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Five pillars of the administrative state: a 50-state survey (2020)
From Ballotpedia
| Administrative State |
|---|
| Five Pillars of the Administrative State |
| •Agency control • Executive control • Judicial control •Legislative control • Public Control |
| Click here for more coverage of the administrative state on Ballotpedia.
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| Click here to access Ballotpedia's administrative state legislation tracker. |
Disclaimer:
The research presented on this page was completed in 2020. It has not been regularly updated since its completion. This page is likely outdated and may be incomplete.
Each of the 50 states has its own state-level Administrative Procedures Act and, of course, its own constitution, a number of which have stronger or weaker provisions for empowering or reining in the administrative state at the state-level. Ballotpedia has surveyed state-level APAs and constitutions, along with state court and legislative trends, to show how the states stack up in each of the following five areas key to understanding the nature and scope of the administrative state:
- Delegation of legislative authority to other branches
- Judicial deference to administrative agencies
- Executive control of administrative agencies
- Due process and procedural rights
- Agency dynamics
Below are links to pages with the results of Ballotpedia's series of 50-state surveys examining the five pillars key to understanding the administrative state.
Nondelegation doctrine
- Nondelegation doctrine: State prohibitions on delegation of legislative power to agencies
- Nondelegation doctrine: States with APAs or constitutions that contain separation of powers provisions
- Nondelegation doctrine: Permissible delegations of state legislative power
- Nondelegation doctrine: State formal rulemaking requirements
- Nondelegation doctrine: States with regulatory review bodies
Executive control of agencies
- Executive control of agencies: State executive removal power over agency officials
- Executive control of agencies: States with elected cabinet members
- Executive control of agencies: State hiring or appointment of administrative law judges
- Executive control of agencies: Organization of state administrative law judges
Judicial deference
- Judicial deference: States that require de novo review of agency decisions
- Judicial deference: States with different standards for agency actions in civil versus criminal cases
Procedural rights
- Procedural rights: State limits on who can challenge agency adjudication actions in a state court
- Procedural rights: States that require people to exhaust administrative appeals of agency adjudication actions before appealing to state courts
- Procedural rights: States that require agencies to prove rule violators acted knowingly before imposing penalties
- Procedural rights: States that require agencies to meet higher burdens of proof in proportion to the size of monetary penalties they seek to impose
- Procedural rights: States that allow agencies to impose monetary penalties without a court order
- Procedural rights: States that require agencies to follow formal adjudication procedures in administrative hearings
- Procedural rights: States that provide for juries to participate in agency adjudication hearings
- Procedural rights: States that require administrative agencies to accept oral evidence during adjudicative hearings
- Procedural rights: States where administrative agencies must allow people to cross-examine witnesses during adjudicative hearings
- Procedural rights: States that require administrative agencies to provide a transcript of adjudicative hearings
- Procedural rights: States that require administrative agency officers to base decisions on the adjudication record
- Procedural rights: States that require administrative agencies to explain the reasons for all material findings and conclusions in adjudication decisions
- Procedural rights: States that provide for administrative agency leader review of initial adjudication decisions by ALJs or hearing officers
- Procedural rights: States that permit administrative agencies to use informal adjudication procedures
- Procedural rights: States that permit lawyers to represent parties during adjudication proceedings
- Procedural rights: States that require final agency action before parties may appeal to a state court
- Procedural rights: States that define final agency action
- Procedural rights: States that limit ex parte communications between hearing officers and the parties involved in adjudication
- Procedural rights: States that establish training requirements or professional qualifications for ALJs, hearing officers, or other agency officials who preside over adjudications
- Procedural rights: States that place the burden of proof on administrative agencies during adjudication
- Procedural rights: States that require administrative agencies to share the evidence against regulated parties during adjudication
- Procedural rights: States that require agencies to tell people about agency legal authority and what is at issue before a hearing
Agency dynamics
- Agency dynamics: States that prohibit administrative agencies from making rules in ways that do not follow established rulemaking procedures
- Agency dynamics: States with sunset provisions for administrative rules
- Agency dynamics: States that require administrative agencies to conduct cost-benefit analysis before implementing rules
- Agency dynamics: States that define what qualifies as a guidance document
- Agency dynamics: States that specify qualifications for any (even one) of their administrative agency leaders
In 2025, Ballotpedia updated the pillar system used to understand the main areas of debate about the nature and scope of the administrative state. Click here to learn more about this updated structure and to see Ballotpedia's current content related to the administrative state.
