Bureaucracy
Why would congress pass laws that are vague?
(they do this often) flexibility to stand the test of time, allows for maneuvering in terms of changing politics, they want the people who are experts in their field to execute what congress has passed. unintended consequences of this: more subject t manipulation ad abuse, to vast shift in interpretation
all regulation contains these elements
-a grant of power 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
iron triangles and issue networks
Also known as subgovernments, a mutually dependent, mutually advantageous relationship between bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees and subcommittees. They dominate some areas of domestic policymaking. in recent years the system of subgovernments has become overlaid with an amorphous system of issue networks. issue networks lead to wide spread participation in bureaucratic policy making,
bureaucratic myths and realities
Americans dislike bureaucrats: Americans may dislike bureaucracies, but they like individual bureaucrats bureaucracies are growing bigger each year: this myth is half true and half false. the number of government employees has been expanding, but not the number of federal employees most federal bureaucrats work in Washington: fewer than one in seven federal civilian employees work in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Bureaucracies are ineffective, inefficient, and always mired in red tape: bureaucracy is simply a way of organizing people to perform work. Bureaucracies are a little like referees meaning when they work well, no one gives them much credit, but when they work poorly, everyone calls them unfair, in-competent, or insufficient
executive Branch Administrative units: Independent Regulatory Commissions:
Independent of the president and congress
executive Branch Administrative units:Government corporations
Operate like private companies (US postal service)
executive Branch Administrative units: Independent Executive Agencies:
Report directly to the president (CIA, FCC)
Excepted Services
Schedule A: allows the hiring of certified professionals (accountants and attourneys) Schedual B: allows the hiring of people with skills that are in short supply Schedule C: allows the hiring of persons in "policy sensitive positions" (personal assistants, drivers)
Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)
Started by vice president arthur it created the federal civil service. today, most federal agencies are covered by a civil service system
types of merit services
competitive civil service agency merit service excepted services senior executive service
Why is the federal Bureaucracy in the united states is different from ones in other democratic nations?
Americans generally dont trust their government and gov. leaders they dont have much confidence that government can accomplish most of the tasks assigned to it they believe that the private sector can usually do a better job when national emergencies occur the american people expect the government to be ready and able to respond
Discretion and Democracy
Bureaucrats exercise a great deal of discretion many do not follow set rules from congress or President, but exercise their own judgement bureaucrats are in fact policymakers their decisions affect the lives of millions of people they are essentially unelected policymakers and this act should alert us to some potential problems with regard to the practice of democracy
Four basic types of group agencies within the bureaucracy
Cabinet departments, independent regulatory commissions, government corporations, and independent executive agencies
Agency Merit Services
Congress had established seperate merit systems administered by certain agencies that require particular kinds of training 35% of all federal civilian employees fall under these agency specific merit systems
Senior executive service
Created in 1978 9000 positions to be a sort of super-civil service highly skilled individuals who are chosen due to their high education and level and skills they are granted broad responcibilities and autonomy, promotions, salary increases, rigorous performance reviews to serve as a "bridge" between political appointees and career civil servants has not worked out as they are not rusted by political appointees
First Department
Department of War, State, and treasury
Last department
Department of homeland security
executive Branch Administrative units: Quasi-Governmental Organizations
Hybrids of public and private organizations (Amtrak, Fannie, Mae)
deregulation
The lifting of government restrictions on business, industry, and professional activities. the idea behind it is that the number and complexity of regulatory policies have made regulation too complicated and burdensome. to critics, regulation distorts market forces and has the following problems: raising prices, hurting U.S competitive position abroad, failing to work well
adjudicating
congress has given some executive branch agencies the power to conduct quasi-judicial proceedings in which disputes are resolved the decisions of an administrative law judge have the force of law, unless appealed to a higher panel
Privatization
a movement to "reinvent government" in the 1980s had efforts to decentralize authority within agencies to provide more room for innovation and to provide performance incentives for government bureaucracies through market competition with private contractors, which could bid to provide government services. contractors are needed in government operation because they supply the surge capacity to handle crises without expanding the permanent bureaucracy. contractors may provide specialized skills that the government lacks. some government executives favor contractors because they find the bureaucracies slow, inflexible, or incompetent. the theory behind contracting for services is that competition in the private sector will result better service at lower cots than that provided by public bureaucracies who have traditionally had a monopoly on providing services
GS (General Schedule) Rating
a schedule for federal employees by which salaries can be keyed to rating and experience
the death of an iron triangle
although subgovernments are often able to dominate policymaking for decades, they are not industructible. example:nuclear power.
