Regulatory Performance and Presidential Administration

This paper pursues a better understanding of regulatory independence by investigating the link between presidential administration and the performance of the independent regulatory commissions. The data are drawn from three independent commissions-the National Labor Relations Board, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission-and separate time-series analyses are conducted for periods covering the Truman years through 1977. Attention centers on whether and how the prevailing patterns of regulatory performance have been altered as different administrations have assumed formal charge of the government. The analysis suggests that regulatory behavior does shift across administrations, and that it varies systematically with presidential partisanship. Presidents apparently do achieve a measure of direction and control over the independent commissions.