Constraining Bureaucrats Today Knowing You'll Be Gone Tomorrow: The Effect of Legislative Term Limits on Statutory Discretion.

Do finite time horizons constrain a legislature's ability to control the bureaucracy? I argue that legislators subject to legislative term limits enact legislation with less statutory discretion today to ensure that their preferences are implemented by the bureaucracy tomorrow since most legislators...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:	Policy Studies Journal Vol. 47; no. 4; pp. 972 - 996
Autor principal:	Vakilifathi, Mona
Formato:	Artículo
Publicado:	Wiley-Blackwell Nov2019
Materias:	Charter schools Legislative oversight Legislators Discretion U.S. states politics & government Term of office of legislators Ex post facto laws Term limits (Public office)
Acceso en línea:	Ver este registro en EBSCOhost

Descripción
Sumario:	Do finite time horizons constrain a legislature's ability to control the bureaucracy? I argue that legislators subject to legislative term limits enact legislation with less statutory discretion today to ensure that their preferences are implemented by the bureaucracy tomorrow since most legislators will not be around to monitor the bureaucracy over the long term. Although past works suggest that legislative term limits decrease legislatures' rate of bureaucratic oversight, I find that term‐limited legislatures use ex ante means of bureaucratic control to a greater extent by granting less statutory discretion to the bureaucracy.