Policies Without Politicians

En savoir plus sur le livre

Have bureaucrats taken over the decision-making role of politicians? This book assesses their influence in policy-making by analyzing how they create decrees—laws that often bypass full legislative scrutiny, referred to as "secondary legislation" under various names (e.g., decrets, arretes, administrative regulations). These decrees are significant for understanding bureaucratic power, as they represent a substantial portion of executive policy-making and are crafted largely out of the public eye. If bureaucrats wield considerable policy-making authority while minimizing political involvement, this influence should be particularly evident in routine decision-making. The research focuses on 52 decrees produced between 2005 and 2008 across six jurisdictions: France, the UK, Germany, Sweden, the United States, and the European Union. This comparative approach reveals how bureaucratic involvement in policy-making varies across political systems and whether such involvement is a common trait of modern bureaucracies. The book explores three key questions: When do politicians engage in the creation of these decrees? What occurs when they do? And what are the implications when they do not? Insights are drawn from primary source material and interviews with over 100 officials.