Resisting governmental control: how semi-autonomous agencies use strategic resources to challenge state coordination

Abstract

Institutional pressure caused by public sector reform leads to strategic reactions from semi-autonomous agencies. Agencies in the Netherlands and France only complied with a selection of imposed reforms. Other rules were manipulated, not complied with, or compromises were made. The degree of compliance with reforms is not only dependent on structural aspects, but also on resources and power distributions between the actors. A comparison is made between the introduction of the Dutch Kaderwet ZBO and the French Révision Générale des Politiques Publiques. These agency reforms are contested between ministries, rather than between agency and parent ministry alone. Parent ministries tend to side with their agencies in both countries. In the Netherlands, power-related issues were most debated, whereas in France money-related issues caused most disagreement. Points for practitioners Reforms targeted at agencies are likely to meet resistance if agencies do not agree with the proposed rules, especially if they alter existing power relations. Some agencies possess certain resources which they can apply strategically to offer resistance to reforms. Parent ministries tend to side with agencies in their sector and try to protect them from other ministries.