Political Regimes and Agency Policymaking: Measuring Political Influence on Bureaucracy

在今天的美国，政治官僚机构做出了绝大多数的公共政策决定。 这并不是否认政府其他部门制定政策的重要性，但官僚机构制定政策的数量之多，使其他机构的产出相形见绌。 仅举一个衡量标准，《联邦登记册》列出了官僚机构发布的所有规则和法规，每年通常覆盖50，000多页。在这项调查中，研究人员使用正式模型来推导出有关其他政治行为者对官僚机构影响的可测试命题。 他建立了一个政治影响力的空间模型，其假设和预测比以前对官僚和其他政治行为者之间关系的研究更为明确。 此外，该理论突出了以前的方法论的实质性问题，并介绍了一个更合适的方法来估计政治影响力，一个，它承认不同的政治制度会有不同的影响agencies.Investor通过分析食品和药物管理局的监测活动提供了初步的支持模型。 然后，他收集其他各种机构的数据。 在收集数据后，他通过使用他开发的方法来估计对官僚机构的影响。 为了便于对不同类型的机构进行比较，本书对环境保护局、联邦贸易委员会、食品和药物管理局、食品安全信息服务局等机构进行了研究，为理解官僚机构在代议制民主中的作用做出了重要贡献。 首先，它开发了一个严格的理论模型，可以测试。 其次，它指出了以前对政治影响力的实证检验的问题，这些检验没有解释不同政权的存在。 第三，它提出了一个方法论的方法，遵循的理论模型。 最后，通过对模型的估计和检验，它为政治学家提供了一个更准确的机构和其他政治行为体之间的关系的图片。

In the United States today, political bureaucracies make the overwhelming majority of public policy decisions. This is not to deny the importance of policy-making by the other branches of government, yet the sheer amount of policy-making done by the bureaucracy dwarfs the output of these other institutions. To cite just one measure, the Federal Register, which lists all rules and regulations issued by the bureaucracy, usually covers more than 50,000 pages per year.In this investigation, the researcher uses a formal model to derive testable propositions about the influence of other political actors on the bureaucracy. He develops a spatial model of political influence that is more explicit in its assumptions and predictions than are previous studies of the relationship between bureaucrats and other political actors. In addition, the theory highlights substantial problems with previous methodological approaches and introduces a more appropriate approach for estimating political influence, one, which acknowledges that different political regimes will have different effects on agencies.The investigator provides preliminary support of the model by analyzing the monitoring activities of the Food and Drug Administration. He then collects data on a variety of other agencies. After collecting the data, he estimates the influence on bureaucracies by using approaches he has developed. To allow for comparison of different types of agencies, a variety of agencies are examined, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, the Food Safety Information Service, and others.The investigation makes several significant contributions to an understanding of the role of bureaucracies in a representative democracy. First, it develops a rigorous theoretical model that can be tested. Second, it points to problems with previous empirical tests of political influence that do not account for the existence of different regimes. Third, it proposes a methodological approach that follows from the theoretical model. Finally, through the estimation and testing of the model it gives political scientists a more accurate picture of the relationship between agencies and other political actors.