Regulatory Administration and Organizational Rigidity

Discussions of regulatory problems have been dominated by Bernstein's theory of regulatory agency decay which contends that agencies become rigid as a result of the chronological aging of the agency. With increased age, agencies lose general political support and become "captured" by the regulated interest. This paper examines the political support, interest relationships, and rigidity of eight regulatory agencies over the entire lifetime of the agency. Contrary to the theory's predictions, as agencies age they do not necessarily lose political support, they do not become more captured by the regulated industry, and they do not become more rigid. The findings suggest the reasons policy-makers normally accept for regulatory agency failure must be reevaluated.