Bureaucracy - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

BureaucracySlide2

Bureaucracy

Large, complex organization of appointed, not elected, officials.

Includes all of the agencies, people, and procedures needed to operate the government

“bureau” – French for small desks, referring to the king’s traveling business men who set up small desks in town squares

Bureaucracy = “government of small desks

” or “rule by desks”Slide3

Max Weber

Famous early 20

th

century

German economist

Bureaucracy – well organized, complex machine that is a “rational” way for society to organize its

business

Weber identified five common characteristics of a “successful” bureaucracy…Slide4

Weber’s Analysis

Hierarchical

authority structure

– chain of

command, authority flows from top down

Task specialization

– individuals have unique jobs,

become experts in their area

Extensive rules

– clear policies

allow similar cases to be handled in similar ways

Merit principle

– hiring and promotion based on ability, not favoritism

Impersonality

– clients are treated impartiallySlide5

Bureaucratic Myths

Americans generally dislike bureaucrats.

Americans are generally satisfied with their interactions with bureaucracies.

The (federal) government is getting bigger every year!

Most growth is state and local

Bureaucracies are ineffective and inefficient!

Government bureaucracies are no more or less efficient than private bureaucracies.Slide6

Who are the

Civil Servants?

The bureaucracy is more representative of the demographics of our population than Congress, the Courts, or presidential appointees in the executive branch.

The diversity in bureaucratic jobs mirrors the diversity in private sector jobs.

Until ~ 100 years ago, jobs were awarded through the

patronage

(spoils) system.

a hiring and promotion system for political reasons, based on knowing the right people.Slide7

Way Back When…

Patronage - Rewarding supporters with jobs

“Spoils system” – created by Andrew Jackson, each President turned over the bureaucracy

Pendleton Act (1883) - Created in response to criticism of patronage, more jobs will be selected based on

meritSlide8

How are

Civil Servants hired?

Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883

created a federal civil service

Civil Service –

Hiring and promotion based on merit and nonpartisan government service.

Merit principle -

produces administration by people with talent and skill based on exam scores and job performance (promotion ratings).

Nonpartisan civil service -

government workers insulated from the risk of being fired when a new party comes to power.Slide9

How are the Civil Servants hired? Part

Deux

GS (General Schedule) rating –

ranges from GS 1 to GS 18, by which positions and salaries can be keyed to rating and experience.

Senior Executive Service –

9,000 federal government managers that provide leadership at the top of the civil service system.

High salaries, can be moved around based on need

Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

is in charge of hiring for most agencies of the federal government.

For each position that is open, the OPM will send three names to the agency (known as the

rule of three

).Slide10

Job Security

After a probationary period, civil servants are

protected

(very difficult to fire)

An employee can appeal his or her dismissal, which can consume weeks, months, or even years. (The right of appeal must be exhausted before one

’

s paycheck stops.)

Ensuring a nonpartisan civil service requires that workers have protection from dismissals that are politically motivated.

Protecting all workers against political firings may also protect a few from dismissal for good cause.

It is much easier to dismiss a cabinet member.Slide11

Political Appointees

Every incoming president launches a nationwide talent search to almost 3,000 positions.

Plum Book –

A listing of the top federal jobs available for direct presidential appointment, often with Senate confirmation.

500 top policymaking posts (mostly cabinet secretaries, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, and bureau chiefs) and 2,500 lesser positions.Slide12

Political Appointees (II)

Presidents look for individuals who combine executive talent, political skills, and policy views similar to those of the president.

NOT civil service or merit positions

Incoming presidents try to ensure diversity and balance in terms of gender, ethnicity, region, and party interests.

Some positions—especially ambassadorships—go to large campaign contributors.

Most will be political appointees,

“

in-and-outers,

”

who stay for a while and then leave; they soon learn that senior civil servants know more, have been there longer, and will outlast them.Slide13

What do bureaucrats do?

Discretionary action

– have the power to execute laws and policies passed down by the president or congress.

