GOVT 755/ PUAD 720 SEMINAR IN POLITICS AND BUREAUCRACY
Paul L. Posner
Office Phone – 703-993-3957
Cell Phone – 703-371-1343
Home Phone – 703-631-1445
Office Room – Robinson Hall A Room 236
This course is designed to understand the roles played by bureaucracies in the policymaking
and implementation process. As government’s roles have expanded, so has the reliance on
bureaucracies to accomplish an ever widening range of complex and politically sensitive
objectives. Whether it be expanding health care coverage to over 30 million more Americans
to solving the obesity “crisis”, elected officials stand on the shoulders of bureaucrats to
accomplish goals and avoid the political embarrassment of failures and corruption.
Bureaucracies’ roles in implementation is axiomatic but they also play important functions in
articulating objectives and making politically difficult tradeoffs among competing values and
groups.
The course will assess how American bureaucracy plays its many roles.
 What are the foundations of bureaucratic legitimacy and power? How can bureaucratic
power be reconciled with democratic theory?
 What are the political wellsprings of bureaucratic roles and structures? How do differing
political stakes and institutions shape bureaucracies in different ways?
 What are the characteristic internal politics of bureaucratic decisionmaking? What are
the constraints and opportunities that shape and frame the way that bureaucracies
plan, program and budget for scarce resources?
 How does the external environment of bureaucracies affect their agendas, outputs and
effectiveness? How do bureaucracies seek to control their environments to reduce
uncertainty and promote long term sustainability?
 What roles do bureaucracies play in the policy process and what factors affect their
relative influence over other actors?
 How do interest groups and other clientele interact with bureaucracies? How do
bureaucracies balance their need for support from external groups with their desire for
autonomy and accountability to elected officials?
 What roles do elected officials play in monitoring and controlling bureaucratic policy
outputs and behavior? What models and metaphors best describe these relationships?
 How have emerging models of postbureaucratic governance changing power structure
governing bureaucratic decisionmaking and behavior? What kinds of relationships to
third parties maintain with bureaucracies and how can these relationships be
characterized?
 How have the past decades of public management reforms changed the influence and
roles of bureaucracies inp policy formulation and implementation? How sustainable
have reform movements been and what are the factors that affect their long term
effects on bureaucratic policy and behavior?
The following books will be required for this course:
James Q. Wilson, Bureaucracy
Robert Durant, ed. The Oxford Handbook of American Bureaucracy
In addition, there will be numerous articles assigned, most of which are on line in journals and
some will be posted to blackboard that are not in on line journals
One other resource that is important for studying American federal bureaucracy has just
become available. Published in 2013 by the Administrative Conference of the United States,
The Sourcebook of United States Executive Agencies is a comprehensive overview of federal
agencies, personnel staffing and authorities. The volume was prepared by David Lewis and
Jennifer Selin, prominent researchers on bureaucratic politics.
The course will be run as a seminar with maximum feasible participation by students. Students
will be asked to do several things:
 Complete several short two page essays throughout the semester
 Present reports on supplemental readings for a given week
 Work in teams to present reports on agency case studies, drawn from federal
government or other levels of government in our system
 A final take home exam at end of semester
Grades will follow the guidelines:
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Two page essays – 15%
Reports on readings – 20%
Case study presentations – 25%
Final exam – 30%
Class participation – 10%
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
 Mason is an Honor Code university; please see the University Catalog for a full description
of the code and the honor committee process. The principle of academic integrity is
taken very seriously and violations are treated gravely. What does academic integrity
mean in this course? Essentially this: when you are responsible for a task, you will
perform that task. When you rely on someone else’ s work in an aspect of the
performance of that task, you will give full credit in the proper, accepted form. Another
aspect of academic integrity is the free play of ideas. Vigorous discussion and debate are
encouraged in this course, with the firm expectation that all aspects of the class will be
conducted with civility and respect for differing ideas, perspectives, and traditions.
When in doubt (of any kind) please ask for guidance and clarification.
MASON EMAIL ACCOUNTS
 Students must use their MasonLIVE email account to receive important University
information, including messages related to this class. See http://masonlive.gmu.edu for
more information.
