Heroic Bureaucracies

According to the scant literature on the topic, heroic bureaucracies address a severe social problem in a new manner. They provide subordinate groups new resources that have impacts later for political change and increased equality. This article examines three bureaucracies that fulfill these criteria: the Freedmen's Bureau, the Farm Security Administration, and the Office of Health Affairs. The analysis is grounded in the work that these bureaucracies conducted in four rural, Southern, low-income, and predominately African-American communities over the course of a century. The common characteristics of these bureaucracies suggest how heroic bureaucracies differ from normal bureaucracies. Their characteristics include an origin in an extraordinary political environments, and intended, but unspecified impacts on local leaders of ensuing change efforts. In addition, distinguishing internal characteristics include a predilection for experiment over precedent and the creation and utilization of new forms of citizen-client participation in their programs.