pearson-longman copyright 2005 the bureaucracy chapter 14

Pearson-Longman copyright 2005

The Bureaucracy

Chapter 14


The Role of the Bureaucracy• Laws effective only when government agency

enforces them.• Agency:

– Basic organizational unit of federal government. Also known as office or bureau.

• Department: – Organizational unit into which many agencies of the federal

government are grouped.

• Government corporations: – Independent organization created by Congress to fulfill

functions related to business.


The Role of the Bureaucracy• Administrative Discretion

– Power to interpret a legislative mandate.– Congress can enact general rules, but cannot

anticipate every circumstance, nor can it apply these rules to every individual case.


The Bureaucracy Problem

• Impossibility of Tasks• Performance difficult to measure.• Awkward tendency to expand.• Slow to change.• Often mired in red tape.• Taken together these factors create what is know

as the bureaucracy problem.


American Bureaucracies: Particularly Political

• While most are career civil servants, top positions belong to political appointees.

• Government more responsive to elections.

• But, it makes civil service jobs less attractive to bright young people.


Mountain of Patronage

• Patronage– Jobs, contracts, or favors given to political

friends and allies.

• Spoils System– A system of government employment in which

workers are hired on the basis of party loyalty.– Suited the needs of political parties.– Use the system to enlist campaign workers,

supporters and contributions.


Advantages and Disadvantages of the Spoils System

• Positive: Helped immigrants adjust to the realities of urban life in the U.S.– Irish immigrants good at using politics to get

ahead.

• Negative: Contributed to the negative image of American bureaucracies.– View that bureaucrats are wasteful and not

credible.


Erosion of the Spoils System

• Mugwamps– A group of civil-service reformers organized in the 1880s who

maintained that government officials should be chosen on a merit basis.

• Pendleton Act– Legislation passed in 1883 creating the Civil Service Commission.

• Civil Service– A system in which government employees are chosen according to

their educational qualifications, performance on examinations, and work experience.

• Hatch Act – barred federal employees from political campaigning and

solicitation.


Political Appointees Today

• Estimated number of top-level agency appointees grew from less than 500 in 1960 to nearly 2500 in 1998.

• Adding White House staff, the total number of high-ranking patronage positions is estimated close to 3000.

• No other industrialized democracy gives its leader as much patronage power.

• Yet these appointees may not know their own organizations very well.

• In and outers: Political appointees who com in, go out, and come back in again with each change in administration.


Political Appointees Today

• Rapid changes in personnel create a government that lacks the continuity necessary for sustained policy focus.

• Denial of most top-level positions to nonpolitical civil servants makes the civil service a less attractive career for intelligent, ambitious young people.

• Japan – civil service a sought after career.


The President and the Bureaucracy

• President “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”

• President must execute the laws.– Do so by overseeing the federal bureaucracy– Cabinet– Appoints members to independent agencies– Acts through the OMB


The Cabinet

• Inner cabinet– The four original departments of (State,

Defense, Treasury, and Justice) whose secretaries, typically have the closest ties to the president.

• Major function of the outer cabinet is to provide interest-group access to the executive branch of government.


Independent Regulatory Agencies

• Independent regulatory agencies are those that have quasi-judicial regulatory responsibilities.

• Generally headed by a several-member board or commission appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

• Most independent regulatory agencies were established by Congress in response to public pressure to protect workers and consumers from negligent or abusive business practices.


Independent Regulatory Agencies

• Most aggressively pursued their reform mandates.

• When public’s demand for reform fades, who is left? Interest groups.

• Many agencies find their most interested constituents to be members of the very community they are expected to regulate.


Office of Management and Budget

• OMB is an agency responsible for coordinating the work of departments and agencies of the executive branch.

• Once considered professionals focused on efficiency and frugality.

• Today more political. Utilized effectively by presidents to control other agencies.– End runs: effort by agencies to avoid OMB controls by

appealing to allies in Congress.– Congressional Budget Office created by Congress in 1974

to check the OMB’s growing power.


Congress and the Bureaucracy

• Agencies have many bosses in Congress.– Senate confirmation– Agency reorganization– Legislative detail– Budgetary control– Legislative oversight


Iron Triangles and Issue Networks

• Iron triangles– Close, stable connection among agencies,

interest groups and congressional committees.

• Issue networks– Loose, competitive relationships among policy

experts, interest groups, congressional committees and government agencies.


Elections and the Bureaucracy

• Reformers have tried to separate politics from the bureaucracy.

• Agency autonomy has kept some less politically charged.

• Electoral pressures have also played a positive role.– May force them to balance competing interests

by striking compromises.


Bureaucratic Secrecy

• Inside knowledge is power.• Secrecy can cover mistakes.• Electoral pressures have curtailed the

amount of secrecy in American government.

• Sunshine law– A 1976 law requiring that federal government

meetings be held in public.


Bureaucratic Coercion

• Do bureaucracies abuse their powers? • Example: IRS• Agencies are held accountable by the public and

by Congress.• Congressional oversight.• If bureaucratic agencies make life difficult for the

voting public, these agencies are more likely to be taken to task by elected officials.


Agency Expansion

• Agencies generally try to expand.• Congress may limit such expansion due to cost.• Bush administration has forced some bureaucrats

to compete with private companies for their jobs.– Has generated some protest.

– Believed they were already under-funded and understaffed and not able to compete for these reasons.


Administrator Caution

• Most federal agencies are more likely to err on the side of caution.

• Afraid of making a major mistake that gains it too much attention.


Compromised Capacity

• Agencies’ effectiveness may be limited by the compromise nature of the legislation they are supposed to enforce.

• Ex: politics of charter schools


Muddling Through

• Do not perform as badly as we think.• Actual experiences of clients has been far

better than their expectations.• Internet has had a positive impact.• B- grade overall• Must muddle through when so many

interests must be balanced.• Ex: Forest Service

pearson-longman copyright 2005 the bureaucracy chapter 14

Documents

pearsonlongman copyright

political appointees

government agency

government employees

political campaigning

political friends

government corporations

government officials