OFFICE OF DISABILITY SERVICES
 If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see
me and contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at 993-2474. All academic
accommodations must be arranged through the ODS. http://ods.gmu.edu
OTHER USEFUL CAMPUS RESOURCES:
 WRITING CENTER: A114 Robinson Hall; (703) 993-1200; http://writingcenter.gmu.edu
 UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES “Ask a Librarian ”
 http://library.gmu.edu/mudge/IM/IMRef.html
 COUNSELING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES (CAPS): (703) 993-2380;
 http://caps.gmu.edu
UNIVERSITY POLICIES
 The University Catalog, http://catalog.gmu.edu, is the central resource for university
policies affecting student, faculty, and staff conduct in university academic affairs. Other
policies are available at http://universitypolicy.gmu.edu/. All members of the university
community are responsible for knowing and following established policies.
Week 1 – Introduction
Unpacking bureaucracy by discussing alternative models explaining the relationships of
bureaucracies with broader democratic policy processes.
James Q. Wilson, Chapters 1 and 2
Robert Durant, Chapter 1
Kenneth Meier and Lawrence O’Toole, Bureaucracy in a Democratic State, Chapters 1 and 2
(on blackboard)
Suggested Readings:
Herbert Simon, “The Proverbs of Administration”, Public Administration Review, Vol 6 (Winter,
1946)
ASSIGNMENT: Write a two page essay discussing the democratic legitimacy and power
issues facing a bureaucracy that you have chosen in class. Select any two readings to
reference in your essay. For instance, you might look at the implementation of the
President’s health care reform law from the perspective of whether the federal agencies
have sufficient power and legitimacy to get the job done.
Week 2 – Historical development and role of government and bureaucracy
Broad discussion of the shifting roles of government will be discussed that help explain
bureaucratic trends. The unique and exceptional history of the United States and our
conflicted views of government will be discussed for their implications for bureaucratic roles
and power.
Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State, pp. 3-46 (blackboard)
Daniel Carpenter, “The Evolution of National Bureaucracy in the United States” (blackboard)
James Wilson, Bureaucracy, Chapter 16
Suggested Readings:
Robert Durant book, “Herbert Hoover’s Revenge: Politics, Policy and Administrative Reform
Movements”, Chapter 7.
David Brian Robertson, “Historical Institutionalism, Political Development, and the Study of
American Bureaucracy”, Chapter 2 in Durant’s book
Stephen Skowronek, Building a New American State, entire book
Francis Rourke, “American Exceptionalism: Government Without Bureaucracy” (blackboard)
Joel Aberbach and Robert Putnam, Bureaucracies and Politicians in Western Democracies,
Cambridge, Mass, Harvard, 1981
Assignment: Two students will be assigned to lead two discussions: (1) The Skowronek book
and its implications for today’s bureaucratic politics and (2) the Aberback and Putnam book
to contrast the role of bureaucracy in the United States with that in other advanced Western
democracies.
Week 3 – Rational and Economic Decision Making Theories and Models
Emerging theories from economics, decision science, psychology and other fields have given
rise to cavalcade of decision making theories which have had growing influence over theory
and practice of public bureaucracies.
George Frederickson and Kevin B. Smith, The Public Administration Theory Primer, chapter on
rational choice (blackboard)
Herbert Simon, “Administrative Decision Making”, Public Administration Review (March,
1965), Vol. 25
James Svara, “The Myth of the Dichotomy: Complementarity of Politics and Administration in
the Past and Future of Public Administration”, Public Administration Review, Vol 61 (2), 2001
Terry Moe, “ The New Economics of Organization” American Journal of Political Science
(1984) Vol 28, pp. 739-77
Suggested readings:
James G. March, A Primer on Decision Making, New York, The Free Press, 1994
Durant book, chapter 8 by B. Dan Wood, “Agency Theory and Bureaucracy
Marshall Meyer, “The Concept of Rational Administration” (blackboard)
Oliver Williamson, “ The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach”
Charles Lindblom, “The Science of Muddling Through”, Public Administration Review (Spring,
1959), Vol. 19
Chester Barnard, “ The Economy of Incentives” (blackboard)
Assignment: One student will argue for rational choice and economic theories of
bureaucracy using readings. Another student will argue against using the March book and
Lindblom reading as one basis for their position.
Week 4 – Political Models of Decision Making
Theories that put bureaucracy into a political context. How do bureaucracies relate to clients
and others who depend on their programs? What kinds of relationships do they establish with
their environment and how do they strategize to manipulate those relationships? What
aspects of the clientele and provider environment shape the autonomy and influence of
bureaucracies?
