No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Political Targeting in Democracies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2022
Abstract
Democratic erosion—the undermining of republican government by a leader with authoritarian tendencies—depends on the improper use of the state apparatus of the state against opponents (“political targeting”). Because political targeting sometimes falls into a legally gray area, and because officials have some maneuvering room in how to respond to the orders they receive, their preferences matter. In the United States, officials’ behavior seems to be most influenced by a) the professional risks of refusing improper orders, b) normative obligations to uphold the rule of law and to act ethically, and c) attitudes toward the leader. These factors are, in turn, largely a function of 1) how officials are selected and 2) the extent of oversight and procedural checks they face. These findings have potentially broad implications for democratic erosion.
- Type
- Special Section: Democracy
- Information
- Perspectives on Politics , Volume 22 , Issue 1: Special Section: Women, Representation & Politics , March 2024 , pp. 181 - 193
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association
Footnotes
A list of permanent links to Supplemental Materials provided by the authors precedes the References section.
References
Aberbach, Joel D. 2002. “What’s Happened to the Watchful Eye?” Congress and the Presidency 29(1): 3–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adserà, Alicia, and Boix, Carles. 2007. “Constitutions and Democratic Breakdowns.” In Controlling Governments: Voters, Institutions, and Accountability, ed. Maravall, José María and Sánchez-Cuenca, Ignacio, 247– 302. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Balla, Steven J. 2000. “Legislative Organization and Congressional Review of Agency Regulations.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 16(2): 424–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bermeo, Nancy. 2016. “On Democratic Backsliding.” Journal of Democracy 21(1): 5–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernhard, Michael, and O’Neill, Daniel. 2020. “Whither America?” Perspectives on Politics 18(2): 349–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bose, Meenekshi, and Rudalevige, Andrew. 2020. Executive Policymaking: The Role of the OMB in the Presidency. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Carey, John, Helmke, Gretchen, Nyhan, Brendan, Sanders, Mitchell, and Stokes, Susan. 2019. “Searching for Bright Lines in the Trump Presidency.” Perspectives on Politics 17(9): 699–718.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheibub, Jose Antonio. 2006. Presidentialism, Parliamentarism, and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Council of the Inspectors General. 2014. “On Integrity and Efficiency.” July 14. (https://www.ignet.gov/sites/default/files/files/IG_Authorities_Paper_-_Final_6-11-14.pdf).Google Scholar
Dull, Matthew, and Roberts, Patrick S.. 2009. “Continuity, Competence, and the Succession of Senate-Confirmed Agency Appointees, 1989–2009.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 39(3): 432–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durant, Robert F., and Resh, William G.. 2009. “‘Presidentializing’ the Bureaucracy.” In The Oxford Handbook of the American Presidency, ed. Edwards, George C. III and Howell, William G., 577–600. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Furlong, Scott R. 1998. “Political Influence on the Bureaucracy: The Bureaucracy Speaks.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory: J-PART 8(1): 39–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gailmard, Sean. 2002. “Expertise, Subversion, and Bureaucratic Discretion.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 18(2): 536–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golden, Marissa Martino. 2002. “Innocent Until Nominated: The Breakdown of the Presidential Appointments Process.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 32(3): 617–29.Google Scholar
Gries, David. 1996. “Commentary on ‘Coping with Iran-Contra: Personal Reflections on Bill Casey’s Last Month at CIA’ by James McCullough.” Intelligence Studies. Retrieved July 14, 2021. (https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/studies-in-intelligence/1996-2/).Google Scholar
Howell, William G., and Moe, Terry M.. 2021. “America’s Crisis of Democracy.” Political Science Quarterly 136(1): 105–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. 2007. The FBI: A History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Kagan, Elana. 2001. “Presidential Administration.” Harvard Law Review 114(8): 2245–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, Robert R., and Haggard, Stephan. 2019. “Democratic Decline in the United States: What Can We Learn from Middle-Income Backsliding?” Perspectives on Politics 17(2): 417–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kessler, Ronald. 2008. The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Kitfield, James. 2016. “How Mike Flynn Became America’s Angriest General.” Politico, October 16. (https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/how-mike-flynn-became-americas-angriest-general-214362/).Google Scholar
