Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-hvd4g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-10T19:48:07.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Political Control Versus Expertise: Congressional Choices about Administrative Procedures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Kathleen Bawn
Kathleen Bawn
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Congressional choices about administrative procedures affect an agency's political responsiveness and the technical accuracy of its decisions. Legislators would like to design procedures so that agencies make technically sound decisions and balance the needs of competing interests in the way intended. In practice, agency procedures designed to promote technical competence often allow for political drift, and those that promote political control provide little new technical information about the consequences of policy decisions. The trade-off between technical competence and political control is captured in a model of a legislative coalition's decision about agency procedures. The choice variables are the agency's expected preferences and independence. Depending on exogenous levels of technical and political uncertainty, optimal agency procedures can maximize technical competence, maximize political control, or achieve a combination of the two.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 89 , Issue 1 , March 1995 , pp. 62 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aberbach, Joel. 1990. Keeping a Watchful Eye. Washington: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Ackerman, Bruce, and Hassler, William. 1981. Clean CoaVDirty Air. New Haven: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, R. Douglas. 1987. “Political Control of Administrative Officials.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organizations 3:279–86.Google Scholar
Baron, David, and Myerson, Roger. 1982. “Regulating a Monopolist with Unknown Costs.” Econometrica 50:911–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bawn, Kathleen. 1992. “Institutional Arrangements and Legislative Behavior: The Politics of Institutional Choice.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
Bendor, Jonathan. 1989. “Formal Models of Bureaucracy.” British Journal of Political Science 18:353–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Calvert, Randall, McCubbins, Mathew, and Weingast, Barry. 1989. “A Theory of Political Control and Agency Discretion.” American Journal of Political Science 33:588–611.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornell, Nina, Noll, Roger, and Weingast, Barry. 1976. “Safety Regulation.” In Setting Domestic Priorities, ed. Owen, H. and Schultze, C.. Washington: Brookings Institute.Google Scholar
Crandall, Robert. 1983. Controlling Industrial Pollution. Washington: Brookings Institute.Google Scholar
Epstein, David, and O'Halloran, Sharyn. 1993. “Administrative Procedures, Information, and Agency Discretion: Slack Versus Flexibility.” Columbia University. Typescript.Google Scholar
Ferejohn, John, and Shipan, Charles. 1989. “Congressional Influence on Administrative Agencies: A Case Study of Telecommunications Policy.” In Congress Reconsidered, 4th ed., ed. Dodd, Lawrence and Oppenheimer, Bruce. Washington: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Fiorina, Morris. 1982. “Legislative Choice of Regulatory Forms.” Public Choice 39:33–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilligan, Thomas, and Krehbiel, Keith. 1987. “Collective De-cisionmaking and Standing Committees: An Informational Rationale for Restrictive Amendment Procedures.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organizations 3:287–335.Google Scholar
Gilligan, Thomas, Marshall, William, and Weingast, Barry. 1989. “Regulation and the Theory of Legislative Choice: The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887.” Journal of Law and Economics 32:35–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, James, and Schroeder, Christopher. 1994. “Strategic Regulators and the Choice of Rulemaking Procedures: The Selection of Formal Versus Informal Rules in Regulating Hazardous Waste.” Law and Contemporary Problems 57:111–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Jeffrey, and Brazier, James. 1991. “Constraining Administrative Decisions: A Critical Examination of the Structure and Process Hypothesis.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organizations 7:373–400.Google Scholar
Horn, Murray, and Shepsle, Kenneth. 1989. “Commentary on Administrative Arrangements and the Political Control of Agencies: Administrative Process and Organizational Form as Legislative Responses to Agency Costs.” Virginia Law Review 75:499–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelman, Steven. 1980. “Occupational Health and Safety Administration.” In The Politics of Regulation, ed. Wilson, James Q.. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Kiewiet, D. Roderick, and McCubbins, Mathew. 1991. The Logic of Delegation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lupia, Arthur, and McCubbins, Mathew. 1994. “Designing Bureaucratic Accountability.” Law and Contemporary Problems 57:91–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magat, Wesley, Krupnick, Alan, and Harrington, Winston. 1986. Rules in the Making: A Statistical Analysis of Regulatory Agency Behavior. Washington: Resources for the Future.Google Scholar
Martin, Elizabeth. 1992. “Fast Track and Free Trade: Why Does Congress Delegate?” Presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
McCubbins, Mathew. 1985. “The Legislative Design of Regulatory Procedure.” American Journal of Political Science 29:721–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCubbins, Mathew, Noll, Roger, and Weingast, Barry. 1987. “Administrative Procedures as Instruments of Political Control.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 3:243–77.Google Scholar
McCubbins, Mathew, Noll, Roger, and Weingast, Barry. 1989. “Structure and Process; Politics and Policy: Administrative Arrangements and the Political Control of Agencies.” Virginia Law Review 75:431–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCubbins, Mathew, Noll, Roger, and Weingast, Barry. 1990a. “Public Interest and Structure-induced Policy.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organizations 6:203–12.Google Scholar
McCubbins, Mathew, Noll, Roger, and Weingast, Barry. 1990b. “Positive and Normative Models of Procedural Rights: An Integrative Approach to Administrative Procedures.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organizations 6:307–32.Google Scholar
McCubbins, Mathew, and Schwartz, Thomas. 1984. “Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police Patrols Versus Fire Alarms.” American Journal of Political Science 28:167–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moe, Terry. 1989. “The Politics of Bureaucratic Structure.” In Can the Government Govern?, ed. Chubb, John and Peterson, Paul. Washington: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry. 1990. “Political Institutions: The Neglected Side of the Story.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organizations 6:213–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noll, Roger. 1971. Reforming Regulation. Washington: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Noll, Roger. 1983. “The Political Foundations of Regulatory Policy.” Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft 139:377–404.Google Scholar
Noll, Roger. 1985. “Government Regulatory Behavior: A Mulridisciplinary Survey and Synthesis.” In Regulatory Policy and the Social Sciences, ed. Noll, Roger. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noll, Roger, and Owen, Bruce. 1983. The Political Economy of Deregulation. Washington: American Enterprise Institute.Google Scholar
Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, Mary. 1994. “Regulatory Agency Discretion among Competing Industries: Inside the FDA.” Washington University, St. Louis. Typescript.Google Scholar
Pederson, William. 1984. “Environmental Protection Agency.” In Federal Regulatory Processes: Agency Practices and Procedures, ed. Gary, and Nelson, Jerome. Washington: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.Google Scholar
Robinson, Glen. 1989. “Commentary on Administrative Arrangements and the Political Control of Agencies: Political Uses of Structure and Process.” Virginia Law Review 75:483–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogel, David. 1986. National Styles of Regulation. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry, and Moran, Mark. 1983. “Bureaucratic Discretion or Congressional Control? Regulatory Policy and by the Federal Trade Commission.” Journal of Political Economy 91:765–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, James Q. 1980. The Politics of Regulation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.