The Dynamics of Bureaucracy in the US Government
How Congress and Federal Agencies Process Information and Solve Problems

This book assesses the influence of bureaucracy in American politics.

Samuel Workman (Author)

9781107679559, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 June 2019

207 pages, 16 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.4 kg

'This is a book that forces us to think about the policy-making process in new ways. It puts bureaucracy at center stage. Rather than characterize the administrative state as the passive implementer of political decisions by elected officials, Workman argues that federal agencies are strategic actors competing for Congress's attention. Congress, in turn, is trying to learn from the administrative state and shape its information-providing activities. This is a book that utilizes amazing new data to illuminate how agencies influence the policy agenda and policy process as attention-seeking and attention-directing institutions.' David E. Lewis, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee

This book develops a new theoretical perspective on bureaucratic influence and congressional agenda setting based on limited attention and government information processing. Using a comprehensive new data set on regulatory policymaking across the entire federal bureaucracy, Samuel Workman develops the theory of the dual dynamics of congressional agenda setting and bureaucratic problem solving as a way to understand how the US government generates information about, and addresses, important policy problems. Key to the perspective is a communications framework for understanding the nature of information and signaling between the bureaucracy and Congress concerning the nature of policy problems. Workman finds that congressional influence is innate to the process of issue shuffling, issue bundling, and the fostering of bureaucratic competition. In turn, bureaucracy influences the congressional agenda through problem monitoring, problem definition, and providing information that serves as important feedback in the development of an agenda.

1. Bureaucracy and problem-solving
2. The dual dynamics of the administrative state
3. The regulatory process as an attention mechanism
4. Problem monitoring in the administrative state
5. Problem prioritization and demand for information
6. Problem-solving and the supply of information
7. Information, bureaucracy, and government problem solving
Appendix A. Conceptualization and measurement
Appendix B. Statistical models.

Subject Areas: Central government [JPQ], Political science & theory [JPA]