POLICY DISPUTES AS A SOURCE OF ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROLS - CONGRESSIONAL MICROMANAGEMENT OF THE DEPARTMENT-OF-DEFENSE

Is congressional micromanagement an unwarranted and inappropriate intr usion into the operations of the federal bureaucracy? Focusing on cong ressional oversight of the Defense Department, Kenneth R. Mayer shows that budgetary and administrative micromanagement are legislative tool s for achieving policy preferences within DoD. He argues that calls fo r reform of micromanagement must take the policy making prerogatives o f Congress into account.