266 PART ThRee • InsTITuTIons oF AmeRIcAn GoveRnmenT
Iron Triangle
A three-way alliance
among legislators in
Congress, bureaucrats, and
interest groups to make
or preserve policies that
benefit their respective
interests.important roles in policy making. As we have seen, many government rules, regulations,
and programs are in fact initiated by the bureaucracy, based on its expertise and scientific
studies. How a law passed by Congress eventually is translated into action—from the
forms to be filled out to decisions about who gets the benefits—usually is determined
within each agency or department. Even the evaluation of whether a policy has achieved
its purpose usually is based on studies that are commissioned and interpreted by the
agency administering the program.
The bureaucracy’s policymaking role often has been depicted as an iron triangle.
Recently, many political scientists have come to see the concept of an issue network as a
more accurate description of the typical policymaking process.Iron Triangles. In the past, scholars often described the bureaucracy’s role in the
policymaking process by using the concept of an iron triangle—a three-way alliance
among legislators in Congress, bureaucrats, and interest groups. Consider as an exam-
ple the development of agricultural policy. Congress, as one component of the triangle,
includes two major committees concerned with agricultural policy, the House Committee
on Agriculture and the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. The
Department of Agriculture, the second component of the triangle, has almost 100,000
employees, plus thousands of contractors and consultants. Agricultural interest groups,
the third component of the triangle, include many large and powerful associations, such
as the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and
the National Corn Growers Association. These three components of the iron triangle work
together, formally or informally, to create policy.
For example, the various agricultural interest groups lobby Congress to develop poli-
cies that benefit their groups’ economic welfare. Members of Congress cannot afford to
ignore the wishes of interest groups
because those groups are potential
sources of voter support and cam-
paign contributions. The legislators
in Congress also work closely with
the Department of Agriculture,
which, in implementing a policy,
can develop rules that benefit—or
at least do not hurt—certain indus-
tries or groups. The Department of
Agriculture, in turn, supports policies
that enhance the department’s bud-
get and powers. In this way, accord-
ing to theory, agricultural policy is
created that benefits all three com-
ponents of the iron triangle.Issue networks. With the growth
in the complexity of government,
policymaking also has become more
complicated. The bureaucracy is
larger, Congress has more commit-
tees and subcommittees, and inter-
est groups are more powerful thanTwo farmers walking together near their cows. What part do farmers play
in agricultural policymaking at the federal level? (Gary Fandel/Bloomberg via Getty
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