Autonomous agencies and perceptions of stakeholder influence in parliamentary democracies

Abstract

This article examines the following question: How do independent agencies within parliamentary democracies perceive the influence of various political principals and societal stakeholders in their environment on their strategic and policy decisions? This question is examined through an extension of the theory and methodology of Waterman, Rouse, and Wright for 213 Dutch agencies. We find that agencies perceive their parent minister as their primary principals. This implies that the relationship between politicians and agencies in the Netherlands fit the model of dyadic principal agency relationship. By contrast, we find no support for the existence of horizontal network type of relationships between agencies and governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders in their environment. We also find, remarkably, that agency officials in the Netherlands apply the same categories for distinguishing between their principals as the US agency officials in the study of Waterman, Rouse, and Wright. © The Author 2011.