controlling the bureaucracy
anything as large and powerful as the federal bureaucracy requires watching , the president and the congress have responsibility for making the bureaucracy responsive to elected officials and both have a set of tools for and challenges in doing so. presidents try hard- not always with success to impose their policy preferences on agencies. some of their tactics include: appoint the right people to head the agency, issue orders, alter an agencies budget, reorganize an agency congress has a paradoxical relationship with the bureaucracies, on the one hand members of congress may find a big bureaucracy congenial. big government provides services to constituents, who may show their appreciation at the polls. When congress lacks the answers to policy problems it hopes the bureaucracies will find them. Congress is typically the problem-identifying branch of government, setting the bureaucratic agenda but letting the agencies decide how to implement the goals it sets several measures congress can take to oversee the bureaucracy: influence the appointment of agency heads, alter an agency's budget, hold hearings, rewrite the legislation or make it more detailed
political appointees (textbook)
as an incoming administration celebrates its victory and prepares to take control of the government, congress publishes the Plum Book, which lists top federal jobs available for direct presidential appointment once in office these administrative policymakers constitute what Hugh Heelo has called a "government of strangers" their most important trait is their transience. few top officials stay long enough to know their own subordinates well, much less people in other agencies although plum book appointees may have the outward signs of power, many of them find it challenging to exercise real control over much of what their subordinates do and have difficulty leaving their mark on policy presidents usually place a premium on personal loyalty and commitment to their programs when evaluating candidates for positions in the bureaucracy, especially those that are of the highest priority to the administration. the white house wants bureaucratic responsiveness to its policies if policy loyalty can be problematic as a criterion for filling key positions, even more potentially problematic are the practices of using these positions to reward political associates and key campaign contributors and of satisfying the desire of high-level appointees to name their own subordinates
senior executive service
at the very top of the civil service system are about 9,000 members of these. the "cream of the crop" of the federal employees. they earn high salaries,a dn the president may not move them from one agency to another as leadership needs change
Bureaucracies as implementors
bureaucracies are essentially implementors of policy. they take congressional, presidential, and sometimes judicial pronouncements and develop procedures and rules for implementing policy goals 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.
street level bureaucrats
bureaucrats who are in constant contact with the public and have considerable discretion; (police officers)
two types of regulatory policy
command and control policy: the government tells business how to reach certain goals, checks that these commands are followed, and punishes offenders incentive system: policymakers employ market-like strategies to regulate industry.
Regulating
congress often gives bureacratic agencies the power to write specific rules congress tends to create agencies and to specify the job or mission that it wants done and then charges the agency with using its expertise to do the job EPA example, FDA example some critics believe that congress delegates too much power to the executive branch congress can't micromanage every issue. it lacks the time, resources, and expertise to do so it can, in the end, change the rules written by bureaucrats if they drift too far from congressional intent or constituent desires some critics believe there are too many rules and regulations (Democratics) and many blame regulatory cutbacs for the rising incidence of safety problems in our food supply and consumer goods as well as the financial collapse of 2008 (republicans)
vast majority of tasks carried out by the bureaucracy
deliver mail, test milk, issue social security and student loan checks, run national parks, and perform other routine governmental tasks in a perfectly acceptable manner
Civil service systems
designed to hire and promote members of the bureaucracy on the basis of merit and to create a nonpartisan government service as a whole, the permanent bureaucracy is more broadly representative of the american people than are legislators, judges, or presidential appointees in the executive branch.
