1932

Abstract

Rulemaking is a critical part of American government and governance. This article reviews the political underpinnings of modern rulemaking. Specifically, it highlights the process and impact of agency regulations, as well as the key tools used by the legislature, elected executive, and courts to oversee the rulemaking process. The article also reviews who participates in the rulemaking process, as well as who influences regulatory content. Finally, new directions in regulatory policymaking are explored, including data collection advancements, as well as the potential role for guidance documents as replacements for more traditionally issued notice and comment regulations.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050817-092302
2019-05-11
2024-12-02
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/polisci/22/1/annurev-polisci-050817-092302.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050817-092302&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Acs A, Cameron CM 2013. Does White House regulatory review produce a chilling effect and “OIRA avoidance” in the agencies?. Presidential Stud. Q. 43:443–67
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Al-Ubaydli O, McLaughlin PA 2017. RegData: a numerical database on industry-specific regulations for all United States industries and federal regulations, 1997–2012. Regul. Governance 11:109–23
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Bawn K 1995. Political control versus expertise: congressional choices about administrative procedures. Am. Political Sci. Rev. 89:62–73
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Berry CR, Gersen JE 2017. Agency design and political control. Yale Law J 126:908–1241
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bertelli AM, Grose CR 2011. The lengthening shadow of another institution? Ideal point estimates for the executive branch and Congress. Am. J. Political Sci. 55:767–81
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bignami FE 1999. The democratic deficit in the European Community rulemaking: a call for notice and comment in comitology. Harvard Int. Law J. 40:451–516
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Boushey GT, McGrath RJ 2017. Experts, amateurs, and bureaucratic influence in the American states. J. Public Adm. Theory 27:85–103
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Bressman LS, Vandenbergh MP 2006. Inside the administrative state: a critical look at the practice of presidential control. Mich. Law Rev. 105:47–99
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Callander S, Krehbiel K 2014. Gridlock and delegation in a changing world. Am. J. Political Sci. 58:819–34
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Carpenter DP 2002. Groups, the media, agency waiting costs, and FDA drug approval. Am. J. Political Sci. 46:490–505
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Carpenter DP 2010. Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Carpenter DP, Chattopadhyay J, Moffitt S, Nall C 2012. The complications of controlling agency time discretion: FDA review deadlines and postmarket drug safety. Am. J. Political Sci. 56:98–114
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Carpenter DP, Krause GA 2012. Reputation and public administration. Public Adm. Rev. 72:26–32
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Carpenter DP, Moss D 2014. Preventing Capture: Special Interest Influence in Regulation, and How to Prevent It Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Chubb JE 1983. Interest Groups and the Bureaucracy: The Politics of Energy Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Clinton JD, Bertelli AM, Grose CR, Lewis DE, Nixon DC 2012. Separated powers in the United States: the ideology of agencies, presidents, and Congress. Am. J. Political Sci. 56:341–54
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Clinton JD, Lewis DE 2008. Expert opinion, agency characteristics, and agency preferences. Political Anal 16:3–20
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Cooper J, West W 1988. Presidential power and Republican government: the theory and practice of OMB review. J. Politics 50:864–95
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Copeland CW 2009. Federal Rulemaking: The Role of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Washington, DC: Congr. Res. Serv.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Crews CW Jr. 2016a. Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State Washington, DC: Compet. Enterp. Inst https://cei.org/sites/default/files/Wayne%20Crews%20-%20Ten%20Thousand%20Commandments%202016%20-%20May%204%202016.pdf . Accessed May 15, 2017
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Crews CW Jr. 2016b. Obama's legacy: 2016 ends with a record-shattering regulatory rulebook. Forbes Dec. 30. https://www.forbes.com/sites/waynecrews/2016/12/30/obamas-legacy-2016-ends-with-a-record-shattering-regulatory-rulebook/#bb428151126b
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Croley SP 1998. Theories of regulation: incorporating the administrative process. Columbia Law Rev 98:1–168
