Bureaucratic politics and American foreign policy: A critique

A coalition approach to trade policymaking in the United States: the fast-track authority fiasco of 1997 and the approval of Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China in 2000

“…These informal coalitions are a result of concessions and bargaining among the main actors involved in the policy-making process. However, the BPM does not take into consideration the importance of actors other than the bureaucracy in the process of forging coalitions for the formulation/approval of a given policy (Art 1973;Rosati 1981). Another approach focussed upon coalition-building processes is the iron triangles approach.…”

Politics and Policy in Australia.

“…In these discussions it is possible to emphasize calculating tough-mindedness, as in Allison and Downs, or gentlemanly, if somewhat feline, methods of control and accommodation, as in Heclo and Wildavsky. While no student of public policy can afford to ignore the role of bureaucratic politics, the critics of that genre question whether it alone is sufficient to explain outcomes. R.J. Art (1973) has suggested that Allison's maxims have only limited explanatory value for particular cases. Lawrence Freedman (1976) goes further and argues that when Allison sets up a dichotomy between his "rational actor" model and his "bureaucratic politics" model, it is essentially a false division.…”

Bureaucratic determinants of Foreign policy: Some empirical evidence

“…Recent critics of the paradigm argue that the notion of bureaucratic influences on foreign policy should be broadened to include dimensions of the decision structure as well as process (Art, 1973;Hermann, 1974; see also Huntington, 1961;Hilsman, 1967;and Blau, 1967, for earlier recommendations that policy analysts should focus on a wider range of influences). On their face, structural variables seem easier than process variables to identify from public sources.…”

“…NOTES 1. An inventory of major bureaucratic politics writings would include at least the following: Allison (1971), Allison and Halperin (1972), Art (1968Art ( , 1973, Davis (1972), Destler (1972), Halperin (1974), Halperin and Kanter (1973), Hermann (1974), Hilsman (1967), Huntington (1961), Neustadt (1960Neustadt ( , 1970Neustadt ( , 1973, Rourke (1972), and Schilling et al (1962). 2.…”

“…Participating bureaucrats act to protect their personal and organizational interests, and identify national interests with these interests. Popularized by Graham Allison, the bureaucratic paradigm's influence on international relations theory can be assessed as well by the emergence of numerous critiques of that approach (Allison, 1971;Art, 1973;Allison and Halperin, 1972;Halperin and Kanter, 1973;Krasner, 1972).…”