CONFLICT AND COMPROMISE

in The Bureaucracy

Understanding the Bureaucracy

Success within the Bureaucracy

Dependence on the Bureaucracy

Bureaucratic Waste

Bureaucratic Failures

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?

The federal bureaucracy is made up of:
Millions of permanent employees (civil servants) Thousands of short-term workers (political appointees of the president)

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?

What do bureaucrats do?
Implement policies established by Congress or the president Develop programs and policies to achieve goals of laws
When laws are very specific, bureaucrats have very little discretion More commonly, laws provide general guidelines

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?

What do bureaucrats do? (cont.)
Regulate individual and corporate behavior Buy products ranging from erasers to airplanes Engage in inherently political activities

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?

Regulations
Government rules that give government control over individuals and corporations by restricting behaviors
Developed via the notice and comment procedure Rule making is very political Bureaucrats listen to congressional pressure; Congress can overturn statutes that give bureaucrats power and Congress controls their budgets

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?

Regulations (cont.)
Federal regulations affect every aspect of everyday life
Gas mileage of cars sold in the United States Amount doctors can charge senior citizens for particular procedures.

Often, regulations cause trade-offs between incompatible goals.

FDA and experimental treatment

Influences on Bureaucratic Rule Making

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?

Procurement
Bureaucrats are in charge of government purchases Make decisions regarding the criteria of what they will buy Crises often involve inflated costs.
FEMA and Hurricane Katrina

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?

Providing services
Street-level bureaucrats provide government services to regular Americans Job training Disaster assistance Park services

Research and development

Government scientists do research covering a wide variety of areas

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?

Managing and directing
Supervising: For example, the Department of Defense uses civilian contractors to complete a wide variety of services in Iraq

Bureaucratic expertise and its consequences

Bureaucrats are experts; in general, more so than members of Congress or the president Experts help create a state capacity

Bureaucrats Make Mistakes

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?

Bureaucratic expertise and its consequences (cont.)
Criticism of bureaucracies
Too much red tape Standard operating procedure

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?

Bureaucratic expertise and its consequences (cont.)
How can experts create red tape and other dysfunctional ways of doing business?
Expertise Problem of control (principal-agent game) Regulatory capture Neutral competence as an antidote?

History of the American Bureaucracy

The beginning of Americas bureaucracy
Even as late as the 1820s, there were only three executive departments Small size of the federal government was indicative of Americans distrust of government after years of British rule President Jackson used the spoils system
People who had worked in Jacksons campaign were given government jobs as rewards. Useful for the party organization

The Beginning of American Bureaucracy

History of the American Bureaucracy

No inherent logic in the structure of the bureaucracy Developed in a piecemeal fashion during three major periods:
Late 1890searly 1900s 1930s 1960s

History of the American Bureaucracy

Building a New American State: The Progressive Era
Governments regulatory power increased from 1890 to 1920
Sherman Antitrust Act Pure Food and Drug Act Meat Inspection Act

History of the American Bureaucracy

Building a New American State: The Progressive Era (cont.)
1883 Pendleton Civil Service Act
Created a bureaucracy built on expertise through merit system Helped to end the spoils system

History of the American Bureaucracy

The New Deal, the Great Society, and the Reagan Revolution
New Deal programs are those developed and implemented during Franklin Roosevelts first presidential term in the 1930s Expanded governments role in the economy
Debates over this expansion have animated partisan politics ever since

History of the American Bureaucracy

The New Deal, the Great Society, and the Reagan Revolution (cont.)
The Great Society: Another expansion of the size, capacity, and behavior of the government bureaucracy that took place during Lyndon Johnsons presidency
Congress funded bilingual education. Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act Medicare and Medicaid

The Reagan Revolution

The Executive Branch of the Federal Government

The Structure of the Department of Agriculture

The Modern Federal Bureaucracy

Hiring and firing rules regarding bureaucrats affect the amount of oversight to which the bureaucrats are subjected
Federal Reserve appointees get 14-year terms

Bureaucratic structure is often politically driven

Iraq War: Office of Special Plans uses raw intelligence data rather than expert interpretations of that data when making the case for war

The Modern Federal Bureaucracy

Executive Office of the President (see Chapter 11)
Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Creates the annual budget proposal president presents to Congress

Below the EOP are the fifteen cabinet-level departments

Each department is made up of many smaller organizations

The Size of the Federal Budget

The Modern Federal Bureaucracy

Executive Office of the President (cont.)
Below the executive departments are independent agencies like the Federal Reserve See Chapter 15, Economic Policy.