    [Google Scholar]
  23. DeMuth CC, Ginsburg DH 1986. White House review of agency rulemaking. Harvard Law Rev 99:1075–88
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Eavey CL, Miller GJ 1984. Bureaucratic agenda control: imposition or bargaining. Am. Political Sci. Rev. 78:719–33
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Epstein D, Farina C, Heidt J 2014. The value of words: narrative as evidence in policy making. Evidence Policy 10:243–58
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Epstein D, O'Halloran S 1999. Delegating Powers: A Transaction Cost Approach to Policy Making under Separate Powers Boston, MA: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Ferejohn J, Shipan C 1990. Congressional influence on bureaucracy. J. Law Econ. Organ. 6:1–20
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Freeman J, Spence DB 2014. Old statutes, new problems. Univ. Penn. Law Rev. 163:1–94
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Funk WF 2001. A primer on nonlegislative rules. Adm. Law Rev. 53:1321–52
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Funk WF, Shapiro SA, Weaver RL 1997. Administrative Procedure and Practice: Problems and Cases St. Paul, MN: West Publ.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Furlong SR 1998. Political influence on the bureaucracy: the bureaucracy speaks. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 8:39–65
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Furlong SR, Kerwin CM 2005. Interest group participation in rule making: a decade of change. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 15:353–70
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Gailmard S, Patty JW 2013. Learning while Governing Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Golden MM 1998. Interest groups in the rule-making process: Who participates? Whose voices get heard. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 8:245–70
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Golden MM 2000. What Motivates Bureaucrats? Politics and Administration during the Reagan Years New York: Columbia Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  36. GW Regul. Stud. Cent. 2018. CRA tracker. The Congressional Review Act. Updated June 1, 2018; accessed Sept. 24, 2018. https://regulatorystudies.columbian.gwu.edu/congressional-review-act
  37. Haeder S, Yackee SW 2015. Influence and the administrative process: lobbying the U.S. President's Office of Management and Budget. Am. Political Sci. Rev. 109:507–22
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Haeder S, Yackee SW 2018. Presidentially directed policy change: the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs as partisan or moderator?. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 28:4475–-88
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Hamilton JT 1996. Going by the (informal) book: the EPA's use of informal rules in enforcing hazardous waste laws. Adv. Stud. Entrepreneurship Innov. Growth 7:109–55
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Hammond TH, Knott JH 1996. Who controls the bureaucracy? Presidential power, congressional dominance, legal constraints, and bureaucratic autonomy in a model of multi-institutional policymaking. J. Law Econ. Organ. 12:119–66
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Harter P 1982. Regulatory negotiations: a cure for the malaise. Georgetown Law J 71:1–118
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Hill LB 1991. Who governs the American administrative state? A bureaucratic-centered image of governance. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 3:261–94
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Hrebenar RJ 1997. Interest Group Politics in America Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 3rd ed..
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Huber JD, Shipan CR 2002. Deliberate Discretion: The Institutional Foundations of Bureaucratic Autonomy New York: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Jasanoff S 1987. Contested boundaries in policy-relevant science. Soc. Stud. Sci. 17:195–230
    [Google Scholar]
  46. Jensen CB, McGrath RJ 2011. Making rules about rulemaking: a comparison of presidential and parliamentary systems. Political Res. Q. 64:656–67
    [Google Scholar]
  47. Jewell C, Bero L 2007. Public participation and claimsmaking: evidence utilization and divergent policy frames in California's ergonomics rulemaking. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 17:625–50
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Kagan E 2001. Presidential administration. Harvard Law Rev 114:2245–385
    [Google Scholar]
  49. Kaufman C 2016. Republican Trump says 70 percent of federal regulations “can go. .” Reuters Oct. 6
    [Google Scholar]
  50. Kerwin CM, Furlong SR 1992. Time and rulemaking: an empirical test of theory. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 2:113–38
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Kerwin CM, Furlong SR 2011. Rulemaking: How Government Agencies Write Law and Make Policy Washington, DC: CQ Press, 4th ed..
