The CIA's Democratic Integrity: Information Sharing and Electoral Accountability

Abstract

Drawing from previous research on the political business cycle and principal-agent theory on executive and congressional oversight of information sharing, I analyze the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) implementation of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) during presidential and congressional elections. I find that when the the incumbent president is democrat the CIA responds to FOIA requests approximately a month faster than when the incumbent president is a republican (p<0.20).