Author Meets Critics: Rachel Potter's Bending the Rules

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

Are bureaucrats powerful? And, if so, how do they exercise their power? In "Bending the Rules: Procedural Politicking in the Bureaucracy" (University of Chicago Press, 2019), Rachel Augustine Potter argues that bureaucrats leverage procedures as a way to exert considerable influence on public policy. The book focuses on the notice-and-comment rulemaking process, but its argument has broad implications for understanding the separation of powers, theories of a unitary executive, and policy implementation more generally. In this “Author Meets Critics” roundtable, leading experts on political institutions, the presidency, the bureaucracy, and regulation will respond to the book, discussing both limitations and extensions of the argument.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 23: Presidents and Executive Politics

Chair

• Alan E. Wiseman Vanderbilt University

Presenters

• Rachel Augustine Potter University of Virginia

• Cary Coglianese University of Pennsylvania

• Sean Gailmard University of California, Berkeley

• William G. Howell University of Chicago

• Eric M. Patashnik Brown University