Backchannel policymaking: members of Congress pursuing policy goals through the bureaucracy
Ritchie, Melinda Nell
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/89265
Description
Title
Backchannel policymaking: members of Congress pursuing policy goals through the bureaucracy
Author(s)
Ritchie, Melinda Nell
Issue Date
2015-07-29
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Sulkin, Tracy
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Sulkin, Tracy
Committee Member(s)
Kuklinski, James
Gaines, Brian
Sin, Gisela
Department of Study
Political Science
Discipline
Political Science
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Congress
Bureaucracy
Abstract
This dissertation explores how individual members of Congress pursue policy goals by engaging with the bureaucracy. This behavior, which I call “backchannel policymaking”, is a new way of thinking about policymaking and representational behavior, distinct from previously studied channels of the lawmaking process like roll call votes or bill introductions. I develop and test a theory to explain why members of Congress choose to engage with the bureaucracy. I consider whether backchannel policymaking serves as an alternative path for policy influence, which members of Congress use to circumvent the legislative process. My analyses, which focus on senators’ policy contact with the bureaucracy during the 110th and the 111th Congresses and draw on original bureaucratic records from the U.S. Departments of Labor and Homeland Security, reveal that a senator’s institutional position, constraints, and behavior within the legislative process predict her engagement in backchannel policymaking. These findings illustrate how members of Congress try to influence policy outside of the formal lawmaking process.
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