The Federal Bureaucracy Today

Did you know: There are approximately 4 million employees in the federal bureaucracy and 17 million in

state and local bureaucracy. Most don’t work in D.C. but in federal agencies across the

country.

The Federal Bureaucracy Today

• Direct and indirect growth Modest increase in number of government employees Significant indirect increase in number of employees through use of private

contractors, state and local government employees

• Growth in discretionary authority – the ability to choose courses of action and to make policies not set out in the statutory law (more discretionary authority = more power)

Delegation of undefined authority to Congress greatly increased Primary areas of delegation of authority from Congress

1. Subsidies to groups and organizations 2. Grant-in-aid programs, transferring money from national to

state and local governments 3. Devising and enforcing regulations, especially for the economy

The Federal Bureaucracy Today • Factors Explaining the Behaviors of Officials

1. Recruitment and reward systems 2. Personal and political attributes 3. Nature of work4. Constraints imposed on agencies by various outside actors

Recruitment and Retention1. Competitive service (Civil Servants): bureaucrats compete for jobs

through Office of Personnel Management (OPM)• Appointments by merit based on written exam or through selection

criteria • Competitive service system has become more decentralized, less reliant on

OPM.

WHY?:1. OPM system is cumbersome and not geared to

department needs 2. Agencies need professionally trained people who cannot

be ranked by examination (biologists, engineers, lawyers, etc)

3. Agencies face pressure to diversify federal bureaucracy personnel (make bureaucracy population look like regular pop)

Recruitment and Retention2. Excepted service (Political Appointees) : bureaucrats appointed by

agencies, typically in a nonpartisan fashion About 3% of expected employees are appointed on grounds other than merit –

presidential appointments, Schedule C jobs, non-career executive assignments *Schedule C = jobs that have “confidential or policy determining character,” below level of cabinet or subcabinet posts *non-career executive assignments= involved in advocacy of presidential programs and policy making

• Pendleton Act (1883): changed the basis of government jobs from patronage to merit • Merit system protects president from pressure and protects patronage

appointees from removal by new presidents (blanket in) *average appointee on the job 22 months. Not long enough to have lasting impact.

Did You Know…?

• The Pendleton Act, which created the civil service, was passed in part as a response to the assassination of President Garfield by a “disappointed office seeker.”

Recruitment and Retention3. The buddy system – Name-request job: filled by a person whom an

agency has already identified for middle- and upper-level jobs

– Job description may be tailored for one person – Circumvents the usual search process – Encourages issue networks based on shared policy

views

Recruitment and Retention4. Firing a bureaucrat – Most bureaucrats cannot be easily fired, although there are

informal methods of discipline – Senior Executive Service (SES) was established to provide

the president and cabinet with more control in personnel decisions

– But very few SES members have actually been fired or even transferred, and cash bonuses have not been influential

Recruitment and Retention5. The agencies’ point of view – Agencies are dominated by lifetime bureaucrats

who have worked for no other agency – Long-term service assures continuity and expertise

*even when leaders (President and Cabinet) changes

– Long-term service also gives subordinates power over new bosses: can work behind their boss’s back through sabotage, delaying, etc.

Do Bureaucrats Sabotage Their Political Bosses?

• Most bureaucrats try to carry out policy, even those they disagree with

• But bureaucrats do have obstructive powers in the public interest– Whistleblower Protection Act (1989)

• Most civil servants have highly structured jobs that make their personal attitudes irrelevant

• Professionals’ loosely structured roles may cause their work to be more influenced by personal attitudes – Professional values help explain how power is used

Example: lawyers v. economists at the Federal Trade Commission

Personal Attributes • Includes social class, education, political beliefs • Allegations of critics are based on the fact that political

appointees and upper-level bureaucrats are unrepresentative of U.S. society and the belief that they have an occupational self-interest

• Bureaucratic Ideology– Bureaucrats are somewhat more liberal or conservative, depending on the

appointing president, than the average citizen– Bureaucrats do not take extreme positions

• Correlation between the type of agency and the attitudes of the employees– Activist agency bureaucrats tend to be more liberal (FTC, EPA, FDA)– Traditional agency bureaucrats tend to be less liberal (Agriculture,

Commerce, Treasury)– Bureaucrats’ policy views reflect the type of work that they do

Factors that Influence Bureaucratic Conduct

• Recruitment and reward– Federal bureaucrats serve 1 year trial period before

being granted tenure – Once tenured, extremely difficult to fire (termination

process usually lasts 2 year) • Personal attributes– Tend to be highly educated, middle-aged white

males– But behavior tends to be standardized because of

rules/procedures – Generally are more liberal than average American.

Factors that Influence Bureaucratic Conduct

• Nature of the job–Most agencies have a sense of mission– Hiring, firing, pay, and other procedures are

established by law, not by the market

• External forces

Culture and Careers• Each agency has its own culture, an informal

understanding among employees about how they are supposed to act

• Strong agency culture motivates employees but makes agencies resistant to change

Constraints

General constraints • Administrative Procedure Act

(1946)• Freedom of Information Act (1966)• National Environmental Policy Act

(1969)• Privacy Act (1974)• Open Meeting Law (1976)

Several agencies are often assigned to a single policy

If we want greater efficiency, we need to ask Congress to lift some of these restraints!

Effects of Constraints • Government moves slowly • Government sometimes acts

inconsistently • Easier to block action than take action • Reluctant decision making by lower-

ranking employees • Red tape –complex rules/procedures

**Constraints come from citizens: agencies try to respond to citizen demand for openness, honesty, fairness, etc.

Major problems with Bureaucracies

• Again: Red tape • Conflict – Exists when agencies work at cross-purposes• Duplication– When agencies do the same things • Imperialism – Tendency of agencies to grow without regard to the

benefits their programs confer or the costs they entail

• Waste – Occurs when an agency spends more than is

necessary for a product or service

ALL ARE HARD TO CORRECT!!

Agency Allies • Agencies often seek alliances with congressional

committees and interest groups – Iron triangle – a tight, mutually advantageous alliance – Resulted in client politics

• Far less common today – politics have become too complicated – More interest groups, more congressional subcommittees – more

competing forces – Courts have also granted more access

• Issue networks: groups that regularly debate government policy on certain issues – Contentions – split along partisan, ideological, economic lines – New presidents often recruit from networks

CongressTransportation Committee of House or Senate

BureaucracyDepartment of Transportation

Interest GroupsTruckers Union, AAA

Iron Triangle: Transportation Policy

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• Though iron triangles still exist, they are often inadequate explanations of how policy is made

• Typically described today in terms of issue networks, individuals or organizations that support a particular policy position on an issue– Legislators and/or their staff– Interest groups– Bureaucrats– Scholars/experts – Representatives from the media

Iron Triangle

Did You Know…?• The federal government spends over $1 billion

every five hours, every day of the year.• The Commerce Department’s U.S. Travel and

Tourism Administration gave away $440,000 in disaster relief to western ski resort operators because there hadn’t been enough snow.

Did You Know…?• The Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency spent

over $11 million on psychics who were supposed to provide special insights regarding various foreign threats.

• Federal officials spent $333,000 building a deluxe, earthquake-proof outhouse for hikers in Pennsylvania’s remote Delaware Water Gap recreation area.

• Each year, federal administrative agencies produce rules that fill 7,500 pages in the Code of Federal Regulations.