Jeffrey Pfeffer, “Understanding the Role of Power in Decision Making” (blackboard)
Kenneth Meier and John Boethe, Politics and Bureaucracy (blackboard)
Conlan and Posner, Pathways to Power, Introduction and Experts Chapter (blackboard)
Graham Allison, “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis”, Sept, 1969 Vol 63(3)
Suggested Readings:
Henry Mintzberg, “The Power Game and the Players” (blackboard)
James March, Michael Cohen and Johan Olsen, “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational
Decision Making” Administrative Science Quarterly, 1972 Vol 17 (1)
John Huber and Charles Shipan, “Politics, Delegation and Bureaucracy” (blackboard)
Heclo, Issue Networks (blackboard)
Francis Rourke, “American bureaucracy in a changing political setting” Journal of Public
Administration Research and Theory (April, 1991)
Walter G. Held “Decision Making in the Federal Government: The Wallace S. Sayre Model”
(blackboard)
Assignment for half the class: Take a decision for your agency and use the Allison
framework to understand the relative contributions of rational, organizational and
bureaucratic politics models.
Assignment for half the class: Present a map of your agency’s political actors. Discuss how
you would estimate relative degrees of influence.
Week 5 – Implications of political choice for bureaucratic decisions and outputs
How do the internal and external political forces shape bureaucratic goal setting and policy
making.
James Wilson, Chapter 7
Durant book, Chapter 10, Hal G. Rainey, “Goal Ambiguity and the Study of American
Bureaucracy”
Terry Moe, “The Politics of Bureaucratic Structure” (blackboard)
Robert Behn, “What Right do Public Managers Have to Lead?” Public Administration Review
(May/June, 1998). Vol 58, No. 3
Suggested Readings
Susan Yackee and David Lowry, “Understanding Public Support for the U.S. Federal
Bureaucracy” (handout)
Steven Balla, “Administrative Procedures and Political Control of the Bureaucracy” American
Political Science Review September, 1998, 663-673
Thomas Hammond, “Agenda Control, Organizational Structure and Bureaucratic Politics, “
American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 30, No. 2 (May, 1986
Durant book, Chapter 25, Cornielius Kerwin, Scott Furlong and William West, “Interest Groups,
Rulemaking and American Bureaucracy”
Assignment for half of class: What do you think of Behn’s argument for leadership by public
servants? Can public servants overcome political barriers by asserting leadership as he
suggests? Should they be assigned this responsibility?
ASSIGNMENT for other half of class: Taking your agency, review the strategic and annual
performance plan. Make a presentation in class about the extent of goal clarity or conflict.
Week 6 – Management and Representative Bureaucracy
What values and priorities do bureaucrats bring to their jobs and to the policy process? What
demographic backgrounds do they have? Do bureaucrats, in essence, constitute an
independent force that represents views and groups not adequately represented in the
political process? How do bureaucrats interact with their nominal superiors at the political
level?
Patricia Ingram, “The Federal Public Service” (blackboard)
Hugh Heclo, “In Search of a Role: America’s Higher Civil Service” (blackboard)
James Wilson, Chapters 4 and 8
John Dilulio, “Principled Agents: The Cultural Bases of Behavior in the Federal Government
Bureaucracy, Journal oF Public Administration Research and Theory (1994) Vol 4, No. 3.
Suggested reading:
Hugh Heclo, A Government of Strangers,Brookings, 1977
Jessica Sowa and Sally Selden, “Administrative Discretion and Active Representation”, Public
Administration Review (Nov/Dec, 2003), 700-710
Durant book, Chapter 30, Lael Kaiser, “Representative Bureaucracy”
OPM, Federal Employment Fact Book
http://www.opm.gov/feddata/factbook/2007/2007FACTBOOK.pdf
James Perry, et al “Motivating Employees in a New Governance Era” Public Administration
Review (July,/August 2006)
ASSIGNMENT: One student will lead discussion of political-civil servant relationships
anchored in Heclo book
Week 7 – The politics of budgeting
How do bureaucrats formulate their budgetary goals and strategies? What are the key
variables affecting their influence in budget decisionmaking? How do bureaucracies manage
surpluses and deficits? Do bureaucracies optimize their resources or merely satisfice?
