The Reorganization of Federal Agencies

Abstract

This study presents a theory of federal agency reorganization covering a large per centage of reorganization cases occurring from 1934 through 1976. The theory views federal agency reorganization as closely related to de novo agency creation. Agency reorganization and creation are often the last two steps in an escalation process through which society deals with problems generated by large scale discontinuous socioeconomic-technological changes called novelties. Escalation is part of a more comprehensive process called conceptualization in which interest groups and govern ment officials seek to understand a novelty's implications, to modify the novelty to fit socioeonomic-political systems, and to modify socioeconomic-political systems to fit the novelty. If an agency is created before conceptualization has ended, it is very likely that it will be reorganized repeatedly until conceptualization is complete. Thus two modes of agency reorganization are identified: reorganization of existing agencies as part of the escalation response to a novelty, and instability caused by agency creation prior to the end of conceptualization.