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Bureaucracy and Democracy
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Bureaucracy and Democracy
Accountability and Performance

Fourth Edition


July 2017 | 360 pages | CQ Press

Given the influence of public bureaucracies in policymaking and implementation, Steven J. Balla and William T. Gormley assess their performance using four key perspectives—bounded rationality, principal-agent theory, interest group mobilization, and network theory—to help students develop an analytic framework for evaluating bureaucratic accountability. The new Fourth Edition provides a thorough review of bureaucracy during the Obama and Trump administrations, as well as new attention to state and local level examples and the role of bureaucratic values.


 
Chapter 1: Bureaucracies as Policymaking Organizations
The Contours of Public Bureaucracy

 
Accountability and Performance in Public Bureaucracies

 
Accountability and Its Many Faces

 
The Push for Performance

 
Accountability and Performance: Theories and Applications

 
 
Chapter 2: Bureaucratic Reasoning
Bounded Rationality

 
Simplified Problem Solving

 
Evidence-Based Research

 
Implications for Policy Analysis

 
Motivation

 
Consequences of Bounded Rationality

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 3: The Bureaucracy’s Bosses
Delegation, Adverse Selection, and Moral Hazard

 
Why Bureaucracy?

 
Managing Delegation

 
Principal-Agent Theory and the Bureaucracy’s Clients

 
Principals and Principles

 
 
Chapter 4: The Bureaucracy’s Clients
The Benefits, Costs, and Politics of Public Policy

 
The Rise and Fall of Iron Triangles

 
The Venues of Client Participation

 
Client Influence on Bureaucratic Policymaking

 
Clients and the Institutions of Government

 
Client Participation: Three Lessons and Beyond

 
 
Chapter 5: Bureaucratic Networks
Networks versus Hierarchies

 
Network Theory

 
The Tools Approach

 
Types of Bureaucratic Networks

 
Network Effectiveness

 
The Effectiveness of Policy Tools

 
Networks and Public Bureaucracy

 
 
Chapter 6: The Politics of Disaster Management
The Gulf of Mexico: Two Crises with Precedent

 
September 11, 2001: A Crisis without Precedent

 
Avian Influenza: A Crisis in the Making?

 
Evaluating Bureaucracy in Light of the Theories

 
 
Chapter 7: Why Are Some Bureaucracies Better Than Others?
Rating the Performance of Agencies

 
Explaining Variations in Performance

 
Alternative Ways of Gauging Agency Performance

 
Bureaucracy in the Twenty-First Century

 

This is the best single overview of bureaucracy and how it fits in our democratic system available. The book elegantly weaves a nuanced understanding of bureaucracy itself with the functioning of agencies in a political system. Readers will learn a tremendous amount. Balla and Gormley know their stuff and they share it in an engaging and accessible fashion. The book includes clear frameworks and contemporary examples to help readers make sense of this complex but important topic.

David E. Lewis
Vanderbilt University

Employing a series of timely and engaging illustrations, Balla and Gormley walk readers through the key theoretical approaches to modern bureaucratic governance. The result is a sophisticated but accessible treatment of the complexities of bureaucratic performance and accountability. This is a go-to resource for those interested in understanding what is at stake when it comes to the administrative state.

Rachel Augustine Potter
University of Virginia

Bureaucracy and Democracy delivers on the longstanding promise that professors make to students each year: that theories of bureaucracy and democracies matter in very practical and applicable ways, and that to understand bureaucracy you need to understand democracy (and vice versa).  Students who read this book will have that ‘a-ha’ moment about all these connections. That, to me, is worth the price of the book.”

Lonce Bailey
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania

“Bureaucracy can be a dry topic to teach and study; Balla and Gormley make it accessible and fun. The book provides a wonderful overview of the theories behind bureaucratic decision-making, as well as the political and other challenges faced by administrative agencies.”

Lydia Tiede
University of Houston

This book looks good for senior-level students who study bureaucracy in depth.

Ms Eunsil Yoo
School Of Public Affairs, Pennsylvania State University
November 24, 2020

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 3

Chapter 6


For instructors

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