Created in 1887, the Interstate Commerce Commission was the first “independent agency” outside of the president’s control that had the combined powers of all three branches of government. Independent agencies proliferated during the New Deal era, the golden age for this so-called fourth branch of government.
The formation of independent agencies was based on an idealistic view of bureaucracy: shielded from shifting political winds, a small group of technically-skilled experts could address technical issues. Economic and engineering analyses would guide independent agency decisions. However, the 21st-century reality is that federal “independent agencies” are neither independent of the executive nor guided by economic and engineering principles. Instead, independent agencies have become useful appendages of the executive branch, and economic and engineering concepts are largely silenced.
On Wednesday, June 22, former FTC Commissioner Joshua Wright joined Hudson Institute’s Director of the Center for the Economics of the Internet, Harold Furchtgott-Roth, to discuss the institutional problems of the modern administrative state and solutions for promoting economic analysis in public policy.
Please join Hudson Institute for a fireside chat with Senior Fellow and Keystone Defense Initiative Director Rebeccah Heinrichs and John Spencer, chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point and co-director of the Urban Warfare Project.
Join Hudson Institute and the Ben Franklin Fellowship for a two-panel discussion examining US policy as it confronts the crisis of terror in Nigeria.
Join Hudson Institute's Center for the Economics of the Internet for a keynote address given by Tricia Paoletta on the Trump administration's progress in managing and reallocating the electromagnetic radio frequency spectrum from the federal domain.
Join Hudson Institute for a discussion with Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Senior Fellow Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
