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Political leadership and bureaucratic autonomy. Effects of agencification

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  • Morten Egeberg
  • Jarle Trondal

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that agencification tends to undermine political control within a government portfolio. However, doubts have been raised as regards the robustness of these findings. In this paper we document that agency officials pay significantly less attention to signals from executive politicians than their counterparts within ministerial (cabinet-level) departments. This finding holds when we control for variation in tasks, the political salience of issue areas and officials’ rank. Simultaneously we observe that the three control variables all have an independent effect on officials’ attentiveness to a steer from above. In addition we find that the more organisational capacity available within the respective ministerial departments, the more agency personnel tend to assign weight to signals from the political leadership. We apply large-N questionnaire data at three points in time; spanning two decades and shifting administrative doctrines. A later version of this article was published in Governance, Vol. 22, No. 4, October 2009, pp. 673-688

Suggested Citation

  • Morten Egeberg & Jarle Trondal, 2009. "Political leadership and bureaucratic autonomy. Effects of agencification," ARENA Working Papers 9, ARENA.
    • Handle: RePEc:erp:arenax:p0297
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Kristin Reichborn-Kjennerud, 2015. "Resistance to Control—Norwegian Ministries’ and Agencies’ Reactions to Performance Audit," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 17-32, March.
    2. Chris Hanretty & Christel Koop, 2013. "Shall the law set them free? The formal and actual independence of regulatory agencies," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(2), pages 195-214, June.
    3. Michael Buess, 2015. "Accountable and Under Control? Explaining Governments' Selection of Management Board Representatives," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 493-508, May.
    4. Gyldas A. Ofoulhast‐Othamot, 2022. "The perils of a bureaucratic fad in Africa: Examining the effects of the agencification of the state apparatus in Gabon," Public Administration & Development, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(3), pages 179-189, August.
    5. Åse Gornitzka & Cathrine Holst, 2015. "The Expert-Executive Nexus in the EU: An Introduction," Politics and Governance, Cogitatio Press, vol. 3(1), pages 1-12.
    6. Jarle Trondal & Thomas Tieku & Stefan Gänzle, 2023. "The organisational dimension of executive authority in the Global South: Insights from the AU and ECOWAS commissions," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(1), pages 31-47, February.
    7. Bart Voorn & Marieke van Genugten & Sandra Van Thiel, 2020. "Performance of municipally owned corporations: Determinants and mechanisms," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 91(2), pages 191-212, June.
    8. Jarle Trondal & Stefan Gänzle & Benjamin Leruth, 2022. "Differentiation in the European Union in Post‐Brexit and ‐Pandemic Times: Macro‐Level Developments with Meso‐Level Consequences," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(S1), pages 26-37, September.
    9. Calzada, Joan & Diaz-Serrano, Luis, 2023. "Conflicting national policies: The creation of the euro and the rebalancing of telecommunications prices," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(1).
    10. Sylvia Veit & Thurid Hustedt & Tobias Bach, 2017. "Dynamics of change in internal policy advisory systems: the hybridization of advisory capacities in Germany," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 50(1), pages 85-103, March.
    11. Francesca Artioli, 2016. "When administrative reforms produce territorial differentiation. How market-oriented policies transform military brownfield reconversion in France (1989–2012)," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 34(8), pages 1759-1775, December.
    12. Nina Boeger & Joseph Corkin, 2017. "Institutional Path-Dependencies in Europe's Networked Modes of Governance," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 974-992, September.
    13. Paolo Esposito & Valerio Brescia & Chiara Fantauzzi & Rocco Frondizi, 2021. "Understanding Social Impact and Value Creation in Hybrid Organizations: The Case of Italian Civil Service," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-26, April.

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