Discretion in Welfare Provision

While discretion has been studied in systems of distribution which are governed by rules, or in those where there is a crucial gatekeeper, there remain many informal and diffuse systems where little is known about the discretion used. An example is the allocation of community services. In such cases, a useful strategy is to analyze the informal rationing system along lines which are discussed, and by this means to identify as discretionary the cases which emerge as anomalous.
Possibilities are outlined for comparing the amount of discretion used and its bias, in areas with different resource levels or degrees of regulation; and the paper concludes with a detailed illustration, drawn from an area study of community services for the elderly, of changes in the use of discretion with increasing pressure on resources.