Implementation

– develop procedures and rules for reaching the goal of a new policy

Regulation

– check private business activity

Munn v. Illinois

(1877) –

SCOTUS

upheld that government had the right to regulate business rates and servicesSlide14

Sheeple

Administrative routine

- bureaucrats follow

standard operating procedures (SOPs)

to help them make numerous everyday decisions.

SOPs bring uniformity to complex organizations.

Justice is better served if rules are applied uniformly.

Uniformity also makes personnel interchangeable.

Routines are essential to bureaucracy

they also become frustrating to citizens, who term them

“

red tape

”

when they do not appear to appropriately address a situation, and may become obstacles to action.Slide15

When they aren’t Sheeple

Administrators

’

dispositions

- bureaucrats operate within strict routines but often have considerable

discretion to behave independently

.

Administrative discretion -

the authority of policy administrators to select among various responses to a given problem.

Discretion is greatest when rules do not fit a case; but even in agencies with elaborate rules and regulations—especially when more than one rule fits—there is still room for discretion.

street-level bureaucrats -

bureaucrats who are in constant contact with the public and have considerable discretion (including police officers, welfare workers, and lower court judges).

discretion depends on their dispositions about the policies and rules they administer (bureaucrats may be indifferent to the implementation of most policies, but some may conflict with their policy views or personal or organizational interests).

The exercise of discretion is hard to control: it is not easy to fire bureaucrats in the Civil Service, and removing appointed officials may be politically embarrassing to the president.Slide16

Cabinet DepartmentsSlide17

Cabinet Departments

Each department manages specific policy areas, and each has its own budget and its own staff.

Each department has a mission and is organized differently.

Bureaus (sometimes they are called administration, service, or office) divide the work into more specialized areas.Slide18

OrganizationSlide19

Implementation

Policy

implementation

occurs when the bureaucracy carries out decisions of Congress, the president, and even the courts.

Public policies are

rarely self-executing

: bureaucrats translate legislative policy goals into programs.

Congress typically announces the goals of a policy in broad terms, sets up an administrative apparatus, and leaves the bureaucracy the task of working out the details of the program.Slide20

3 Steps of Policy Implementation

Creation of a new agency or assignment of responsibility to an existing one

Coordination of resources and personnel to achieve the intended goals.

Translation of policy goals into operational rules of thumb and development of guidelinesSlide21

Privatization

Private Contractors provide services without expanding the permanent bureaucracy.

Private Contractors provide specialized skills that the government workers may lack.

Competition in the private sector will (theoretically) result in better service at lower costs (there is no evidence to prove this).

Contracting leads to less public scrutiny, as government programs are hidden behind closed corporate doors.Slide22

Policy Failure

Faulty program design

- a policy or program may be defective in its basic theoretical conception

Lack of clarity

- bureaucracies are often asked to implement unclear laws

Lack of resources

– lack of staff, necessary training, funding, supplies, and equipment (sometimes authority)

Administrative Routine

- Standard Operating Procedures (aka

Red Tape

) do not always neatly apply to a situation

Administrative Discretion

-

the authority of bureaucrats to choose from variety of responses to a given problem.

Fragmentation

- responsibility for a policy is sometimes dispersed among several units within the bureaucracy.Slide23

Policy ProblemsSlide24

A Great Success!!

The

Voting Rights Act of 1965

was successfully implemented because…

Its goal was clear

:

to register African Americans to vote in southern counties where their voting rights had been denied for years.

Congress outlawed literacy tests and other tests previously used to discriminate against African-American registrants.

The act singled out six states in the Deep South in which the number of African-American registered voters was minuscule.Slide25

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Its implementation was straightforward

(sending out people to register them).

The Justice Department was ordered to send federal registrars to each county in those states to register qualified voters.

Implementation of this act helped bring the vote to some 300,000 African Americans in less than a year.Slide26

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Authority of the implementers was clear

–

They had the support of the attorney general and even U.S. marshals.

