The forging of bureaucratic autonomy : reputations, networks, and policyinnovation in executive agencies, 1862-1928 / Daniel P. Carpenter.

Entrepreneurship, networked legitimacy, and autonomy -- The clerical state: obstacles to bureaucratic autonomy in nineteenth-century America -- The Railway Mail, Comstockery, and the waning of the old postal regime, 1862-94 -- Organizational renewal and policy innovation in the National Postal System, 1890-1910-- The triumph of the moral economy: finance, parcels, and the labor dilemma inthe post office, 1908-24 -- Science in the service of seeds: the USDA, 1862-1900 -- From seeds to science: the USDA as university, 1897-1917 -- Multiple networks and the autonomy of bureaus: departures in food, pharmaceutical, and forestrypolicy, 1897-1913 -- Brokerage and bureaucratic policymaking: the cementing of autonomy at the USDA, 1914-28 -- Structure, reputation, and the bureaucratic failure of reclamation policy, 1902-14 -- Conclusion: the politics of bureaucratic autonomy.