The Dynamics of Bureaucracy in the US Government

How Congress and Federal Agencies Process Information and Solve Problems

Samuel Workman

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781316309308
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: American Government
• Index: Politics & International Relations

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• 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
• References
• Author Index
• Subject Index