AbstractThis Special Issue was driven by the need to better understand the theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the growing mobilization of the street‐level bureaucracy (SLB) analytical framework in the study of state action and policy implementation in the developing world. Our curiosity rested on what has been happening to the framework in terms of empirical applications as well as the consequent challenges to the theory when it travels from the Global North to the Global South. We wanted to learn more about the evolution of ideas and theoretical propositions developed on the basis of some important assumptions—such as consolidated liberal states and advanced democracies—when they reach the specific conditions and varying contexts of states and societies in the developing world.