William Niskanen, “A Reflection on Bureaucracy and Representative Government”
(blackboard)
Lawrence Lynn, “The Budget-Maximizing Bureaucrat: Is there a case” (blackboard)
Allen Schick, “Federal Budget” (blackboard)
Suggested Readings:
V.O. Key, “The Lack of a Budgetary Theory”American Political Science Review (December,
1940), Vol. 34
Aaron Wildavsky, “The Dance of the Dollars: Classic Budgeting” (handout)
Roy Meyers, “Strategic Budgeting” (blackboard)
Barry White, “ Examining Budgets for Chief Executives”– blackboard
Charles Levine, “Organizational Decline and Cutback Management” Public Administration
Review (JJuly/August, 1978)
Assignment: Your agency has been ordered to cut 10 percent from their budget. What would
their response likely be based on what you know of their internal and external political
environment?
Week 8 – The politics of implementation
How do bureaucracies design and construct implementation regimes to achieve program
objectives? What differences exist for directly managed programs vs those programs relying
on third parties? How do bureaucracies motivate their own employees to achieve goals? How
do they work with other bureaucracies to achieve partnerships and networks?
Paul Posner, “Accountability Challenges of Third Party Governance” (blackboard)
Paul Sabatier, “Two Decades of Implementation Research: From Control to Guidance to
Learning” (handout)
Durant, Chapter 16, Michael McGuire and Robert Agranoff, “Networking in the Shadow of
Bureaucracy”
Suggested readings:
Graeme Hodge, Privatization: An International Performance Review Public Administration
Review (May/June, 2007)
Deil Wright, “Federalism, Intergovernmental Relations and Intergovernmental Management”,
Public Administration Review (March/April, 1990) Vol. 50
Robert Stoker, “A Regime Framework for Implementation Analysis” Policy Studies review
(1989), Vol. 9, No. 1
Durant, Chapter 11, Steven Maynard-Moody and Shannon Portillo, “Street-Level Bureaucracy
Theory”
ASSIGNMENT: Present a map of the networks used to manage your agencies’ programs.
Discuss how those networks might influence the agencies’ policies and priorities.
Week 9 – Bureaucratic Accountabilities
Barbara Romzek and Melvin Dubnick, “Accountability in the Public Sector: Lessons from the
Challenger Tragedy”, Public Administration Review, (1987) Vol. 47, No. 3
William Gormley, “Accountability Battles in State Administration” (handout
Andrew Whitford, “ The Pursuit of Political Control by Multiple Principals” Journal of Politics
67(1), 2005
Suggested Reading
Marissa Golden, What Motivates Bureaucrats, New York, Columbia University Press, 2000
Arthur Lupia and Matthew McCubbins, “Designing Bureaucratic Accountability”, Law and
Contemporary Problems, Winter, 1994, 91-126
B. Dan Wood and Richard Waterman, “The Dynamics of Political Control of the Bureaucracy”,
American Political Science Review (Sept 1991), Vol 85, No. 3
ASSIGNMENT: One student will lead discussion based on Golden book, Wood and Waterman
and Lupia/McCubbins articles.
Week 10 – The roles of political principals: The Congress
How does Congress seek to ensure that bureaucratic outputs support congressional policy
objectives? What tools and strategies does Congress use to control and manage
bureaucracies? How do bureaucracies manage Congressional actors? Have Congressional
strategies helped guarantee democratic governance?
Matthew McCubbins and Thomas Schwartz, “Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police
Patrols versus Fire Alarms” American Journal of Political Science Vot 28, No. 1
James Q. Wilson, Chapter 13
Durant, Chapter 22, George A. Krause, “Legislative Delegation of Authority to Bureaucratic
Agencies”
Lawrence Dodd and Richard Schott, “Congress and the Administrative State” (blackboard)
Suggested Readings:
Andrew Rudalevige, “The Executive Branch and the Legislative Process” (blackboard)
Joel Aberback, Keeping a Watchful Eye: The Politics of Congressional Oversight, Washington,
Brookings, 1990
ASSIGNMENT: A student will lead discussion of congressional bureaucratic relationships as
revealed by Joel Abereback’s book and other readings.
