Summary
The fifty U.S. states are commonly thought of as policy laboratories, where the institutional structures of federalism allow states to experiment independently. As such, we theorize that considerable variation in bureaucratic autonomy is likely among public administrators across U.S. states. Moreover, given the increasing partisan politicization of administration in the U.S. over the past forty years, differences could emerge between the states in bureaucratic autonomy, a vital tenet of public administration in advanced democracies. Using data from the American State Administrators Project by Yackee and Yackee (2021) (n≈11,500), we examine perceptions of autonomy on several measures over four decades (1964–2008). We find that bureaucratic autonomy does not seem to be profoundly affected by partisanship. Despite partisan politics, the paper observes that administrators’ perceptions of autonomy are largely stable over time and space and not subject to significant partisan dynamics. Bureaucrats thus feel insulated from external political pressures. Consequently, we identify consistent and robust trends across states, with less variation in perceptions of autonomy than one might expect given broader political variation within the U.S. federal system.
Read the Working Paper
ARENA Working Paper 1/2026 (pdf)
Bureaucratic Autonomy Across Laboratories of Democracy
Matthew Stenberg and Jarle Trondal
January 2026