Chapter 14: Bureaucracy in a Democracy

How many government agencies were terminated during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush?

0

Congressional Oversight

1. Although Congress attempts to control the bureaucracy through oversight, a more effective way to ensure accountability may be to clarify legislative intent. When a law is passed and its intent is clear, the accountability for implementation of that law is also clear. Then the president knows what to "faithfully execute," and the responsible agency understands what is expected of it. 2. The increasing use of federal contractors raises new questions about democratic accountability. Many of the mechanisms of democratic accountability do not apply to private firms that contract to perform public work. 3. One of the most troubling aspects of contracting is that private contractors donate millions of dollars each year to political campaigns and lobbying, raising troubling questions about how assertive members of Congress are likely to be in scrutinizing the business practices of important political donors or in moving business from the private to the public sector.

Bureaucracy and Bureaucrats

1. Bureaucracy is simply a form of organization. Specialization and repetition are essential to the efficiency of any organization. 2. Despite fears of bureaucratic growth, the federal service has grown little during the past thirty-five years. The national government is large, but the federal service has not been growing any faster than the economy or the society. 3. The primary tasks of bureaucracy are to implement the laws passed by Congress and issue rules. 4. Because legislation often sets only broad parameters for government action, this requires bureaucracies to draw up much more detailed rules that guide the process of implementation and also to play a key role in enforcing the laws. 5. The lower efficiency of public agencies can be attributed to the added political, judicial, legal, and public opinion constraints put on them, as compared with those put on private agencies. . Through civil service reform, national and state governments have attempted to reduce political interference in public bureaucracies by implementing a merit system for hiring and granting certain public bureaucrats legal protection from being fired without a show of cause. At the higher levels of government agencies, including such posts as cabinet secretaries and assistant secretaries, many jobs are filled with political appointees and are not part of the merit system.

The Organization of the Executive Branch

1. Cabinet departments, agencies, and bureaus are the operating parts of the bureaucracy. Independent agencies, government corporations, and independent regulatory commissions also are part of the executive branch, even though they aren't considered part of Cabinet departments. 2. The different agencies of the executive branch can be classified into three main groups according to the services that they provide to the American public. The first category of agencies provides services and products that seek to promote the public welfare. Many of these agencies can be considered regulatory agencies that impose limits, restrictions, or other obligations on the conduct of individuals or companies in the private sector. Rules made by regulatory agencies have the force and effect of law. Some of these agencies are particularly tied to a specific group or segment of American society that is often thought of as the main clientele of that agency. 3. The second category of agencies works to promote national security from internal and external threats. Two issues arise as these agencies work to ensure the national security: (1) the trade-offs between respecting the personal rights of individuals versus protecting the general public, and (2) the need for secrecy in matters of national security versus the public's right to know what the government is doing. 4. The third group of agencies provides services that help to maintain a strong economy. Foremost among these are the agencies that are responsible for fiscal and monetary policy. In addition, the federal government may directly provide services or goods that bolster the economy.

Managing the Bureaucracy

1. Each expansion of the national government during the twentieth century was accompanied by a parallel expansion of presidential management authority, but the expansion of presidential power cannot guarantee responsible bureaucracy.

Thinking Critically about Responsible Bureaucracy in a Democracy

1. On the one hand, the public expresses dislike for "big government," exemplified by bureaucracy. On the other hand, Americans support many government programs and have high expectations for government. One consequence of these divergent views is that public discussion about bureaucracy is often high on emotion and short on facts. 2. Finding the right balance between bureaucratic autonomy and public scrutiny is a central task of creating an effective government; it is a one that requires both presidential and congressional vigilance to build an effective and responsive bureaucracy.

Can the Bureaucracy Be Reformed?

1. The government has sought to find various ways to make the federal bureaucracy more efficient. The key strategies used to promote bureaucratic reform include reinventing government, termination, devolution, and privatization. 2. The National Performance Review was an effort under President Bill Clinton to make the bureaucracy more efficient, accountable, and effective. Virtually all observers agreed that the National Performance Review made substantial progress, though some political leaders demanded a more sweeping approach to reforms. 3. The only certain way to reduce the size of the bureaucracy is to eliminate programs. This rarely happens, because many voters benefit from the services provided by particular programs and will oppose those programs' elimination. 4. The next most effect way to reduce the federal bureaucracy is devolution—downsizing the federal bureaucracy by delegating the implementation of programs to state and local governments. Often the central aim of devolution is to provide more efficient and flexible government services. Yet by its very nature, devolution entails variation across the states. 5. The final way of reducing the size of the bureaucracy is privatization, in which a formerly public activity is picked up under contract by a private company or companies. These programs are still paid for and supervised by government, but the workers providing the service are no longer counted as part of the government bureaucracy. Concerns about adequate government oversight and accountability have escalated in recent years as the scale of contracting has dramatically increased.

Government corporations

A government agency that operates like a business corporation

Which of the following is an example of a government corporation?

Amtrak

Which of the following is an example of an independent agency?

Central Intelligence Agency

President ________________ launched the National Performance Review as part of his promise to reinvent government, making it more efficient, accountable, and effective.

Clinton

Agency powers can include

Demanding reports Auditing books Monitoring contracts Tracking company obligations Regulating citizen's actions

The federal school lunch program is administered by this government agency:

Department of Agriculture

Which of the following is the best example of a clientele agency?

Department of Agriculture

Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) is administered by the

Department of Health and Human services

Which of the following is the best example of an economic development agency?

