'This is a book that forces us to think about the policy-making process in new ways. It puts bureaucracy at center stage. Rather than characterize the administrative state as the passive implementer of political decisions by elected officials, Workman argues that federal agencies are strategic actors competing for Congress's attention. Congress, in turn, is trying to learn from the administrative state and shape its information-providing activities. This is a book that utilizes amazing new data to illuminate how agencies influence the policy agenda and policy process as attention-seeking and attention-directing institutions.' David E. Lewis, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
1. Bureaucracy and problem-solving; 2. The dual dynamics of the administrative state; 3. The regulatory process as an attention mechanism; 4. Problem monitoring in the administrative state; 5. Problem prioritization and demand for information; 6. Problem-solving and the supply of information; 7. Information, bureaucracy, and government problem solving; Appendix A. Conceptualization and measurement; Appendix B. Statistical models.