Kranton, Rachel E., and Minehart, Deborah F.. 2001. “A Theory of Buyer-Seller Networks.” American Economic Review 91(3): 485–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriner, Douglas L., and Schickler, Eric. 2016. Investigating the President: Congressional Checks on Presidential Power. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, Chappell. 1999. Building the Fourth Estate. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lawson, Chappell. 2014. “What Scholars Bring to Government and Back Again.” In Closing the Gap Between Scholars and Practitioners, ed. Lowenthal, Abraham and Bertucci, Mariano, 17–35. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, David E. 2011. “Presidential Appointments and Personnel.” Annual Review of Political Science 14(1): 47–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lieberman, Robert C., Mettler, Suzanne, Pepinsky, Thomas B., Roberts, Kenneth M., and Valelly, Richard. 2019. “The Trump Presidency and American Democracy: A Historical and Comparative Analysis.” Perspectives on Politics 17(2): 470–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCullough, James. 1996. “Coping with Iran-Contra: Personal Reflections on Bill Casey’s Last Month at CIA.” Intelligence Studies. Retrieved July 14, 2021. (https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/studies-in-intelligence/1996-2/).Google Scholar
MacDonald, Jason A. 2010. “Agency Design and Postlegislative Influence over the Bureaucracy.” Political Research Quarterly 60(4): 683–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manget, Frederic F. 1996. “Another System of Review: Intelligence and the Rise of Judicial Intervention.” Intelligence Studies. Center for the Study of Intelligence. Retrieved July 14, 2021. (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242253454_Intelligence_and_the_Rise_of_Judicial_Intervention).Google Scholar
Mukunda, Gautam. 2012. Indispensable: When Leaders Really Matter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.Google Scholar
Office of Special Counsel. 2018. “THE HATCH ACT: Permitted and Prohibited Activities for Federal Employees Subject to Further Restrictions.” February. Retrieved July 14, 2021. (https://osc.gov/Documents/Outreach%20and%20Training/Posters/The%20Hatch%20Act%20and%20Further%20Restricted%20Employees%20Poster.pdf).Google Scholar
Plum Book
(a.k.a., United States Policy and Supporting Positions). 2021. U.S. Government Publishing Office. (https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GPO-PLUMBOOK-2020/).Google Scholar
Pfiffner, James, and Florence, Justin. 2019. “Using Pardon Power to Encourage Law-Breaking.” The Hill, July 31.Google Scholar
Rangappa, Asha. 2017. “It Ain’t Easy Getting a FISA Warrant: I Was an FBI Agent and Should Know.” Just Security. March 6 (https://www.justsecurity.org/38422/aint-easy-fisa-warrant-fbi-agent/).Google Scholar
Rucker, Philip, and Leonnig, Carol D.. 2020. A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America. New York: Penguin Random House.Google Scholar
“Senatorial Courtesy” legislation n.lawi.us. 07, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2021. (https://legislation.lawi.us/senatorial-courtesy/).Google Scholar
Shipan, Charles R. 2005. “Congress and the Bureaucracy.” In The Legislative Branch, ed. Quirk, P.J. and Binder, S. A.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Slick, Stephen B. 2014. “Modernizing the IC ‘Charter’: The 2008 Amendments to Executive Order 12333, United States Intelligence Activities.” Intelligence Studies 58(2): 1–18.Google Scholar
Svolik, Milan W. 2019. “Polarization versus Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 30(3): 20–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Miles [Anonymous: A Senior Trump Administration Official]. 2019. A Warning. New York: Grand Central Publishing.Google Scholar
Tenpas, Kathryn Dunn. 2020. “Tracking Turnover in the Trump Administration.” The Ion. October 7. Retrieved January 20, 2021 (https://www.brookings.edu/research/tracking-turnover-in-the-trump-administration/).Google Scholar
Thompson, Adam C. 2019. “Inside the Secret Border Patrol Facebook Group Where Agents Joke about Migrant Deaths and Post Sexist Memes.” ProPublica, July 1. (https://www.propublica.org/article/secret-border-patrol-facebook-group-agents-joke-about-migrant-deaths-post-sexist-memes).Google Scholar
Waterman, Richard W. 2009. “Assessing the Unilateral Presidency.” In The Oxford Handbook of the American Presidency, ed. Edwards, George C. III and Howell, William G.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Whittington, Keith E. 2009. “Judicial Checks on the President.” In The Oxford Handbook of the American Presidency, ed. Edwards, George C. III and Howell, William G., 477–500. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zacka, Bernardo. 2017. When the State Meets the Street: Public Service and Moral Agency. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson supplementary material
Appendix
PDF
206.9 KB