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Insulating Agencies: Avoiding Capture Through Institutional Design, Rachel E. Barkow

Rachel E Barkow

So-called independent agencies are created for a reason, and often that reason is a concern with agency capture. Agency designers hope that a more insulated agency will better protect the general public interest against interest group pressure. But the conventional approach to independent agencies in administrative law largely ignores why agencies are insulated. Instead, discussions about independent agencies in administrative law have focused on three features that have defined independent agencies: whether their heads are removable at will or for cause by the President, whether they must submit regulations to the President’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for cost-benefit …