IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v119y2025i3p1115-1129_4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

I’m a Survivor: Political Dynamics in Bureaucratic Elites’ Partisan Identification

Author

Listed:
  • GEYS, BENNY
  • LÆGREID, PER
  • MURDOCH, ZUZANA
  • YACKEE, SUSAN WEBB

Abstract

This article challenges the common assumption that the partisan identification of bureaucratic elites is fixed over time. Building on principal-agent and organization theory, we hypothesize that bureaucratic elites may respond to political turnover by adjusting their partisan identification toward that of their (new) elected principals. We test this prediction using data from the American State Administrators Project (ASAP) over the 1964–2008 period, which allows us to study the same US agency leaders (N=951 individuals) before and after partisan shifts in their agency’s elected principals. We find significant evidence that agency leaders remaining in office following a shift in the party in power on average reorient their partisan identity in response to such turnover events. These adjustments are stronger for agency leaders directly appointed by, or in more frequent contact with, their elected principals. Our results suggest a malleability of partisanship seldom attributed to bureaucratic elites in public and academic discourse.

Suggested Citation

  • Geys, Benny & Lægreid, Per & Murdoch, Zuzana & Yackee, Susan Webb, 2025. "I’m a Survivor: Political Dynamics in Bureaucratic Elites’ Partisan Identification," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 119(3), pages 1115-1129, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:119:y:2025:i:3:p:1115-1129_4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055424000844/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:119:y:2025:i:3:p:1115-1129_4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.