Hearing, not heeding: procedural acknowledgment and substantive influence in rulemaking.
Public participation processes promise that citizens will be heard, but rarely guarantee they will be heeded. This distinction between procedural acknowledgment and substantive influence lies at the heart of bureaucratic responsiveness, yet these two forms of responsiveness are often conflated in em...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 219 - 234 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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Oxford University Press / USA
Apr2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=193631231&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 193631231 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 10531858 172N jtl: Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory issn: 10531858 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Apr2026 vid: 36 iid: 2 pid: 622 pub: Oxford University Press / USA artinfo: ui: 193631231 10.1093/jopart/muag003 ppf: 219 ppct: 15 formats: tig: atl: Hearing, not heeding: procedural acknowledgment and substantive influence in rulemaking. aug: au: Love, Alexander affil: Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Democratic Innovations, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, United States su: Government agencies Participation Social influence Administrative procedure Judicial review Rational-legal authority Delegated legislation sug: subj: Government agencies Participation Social influence Other General Government Support Other local, municipal and regional public administration Other provincial and territorial public administration Other federal government public administration Administrative procedure Judicial review Rational-legal authority Delegated legislation keyword: bureaucratic politics copyrightHolder:Public Management Research Association copyrightYear:2026 inLanguage:en interest groups publisher:Oxford University Press responsiveness rulemaking sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muag003 text analysis bureaucratic politics copyrightHolder:Public Management Research Association copyrightYear:2026 inLanguage:en interest groups publisher:Oxford University Press responsiveness rulemaking sameAs:https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muag003 text analysis ab: Public participation processes promise that citizens will be heard, but rarely guarantee they will be heeded. This distinction between procedural acknowledgment and substantive influence lies at the heart of bureaucratic responsiveness, yet these two forms of responsiveness are often conflated in empirical research. I demonstrate that in federal rulemaking, procedural acknowledgment (being heard) is empirically distinct from substantive policy influence (being heeded). Drawing on theories of bureaucratic responsiveness, I argue that agencies strategically cite commenters not primarily to signal agreement but to build defensible administrative records that satisfy procedural requirements while preserving their policy autonomy. Analyzing 854 federal rules from 2017 to 2023, I use semantic text analysis to track changes in binding regulatory provisions distinct from the explanatory preamble. I show that agencies systematically cite comments they ultimately reject, particularly from well-resourced groups. Roughly two-thirds of comment citations are not accompanied by any responsive change to the regulatory text. This reveals that procedural responsiveness can function as a strategic substitute for substantive policy change. These findings suggest that procedural engagement and substantive influence operate as distinct modes of bureaucratic responsiveness, with agencies often prioritizing legal defensibility over policy adaptation when facing potential judicial review. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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