The congressional-bureaucratic system: a principal-agent perspective (with applications to the SEC)

• Book ID: 104631487
• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 119 KB
• Volume: 44
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0048-5829
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00124822

✦ Synopsis

This study by Barry Weingast offers a direct challenge to the prevailing view of the political economy of decision-making by regulatory agencies: the view of agencies as independent and dominant causal actors in the political arena.

Weingast's alternative represents regulatory bureaucracies as the tightly-leashed agents of Congress. Under this conception, agencies cater to the wishes of congressmen, who, in turn, are continuously seeking the electoral support of their constituents.