Non-Presidential Administration

On February 6, 2020, the Gray Center hosted a public policy conference on “Bureaucracy and Presidential Administration: Expertise and Accountability in Constitutional Government.” The conference was inspired in part by James Q. Wilson’s book, Bureaucracy, and Elena Kagan’s article, “Presidential Administration.” The panel sessions centered around new papers the Gray Center helped to incubate on the history of civil service; on presidential power; on bureaucracy; and on several other important questions of expertise and accountability. Keynote remarks on “The Need for Professionalism” were given by Jonathan Rauch, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution.

The fourth and final panel examined non-presidential administration, focusing on two new papers: The first by Yale University’s Brian Libgober on “Agency Failure and Individual Accountability,” and the second on “Judicial Administration” by Arizona State University’s Bijal Shah. Maureen Ohlhausen, former FTC Commissioner and current Partner at Baker Botts, joined the authors in the discussion. The panel was moderated by the Honorable Stephen F. Williams, Senior Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The papers and video are available at: https://administrativestate.gmu.edu/events/bureaucracy-and-presidential-administration/.

Featuring Brian Libgober, Maureen Ohlhausen, Bijal Shah, and Judge Stephen Williams.