ABSTRACT
Bureaucrats maximize the relative size of their bureaus subject to some technical constraints which define the range of feasible alternative behaviors between which they can choose. These constraints exist for all bureaus, large or small, powerful or weak, private or public; but as with other technical constraints they are subject to change. To maximize the relative size of their bureaus, bureaucrats will withhold and/or transform information as it moves from lower to higher echelons in the hierarchical structure of their bureau and/or they will withhold or transform commands as they move in the opposite direction, in such a way that bureaucrats placed “higher-up” in the hierarchical structure and the politicians will develop a “good” image of “lower” bureaucrats and accede to their demands. The first states that the appropriations requested by any agency through the Bureau of the Budget is a fixed proportion of the appropriations accepted by Congress for that agency in the previous year plus a random component.