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Lavertu S, Yackee SW 2014. Regulatory delay and rulemaking deadlines. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 24:209–34
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Lewis DE 2008. The Politics of Presidential Appointments: Political Control and Bureaucratic Performance Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Lubbers JS 2006. A Guide to Federal Agency Rulemaking Washington, DC: ABA Press
    [Google Scholar]
  55. MacDonald J 2010. Limitation riders and congressional influence over bureaucratic policy decisions. Am. Political Sci. Rev. 104:766–82
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Magat WA, Krupnick AJ, Harrington W 1986. Rules in the Making: A Statistical Analysis of Regulatory Agency Behavior Washington, DC: Resour. Future
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Mashaw JL 1994. Improving the environment of agency rule-making: an essay on management, games, and accountability. Law Contemp. Probl. 57:185–257
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Mashaw JL 1997. Greed, Chaos, and Governance: Using Public Choice to Improve Public Law New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  59. McCubbins MD 1999. Abdication or delegation? Congress, the bureaucracy, and the delegation dilemma. Regulation 22:2–24
    [Google Scholar]
  60. McCubbins MD, Noll RG, Weingast BR 1987. Administrative procedures as instruments of political control. J. Law Econ. Organ. 3:243–77
    [Google Scholar]
  61. McCubbins MD, Noll RG, Weingast BR 1989. Structure and process as solutions to the politicians principal-agency problem. Va. Law Rev. 74:431–82
    [Google Scholar]
  62. McGarity TO 1992. Some thoughts on “deossifying” the rulemaking process. Duke Law J 41:1384–462
    [Google Scholar]
  63. McKay A, Yackee SW 2007. Interest group competition on federal agency rules. Am. Politics Res. 35:336–57
    [Google Scholar]
  64. McLaughlin P, Nelson J, Pagels J, Sherouse O 2017. The Impossibility of Comprehending, or Even Reading, All Federal Regulations Rep. Mercatus Cent., George Mason Univ. Oct. 23. https://www.mercatus.org/print/266634, accessed Dec. 15, 2017
    [Google Scholar]
  65. Meazell EH 2011. Super deference, the science obsession, and judicial review as translation of agency science. Mich. Law Rev. 109:733–84
    [Google Scholar]
  66. Mendleson N 2007. Regulatory beneficiaries and informal agency policymaking. Cornell Law Rev 92:397–452
    [Google Scholar]
  67. Miller JC III. 2011. The early days of Reagan regulatory relief and suggestions for OIRA's future. Adm. Law Rev. 63:93–101
    [Google Scholar]
  68. Moffitt SL 2010. Promoting agency reputation through public advice: advisory committee use in the FDA. J. Politics 72:880–93
    [Google Scholar]
  69. Naughton K, Schmid C, Yackee SW, Zhan X 2009. Understanding commenter influence during agency rule development. J. Policy Anal. Manag. 28:258–77
    [Google Scholar]
  70. Newport F 2014. Few Americans want more government regulation of business. Gallup News Sept. 15. http://news.gallup.com/poll/176015/few-americans-gov-regulation-business.aspx, accessed Dec. 15, 2017
    [Google Scholar]
  71. Nelson D, Yackee SW 2012. Lobbying coalitions and government policy change. J. Politics 74:339–53
    [Google Scholar]
  72. New Hampshire Public Radio. 2017. Civics 101: a podcast http://www.nhpr.org/topic/civics-101-podcast#stream/0, accessed Dec. 15, 2017
    [Google Scholar]
  73. Nixon DC 2004. Separation of powers and appointee ideology. J. Law Econ. Organ. 20:438–57
    [Google Scholar]
  74. Nixon DC, Howard RM, DeWhitt JR 2002. With friends like these: rule-making comment submissions to the Securities and Exchange Commission. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 12:59–76
    [Google Scholar]
  75. Notes: OIRA avoidance. 2011. Harvard Law Rev 124994–1015
    [Google Scholar]
  76. Nou J 2013. Agency self-insulation under presidential review. Harvard Law Rev 126:1755–837
    [Google Scholar]
  77. Olson M Jr. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  78. Pagliari S, Young K 2016. The interest group ecology of financial regulation: interest group plurality in the design of financial regulatory policies. Socio-Econ. Rev. 14:309–37
    [Google Scholar]
