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

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.

Samuel Workman is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Oklahoma. He has held the position of J. J. 'Jake' Pickle Research Fellow at the University of Texas, Austin, and the position of Assistant Professor at the University of Texas, Austin. He is one of the principals within the Center for Applied Social Research and the Center for Risk and Crisis Management, both at the University of Oklahoma. His work has appeared in the Policy Studies Journal and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.