Week 11 – The roles of the Presidency and Courts
Barry Weingast, “Caught in the Middle: The President, Congress and the Political-Bureaucratic
System”, (blackboard)
Joel Aberbach and Bert Rockman, “Mandates or Mandarins? Control and Discretion in the
Modern Administrative State”, Public Administration Review (March/April, 1988), Vol. 48
James Wilson, Chapter 14
Durant, Chapter 24, Jerry Mashaw, “Bureaucracy, Democracy and Judicial Review”
Suggested Readings:
David Lewis, Presidents and the Politics of Agency Design, Stanford University Press, 2003.
David Lewis, The Politics of Presidential Appointments, Princeton University Press, 2008
Mathew Dickinson, “The Executive Office of the President” (blackboard)
Shep Melnick, “The Courts, Jurisprudence and the Executive Branch” (blackboard)
Tom Gais and Jim Fossett, “Federalism and the Executive Branch” (blackboard)
James Wilson, Chapter 15
Martha Derthick, “American Federalism: Madison’s Middle Ground”, Public Administration
Review, (Jan/Feb 1987) Vol 47
Rosemary O’Leary and Charles Wise, “Public Managers, Judges and Legislators” Pubic
Administration Review (July/August, 1991), Vol. 51
ASSIGNMENT: Two students will lead discussion of the role of Presidency based on the two
books by David Lewis.
Week 12 – How do Bureaucracies Adapt to Changing Environments?
Conventional wisdom suggests that government agencies are immortal, impervious to change
and reform. The public dialogue and earlier research reaffirms this wisdom, but recent
research has found considerable volatility in agency deaths and reformulations. This week will
focus on what we know about bureaucratic responsiveness and adaptation, with a focus on
births, deaths and organizational reform and renewal.
David Lewis, “ The Politics of Agency Termination: Confronting the Myth of Immortality”
Journal of Politics
Durant, Chapter 9, Amy Zegart, “Agency Design and Evolution”
Wilson, Bureaucracy, Chapter 12
James March, Johan Olson, “Organizing Political Life: What Reorganization Tells Us About
Government”, American Political Science Review, June, 1983 Vol. 77 (2)
Suggested Readings
Durant Chapter 27, Jonathan Bendor and Thomas Hammond, “Choice-Theoretic Approaches to
Agency Structure”
Harold Seidman, Politics, Position and Power, 5th edition, 1998.
Harvey C. Mansfield, “Federal Executive Reorganization: Thirty Years of Experience” Public
Administration Review, July-August, 1969
Beryl A Radin and Joshua M Chanin, Federal Government Reorganization: A Policy and
Management Perspective, Salisbury, Mass, Jones and Bartlett, 2009
ASSIGNMENT: One student will lead discussion of the impacts of reorganization based on
Harold Seidman book and selected readings from Radin/Chanin book
ASSIGNMENT: First two student case study presentations
Week 13 – Reform movements
Paul Light, The Tides of Reform (blackboard)
James Wilson, Chapter 9
Don Kettl, “Reforming the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government” (blackboard)
Durant, Chapter 12, Donald Moynihan, “The Promises and Paradoxes of Performance-based
Bureaucracy”
Suggested reading:
Beryl Radin, Challenging the Performance Movement, Georgetown University Press, 2006
Lawrence Lynn, “Has Governance Eclipsed Government” (blackboard)
Aaron Wildavsky, “A Budget for all Seasons: Why the Traditional Budget Lasts”, Public
Administration Review, (Nov/Dec, 1978), 501-9
Christopher Pollitt and Geert Bouckaert, Public Management Reform: A Comparative
Analysis, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2004
ASSIGNMENT: The class will team up in point counterpoint sessions on performance
management. The team favoring performance will use readings including Pollit and
Bouckaert. The team opposed to performance will use the Radin book.
ASSIGNMENT: Second two student case study presentations
Week 14 – Conclusion: Bureaucracy and the public interest
James Wilson, Chapter 20
Glendon Schubert, “The Public Interest in Administrative Decisionmaking” American Political
Science Review (June 1957), Vol 51.
J. Rowland Pennock, “the One and the Many: A Note on the Concept of the Public Interest”
(handout)
Suggested Readings:
Barry Bozeman, Public Values and the Public Interest, Georgetown University Press, 2007,
Norton Long, “Public Policy and Administration: The Goals of Rationality and Responsibility”,
Public Administration Review (1954), Vol 14,
ASSIGNMENT: Remaining student case study presentations
FINAL EXAM HANDED OUT