Population registries are the gateway to public services, benefits, and rights. However, despite clear formal rules and procedures, people eligible for registration may still face administrative burdens in obtaining access. In this article, we study the case of the municipal registration of people who experience homelessness in Belgium and the Netherlands—a group that typically suffers from administrative vulnerability. Using data from 61 interviews with social workers and civil servants, we find that burdens are constructed at the municipal level to disincentivize homeless people's access to registration. However, using the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, we also identify mechanisms in the governance of population registrations and the decentralization of social policies that create incentives for strategic behavior by municipal policy makers and street-level bureaucrats. By analyzing the interaction between multiple institutional levels, we contribute to understanding how structural mechanisms influence policymakers’ agency in the construction of administrative burdens.

中文翻译：

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通往国家门户的负担：比利时和荷兰无家可归者登记的行政负担


人口登记是获得公共服务、福利和权利的门户。然而，尽管有明确的正式规则和程序，有资格注册的人在获得访问权时仍可能面临行政负担。在本文中，我们研究了比利时和荷兰无家可归者的市政登记案例，该群体通常受到行政管理上的脆弱性影响。利用对社会工作者和公务员的 61 次访谈数据，我们发现市一级的负担阻碍了无家可归者获得登记的积极性。然而，利用制度分析和发展框架，我们还确定了人口登记治理和社会政策权力下放的机制，这些机制为市政策制定者和街道一级官员的战略行为创造了激励。通过分析多个制度层面之间的相互作用，我们有助于理解结构性机制如何影响决策者在行政负担构建中的代理作用。