The American Review of Public Administration, Ahead of Print.
Citizens experience onerous encounters with the bureaucracy for various reasons, often political. Administrative burden reduction (ABR) has been pursued to improve citizen-state interactions, especially for vulnerable populations who are disproportionately impacted by burdens. This study seeks to explain the degree of ABR by bureaucrats when the burdens are deployed by their political superiors. We conceptualize it as a function of client vulnerability and bureaucrats’ sense of job security and organizational commitment. We examine these linkages in the context of a COVID-19 rental assistance program for two vulnerable groups—elderly and Blacks. The findings from the two single factorial experiments show that clients’ vulnerability increases the degree of ABR, but only for the elderly. Moreover, bureaucrats who make decisions based on their organizational commitment approach ABR more slowly and only in the context of age vulnerability.