AUTONOMY GROUNDED IN SUBORDINATION - A FRAMEWORK FOR RESPONDING TO COMPETING INSTITUTIONAL NORMS

This article uses the normative framework provided by the concept of a utonomy grounded in subordination to view competing institutional pres sures in three government agencies (the Office of Management and Budge t, the General Accounting Office, and the Department of Justice). This framework suggests that the proper perspective for viewing an agency in a government of separate but shared powers is one of balancing resp onsibility to multiple masters. The use of the subordinate autonomy fr amework fosters an attitude that embraces the ambiguity and tensions o f governance, and will heighten awareness of what it means to practice administrative statesmanship.