Does bureaucrat bashing diminish the performance of public servants? Evidence from a survey experiment in The Netherlands

Bureaucrat bashing—the negative views expressed about public servants—is a widespread phenomenon. Does this bureaucrat bashing diminish the performance of public servants, as theoretically expected? We answer this question with a preregistered, original survey experiment among Dutch public servants. Our main results show that bureaucrat bashing does not significantly lower self-reported overall performance. Additional analyses confirm our main results. We discuss how our findings provide valuable insights into bureaucrat bashing and its possible effects in the public sector.