Politics of Rulemaking in the Administration State

Session Submission Type: In-Person Created Panel

Session Description

What affects rulemaking in the administrative state? Lee and You examine the role of interest groups in policymaking. Testing their theory using data on lobbying activities and the career trajectories of bureaucrats in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative from 1997-2017, Lee and You find that lobbying groups are less likely to engage in the agency’s policymaking process if individuals connected to them become bureaucrats of that agency, suggesting that a decrease in interest groups’ political activities might not imply that their influence on policymaking is diminished. Shafie examines the deregulation of environmental policies during the Trump administration. Analyzing a dataset of proposed and final rules from various agencies, Shafie assesses the resilience of environmental policies during the Trump presidency and potential changes under the new Biden administration. Silfa focuses on legislative influence in rulemaking. Using data from the Environmental Protection Agency, Silfa shows that House members are more likely to comment on a proposed rule shortly after receiving donations from a corporate political action committee that has an interest in the same rule, with the effect strongest for House members in electorally vulnerable districts. Rashin and Richter examines the rise of citizen participation in rulemaking. Leveraging a dataset of all public comments of proposed rules at the Securities and Exchange Commission since 1994, Rashin and Richter analyze the extent to which the increased volume of comments received is duplicative, which proposed rules receive them, and what the implications of such comments are on final regulations.

Sub Unit

• Division 23: Presidents and Executive Politics

Individual Presentations

• Bureaucratic Revolving Doors and Interest Group Participation in Policymaking - Kyuwon Lee, New York University; Hye Young You, New York University

• “Deconstructing” the Green State: The Administrative Presidency of Donald Trump - David M. Shafie, Chapman University

• Legislator Influence in Rulemaking: The Impact of Campaign Contributions - Maria Silfa

• Duplicative or Duplicitous? The Rise of Citizen Participation in Rulemaking - Steven Rashin, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas, Austin; Brian Kelleher Richter, University of Texas at Austin - McCombs School of Business

Chair

• Evan Haglund US Coast Guard Academy

Discussants

• Brian Daniel Libgober University of California, San Diego

• Evan Haglund US Coast Guard Academy