Reforming Bureaucracy

1. Why is bureaucracy sometimes referred to as the “Fourth Branch?”

Its size and power
2. What percentage of all executive branch employees can the President appoint and remove?
Top 20%
3. What influence does Congress have over bureaucracy?
Its ability to set agency and departmental budgets and even to eliminate bureaucracies
altogether
4. It is in the context of the American separated system that the bureaucracy is called on to
administer the laws, implement the policies, and run the programs created by the Congress and
the President.

5. One of the most difficult challenges faced by reformers is establishing accountability for the
observable outcomes of public policies and programs.

6. Even if the responsibility for a program's failure can be attributed to a particular department or
agency, the question is who within that department or agency should be held accountable?
That’s the big question.

7. Another obstacle to bureaucratic reform is that members of Congress and Presidents often
disagree about what it is that needs reforming.

8. Why do efforts to reform the bureaucracy fail?

because the people initiating the reforms, elected and appointed political leaders in the
Executive Branch, serve an average of two and a half years while career bureaucrats generally
serve more than twenty years.

9. Bureaucratic Reorganization - By realigning or restructuring departments, agencies, and their

responsibilities, Presidents and members of Congress have sought to contain costs, reduce
bureaucratic overlap and improve accountability.

10. Reorganization is, as one political scientist calls it, the "cod liver oil of government--an all
purpose cure for whatever ails the body politic."

11. Deregulation and Privatization - Among the more popular reform proposals today is the
privatization of bureaucracy and the deregulation of industry.

12. Deregulation is when the government reduces or eliminates restrictions - on industries, often
with the goal of making it easier to do business.

13. Privatization is the transfer of ownership, property or business from the government to the
private sector. The government ceases to be the owner of the entity or business.

14. Devolution – the transferring of national government resources and authority for the
administration of programs away from national-level bureaucracies to the states.
15. The most significant example of devolution in recent memory is the transfer of most federal
welfare programs to the states in 1996.

16. The drawback to devolution, however, is that the services provided and policies implemented
will be uneven across states.

17. With unevenness, there is the potential for inequities.

18. Proponents of devolution are quick to point out, though, that unevenness may also be a sign
that each state has adapted programs and policies to its particular needs.

19. Keys to reform:

a. First, if reforms are to occur, they are unlikely to occur rapidly.
b. A clear set of goals must be articulated and promising new solutions must be identified.
c. Reformers must work to build consensus across and within the Legislative and Executive
branches.