Criteria-Lessness in Public Administration: An Empirical Observation Based on Document Analysis

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This report presents document-based empirical observations concerning conditions analysed through the concept of criteria-lessness in public administration. The material consists of access requests and corresponding responses concerning evaluation criteria, thresholds, factual grounds, and decision frameworks.

Across the material examined, requested criteria were in some instances stated not to exist as separate documents, not to be documented, not to be available, or were otherwise not identifiable in the documentation provided. The empirical finding therefore concerns documentary availability and identifiability; it does not by itself demonstrate that criteria were absent from practice.

The report examines how these conditions may relate to reconstructability, reviewability, and the relation between normative standards and documented administrative processes. It also introduces the Reviewability Challenges Model as a schematic representation of variations across evaluation, classification, documentation, and access.

The analysis is descriptive and does not establish causal, normative, evidentiary, or legal conclusions or assign responsibility in individual cases.

Part of the community: Self-Matryoshka Analytical Framework (S-MAF) and Criteriology Research