Entrepreneurs, Reputations, and Shocks: Transnational Bureaucratic Cooperation

• In Event: Frontiers of Research on Bureaucratic Politics and Management Mini-Conference: Discretion, Incentives, and Effectiveness

Abstract

Despite tensions between the United States and Mexico concerning migration and a border wall, a set of unprecedented efforts have taken place to increase U.S.-Mexico bureaucratic cooperation on border security and migration control. To explain patterns of cooperation, I put forward an explanatory theory of interstate cooperation on migration control. I theorize that the nature and institutionalization of U.S.-Mexico cooperation on border security can be explained by entrepreneurial bureaucrats acting transnationally, and their strategic leveraging of structural changes in migration patterns, bureaucratic reputations, and securitized migration events. My theory privileges mid-level bureaucrats as key actors capable of acting transnationally on their distinct preferences for interstate cooperation. I theorize that entrepreneurial bureaucrats can strategically create and leverage international bureaucratic reputations to facilitate transnational bureaucratic cooperation. Finally, I point to securitized migration events as key moments during which entrepreneurial bureaucrats can significantly expand cooperation. Empirically, I conduct interviews across administrations and national agencies in the United States and Mexico, along with analyses of congressional and executive agency records. This work has implications for the study of U.S. immigration policy making, bureaucracies, transnational governmental relations, and the rights of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees."

Author

• Angie Maritza Bautista-Chavez, Arizona State University