When Officials Clash: Implementation of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act

by Karen E. Holt

Overview

The Reagan Adminstration justified its civil rights enforcement by claiming an electoral mandate to reduce government. The Administration employed an administrative strategy to fulfill this asserted mandate, illustrating the conventional wisdom that the strategy enhances political responsiveness. But responsiveness to popular will is one democratic value, while protection of minority rights another. In the case of the administrative strategy to enforce the law protecting civil rights of the institutionalized, career employees within the Reagan Justice Department reacted forcefully to the change in policy direction, believing their action was critical to protecting basic human rights because of the powerlessness of the affected group.

Holt examines how the Reagan Administration implemented its strategy of limited enforcement and the varied responses of the career employees, including internal and external criticism, mass departure, and even sabotage of some actions. A survey of careerists and interviews with both political and career employees provide detailed accounts of the clash that ensued. In addition to providing valuable information on how and when an administrative strategy can best be employed, Holt identifies some of the hidden costs of a tightly controlled bureaucracy. An apparently successful policy, which minimizes the involvement of experienced career employees, can have an adverse long term effect. A valuable study for all students and researchers of public policy formation and implementation, the contemporary presidency, and civil rights.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275959975
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/26/1998
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)

About the Author

KAREN E. HOLT is Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs at University of Virginia./e In 1985, she left the Department of Justice in Washington to join the General Counsel's Office of the University of Tennessee. While there, she obtained her Ph.D. in Political Science.

Table of Contents

Preface
Change and Conflict
The Evolution of CRIPA
Reagan Administration Ideology and the CRIPA Policy Preference
"Special" Litigation: CRIPA Enforcement During the Reagan Administration
Reaction from Without: Congress and Stakeholders
Reaction from Within: Careerists
Administrative Implementation of CRIPA
The Better Angels of Its Nature
Appendix A: Methodological Framework
Appendix B: CRIPA Survey
Appendix C: Summary of CRIPA Enforcement: 5/80—1/89
References

Editorial Reviews

Focuses on the Reagan Administration's implementation and enforcement of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA)<-->a textbook example of the use of an administrative strategy in the face of careerist resistance. Topics include the legislative history and provisions of CRIPA; the Reagan ideology; the enforcement of CRIPA by the Reagan Administration; the response to enforcement from those outside the Department of Justice (primarily Congress, stakeholders, and careerists); and the administrative strategy's impact on democratic governance. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknew.com)

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