Bureaucratic rulemaking is a key feature of American policymaking. However, rulemaking activities do not occur uniformly, but fluctuate throughout the year. We consider three mechanisms to explain these changes in rule volume, each of which produces unique expectations for rulemaking during periods of divided government and legislative recess. To test these expectations, we leverage an original dataset including all rules proposed by bureaucratic agencies in three U.S. states from 2004 to 2013 matched with data tracking periods of divided government and legislative recess. We find that state bureaucracies publish significantly more proposed rules during periods of divided government or a split legislature and are most productive in the months immediately following legislative recess. These results underscore the importance of bureaucratic policymaking and improve our understanding of the balance of power between branches of state governments.

中文翻译：

---

各州的监管时机：分裂政府和立法休会的作用


官僚主义的规则制定是美国政策制定的一个关键特征。但是，规则制定活动并非一成不变，而是全年波动。我们考虑了三种机制来解释规则数量的这些变化，每一种机制都为分裂政府和立法休会期间的规则制定产生了独特的期望。为了测试这些预期，我们利用了一个原始数据集，其中包括 2004 年至 2013 年美国三个州的官僚机构提出的所有规则，并与分裂政府和立法休会期间的数据跟踪相匹配。我们发现，在政府分裂或立法机构分裂期间，各州官僚机构公布的拟议规则要多得多，并且在立法休会后的几个月里最有成效。这些结果强调了官僚主义政策制定的重要性，并提高了我们对州政府各部门之间权力平衡的理解。