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4 Governance: An Int'l J. Pol'y, Admin, & Institutions 1 (1991)

handle is hein.journals/gvnanlj4 and id is 1 raw text is: The Bureaucracy and Its Masters: The New Madisonian System in the US WILLIAM T. GORMLEY, JR. The bureaucracy's masters have redesigned the American political system over the past 20 years. As before, checks and balances play a critical role. This time, however, relations between one branch of government (the bureaucracy) and the rest are decidedly and deliberately asymmetrical. While acknowledging the need for bureaucratic accountability, the author raises questions about a growing emphasis on highly coercive controls from above. Instead he recommends greater reliance on catalytic controls from below, which energize the bureaucracy without stifling bureaucratic cre- ativity and eroding bureaucratic integrity. Sometimes a political system changes without our noticing it. In this article, I explore a recent change and its implications. The American bureaucracy has become more responsive to its masters, including chief executives, legislators, and judges. I begin by summarizing evidence of bureaucratic responsiveness. Next I identify some recent reforms and trends that enhance the leverage of the bureaucracy's sovereigns. In the sections that follow, I critique the new Madisonian system that has emerged and I suggest some alternative strategies for controlling the bureaucracy. These strategies, I argue, eliminate old bureaucratic path- ologies without creating new ones to take their place. BUREAUCRATIC RESPONSIVENESS IN AMERICAN POLITICS The bureaucracy has many masters, and few of them are shy persons. In recent years, a number of scholars have demonstrated that the bu- reaucracy's masters - chief executives, legislators, and judges - are both willing and able to influence administrative agency decisions. Al- though there are limits to political control (Wood 1988), the overwhelm- ing evidence supports the conclusion that US bureaucracies do respond to pressure from above. A number of studies establish that presidents have been able to shape the behavior of administrative agencies and of individual decision-mak- ers, such as regulatory commissioners. In a major study of the National Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration. Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1991 (pp. 1-18), © 1991. Research Committee on the Structure and Organization of Government of the International Political Science Association. ISSN 0952-1895