Ruminations on the Study of American Public Bureaucracies

Public bureaucracies warrant the attention of political scientists because bureaucrats help determine the contents and effectiveness of public policies. Although the relationships between them and the other participants in public policy making can theoretically range from bureaucratic dominance, or at least autonomy, to passive bureaucratic subservience, most political scientists tend to treat American bureaucrats as significant but not commanding partners in the interplay of checks and balances in the political process. Understanding their roles in this process, however, is beset by ambiguities about when and to what extent their behavior is controlled or controlling. These uncertainties, plus incessant changes in their roles, may mean that we cannot hope for universal, long-enduring generalizations about their place in the polity. Consequently, to fully understand our political system, we must continuously observe, analyze, and reassess the influence they exert and the influences on them.