Administrative Burden in Citizen-State Interactions: A Systematic Literature Review

Research on administrative burdens in citizen-state interactions has expanded massively. Based on a sys- tematic review of 108 articles and working papers, we provide an overview of how administrative burdens in citizen-state interactions have been studied since the inception of the research agenda in 2012. We develop a new and comprehensive model of how key concepts in the framework are related, assess the evidence of the causal relationships proposed by the model, and discuss where more evidence is needed. Empirical research supports conventional claims that burdens are consequential, distributive, and con- structed. However, the literature has moved even further by 1) demonstrating that factors unrelated to state constructions of burdens, such as frontline service delivery and government communication, influ- ence experiences of burdens; 2) highlighting how factors beyond ideology influence constructions of burdens; 3) introducing the burden tolerance concept; 4) illustrating that experiences of burden influence policy makers’ and members of the publics’ burden tolerance. Based on the review, we propose an agenda for future administrative burden research. We argue that future studies should establish causal links be- tween state actions and experiences of burden, build validated measures of costs categories and burden tolerance, and compare burdens across contexts. Further, empirical studies should examine the tradeoffs between legitimacy and experiences of burden, and how actors outside the citizen-state interaction may influence experiences of administrative burden.