Managing Uncertainty through Bureaucratic Design: Administrative Procedures and State Air Pollution Control Agencies

Abstract

While several positive theories offer competing explanations of how politicians use administrative procedures to influence bureaucratic performance, few have been submitted to empirical scrutiny. This article examines how state politicians use administrative procedures to design air pollution control agencies. Drawing on a variety of data, the analyses show that politicians use different procedures to manage different types of uncertainty, thus mitigating transaction costs between the politicians and agencies. Procedures can reduce politicians' uncertainty about how agencies perform their policy activities, how future political coalitions might influence the agencies' performance, and how to solve complex policy problems. By using data from a survey of state clean air administrators, the article demonstrates both the conditions under which politicians design agencies to be politically responsive and the conditions under which politicians grant agencies more policy autonomy.