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This expansion accelerated throughout the 20th century, with new agencies created to address emerging challenges in areas ranging from environmental protection and workplace safety to civil rights and consumer protection. Each new agency brought specialized knowledge and regulatory authority, but also raised questions about accountability, oversight, and the appropriate limits of administrative power.
Dr. Sarah Thompson, administrative law scholar at Georgetown University, explains this evolution: “The growth of administrative agencies reflects the practical reality that modern governance requires technical expertise that generalist legislators and judges simply cannot possess. But this specialization comes with trade-offs in terms of democratic accountability and individual rights protection that we’re still working out.”