  79. Palus C, Yackee SW 2016. Clerks or kings? Partisan alignment and delegation to the U.S. bureaucracy. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 26:693–708
    [Google Scholar]
  80. Pasachoff E 2016. The president's budget as a source of agency policy control. Yale Law J 125:2182–290
    [Google Scholar]
  81. Pew Research Center. 2012. Mixed views of regulation, support for Keystone Pipeline Rep. Pew Res. Cent. People Press Washington, DC: Feb. 23. http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/legacy-pdf/2-23-12%20Regulation%20release.pdf, accessed Dec. 15, 2017
    [Google Scholar]
  82. Pierce RJ Jr. 1985. The role of constitutional and political theory in administrative law. Texas Law Rev 64:469–506
    [Google Scholar]
  83. Potoski M 2002. Designing bureaucratic performance: administrative procedures and agency policy choice. State Politics Policy Q 2:1–23
    [Google Scholar]
  84. Potter RA 2017. Slow-rolling, fast-tracking, and the pace of bureaucratic decisions in rulemaking. J. Politics 79:841–55
    [Google Scholar]
  85. Radin B 2015. Science and policy analysis in the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Adm. Soc. 2015:1–25
    [Google Scholar]
  86. Resh WG 2015. Rethinking the Administrative Presidency: Trust, Intellectual Capital, and Appointee-Careerist Relations in the George W. Bush Administration Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  87. Richmond T 2017. Conservative firm challenges DPI's authority again. U.S. News & World Rep. Nov. 20. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/wisconsin/articles/2017-11-20/conservative-group-challenges-dpis-rule-making-authority
    [Google Scholar]
  88. Rose-Ackerman S 2018. Citizen and technocrats: an essay on trust, public participation, and government legitimacy. Comparative Administrative Law S Rose-Ackerman, PL Lindseth, B Emerson 251–67 Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2nd ed..
    [Google Scholar]
  89. Rosenbloom DH 2011. Federalist No. 10: How do factions affect the president as administrator-in-chief?. Public Adm. Rev. 71:522–28
    [Google Scholar]
  90. Rosenbloom DH 2014. Administrative Law for Public Managers Boulder, CO: Westview, 2nd ed..
    [Google Scholar]
  91. Rossi J 1997. Participation run amok: the costs of mass participation for deliberative agency decisionmaking. Northwest. Univ. Law Rev. 92:173–249
    [Google Scholar]
  92. Rossi J 1999. “Statutory nondelegation”: learning from Florida's recent experience in administrative procedure reform. Widener J. Public Law 8:301–46
    [Google Scholar]
  93. Rourke FE 1984. Bureaucracy, Politics, and Public Policy Boston: Little, Brown, 3rd ed..
    [Google Scholar]
  94. Seindenfeld M 1997. Demystifying deossification: rethinking recent proposals to modify judicial review of notice and comment rulemaking. Texas Law Rev 75:483–524
    [Google Scholar]
  95. Shapiro S 2005. Unequal partners: cost-benefit analysis and executive review of regulations. Environ. Law Rep. 35:10433–44
    [Google Scholar]
  96. Shapiro S 2011. OIRA inside and out. Adm. Law Rev. 63:135–47
    [Google Scholar]
  97. Shapiro S, Moran D 2016. The checkered history of regulatory reform since the APA. NYU J. Legis. Public Policy 19:141–215
    [Google Scholar]
  98. Spence DB 1999. Agency discretion and the dynamics of procedural reform. Public Adm. Rev. 59:425–40
    [Google Scholar]
  99. United States v. Grimaud, 220 U.S. 506, 517 1911.
  100. US FDA (Food Drug Adm.). 2011. Advancing Regulatory Science at FDA: A Strategic Plan (August 2011) Rep. US Food Drug Adm., US Dep. Health Hum. Serv. Washington, DC: https://www.fda.gov/downloads/ScienceResearch/SpecialTopics/RegulatoryScience/UCM268225.pdf, accessed Nov. 2012
    [Google Scholar]
  101. Wagner WE 1995. The science charade in toxic risk regulation. Columbia Law Rev 95:1613–723
    [Google Scholar]
  102. Wagner WE 2015. A place for agency expertise: reconciling agency expertise with presidential power. Columbia Law Rev 115:2019–69
    [Google Scholar]
  103. Walker JL 1991. Mobilizing Interest Groups in America: Patrons, Professions, and Social Movements Ann Arbor: Univ. Mich. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  104. Warren KF 2010. Administrative Law in the Political System Boulder, CO: Westview, 5th ed..
