Over the past quarter century, federal bureaucracies have been affected by numerous changes-many of which were designed to restrictbureaucratic autonomy. Several scholars have concluded that bureaucracy's role in the process of governance has been substantially diminished. When the changes are closely inspected, however, most-including the proliferation of political appointees-prove not to be as effective at restraining bureaucracy as often supposed Also, because many restrictions interact with others, they are not really summative; sometimes they cancel each other out.