Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect: Bureaucratic Responses to Presidential Control During the Reagan Administration

The behavior of bureaucrats is of considerable concern in a polity in which, on one hand, career civil servants have significant influence over policy outcomes but, on the other hand, there is also concern about bureaucratic responsiveness to elected officials-the president in particular. Career civil servants have been predom nantly portrayed as resistant to their political superiors, although some literature stresses the more cooperative aspects of their behavior. The argument set forth is that bureaucratic behavior is not as easily characterized as these two models—the resistant and the cooperative—suggest. Instead, the extent of resistance varies, depending on agency context. This article presents five organizational features that appear to be significant in promoting or inhibiting resistancc ideology; dominant agency profession; agency esprit; agency history; and careerist confidence. The research is based on case studies of two federal agencies during the Reagan years—the Civil Rights Division and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The analysis employs a modified version of Albert 0. Hirschman's concepts of exit, voice, and loyalty, and an additional concept of neglect, to examine bureaucratic responses to the Reagan administration's agenda of policy change.