Federal Employment

The Size of the Federal Government

Number of people serving in each executive department and independent agency varies widely
Department of Defense has over 600,000 employees; Department of Education has 4,000. Mission and scope of the departments Budget maximizers: Bureaucrats who work to improve the funding for their agency regardless of whether that spending is useful

Employment in Selected Federal Organizations

Employment in Selected Federal Organizations (contd)

The Size of Our Government Compared to Those of Other Nations

Public Preferences For Spending Cuts

The Human Face of the Bureaucracy

Motivations
Majority of bureaucrats serve for the job security, salary, and benefits Over one-third say that their main incentive in seeking a bureaucratic position was an interest in public service

Motivations for Employment

The Human Face of the Bureaucracy

Civil Service Regulations
Education improves pay Civil service system has a set of tests to determine who is hired for lower-level positions

The Human Face of the Bureaucracy

Civil Service Regulations (cont.)
Higher-level jobs are awarded to those who have good qualifications, experience, and education Seniority helps determine promotions After three years of satisfactory job performance, a civil servant cannot be fired without cause

The Human Face of the Bureaucracy

Civil Service Regulations (cont.)
Many cumbersome regulations Reason for their existence is to take politics out of the hiring process

The Human Face of the Bureaucracy

Limits on Political Activity
The Hatch Act prohibits federal workers from engaging in organized political activities Senior White House staffers are exempt from these restrictions
However, prevented from using government resources for political purposes

Rules of the Bureaucracy

The Human Face of the Bureaucracy

Political Appointees and the Senior Executive Service
President appoints about 7,000 political appointees who are not traditional civil servants to the federal bureaucracy Some potentially less competent campaign staffers are awarded positions on turkey farms Ability to make political appointments helps the president exercise some control over the bureaucracy.

How Americans View the Federal Bureaucracy

Controlling the Bureaucracy

Principalagent game: Lawmakers must determine how to get the benefits of bureaucratic expertise without giving bureaucrats complete control over their own behavior
Give direct orders Limits their bureaucratic expertise Agency organization and monitoring

Agency Organization

The Bureaucracy

Controlling the Bureaucracy

Monitoring
Oversight from Congress Advance Warning
Requires bureaucrats to disclose their proposed actions before they take effect

Investigations
Police patrol oversight: Constant monitoring Fire alarm oversight: Congress responds to complaints about a bureaucratic agency

Controlling the Bureaucracy

Correcting Violations
Legislation and executive orders can correct problems Correcting problems is most challenging when the Congress and the president disagree
This is when agencies often have the most discretion

Is Political Control of the Bureaucracy Beneficial?

Explaining the Anomalies

How can the government succeed in some areas and fail in others?
Complex tasks
Example: Great Societys goal of eliminating American poverty

Standard operating procedure is red tape and confusion Political control problems

Explaining the Anomalies

Public Opinion Poll

Do you generally approve or disapprove of the way the federal bureaucracy is handling its job?
a) Approve b) Disapprove

Public Opinion Poll

Which of the following do you believe is most appropriate to address Americans dissatisfaction with the federal bureaucracy? a) Devolution of responsibilities to lower levels of government b) Increased use of private companies to provide government goods and services

Public Opinion Poll

If television content increases viewers fear and subsequent support for security agencies, is that good or bad for the functioning of American democracy?
a) Good b) Bad

Chapter 12: The Bureaucracy Practice quizzes

Flashcards

Outlines

wwnorton.com/studyspace

Following this slide, you will find additional slides with photos, figures, and captions from the textbook.

The bureaucracy's responsiveness to comments from business interests

Hank Paulson

Bureaucratic Effi ciency and the General Services Administration