BUREAUCRACY

• Large, complex, hierarchical organization composed of appointed officials, who help carry out various functions of government

• Power over bureaucracy is shared among different institutions in the executive and legislative branches

• Found at different levels of government

Three things that give our bureaucracy a distinctive character

• 1. Political authority over the bureaucracy is shared among several institutions

• 2. Most of the agencies of the federal government share their functions with related agencies in state and local governments

• 3. Government agencies in this country operate under closer public scrutiny and with a greater prospect of court challenges to its authority than almost any other nation (“adversary culture”)

Bureaucracy on the Executive Level

1. Cabinet Departments:

• Headed by secretary, who is part of cabinet

• Undersecretaries, deputies, assistants

• Each has its own budget and staff

Bureaucracy on the Executive Level

2. Agencies• Responsible for a narrower set of functions• Found within departments (e.g., Social

Security Administration is part of Department of Health and Human Services)

• Independent: General Services Administration, USIA

Bureaucracy on the Executive Level

2a. Regulatory Agencies/Commission• Independent of other departments and

of president• Quasi-legislative: issue rules and

regulations• Quasi-judicial: settle disputes and issue

rulings• FDA, FTC, SEC, EPA, FEC, FRB (Fed),

NLRB, FCC

Bureaucracy on the Executive Level

2b. Independent executive agencies

• Heads are usually appointed by president and serve at his will

• Helps with day-to-day government operations

• General Services Administration: government purchasing

• NASA

• National Science Foundation

3. Government corporations

• Provide a service that could be handled by private sector

• Take over or help a failed industry• Members appointed by president• Long, staggered terms• TVA, Federal Deposit Insurance

Corporation, US Postal Service, Amtrak

Discretionary Authority

• Ability of appointed officials “to choose courses of action and to make policies that are not spelled out in advance by laws.”

• Bureaucracies today can: Pay subsidies to groups and organizations such as

farmers, veterans, scientists, schools, universities, hospitals

Transfer money from federal government to state and local government (grants-in-aid)

Devise and enforce regulations for various sectors of the economy and society

Discretionary Authority Examples

• Bureaucracies can decide who can own television stations, safety features for cars, what type of scientific research will be carried out, what drugs shall appear on the market, how much pollution is tolerable, what prices farmers will get for crops

Factors which influence how appointed officials behave

• 1. The manner in which they are recruited and rewarded

• 2. Their personal attributes (e.g. socioeconomic backgrounds and political attitudes)

• 3. Nature of their jobs• 4. The constraints that outside forces (political

superiors, legislators, interest groups, journalists) impose on their agencies

1. Recruitment, Retention, and Rewards

• The federal service system was designed to recruit qualified people on the basis of merit, not political patronage, and to retain and promote employees on the basis of performance, not political favoritism.

a. Competitive Service

• Appointed after passing an exam written by Office of Personnel Management or met certain criteria. Have to pick one of three top candidates

• Only half hired by test now because: Tests not always relevant to department’s

needs Specialists could not be ranked by exam Civil rights forced Washington to make racial

composition reflect national demographics

b. Excepted Employees

• Patronage positions• Presidential appointments (e.g., cabinet, judges, U.S.

marshals and attorneys, ambassadors, members of commissions)

• Schedule C appointments: confidential or policy making positions (e.g., executive assistants, special aides, and confidential secretaries)

• Noncareer assignments: high level officials brought in to advocate presidential programs or involved in policy making

c. Pendleton Act (1883)

• Patronage to merit system of hiring government employees passed by Republicans because:

Garfield killed by a “disappointed office seeker” Republicans feared that Democrats would eliminate

Republican officeholders• Buddy System: Name-Request Job—candidate is

identified by agency which wants that person. Often job description is tailor-made to that person

d. Civil Service Reform Act (1978)

• To give President more flexibility in recruiting, assigning, and paying civil servants at senior level

• Senior Executive Service provided cash bonuses to those who performed well

• Could be hired and fired and transferred• Failure: no one fired, only 10% can be hired

outside civil service, and no SES member can be transferred involuntarily

2. Personal Attributes

• Typical civil servant: middle-aged white male with a college degree coming from a greater than average background

• Civil servants hold somewhat different view from public:

1. Career civil servants more pro-government

2. Career civil servants do not have extreme policy positions (just like the public)

3. Nature of Position

• Activist agencies more liberal (e.g., Federal Trade Commission, Environmental Protection Agency, FDA, State Department)

• Traditional agencies more conservative (e.g., Agriculture, Commerce, Treasury, Defense)

4. Constraints

• Administrative Procedure Act (1946): “Before adopting a new rule or policy, an agency must give notice, solicit comments and (often) hold hearings”

• Freedom of Information Act (1966): Citizens’ “right to inspect [most] government records”

• National Environmental Policy Act (1969): Agency has to issue environmental impact statement before taking major action

4. Constraints

• Privacy Act (1974): “Government files about individuals, such as Social Security and tax records, must be kept confidential

• Open Meeting Law (1976): Agency meetings must be open to public unless sensitive issues being discussed (e.g., military or trade secrets)

Iron Triangles

• Relationship between agency, committee, and interest group

• Department of Veterans Affairs, House and Senate Committees on veterans affairs, and American Legion

• Client politics• Not as common as before because of overlapping

interests, increasing number of sub-committees, cross-cutting cleavages, diffusion of interests, and it is easier for individual to intervene in agency

Issue Network

• Washington-based interest groups, congressional staffs, universities and think tanks, and mass media who debate government policy

Congress and the bureaucracy

1. Congressional Oversight

• Most agencies exist because of Congressional approval

• Authorization legislation: Congress has to approve money spent by agency (yearly, permanent, fixed number of years)

• Appropriation: money formally set aside for a specific use; funds have to be appropriated before they are spent; often appropriation is less than amount authorized

a. Appropriations Committee

• In the past, very powerful. Most recommendations approved by full house

Not as powerful now because: • Trust funds circumvent regular budget and

appropriations committee has no control (e.g., Social Security benefits)

• Annual authorizations: changed from permanent or multiyear. Legislative committees set limits

• Budget deficitskeep spending down and meeting target spending limit

b. Committee Clearance

• Right of committees to be consulted on certain agency decisions

• Informal Congressional oversight

• Not legally binding but usually done

c. Legislative Veto

• Repeal by Congress of federal agency or presidential actions.

• Requirement that an executive decision must lie before Congress for a specified period of time (usually 30 or 90 days) before it takes effect

• Congress could then veto the decision if a resolution of disapproval were passed by either house (one-house veto) or both houses (two-house veto)

• Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional in Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha

c. Legislative Veto

• 1983 Chadha case: legislative veto declared unconstitutional because “every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary” shall go to the President

• This circumvents both houses from having to override a Presidential action (i.e., veto) with a 2/3 vote in both houses necessary

• Since Chadha, Congress still passing legislative vetoes as parts of laws (Why?)

d. Congressional Investigations

• Not mentioned in Constitution, so implied power.

2. Policy

• Interpretation and implementation arising from laws

• Regulation: support free enterprise and protect health, safety and welfare of people

• Adjudication: hearings to determine compliance with laws

• Compliance Enforcement: inspection (e.g., FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms)

Problems with Bureaucracies

1. Red Tape

• Complex rules and procedures to get things done

2. Conflict

• Agencies sometimes work at cross-purposes with other agencies

• Agricultural Research tells farmers how to grow more and Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service pays farmers to grow less

3. Duplication

• Two agencies which seem to be doing the same thing

• Drug Enforcement Administration and Customs Service try to stop illegal drug imports

4. Imperialism

• Agencies tend to grow without extra benefits and costing taxpayers more

5. Waste

• Agencies often spend more than is necessary

• http://moneymorning.com/2012/02/22/why-chimps-throw-poop-and-17-other-examples-of-government-waste/

Why implementation does not always work

• Program design: Faulty program design

• Lack of clarity

• Lack of resources

• Lack of necessary authority

• Inadequate or inflexible standard operating procedures

• Administrative discretion

• Fragmentation: responsibility for a policy is dispersed among several units within a bureaucracy

Bureaucratic Myths and Realities• Americans dislike bureaucrats: generally satisfied

with bureaucrats

• Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year: number of government employees growing, but not number of federal employees (state and local growing, fed also hires many private contractors)

• Most federal bureaucrats work in D.C.: only 12%

• Ineffective, inefficient, and mired in red tape: a way of organizing people to perform work