Administrator Political Orientations and Views on Federal Encroachment

• Published date: 01 January 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00953997231199230
• Author: Matthew J. Uttermark
• Date: 01 January 2024
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997231199230

Administration & Society

2024, Vol. 56(1) 18 –49

© The Author(s) 2023

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00953997231199230

journals.sagepub.com/home/aas

Article

Administrator Political

Orientations and

Views on Federal

Encroachment

Matthew J. Uttermark1

Abstract

Does a public administrator’s political orientation color how they perceive

the actions and activities of the federal government? Using a long-running

national survey, I measure the impact of state administrators’ party

identification and ideology on several measures of federal encroachment. I

find that self-identified Democratic and liberal administrators are less likely

to believe that the federal government is encroaching on state actions and

hold more positive evaluations of encroachment when it occurs. Additionally,

I find that these beliefs are conditioned on the composition of the federal

government, with the largest differences occurring under a Democratic-

controlled White House and Congress.

Keywords

intergovernmental relations, administrator behavior, partisanship, ideology,

federalism

The role and meaning of federalism represent a long and important debate

within the American administrative and political system (Derthick, 2001;

Lynn, 2013). The strength of federalism relies, in part, on the opinions of

1Binghamton University, NY, USA

Corresponding Author:

Matthew J. Uttermark, Department of Public Administration, Binghamton University, PO Box

6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA.

Email: mutterma@binghamton.edu

1199230AAS0010.1177/00953997231199230Administration & SocietyUttermark

research-article2023

Uttermark 19

mass publics and elites on issues such as decentralization and the encroach-

ment of the federal government.1 While politicians and the public often

assume that administrators are politically neutral, this belies the fact that

administrators increasingly play a critical role in implementing and adminis-

tering programs and policies (Merriman & Pacewicz, 2022). This article

looks at how an administrator’s political orientations relate to one important

aspect of their jobs—federalism.

Prior studies find that politicians’ and citizens’ opinions on decentraliza-

tion are conditioned by ideology and political party. Politicians are opportu-

nistic in their support of decentralization—with federal government control

strategically linked to decentralizing appeals of governmental actions

(Bulman-Pozen, 2014; Kincaid, 2004). Republicans espouse decentralization

but will centralize national policy when they control the presidency—this

trend is evident in evaluations of the Reagan (Conlan, 1986), George W. Bush

(Conlan, 2006; Conlan & Dinan, 2007), and Trump (Rose & Goelzhauser,

2018) administrations. Conversely, Democratic elected officials are generally

supportive of centralization, but will support decentralizing various policies

and procedures when Republicans control the White House (Nathan, 2006).

Citizens’ support for decentralization also depends on their ideology and

partisan affiliation (Dinan & Heckelman, 2020; Wolak 2016). Using survey

data collected by Pew Research Center, studies have found that citizens mir-

ror the opportunistic centralization preferences of politicians. Democratic

and liberal citizens tend to support centralization. Meanwhile Republican and

conservative citizens tend to support decentralization. This support is none-

theless based, in part, on control of federal government with Democrats and

liberals being more supportive of decentralization and conservatives less sup-

portive when Republicans control Congress and the White House (Dinan &

Heckelman, 2020, p. 241).

These studies have helped administrators better understand when citizens

will support decentralization-based appeals—and in turn pressure elected

officials to support these proposals (Erikson et al., 1993). While these studies

are valuable, scholars have yet to investigate if administrators behave in a

similar way—even as prior research finds that administrators have partisan

and ideological identities (for example, Maranto & Hult, 2004), which are

correlated with policy preferences (Bell et al., 2021) and behavior (Palus &

Yackee, 2016).

I contribute to this research area by analyzing how public administrators’

political beliefs and party control of the federal government impact their

views of federal actions using several waves of the American State

Administrators Project (ASAP) survey (Yackee & Yackee, 2021). The ASAP

survey is valuable as it provides a measure of administrative actions from the

20 Administration & Society 56(1)

agents’ viewpoint. I leverage the survey questions that inquire about: (1) per-

ceptions of federal encroachment on state activities, and (2) whether that

encroachment is viewed positively or negatively by administrators. These are

ideal questions to evaluate state administrators’ federal perceptions as the

survey questions have been asked across all arrangements of the federal gov-

ernment (Republican, Divided, and Democratic federal control) while simul-

taneously being fielded during a period when rates of decentralization by

federal officials remained generally constant, 1994 to 2008 (Cole et al., 1999;

Kincaid, 1998).

I find that a state administrator’s perception of federalism is similar to that

of a typical citizen. Democratic and increasingly liberal public administrators

are less likely to perceive recent federal actions as encroaching on state agen-

cies. Furthermore, Democratic and liberal administrators hold more positive

views of federal actions compared to other types of administrators. Finally,

administrators’ views of encroachment are colored in familiar, but not identi-

cal, ways. Republican, Democratic, and conservative administrators are

likely to shift preferences on decentralization depending on which party con-

trols the federal government.

These findings have important implications. Like citizens, state adminis-

trators’ views of federal activities are affected by their political values as well

as who occupies federal office. This is particularly concerning as these

administrators are increasingly the lynchpin of policymaking and implemen-

tation in the United States (Grumbach, 2018). Administrators should be

aware of how their personal orientations may influence their views of national

government. This awareness can equip administrators to better understand

how the political environment influences their own preferences in their deci-

sion-making tasks. This analysis underscores that administrators’ own views

play a role in bureaucratic structures. Additionally, this article raises several

questions about the scope and role of intergovernmental relations in the

administrative state and advances a series of arguments for researchers to

take into consideration.

Public Administrators and Federalism

I review several strands of research in public administration and political sci-

ence to guide theoretical expectations of the article. First, I illustrate that

public administrators have increasing discretion in federal-state programs

and that their political orientations could possibly lead them to evaluate deci-

sions in meaningful ways. I then review recent findings within federalism

research that connect citizens’ partisan and ideological beliefs with their

opinions of the federal government. Finally, I explore the existing literature