Governmental and Administrative Structures

Outline

I. What is the Context in Which Public Organizations Operate

II. What is the Relationship Between Public Organizations and the Executive

III. What is the Relationship Between Public Organizations and the Legislature

Outline

IV. What is the Relationship Between Public Organizations and the Judiciary

V. What is the Relationship Between Public Organizations and Other Interested Parties

VI. Organizational Resources and Issues

I. What is the Context in Which Public Organizations Operate

A. What is Context?Context is not merely physical, it includes the….beliefs and values that shape our expectations of public organizations as well as the structures we have developed to try and maintain those values.

Kaufman

This author argues that the administrative history of our governmental machinery can by captured by change in emphasis among 3 values - representativeness, political neutral competence, and executive leadership

Kaufman

For this author, group discontent is the dynamic force that motivates the quest for new forms of administration; at particular points in time, enough people will be persuaded by one another of these discontents to support remedial action

Kaufman

During the time the author was writing, he noted that most people were dissatisfied with the representativeness of the process; he argued that the solution would be greater decentralization of power to lower levels of government

B. What are the Features of U.S Context?Complex due to founding fathers’ fear of concentrated power

 Hamilton/Federalists: strong, centralized government staffed by men of wealth, class and education; reflects distrust of the people

Jefferson/Anti-Federalists: saw administration as linked to the issue of extending democracy - more decentralized approach with controls on the executive

II. What is the Relationship Between Public Organizations and the Executive

A. Administrative Organizations Executive Office of the President (Office of Management and Budget; National Security Council; Council of Economic Advisors) advises and assists the President in formulating and implementing national policyCabinet Level Executive Departments—DOD; HHS; Treasury; Agriculture; Interior; Transportation; Justice; Commerce; State; Labor; Energy; HUD; Education; Veterans Affairs, Homeland SecurityIndependent agencies, regulatory commissions, and public corporationsGovernment Printing Office, Library of Congress, General Accounting Office

II. What is the Relationship Between Public Organizations and the Executive

B. Tools for executive control over administrative organizations

 Executive order—presidential mandate directed to and governing, with the effect of law, the actions of government officials and agencies

Veto 

Political appointees

III. What is the Relationship Between Public Organizations and the Legislature

A.     Structural control mechanisms

Legislative veto—any action proposed by the executive or agency under provisions of a particular piece of legislation is subject to the approval or disapproval of Congress, usually within 30 to 90 days (declared unconstitutional in Chadha (1983) but still used)

Sunset laws—used to assess the performance of agencies and to eliminate those that are not successful; specify life span for program and require renewal for continuation

Sunshine laws—require agencies to conduct work in public view

III. What is the Relationship Between Public Organizations and the Legislature

B. Supervisory control mechanisms

Oversight—committee with jurisdiction over particular agencies; hearings; CBO; GAO

Casework—using agencies to meet constituent needs

IV. What is the Relationship Between Public Organizations and the Judiciary

Rulemaking-concerned with establishing general guidelines that would apply to a class of people or a class of actions in the future Governed by the Administrative Procedures Act:

seeks to insure that rules are based on proper legal authority, that there are both adequate notice of the rule making and an opportunity for citizens to be heard, that the rule is clear and unambiguous, and that people are given sufficient advance warning that the new rule will take affect

Negotiated rulemaking - an alternative means of dispute resolution that would not require formal legal process

Brings together interested parties and try to arrive at consensus

Adjudication- desire to see that citizens are treated fairly and are not subjected to arbitrary decisions

Rules vs Standards Debate

Here is the rules and standards debate in a nutshell. Law translates background social policies or political principles such as truth, fairness, efficiency, autonomy, and democracy into a grid of legal directives that decision makers in turn apply to particular cases and facts.

These mediating legal directives take different forms that vary in the relative discretion they afford the decision maker.

These forms can be classified as either rules or standards to signify where they fall on the continuum of discretion.

Rules, once formulated, afford decision makers less discretion that do standards

V. What is the Relationship Between Public Organizations and Other Interested

PartiesPolitical appointee connection—friction tends to exist between the executives appointed by elected officials and the government employees they are supposed to lead Client connection—top administrators are quite sensitive to the dominant interests or clients they represent Cognate agency connection—related or connected; seldom one agency alone involved in policy; jurisdictional and mission overlap Media connection—better relations with press, more successful policy makers are in doing their job, easy to understand, cover and report Activist connection—no organization is safe from the wrath of activists groups; demonstrations, boycotts,

VI. Organizational Resources and Issues

 A. Resources DenhardtStaff (expertise); legislation is vague giving

discretion to the administration; political clout

External-public opinion, support from clientele groups, members of the legislature, others in executive branch

Internal-information, expertise, cohesion, leadership

A. Resources con’t

Starling

Resources, external support (strength/size, dispersion, unity)

Professionalism,

Leadership-basis of power

Coercive power-ability to threaten punishment and deliver penalties; magnitude of punishment real or imagined, other party's estimate of the probability the leader will mete out punishmentConnection power-personal ties with important people inside and outside an organizationExpert power-reputation for special knowledge, expertise, or skills in a given areaDependence power-peoples perception that they are dependent on the leader either for help or for protectionObligation power-efforts to do favors for people who they expect will feel an obligation to return those favorsLegitimate power-formal position held by the leaderReferent power-identification of others with the leader-liked, admired, respectedReward power-ability to make followers believe that compliance with the leaders wishes will lead to pay, promotion, recognition, or other rewards

B. Costs:

Every important administrative action has indirect costs, externalities, or spillover costs

Who is going to be glad? How glad?

Who is going to be mad? How mad?

C. Strategies

Cooperation: 2 groups can share compatible goals without one having to completely give in to the otherPersuasion-ability to link behavior wanted to self-interest of other partyBargaining-negotiation of an agreementCompromise-single, isolated issue, outcome one of more or lessLogrolling-more than one issue at stake, reciprocityCoalition-combination of 2 or more organizations for a specific purposeCompetition- struggle between 2 or more parties with a 3rd party mediating--seize the initiation or co-opting the oppositionConflict-pursue goals that are fundamentally incompatible

Wilson

Three Key Organizational IssuesCritical Tasks—those behaviors, which if performed successfully, enable the organization to manage its critical environmental problem

Mission—agreement and widespread endorsement of the way the critical task is defined

Autonomy—sufficient freedom of action and external political support to permit it to redefine its tasks as it sees best