THE BUREAUCRACY

AKA: “RED TAPE”

• The bureaucracy is any, large, complex administrative structure. Usually comprised of a hierarchical organization with job specialization and complex rules.

• Distrust of the federal government has existed since its founding (the Anti-Federalists).

• It stems from the French system of organization of offices. Bureau=desk; cracy=type of government structure.

• A bureaucrat is a person with defined responsibilities in a bureaucracy.

• The main purpose of the federal bureaucracy is to carry out the policy decisions of the President and Congress.

• General Motors, the Fremont Unified School District, the Catholic Church, and the Department of Justice are all examples of bureaucracies.

MAJOR ELEMENTS of the FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY

• Nearly all of the bureaucracy resides in the executive branch of government.

• The bureaucracy is made up of the three major groups of administrative agencies: the Executive Office of the President; the 15 Cabinet Departments; and the independent agencies.

• The administration consists of the officials and agencies of the executive branch that carry out public policies.

• These administrators effect public policy in the following ways:– Through delaying the implementation of

policy dictated either by the legislative or executive branches.

– By writing rules and regulations.– By enforcing such rules, regulations, and

laws.– Adjudicating conflicting interests.

• Bureaucracies must operate under political restrictions.

• There exists much internal competition that can reduce effectiveness.

• The workload often exceeds the number of bureaucrats.

• The real power of a bureaucracy depends on the extent to which appointed officials have discretionary authority.

TERMINOLOGY

• The term “department” is reserved for agencies of cabinet rank.

• The terms “administration” and “agency” are used to refer to any governmental body or, more exactly, to a major unit headed by a single administrator of near-cabinet rank.

• http://www.firstgov.gov/Agencies/federal.shtml

• The term “commission” is reserved for agencies charged with the regulation of business activities (like the SEC). Commissions are headed by varying numbers of top-ranking officers, or commissioners.

• The terms “corporation” and “authority” are used for agencies that have a board and a manager and that is designed to conduct business-like activities.

CIVIL SERVANTS

• There are approximately three million bureaucrats (17 million if we count state and local public employees).

• Until about 100 years ago, a person got a job with government through the spoils system. Patronage is the practice of giving government jobs to the President’s friends and political supporters.

• Patronage, also known as the spoils system, was created by Andrew Jackson. Ironically, he is considered an egalitarian.

• The Pendleton Act of 1883 created a system in which federal employees were chosen on the basis of competitive examinations, thus making merit the reason for hiring people.

• President Jimmy Carter improved the system when he urged Congress to pass the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.

• The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 included the creation of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which now tests and hires most federal workers.

• However, a “buddy system” can be in place to allow the bureaucratic agency to circumvent the OPM by tailoring a job description to match a specific applicant, and, once hired, most bureaucrats cannot be fired.

• Salaries are proposed by the Civil Service system, subject to congressional appropriations.

THE HATCH ACT

• This act created a non-partisan civil service. The intent was to protect government workers from being fired when a new party comes into power.

• The Hatch Act (1939, amended 1993) prohibits civil servants from active participation in partisan politics. Under the terms of the Hatch Act, civil servants are permitted to:

– Vote in primary elections.– Contribute money to a political party.– Attend a political rally.– Place a bumper sticker on their personal

property.– PRIOR to the 1993 amendments, civil

servants were prohibited from coordinating a campaign for a neighbor running for political office.

THE CABINET

• The head of each department is known as the secretary, except for the Justice Department, which is headed by the attorney general.

• Department secretaries are appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate. Cabinet members can be fired by the President.

• Together, the department secretaries serve as the President’s cabinet. There are 15 cabinet departments.

• http://www.whitehouse.gov/government/cabinet.html

• The Department of Defense employs about one-fourth of all federal civilian employees, more than any other agency or department.

• The newest Cabinet department is the Department of Homeland Security.

INDEPENDENT AGENCIES

• Independent agencies are created by Congress and operate outside the 15 executive departments.

• There are three types of independent agencies: independent executive agencies, independent regulatory commissions, and government corporations.

