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Congressional Oversight Overlooked: Police Patrols versus Fire Alarms

1984; Wiley; Volume: 28; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2110792

1540-5907

Mathew D. McCubbins, Thomas Schwartz,

Regulation and Compliance Studies

Scholars have often remarked that Congress neglects its oversight responsibility. We argue that Congress does no such thing: what appears to be a neglect of oversight really is the rational preference for one form of oversight-which we call fire-alarm oversight-over another form-police-patrol oversight. Our analysis supports a somewhat neglected way of looking at the strategies by which legislators seek to achieve their goals.