Department of Transportation

The _________________________ allows any person to request classified information from any federal agency.

Freedom of Information Act

This president brought a business-oriented approach to his management of the federal bureaucracy:

George .W. Bush

What happened to the successful National Performance Review program once President Bush took office?

He cancelled the program and instead focused on privatizing federal jobs.

According to the authors, contracting out services has what impact on accountability?

It reduces accountability

President ______________ sought to eliminate the Department of Education but failed to do so.

Reagan

This president maintained a very disengaged style of management over the National Security Council:

Ronald Reagan

Regulatory agency

a department, bureau, or independent agency whose primary mission is to impose limits, restrictions, or other obligations on the conduct of individuals or companies in the private sector.

The U.S. Postal Service is an example of

a government corporation.

Devolution

a policy to remove a program from one level of government by delegating it or passing it down to a lower level of government, such as from the national government to the state and local governments.

Merit system

a product of civil service reform, in which appointees to positions in public bureaucracies must objectively be deemed qualified for those positions.

Federal Reserve System

a system of 12 Federal Reserve Banks that facilitates exchanges of cash, checks, and credit; regulates member banks; and uses monetary policies to fight inflation and deflation.

Independent agency

agency that is not part of a cabinet department.

Congress passed the Budget and Accounting Act in 1921. This law put the primary legislative power of budgeting in the hands of

the White House.

Revenue agency

an agency responsible for collecting taxes. Examples include the Internal Revenue Service for income taxes, the U.S. Customs Service for tariffs and other taxes on imported goods, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for collection of taxes on the sale of those particular products.

What is congressional oversight?

an effort by Congress, through hearings, investigations, and other techniques, to exercise control over the activities of executive agencies.

The Federal Communications Commission is an example of

an independent regulatory agency.

Congressional oversight

committees are expected to oversee the executive branch agencies in their purview

Advocates of more transparency and less secrecy argue that more openness in government is essential for the __________ of the governed.

consent

To what does the blended workforce refer?

contract employees working side by side with government employees

Republican administrations try to reduce the influence of the bureaucracy by

contracting out government services to private companies.

What is devolution?

delegating the implementation of programs to state and local governments

The bureaucracy values effectiveness, accountability, and equity, but places its greatest emphasis upon

efficiency

Today, ______________ Americans are working in federal employment than 50 years ago.

fewer

Government corporation

government agency that performs a service normally provided by the private sector.

Since the passage of the Civil Service Act of 1883, bureaucrats are

hired based on their qualifications under the merit system.

Bureaucrats are primarily responsible for the ___________ of public policy.

implementation

Executive privilege

the claim that confidential communications between a president and close advisers should not be revealed without the consent of the president.

The Federal Reserve has authority over

interest rates.

What is rule making in the bureaucracy, as defined by the authors?

interpreting a statute where there is no clear guidance

The rule-making process

is highly political

According to the textbook authors, the best way to improve accountability is for Congress to spend more time on ___________ and less time on __________.

legislative intent; oversight

Federal employees are hired on the basis of open and competitive exams. Therefore, this system is a _____________ system.

merit

The Civil Service Act of 1883 instituted a system based upon

merit

The Patriot Act was _______________ in 2006.

modestly revised

Bureaucracy is a fair description of

most organizations.

The National Performance Review was criticized for

not being a very sweeping approach to reform.

Bureaucracy specifically refers to

offices and desks.

Spoils system

prior to the 1880s, most federal jobs were given to political supporters of various officials until the next election

Privitazation

process of returning national enterprises to private ownership

The Department of Homeland Security is tasked with

protecting domestic national security.

The most visible use of the congressional oversight function comes by way of

public hearings

The Food and Drug Administration and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration can best be described as _____.

regulatory agencies

Federal bureaucracy has ___ over the last 35 years

shrunk

Critics of devolution argue that

states will inevitably cut spending on programs that serve low-income residents.

Fiscal policy is most closely associated with

taxing and spending policies.

To protect civil servants from political interference they often have

tenure

In response to the Soviet Union's launching of Sputnik, the United States created

the Advanced Research Projects Agency

By far the largest number of career government professionals working abroad are under the authority of

the Defense Department

In the late 1980s what department was revealed to have spent money lavishly and wastefully?

the Department of Defense

Bureaucracy

the complex structure of offices, tasks, rules, and principles of organization that are employed by all large-scale institutions to coordinate the work of their personnel; used by large public and private institutions to coordinate work

Oversight

the effort by Congress, through hearings, investigations, and other techniques, to exercise control over the activities of executive agencies.

Implementation

the efforts of departments and agencies to translate laws into specific bureaucratic rules and actions.

An iron triangle consists of

the executive branch, congressional committees and subcommittees and interest groups of agency clientele.

Fiscal policy

the government's use of taxing, monetary, and spending powers to manipulate the economy.

So far, President Obama's approach to the bureaucracy has focused on

the importance of scientific expertise in government service.

Department

the largest subunit of the executive branch. The secretaries of the 15 departments form the Cabinet.

Iron triangle

the stable, cooperative relationship that often develops among a congressional committee, an administrative agency, and one or more supportive interest groups. Not all of these relationships are triangular, but the iron triangle is the most typical.

Privatization

the transfer of all or part of a program from the public sector to the private sector.

Independent agencies

treated like any other bureaucratic agency but exist outside the current department system

Congress expects the federal bureaucracy to

turn broad legislative goals into rules, policies and actions.