• They are “supposed” to be free from political influence.

• The OMB reviews all “rule-making” by other agencies. All rules are recorded in the Federal Register.

INDEPENDENT REGULATORY COMMISSIONS

• These commissions (like the NLRB and the SEC) are created to regulate important aspects of the nation’s economy. They operate outside presidential control and their rules have the force of law.

• Historically, they have been considered the “fourth branch”. The first of which was the Interstate Commerce Commission, created in 1887 and disbanded in 1995. It was originally created to regulate railroads and, later, trucking.

• Another good example of the fourth branch is the Independent Counsel Act, which allows for a special prosecutor, appointed by the Federal Appeals Court of D.C.

GOVERNMENT CORPORATIONS

• Government corporations, the largest comprehensive bureaucracies, provide a service that can be readily handled by the private sector. These corporations are within the executive branch, and they are under the control of the President.

• Their top officers are appointed by the President with Senate confirmation; all of their employees are public officials. Amtrak, USPS, and the TVA are examples.

• The Resolution Trust Corporation was created in the aftermath of the Savings and Loan scandals in the late 1980’s.

UNDERSTANDING BUREAUCRACIES

• Presidents and Congress have difficulty in controlling bureaucracies due to the existence of “iron triangles”.

• When agencies, groups, and committees all depend on one another and are in close, frequent, and “cozy” contact, they form iron triangles, or sub-governments.

• Iron triangles are composed of bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees. They are characterized by mutual dependency, in which each element provides key services, information, or policy for the others.

• Congress tries to control the bureaucracy through rewriting laws, preparing budgets, and holding hearings. In fact, their hearings have a profound impact on how an agency operates. Thus, they possess oversight responsibility.

• However, powerful agencies and departments are able to persuade Congress to fund their projects.

• The most powerful group in Congress in terms of control over an agency’s budget is the House Appropriations Committee and the best indicator of a cabinet department’s yearly budget is the size of the previous year’s budget. If the department does not spend all the money allocated, then its funds will be cut the following year.

SPECIAL LEGISLATION

• The Whistleblower Act (1989) protects federal employees so that they can testify before Congress. Though the first federal employee protection is found in the Clean Water Act of 1972.

• The Freedom of Information Act (1966) allows citizens to view government records and require open meetings.

• The National Environmental Policy Act (1969) applies to federal agencies only and the preamble reads…

• "To declare a national policy which will encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man; to enrich the understanding of the ecological systems and natural resources important to the Nation…”

• This is the source for “environmental impact studies” in all federally funded programs.

• Many agencies such as the EPA were created in the 1960’s and 1970’s--the so-called “regulatory state” period.

• Other bureaucracy reform acts include: The Legislative Reorganization Act (1970); The Ethics in Government Act (1978); and, The Reinventing Government Act (1998).

NATIONAL PERFORMANCE REVIEW

• One of Al Gore’s major accomplishments as Vice President was his National Performance Review, which pointed out waste, fraud, and other abuse in the federal government and stressed the need for cutting the size of the bureaucracy and the number of regulations.

• Bill Clinton used this guide in the down-sizing of the federal government during his administration.

BUREAUCRACIES TODAY

• Congress has delegated substantial authority to administrative agencies in three areas:– Paying subsidies– Transferring money from federal to state

and local governments– Devising and enforcing regulations for all of

society

• Today, appointed officials can decide who shall own a television station, what safety features an automobile should have, what kinds of scientific research should be encouraged, what drugs should appear on the market, which dissident groups should be investigated, what fumes an industrial smokestack may emit, which corporate mergers can transpire, what use shall be made of national forests, and what prices crop and dairy farmers shall receive for their products.

• Today, the competitive service system has become decentralized, so that each agency may hire without an OPM referral, and exams are less common.

• About half of all workers are “excepted” appointments that aren’t hired by OPM. 3% of these are reserved for the President to select, for policy-making and politically sensitive posts, people who are in agreement with his policy views. Therefore, merit isn’t always the case.

• George W. Bush had over 2,000 of these posts to fill in 2001.