Authority concentrated in the Justice Department disposed to implementing the law vigorously.Slide27

Independent Regulatory Commissions

Responsible for

making

(legislative) and

enforcing

(executive) rules to protect the public interest in some sector of the economy and for

judging

(judicial) disputes over these rules.

Each is governed by a small commission, appointed by the president for fixed terms of office and confirmed by the Senate; regulatory commission members cannot be fired by the president.

Critics claim that the close connection between the regulators and the industries they regulate has meant that the agencies have become the

“

captives

”

of industry.Slide28

Examples

ICC (Interstate Commission), FRB (Federal Reserve Board), NLRB (National Labor Relations Board), FCC (Federal Communications Commission), FTC (Federal Trade Commission), SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) AND NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission)Slide29

Regulation

Use of governmental authority to control or change some practice in the private sector.

Congress gives bureaucrats broad mandates to regulate activities (interest rates, the location of nuclear power plants, & food additives)

M

ost all bureaucratic agencies—not only the ones called independent regulatory agencies—are in the regulatory business

Most government regulation is clearly in the public interest (example, the U.S.D.A. regulates the quality of meat products)Slide30

3 Elements of Regulation

A grant of power (authority) and set of directions from Congress.

A set of rules and guidelines by the regulatory agency itself.

Some means of enforcing compliance with congressional goals and agency regulations.Slide31

Origins

Munn v. Illinois

(1877) –

Upheld the right of government to regulate the business operations of a firm.

The case involved the right of the state of Illinois to regulate the charges and services of a Chicago warehouse.

Interstate Commerce Commission (1887)

was the 1

st

regulatory agency, created to regulate the railroads, their prices, and their services to farmers.Slide32

How to Regulate

Regulatory Agencies have to

develop a set of rules

(often called

guidelines

)

guidelines are developed in consultation with (and sometimes with the agreement of) the people or industries being regulated.

The agency must then apply and enforce its rules and guidelines, either in court or through its own administrative procedures.Slide33

2 Systems

Command-and-control policy:

The government tells business how to reach certain goals

Checks that these commands are followed

Punishes offenders

Incentive system –

Market like strategies such as rewards are used to manage public policy.Slide34

When to Regulate?

Sometimes it waits for complaints to come to it (as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission does).

Sometimes it sends inspectors into the field (as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration does).

Sometimes it requires applicants for a permit or license to demonstrate performance consistent with congressional goals and agency rules (as the Federal Communications Commission does).Slide35

Deregulation

The lifting of government restrictions on business, industry, and professional activities.

The idea behind

deregulation

is that the number and complexity of regulatory policies have made regulation too complex and burdensome.

Critics of regulation say:

It raises prices.

It hurts America

’

s competitive position abroad.

It does not always work well.Slide36

Deregulation Critics

Public would not be protected against severe environmental damage and power shortages, failures in the savings and loan industry, and dangerous fluctuations in the real estate market.

Critics of deregulation point to severe environmental damage resulting from lax enforcement of environmental protection standards during the Reagan administration.

Many observers attribute at least a substantial portion of the blame for the enormously expensive bailout of the savings and loan industry to the deregulation of it in the 1980s.Slide37

Government Corporations

They provide a service that could be provided by private sector

They typically charge for their services, though often at cheaper rates than the consumer would pay a private sector producer.

You can not buy stock and you can not collect dividends like with private corporations.Slide38

Examples

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)

Amtrak

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

U.S. Postal Service (the largest of the government corporations)Slide39

Independent Executive Agencies

They are not part of the cabinet departments, independent regulatory commissions, or government corporations

They generally do not have regulatory functions

They usually perform specialized functions

Their administrators are typically appointed by the president and serve at his pleasure (can be fired)Slide40

Examples

Social Security Administration (SSA)

General Services Administration (GSA)

National Science Foundation (NSF)

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).Slide41

Accountability

Bureaucracy is constrained and controlled by the US

government

Hatch Act (1939) –

Government employees can not participate in partisan politics while on duty (elections, campaigns, fund raisers, etc.)

