ABSTRACT
Theories of bureaucratic politics seek to explain the policymaking role of administration and bureaucracy. Accordingly, theories of bureaucratic politics seek to breach the orthodox divide between administration and politics and attempt to drag the former into a systematic accounting with the latter. The seminal contribution of Graham Allison and Allison and Morton Halperin to the bureaucratic politics literature came in the articulation of an alternative to rational actor model and organizational process paradigm. Allison's model of bureaucratic politics has had a significant impact on how bureaucracies are studied. Explanations for the political behaviour of bureaucracy and bureaucrats have deep roots in the organization theory literature. The fact that bureaucratic politics extends beyond the bureaucracy itself was highlighted by Laurence O'Toole in his admonition to take networks seriously. For public administration, networks can be thought of as a set of organizations that are interdependent; that is, they share goals, interests, resources, or values.
