Bureaucratic Moral Veto

Civil‑service employees use internal discretion, collective resignation threats, or deliberate non‑compliance to block policies they deem immoral, effectively creating a non‑elective 'moral veto' over democratically enacted programs. If institutionalized, this behavior turns administrative competence and rulemaking into arenas for ideological contestation rather than neutral implementation. — A routinized bureaucratic moral veto would reshape democratic accountability by shifting ultimate policy control from voters and ministers to career officials and networks inside the state.