ABSTRACT
This chapter examines agency as a technology of policy production. Agency is the organizational framework for policy production. Agencies are the institutions assigned the legal and financial responsibility for turning policy authority into policy action. Authority and agency are the yin and yang of policy production. Public or administrative agencies are the creations of government. They are the instruments through which governments work. Agencies usually provide the architecture for operations commonly needed to maintain policy programs housed within the agency. The basic organizational infrastructure for Department of Homeland Security was put into effect in March 2003. The state action doctrine is the legal doctrine that distinguishes an agency as public or private. Departments and administrative agencies are distinguished by their dependence on tax revenue to fund policy production. Government corporations were one of the fastest-growing technologies for structuring agencies for public policy initiatives. Government-sponsored enterprises are distinguished from other organizational technologies by their sole reliance on sales-financed production.
