Presidential Influence versus Bureaucratic Discretion: President-Agency Relations in Civil Rights Policy

Abstract

This research examines presidents' administrative actions in civil rights policy and agency responses to those actions. It considers the frequent debate between presidential influence over the bureaucracy versus the more commonly posited model of bureaucratic discretion. Results suggest that assertive presidents like Johnson and Reagan can influence agency actions in civil rights policy; they obtain closer correspondence with their preferred policies than do less assertive presidents. Overall, however, only limited correspondence between presidential and agency actions appears because agencies have considerable discretion in their implementing actions. Thus neither presidential influence nor bureaucratic discretion fully explains the relationship.