Backdoor Lawmaking

Backdoor Lawmaking by Melinda N Ritchie

Civics textbooks focus on how Congress makes policy through the legislative process, but the reality is that members of Congress have limited opportunities to advance their policy priorities. In fact, less than five percent of the bills that are introduced in Congress become law. Even the most tenacious legislators are confronted by bicameralism, partisan gridlock, chamber procedures, leadership's control of the agenda, and the diverse interests of 534 other members of Congress. What strategies do lawmakers have for navigating these challenges? In this book, Melinda N. Ritchie reveals how members of Congress use the federal bureaucracy as a backdoor for policymaking. Today, more law in the United States is made by unelected bureaucrats through federal agency regulations than with congressional statute. Ritchie argues that the bureaucracy's growing role in policymaking offers lawmakers a discreet way to represent controversial interests outside of the formal constraints of Congress. Lawmakers overcome obstacles in the legislative process by substituting agency regulations for legislation and pressuring agencies to make policy changes that would not pass Congress. Drawing on an original dataset constructed from records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, Ritchie traces the interactions between members of Congress and federal agencies to illustrate how these communications function as part of a lawmaker's overarching strategy for policymaking. Original and timely, Backdoor Lawmaking explains how members of Congress exploit the separation of powers and evade the lawmaking process established in the US Constitution.

This book lifts the veil on one aspect of the reality of lawmaking in the US..Ritchie's book is an instructive read. * David Glass, Law Society Gazette *
The thesis of this innovative research is that through private communications with agencies, legislators pursue objectives that elude them in the legislative process...Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty. * Choice *

Melinda N. Ritchie is Assistant Professor of Political Science at The Ohio State University. Her research interests include American political institutions, US Congress, bureaucratic politics, and the impact of separation of powers on policymaking. From 2007 to 2009, she worked in the office of New York congressman Brian Higgins. Her work has appeared in Political Behavior, the Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, and the American Journal of Political Science. In 2020, she received the Emerging Scholar Award in Legislative Studies from the American Political Science Association.

SKU	Nicht verfügbar
ISBN 13	9780197670491
ISBN 10	0197670490
Titel	Backdoor Lawmaking
Autor	Melinda N Ritchie
Buchzustand	Nicht verfügbar
Bindungsart	Paperback
Verlag	Oxford University Press Inc
Erscheinungsjahr	2023-09-28
Seitenanzahl	272
Hinweis auf dem Einband	Die Abbildung des Buches dient nur Illustrationszwecken, die tatsächliche Bindung, das Cover und die Auflage können sich davon unterscheiden.