Administrative Rulemaking

?West contends that most work on regulation and the administrative process does not take adequate account of the political significance of administrative law. Regulation, he writes, needs to be understood as a strategy for carrying out the law. From this point of view, understanding regulation sometimes means taking account of traditional normative concerns about the role of bureaucracy. West argues, however, that sometimes this also means understanding that regulations exist as the result of struggles by different sides to gain advantage in the policy process. It is this argument, supported by an interesting case study on the Federal Trade Commission's attempts to regulate unfair' and deceptive' practices, that is the strongest part of the book. West has written an interesting summary of arguments about rule making from a distinctly political point of view. This will make it useful for college students seeking an introduction to the issues of regulation. Recommended for undergraduates at all levels.?-Choice