Institutionalizing upstarts: The demons of domestication and the benefits of recalcitrance

Governments routinely create new organizations to deal with emerging or persistent problems. It is a real challenge for these 'upstarts' to build a robust organization that is considered legitimate by political stakeholders. The challenge is twofold: the new organization has to create the capacity to effectively and efficiently perform its formal mission and it is has to do so without alienating patrons and clients. The upstart thus has to balance external and internal integrity. The public administration and political science literature tends to prioritize the former (responsiveness) over the latter, suggesting that too strong a focus on the organization's structure and culture may violate the tenets of a healthy democracy. In this article, we reconsider this piece of conventional wisdom. We argue that it may be quite healthy - both for the organization and its environment - if the upstart develops some 'recalcitrant' features.