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

This note presents empirically documented observations of criteria-lessness in public administration, based on document analysis of decision-related materials. Criteria-lessness is understood as a structural condition in which evaluative processes operate without explicit, operational, or documented criteria (Eines, 2026e). The analysis draws on systematic requests for access to documents, where evaluation criteria, thresholds, and decision frameworks were requested. The responses may indicate that such criteria are either not documented, not available, or not identifiable in the material provided (Eines, 2026b). In the cases examined, it was indicated that such criteria do not exist, or that they are not…