Presidential Management of the Bureaucracy: The Reform of Motor Carrier Regulation at the ICC
- Creators
- Rothenberg, Lawrence S.
Abstract
Deregulation of the motor freight industry poses a serious challenge to social scientists' understanding of how regulatory systems operate. In this research, it is argued that the dismantling of the regulatory regime at the Interstate Commerce Commission was a product of presidential management of the bureaucracy through guidance of the status quo. Reform was a function of neither group influence nor a transition from one structure-induced equilibrium to another. None of the variety of alternative explanations fare any better. It was the chief executive's ability to capitalize on presidential resources through strategic utilization of political rules and processes that was fundamental. In a world characterized by imperfect information and bounded rationality, presidents have opportunities for manipulating the status quo and circumventing the policy preference of regulatees and legislators. Motor carrier reform is simply an extreme example of a general phenomenon. Besides simply highlighting the need to incorporate additional actors into political economy models of bureaucratic behavior, this research shows that careful attention must be paid to detailing how these rules and processes affect bureaucratic performance.
Additional Information
A large number of people have made helpful suggestions and raised challenging questions: Jonathon Bendor, Bruce Cain, Thomas Gilligan, Thomas Hammond, Mark Hanson, Rod Kiewiet, Terry Moe, and Barbara Rothenberg. This research is part of a larger effort (Rothenberg 1987). The evidence and conclusions are based not only on the publications cited, but also on anonymous interviews conducted between 1984 and 1986 while the author was at the Brookings Institution.Attached Files
Submitted - sswp656.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 81253
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170907-155902844
- Created
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2017-09-08Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2019-10-03Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Social Science Working Papers
- Series Name
- Social Science Working Paper
- Series Volume or Issue Number
- 656