Who lobbies the lobbyists? State Medicaid bureaucrats’ engagement in the legislative process

Bradley, Kate; Haselswerdt, Jake

doi:10.1017/s0143814x16000246

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Bureaucrats’ ability to stop or postpone legislation that they view as harmful to their aims or difficult to implement is another important component of power. A more circuitous pathway between bureaucrats and legislators involves using interest groups as intermediaries (as detailed in Bradley (2014); Bradley and Haselswerdt (2018)). Future work could find and process new data on the bills and lobbying that bureaucrats do to prevent bills from being passed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bureaucrats as Lawmakers

Kroeger¹

2020

Legislative Studies Qtrly

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Bureaucratic influence in policymaking is often described as occurring subsequent to the legislative process and scholars argue that the legislative branch strategically constrains the bureaucracy via statutory language. A reality which complicates these claims and separation of powers research is that bureaucrats frequently play a role in creating the laws which ultimately govern their behavior. This project examines the extent to which bureaucrats attempt to and succeed in securing their preferred statutory language. I track bills introduced at bureaucrats’ request across 11 state legislatures. Legislatures extensively draw from agencies’ expertise in forming the agenda and crafting session law, with 9% of introduced bills and 21% of law coming from bureaucrats. A difference‐in‐differences analysis shows that committee chairs and legislators in the majority introduce more administration‐initiated bills. Bureaucrats’ extensive involvement in crafting statutory law and increased use in less professional legislatures imply that extant statutory control studies miss an important interaction.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bureaucrats as Lawmakers

Kroeger¹

2020

Legislative Studies Qtrly

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“…Likewise, policy agreement should also affect bureaucrats’ decisions about using their network ties to attempt to influence the legislature. Recent evidence shows that state bureaucrats tap into interest groups’ lobbying power with some regularity, and that bureaucrat–interest group agreement helps to explain requests for lobbying (Bradley & Haselswerdt, 2018). There are several good reasons to expect bureaucrats to approach allied interest groups for help with legislators—for example, it is more efficient to mobilize an ally than to persuade a nonally to change his or her mind (Hall & Deardorff, 2006).…”

Section: Bureaucrats and Interest Groups Working Togethermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nicholson-Crotty, 2009). In part, bureaucrats achieve influence by working with the interest groups in their policy networks (Aberbach et al, 1981; Abney & Lauth, 1986; Bradley & Haselswerdt, 2018; Carpenter, 2000, 2001). Network alliances with interest groups can be an important source of influence over legislative outcomes because bureaucrats are constrained in their ability to lobby directly.…”

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confidence: 99%

“… 15. The Government Performance Project (GPP) measures performance across agencies in each state and is not specific to health departments or Medicaid, although other recent work finds that it does correlate with other measures of Medicaid agency effectiveness (Bradley & Haselswerdt, 2018). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One prominent theory of policy change holds that individual policy areas are governed by loose, cloud-like networks (Heclo, 1978), in which bureaucrats are important players, not only in their capacity as administrators but also in the formulation of policy (S. Nicholson-Crotty, 2009). In part, bureaucrats achieve influence by working with the interest groups in their policy networks (Aberbach et al, 1981;Abney & Lauth, 1986;Bradley & Haselswerdt, 2018;Carpenter, 2000Carpenter, , 2001. Network alliances with interest groups can be an important source of influence over legislative outcomes because bureaucrats are constrained in their ability to lobby directly.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Are All Network Ties Created Equal? Distinguishing Between Strength and Use of Ties in Bureaucrat–Lobbyist Alliances

Haselswerdt

Bradley

2020

Administration & Society

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Scholars of policy networks consistently find that agreement on policy explains network ties, but inconsistent results on the importance of strategic considerations, such as the influence of potential partners. We use original data on communications between bureaucrats and lobbyists on pending Medicaid legislation to distinguish network ties (contacts) from bureaucrats’ use of those ties to attempt to advance their policy goals (requests for lobbying help). We find that policy agreement explains both the strength of network ties and bureaucrats’ requests for advocacy from their partners, but that interest group influence and unified partisan control of government explain only the latter.

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Bureaucrats, interest groups and policymaking: a comprehensive overview from the turn of the century

Macedo de Medeiros Albrecht

2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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Government officers are key players in designing and implementing public policies. Not surprisingly, a growing body of research approaches their connections with other stakeholders, such as ministers, elected officials, and political parties. Fewer studies, however, address the relationship between bureaucrats and interest organisations. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of recent publications regarding interest groups and the public bureaucracy. The paper introduces the findings of an extensive literature review with bibliometric techniques and qualitative content analysis. To map previous studies, I analysed 1978 abstracts with VOSviewer and R. The final collection included 415 papers which were read and coded through NVivo. Based on this review, this paper exposes data on authors, countries, and research methods related to texts published between 2000 and 2022. In addition, it critically examines concepts and empirical evidence regarding the interactions between interest groups and government officers. This study advances the research agenda on interest groups by identifying gaps in previous studies and proposing new perspectives to analyse the political connections of the public bureaucracy. The findings indicate that most publications focus on interest group strategies, revolving doors, and venue choice. Fewer texts assess influence over political appointments and personal networks. Therefore, further research is required to address the causal mechanisms between access to the bureaucracy and interest group influence over public policies. Moreover, the bibliometric analysis revealed that research networks have been located in the United States and Europe and publications tend to focus on the ‘global North’. In this sense, more regional diversity might be beneficial for the development of theoretical and methodological structures able to ‘travel’ to other cases.

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Who lobbies the lobbyists? State Medicaid bureaucrats’ engagement in the legislative process

Cited by 4 publications

References 34 publications

Bureaucrats as Lawmakers

Bureaucrats as Lawmakers

Are All Network Ties Created Equal? Distinguishing Between Strength and Use of Ties in Bureaucrat–Lobbyist Alliances

Bureaucrats, interest groups and policymaking: a comprehensive overview from the turn of the century

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