Softened in recent decades, 1

st

Amendment issuesSlide42

Presidential Control

Appoint the head of an agency: putting their people in charge is one good way for presidents to influence agency policy (also able to fire in most cases)

Issue orders:

executive orders

to agencies; or presidential aides can pass the word that

“

the president was wondering if . . .

”

Control of an agency

’

s budget: each agency has some influence with Congress, and it is

Congress

that appropriates funds

Reorganize an agency: sometimes not possible due to an entrenched bureaucracy, backed by elements in Congress and strong constituent groups.Slide43

Congressional Control

Influence the appointment of agency heads: even when senatorial approval of a presidential appointment is not required, members of Congress may be influential.

Control of an agency

’

s budget: the congressional

power of the purse

is a powerful weapon for controlling bureaucratic behavior.

Hold hearings: committees and subcommittees can hold periodic hearings as part of their oversight job.

Rewrite the legislation or make it more detailed: Congress can write new or more detailed legislation to limit bureaucratic discretion and make its instructions clearer.Slide44

Iron Triangles

CONGRESS

BUREAUCRACY

INTEREST GROUPS

Iron Triangle

- three-way alliance among legislators, bureaucrats, and interest groups to make or preserve policies that benefit their respective interestsSlide45

How it works?

Everyone in the triangle has a similar interest

Legislators

get funding from interest groups and make laws reality with the help of the bureaucracy

Interest groups

provide valued information to bureaucrats and money to legislators

Bureau chiefs

implement legislator policy and interest group goals.Slide46

Iron TrianglesSlide47

TobaccoSlide48

Example – Why is tobacco not illegal?

House and Senate representatives, sympathetic to tobacco, receive campaign funds and support from tobacco by interest groups, and the representatives make sure that tobacco farmers are defended through legislation. DOA agency executes the legislation while relying on the Congressional budget. The interest groups provide the DOA with valuable information to effectively execute laws.

-COMMON INTEREST – Keep tobacco alive = keep their jobs aliveSlide49

Why are they “iron”?

Strong – bond can’t be

easily broken

by President or

Congress…or anyone

There is an immense amount of money and power that no one wants to surrender

Referred to as “sub governments,” all the real decisions are made among these 3

groupsSlide50

Issue Network

Iron triangles are susceptible to

hyper-pluralism

–

there are

Interest Groups

from opposite sides of an issue who

compete and stymie policy making

Issue Network

– complex group (includes

media, academics, policy experts, congressional staff, and interest groups)

that debates an issue and slows policy-making

The president often fills agency positions with people from an issue network who support the president’s own viewsSlide51

Criticism of Bureaucracy

Popular control of government depends on elections, but we do not elect the 4.2 million federal employees.

The fact that voters do not elect civil servants does not mean that bureaucracies cannot respond to and represent the public

’

s interests.

Many people see the bureaucracy as our “4

th

branch” because of its power and influence.

Many agencies combine executive, legislative, and judicial powersSlide52

Criticism

Continued

“Red tape”

– maze of

government

rules, regulations, and paperwork that makes

government

overwhelming to citizens

Conflict –

agencies that often work toward opposite goals

Duplication

– agencies appear to do the same thing

Unchecked growth

– agencies expand unnecessarily at high costs

Waste

– spending more than necessary

Lack of accountability

– difficult in firing an incompetent bureaucratSlide53

To Wrap Up…

The federal bureaucracy has not grown over the past two generations; in fact, the bureaucracy has

shrunk

in size relative to the population it serves.

Originally, the federal bureaucracy had a modest role; but as the economy and the society of the United States changed, additional demands were made on government.Slide54

…and Summarize

Considering the more active role the bureaucracy is expected to play in dealing with social and economic problems, a good case can be made that the bureaucracy is actually too

small

for many of the tasks currently assigned to it (such as the control of illicit drugs or the protection of the environment).