Political control and bureaucratic autonomy revisited: a multi-institutional analysis of OSHA enforcement.(Author abstract)

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, January, 2008 by Kim, Doo-Rae

INTRODUCTION

The proper role of bureaucracy in democratic governance has long been a matter of controversy. One part of the debate on this matter involves the normative and empirical argument that democratic control and bureaucratic autonomy are dichotomous opposites: if there is democratic control, there cannot be bureaucratic autonomy, and vice versa. But does the presence of democratic control necessarily negate the possibility of bureaucratic autonomy? This article shows that the institutional conditions of democratic control and bureaucratic autonomy are not incompatible: government agencies are subject to political control to some extent but the agencies also can strategically maneuver among competing and divided political institutions to make autonomous...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.