The Power of Knowing the Rules

This article presents a case study of the Louisiana Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP). An initial consideration would portray the events described herein as a policy implementation failure, but the investigation revealed something more profound. Extensive interviews and investigation of official documents, including transcripts of meetings, revealed the ambiguity of failure and the invisibility of power in administrative contexts. Hendrik Wagenaar's argument that administrative action is underlined by an administrator's deep understanding of the rules is used here to show the important relationship between the visible aspects of legible rules and the invisible dimension of using the rules. The Louisiana BTOP grant highlights the important tension between closure through administrative rationality and the resistance to such closure through channels of contestation.