More Isn’t Always Better: Air Force Autonomy for Policy Decision-Making and Implementation from Divided Executive and Legislative Branches

This research examines three cases—the proposed retirement of the A-10, the standup of the Space Force, and the repeal of the combat flying ban for women—to test the conventional wisdom on divided principals. American civil-military relations are characterized by two government principals—the executive and legislative branches—overseeing the military services. They can be divided when their policy preferences for the military agent do not align. Principal-agent literature claims that a military agent’s autonomy increases when principals are divided because the military agent—in this case, the Air Force—can play the executive branch off of the legislative branch, gaining latitude for its policy preference.