Bureaucratic Autonomy in the U.S. Separation of Powers: Evidence from Cabinet Departments

Theories of delegation posit that politicians have the incentive to decrease discretion when ideological conflict with an administrative agency increases. Yet agencies can use their expertise to appropriate informational benefits from delegation helping to increase bureaucratic autonomy. Such theories only indirectly address the impact of ideological conflict on bureaucrats’ perceptions about the extent of the discretion they are afforded on the job. Does the perception of discretion by bureaucrats depend on ideological conflicts between the legislative and executive branches? Statistical results from dynamic panel models provide evidence that that closer ideological alignment with the U.S. Congress than the president increases perceived discretion; that a negative relationship emerges between confirmation times and perceived discretion, but a small and opposite relationship exists among supervisory levels; that variance in the ideological portfolio of cabinet secretaries decreases perceived discretion overall, but has no effect on supervisory cadres; and that divergence between the goals and legal context of an agency and the president’s policy orientation are associated with lower perceived discretion.

This version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11115-014-0300-0

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Work Title Bureaucratic Autonomy in the U.S. Separation of Powers: Evidence from Cabinet Departments
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Open Access
Creators
  1. Anthony M. Bertelli
Keyword
  1. Bureaucratic discretion
  2. Delegation
License In Copyright (Rights Reserved)
Work Type Article
Publisher
  1. Public Organization Review
Publication Date January 28, 2015
Publisher Identifier (DOI)
  1. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-014-0300-0
Deposited November 07, 2023

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    • Bureaucratic discretion, Delegation
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