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

The Dynamics of Bureaucracy in the US Government: How Congress and Federal Agencies Process Information and Solve Problems
ISBN-10
1316299198
ISBN-13
9781316299197
Category
Political Science
Language
English
Published
2015-04-16
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Author
Samuel Workman

Description

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.

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