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 in the 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 forestry policy, 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.

Politicians have traditionally devoted little attention to the origins of American bureaucracy and its relationship between bureaucratic and interest group activities. This work presents a study of bureaucratic autonomy in democratic regimes