on Bureaucratic Policy Initiatives

comments, suggestions, and support of this project. This article would not have been completed without his generous assistance. J-PART 6(1996):4:495-522 This study develops and tests an empirical model of the influences on bureaucratic policy making in state Medicaid pro-grams. The dependent variable is a measure of administrative social policy initiatives. The model incorporates a number of theoretically relevant independent variables, allowing us to examine some of the most important explanations for bureaucratic behavior. The empirical results demonstrate that interest groups, structural characteristics, and state environmental conditions all affect state policy choices to adopt optional health care services. In contrast, partisan and ideological political factors seem to have little direct impact. These findings give us important insights into the bureaucracy's role in state Medicaid programs. They also emphasize the need for further empirical research on admin-istrative influence in the American social welfare policy process, particularly at the state level. Bureaucrats play an important role in the public policy process. Much of their importance stems from the fact that they are responsible for administering and implementing the vast majority of governmental decisions throughout the American political system (Ingram 1990). But administrative influence over policy making does not stop here. Bureaucrats also possess knowledge and expertise about key policy issues that enable them to initiate important program changes (Gormley 1983; Rourke 1984). Unlike many other actors in the political system, most administrators maintain their positions for long periods of time (Downs 1967). This allows them to have a continuous and sus-tained impact on the policy-making system (Peters 1989)