Constitutional Subordinate Autonomy: Serving Multiple Masters—A Normative Theory in Practice

This article explores Rohr's concept of constitutional subordinate autonomy: public administrators exercising discretion to maintain the constitutional balance of powers among the three branches. In-depth interviews with mid-level administrators representing nine federal organizations provide rich illustrations that reveal the usefulness and limitations of this concept. The article concludes that although average administrators may not explicitly think of their role in constitutional terms, the concept of subordinate autonomy is relevant to examples from their careers where they have exercised discretion. Furthermore, the concept provides an important way of thinking about the role of the public administrator that both legitimizes and provides a principled basis for responding to situations involving responsiveness to multiple constitutional masters.