Book Description

Although the growth of bureaucracy has accompanied modernization throughout the world, it has been especially unsettling for America's particular system of democracy. American government has adapted to the rise of the administrative state through three, often-conflicting, means of promoting accountability. It has sought to ensure desired qualities in agency decision making through participatory opportunities and standards of rationality that are enforced through the courts. And both the president and Congress have sought to monitor and shape agencies' actions in accordance with their own policy preferences. Each of these controls has received considerable attention, but there are few up-to-date discussions of all three. This book fills that void by providing a balanced overview of the institutional powers and resources associated with administrative due process and executive and legislative oversight at the federal level.