Democratic societies around the world face the challenge of harnessing public sector bureaucracies. This presentation will review developments in the political economy of bureaucratic politics, and take up two related questions that have attracted recent interest. First, how is responsibility allocated between elected politicians and expert bureaucrats? Second, while it is conventional wisdom that bureaucrats are experts, what is the origin of their expertise?

References

Alesina, Alberto, and Guido Tabellini. 2007. ``Bureaucrats or Politicians? Part I: A Single Policy Task." American Economic Review 97(1): 169-179.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30034389

Ting, Michael M. 2010. ``Legislatures, Bureaucracies and Distributive Spending."
(http://www.columbia.edu/~mmt2033/bureaucracy_pork.pdf).

Gailmard, Sean, and John W. Patty. 2007. ``Slackers and Zealots: Civil Service, Policy Discretion and Bureaucratic Expertise." American Journal of Political Science 51(4): 873-889.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/4620105