Political Control of the Bureaucracy McNollgast

A ubiquitous feature of modern statutory law is delegation. Legislation typically delegates policy implementation to a bureaucracy. This delegation presents a dilemma. The specialized knowledge of an expert agency may be necessary to unravel the technical uncertainties surrounding the impact of alternative policy actions; however, the policy preferences of bureaucrats are often different from those of political leaders, and, if they have unique expertise, the former may use their superior knowledge to advantage themselves rather than to carry out the latter’s policy wishes. This essay addresses the causes of the delegation dilemma and legislative responses to them. Our survey focuses on the use of administrative structure and procedure to mitigate the deleterious consequences of delegation.