    [Google Scholar]
  105. Weingast BR 1984. The congressional-bureaucratic system: a principal-agent perspective (with applications to the SEC). Public Choice 44:147–91
    [Google Scholar]
  106. West WF 1995. Controlling the Bureaucracy: Institutional Constraints in Theory and Practice New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.
    [Google Scholar]
  107. West WF 2004. Formal procedures, informal procedures, accountability, and responsiveness in bureaucratic policymaking: an institutional policy analysis. Public Adm. Rev. 64:66–80
    [Google Scholar]
  108. West WF 2005. The institutionalization of regulatory review: organizational stability and responsive competence at OIRA. Presidential Stud. Q. 35:76–93
    [Google Scholar]
  109. West WF 2006. Presidential leadership and administrative coordination: examining the theory of a unified executive. Presidential Stud. Q. 36:433–56
    [Google Scholar]
  110. West WF 2009. Inside the black box: the development of proposed rules and the limits of procedural controls. Adm. Soc. 41:576–96
    [Google Scholar]
  111. West WF, Raso C 2012. Who shapes the rulemaking agenda? Implications for bureaucratic responsiveness and bureaucratic control. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 23:495–515
    [Google Scholar]
  112. Wilson JQ 1989. Bureaucracy: What Government Agencies Do and Why They Do It New York: Basic Books
    [Google Scholar]
  113. Wiseman AE 2009. Delegation and positive-sum bureaucracies. J. Politics 71:998–1014
    [Google Scholar]
  114. Yackee JW, Yackee SW 2006. A bias toward business? Assessing interest group influence on the bureaucracy. J. Politics 68:128–39
    [Google Scholar]
  115. Yackee JW, Yackee SW 2009. Is the Bush bureaucracy any different? A macro-empirical examination of notice and comment rulemaking under “43.”. President George W. Bush's Influence Over Bureaucracy and Policy: Extraordinary Times, Extraordinary Powers C Provost, P Teske 41–59 New York: Palgrave Macmillan
    [Google Scholar]
  116. Yackee JW, Yackee SW 2010. Is agency rulemaking “ossified”? Testing congressional, presidential, and judicial procedural constraints. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 20:261–82
    [Google Scholar]
  117. Yackee JW, Yackee SW 2012. An empirical examination of federal regulatory volume and speed, 1950–1990. George Wash. Law Rev. 80:1414–92
    [Google Scholar]
  118. Yackee JW, Yackee SW 2016. From legislation to regulation: an empirical examination of agency responsiveness to congressional delegations of regulatory authority. Adm. Law Rev. 68:395–445
    [Google Scholar]
  119. Yackee SW 2006a. Sweet-talking the fourth branch: assessing the influence of interest group comments on federal agency rulemaking. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 26:103–24
    [Google Scholar]
  120. Yackee SW 2006b. Assessing inter-institutional attention to and influence on government regulations. Br. J. Political Sci. 36:723–44
    [Google Scholar]
  121. Yackee SW 2012. The politics of ex parte lobbying: pre-proposal agenda building and blocking during agency rulemaking. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 22:373–93
    [Google Scholar]
  122. Yackee SW 2014. Reconsidering agency capture during regulatory policymaking. Preventing Capture: Special Interest Influence in Regulation, and How to Prevent It D Carpenter, D Moss 292–325 Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
    [Google Scholar]
  123. Yackee SW 2015a. Participant voice in the bureaucratic policymaking process. J. Public Adm. Res. Theory 25:427–49
    [Google Scholar]
  124. Yackee SW 2015b. Invisible (and visible) lobbying: the case of state regulatory policymaking. State Politics Policy Q 15:322–44
    [Google Scholar]
  125. Yaver M 2015. When do Agencies have Agency? Bureaucratic Noncompliance and Dynamic Lawmaking in United States Statutory Law, 1973–2010 PhD Diss., Columbia Univ.
    [Google Scholar]
  126. Young KL, Marple T, Heilman J 2017. Beyond the revolving door: advocacy behavior and social distance to financial regulators. Bus. Politics 19:327–64
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-050817-092302
Loading
  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error