further once we start to address the emotional root of why people feel like they ought to create new ways to oppress others.

Caveat: I’m not saying any of my proposal is simple or straightforward. But knowing America, we need more than policy change - we need more hearts to change.