Welcome to the first of four installments of Ballotpedia’s Learning Journey on agency dynamics!
Agency dynamics is one of five pillars key to understanding the main areas of debate about the nature and scope of the administrative state. Agency dynamics is a term used to refer to the structure and function of administrative agencies.
This Learning Journey guides you through the nuts and bolts of agency dynamics. Today, we examine agency dynamics in terms of agency structure. Tomorrow, we review agency dynamics in the context of agency functions. We wrap up our Learning Journey on Day 3 with a review of the key components.
Let’s get started!
What do we mean by “agency dynamics”?
Agency dynamics is one of five pillars key to understanding the main areas of debate about the nature and scope of the administrative state. "Agency dynamics" is a term used to refer to the structure and function of administrative agencies. While the majority of agencies are housed under the executive branch, others are established as independent federal agencies or are housed under the legislative or judicial branches. These structural variations impact agency oversight as well as agency interactions across branches. This pillar also involves understanding the nuts and bolts of agency functions, including rulemaking and adjudication proceedings.
Agency Structure
Federal and state governments comprise a host of executive and independent agencies that administer and enforce the law.
An executive agency is an agency that is housed under a government’s executive branch. At the federal level, an executive agency is an agency that is housed under the Executive Office of the President or one of the 15 Cabinet departments within the executive branch. According to the Sourcebook of United States Executive Agencies, a study produced by the Administrative Conference of the United States and Vanderbilt University, independent agencies with top officials who are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate also qualify as executive agencies (we’ll take a closer look at independent agencies tomorrow). Executive agencies may house additional sub-agencies, bureaus, divisions, and commissions.
An independent agency, on the other hand, is an executive agency that operates with some degree of autonomy from the executive branch. At the federal level, these agencies are generally headed by a commission or board made up of five to seven members with protections against at-will removal by the president. According to the Sourcebook of United States Executive Agencies, independent federal agencies generally fall into one of the two following categories:
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An independent federal agency may be defined as any agency established outside of the Executive Office of the President or the 15 executive departments. Since these agencies are not required to report to a higher official within the executive branch, such as a department secretary, they may be considered independent.
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An independent federal agency may also be defined as an agency in which the top official has cause removal protections and, therefore, is insulated from political interference by the president or other elected officials. According to the Sourcebook, cause removal protections ensure that "political appointees cannot be removed except 'for cause,' 'inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office,' or similar language."
Arguments about agency structure
Arguments about agency structure are a key area of disputation among scholars and practitioners of administrative law. These arguments generally concern questions of political accountability. The following arguments summarize the main debates about the dynamics of agency structure:
Argument: Agencies operate outside the scope of political control
On this view, Congress' limited agency oversight and the judicial branch's deference to agency decisionmaking have resulted in relative autonomy for agencies, according to this argument.
Argument: Agencies are accountable to the executive and legislative branches
Though agency actors themselves are not directly elected, according to this argument, their oversight by the political branches holds them accountable.
Argument: Independent agencies are unconstitutionally insulated from control by the elected executive
This argument contends that cause-removal protections prevent the executive from overseeing agencies' execution of the law.
Argument: Independent agencies are politically accountable
Independent agencies are politically accountable, according to this argument, because their structure is the result of political compromise.
What's Next?
The next stage of our Learning Journey will take a closer look at agency dynamics in the context of agency functions. Stay tuned!
Go Deeper:
Check out the following Ballotpedia pages to dive deeper into today’s key concepts:
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