Who Shapes the Rulemaking Agenda? Implications for Bureaucratic Responsiveness and Bureaucratic Control

Abstract

Although scholars have recently shown a good deal of interest in rulemaking, they have ignored a critical question about the process: what kinds of stakeholders and what institutional actors influence the rulemaking agenda? The following analysis examines an original data set of 276 rules as an initial effort to fill this void. As such, it adds to our understanding of rulemaking and of broader issues of bureaucratic responsiveness and institutional control that have long been of interest to students of government and administration. We find that agency decisions to initiate rulemaking are heavily grounded in the implementation of ongoing programs and subgovernment relationships in which economic interests tend to be predominant. Yet we also find that Congress plays a prominent role in establishing the rulemaking agenda, both in an absolute sense and in relation to the president and the courts.