Talk by Samuel Workman from University of Austin at Texas

The talk is based on a book manuscript, and Sam has provided the following information about the topic of the book/talk:
“The book relies on a communications framework to develop a theory of the influence of bureaucracy on agenda setting. The manuscript develops a theory of dual dynamics within the administrative state in the United States. Agenda setting in the administrative state is characterized by the dual dynamics of information provision and communication by the bureaucracy and simultaneous “tuning” of this information supply by Congress. Bureaucratic problem solving generates a flow of information to Congress as bureaucracies monitor the agenda for potential problems, define these problems for action at higher levels of government, and transmit information pursuant to these definitions. The information supply generated by bureaucracy both influences and informs congressional problem prioritization as efforts to shape the supply through issue shuffling, issue bundling, and manipulating bureaucratic competition in the provision of information.

By developing and extending systems and communications frameworks to the study of bureaucracy, the manuscript lays out an explanation of agenda setting in the United States as a product of a communications system characterized by feedback, the competitive provision of information in steering problem definitions, and the subsuming of classical top-down, preference-driven approaches in a more complete explanation of agenda setting in the administrative state.

The empirical foundation of the manuscript is a data set composed of the policymaking agenda of the entire federal bureaucracy over a quarter of century. The data set contains 226,710 regulations issued by all bureaucracies in the federal government since the early 1980s.”

You can read more about Sam Workman here: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/government/faculty/sw23882