Are bureaucrats' interactions with politicians linked to the bureaucrats' policy entrepreneurship tendencies?

Abstract

AbstractAre bureaucrats' interactions with politicians, as well as with other government and non‐government players in the policy arena, linked with the bureaucrats' policy entrepreneurship tendencies? To investigate this question, we sought to identify the factors influencing bureaucrats' willingness to engage in policy entrepreneurship. We also explored the bureaucrats' motivations for doing so in order to better understand if policy entrepreneurship among bureaucrats is a desirable phenomenon. Using national survey data from Brazil, our findings indicate that politician–bureaucrat interactions have a positive relationship with bureaucrats' perceptions about policy entrepreneurship. In addition, there is a positive association between bureaucrats' motivations for engaging in policy entrepreneurship and their social values.