cabinet departments (textbook)
each of the 15 cabinet departments is headed by a secretary who has been chosen by the president and approved by the senate each department manages specific policy areas, and each has its own budget and its own staff. the real work of a department is done in the bureaus, which divide the work into more specialized areas sometimes status as a cabinet department can be controversial
Independant Executive Agencies
essentially all the rest of the government, the agencies that are not cabinet departments, regulatory commissions, or government corporations their administrators typically are appointed by the president and serve at his will some of the biggest examples: General services Administration, national science foundation, National Aeronautics and Space administration (NASA)
Successful implementation: the voting rights act of 1965
even when a policy is controversial, implementation can be effective if goals are clear and there are adequate means to achieve them. in 1965, congress, responding to generations of discrimination against prospective African American voters in the south passed the voting rights act of 1965. it was successful because its goal was clear, its implementation was straight forward, and the authority of the implementors was clear, and it was concentrated in the justice department which was disposed to implementing the law vigorously
competitive civil serivice
from 1828 until the late 19th century the executive branch was staffed by the spoils system "the spoils of victory belong to the winning party" this is also called patronage this was an accepted way of staffing the executive branch as it was small and relatively unimportant the civil war and the shortcomings it exposed in the executive branch convinced many that reform was required rampant corruption and favoritism in the government service after the Civil War and the growing role of the federal government required more skilled ad less partisam personnel the final catalyst was the assassination of President James Garield by a person who wanted a government job, but could not get one the civil service Act of 1883, also known as the Pendleton Act, created a bipartisan Civil Service Comission to oversee appointments to certaun executuive posts on the basis of merit competitive examinations were to be used to determine merit in the begining only 10% of federal positions were filled using this system today it covers roughly 60% of the 2.7 million federal civilian employees in 1978 Congress abolished the Civil Service Commission and replaced it with two separate agencies: Office of Personnel Management, Merit Systems Protection Board
executive Branch Administrative units: bureaus and Agencies:
subdivisions within departments (FBI, EPA)
bureaucracies and regulation
government regulation is the use of he government authority to control or change some practice in the private sector regulation may be the most controversial role of the bureaucracies. as regulators, bureaucratic agencies typically operate with a large grant of power from congress, which may detail goals to be achieved but permit the agencies to sketch out the regulatory means most agencies charged with regulations first develop a st of rules called guidelines. guidelines are developed in consultation with and sometimes with the agreement of the people or industries being regulated next they must apply and enforce its rules and guidelines, either in court or through its own administrative procedures
Independent regulatory commissions
has responsibility for making and enforcing rules to protect the public interest in a particular sector of the economy, as well as for judging disputes over these rules. sometimes called the alphabet soup of American government because most of them are known by their initials each commissions is governed by a small number of commissioners. the president cannot fire regulatory commission members as easily as he can cabinet officers. so concerned are interest groups with these regulatory bodies that some critics speak of the "capture" of the regulators by the regulatees. it is common for members of commissions to be recruited from the ranks of the regulated
executive Branch Administrative units: Departments
headed by cabinet level secretaries
Office of personnel management
in charge of hiring for most federal agencies, have elaborate rules about hiring, promotion, working conditions, and firing, to get a civil service job usually candidates must first take a test. if they pass their names are sent to the agencies when jobs requiring their particular skills become available
Patronage
is a hiring and promotion system based on political factors rather than on merit or competence following the view of Andrew Jackson that "to the victors belong the spoils" also called "spoils system"
who are the bureaucrats? the merit services
merit services choose people on the basis of examinations, educational credentials, and demonstrable skills
Incoherent organization
our bureaucracy is an organizational hodgepodge it does no take he standard pyramid form there are a few clear lines of control, responsibility, or accountability our bureaucracy was built piece by piece over the years in a political system without a strong central government other systems were crafted at a single point in time by powerful political leaders
hostile political culture
our public bureaucracy is surrounded by more legal restrictions and subject to more intense legislative oversight than those in other countries civil servants have little prestige and so most talented people aspire to work in the private sector in many other countries civil service is highly respected and attracts talented people in the U.S. most civil servants look much like the general population in 2011 only 17% of Americans had a positive view of the federal government
implementation of policy can break down for any of several reasons
program design lack of clarity: congress is fond of stating a broad policy goal in legislation and then leaving implementation up to the bureaucracies. members of congress can thus escape messy details and place blame for the implementation decisions elsewhere (such as Title IX) they also receive unclear orders lack of resources: we often hear the charge that bureaucracies are bloated. the important issue is not the size of the bureaucracy in the abstract but whether it is the appropriate size for the job it has been assigned. it frequently lacks the staff along with he necessary staff training, funding, supplies, and equipment to carry out is assigned task. why does congress not give the bureaucracies more resources? some well organized interests fight against adding resources to particular agencies because they do not wish to be inspected or regulated. equally important is the lack of budgetary resources. pressure to allocate personnel to direct services limit the staff available to implement other policies. in an age when "big government" is under attack, there are strong political incentives to downsize government bureaucracy lack of authority: lack the authority necessary to meet their responsibility. many also fail to exercise the authority that they have. many policies are implemented by state and local governments.federal influence over these governments is indirect at best. with such implementors bureaucrats are more likely to request, educate, and negotiate than to issue orders and institute legal proceedings Administrative routine: they follow standard operating procedures (SOPs) to help them make numerous everyday decisions, standard rules save time. SOPs brings uniformity to complex organizations, uniformity also makes personnel interchangeable. routines are essential to bureaucracy yet when not appropriate to a situation they become frustrating, "red tape" or even potentially dangerous obstacles to action. Administrators dispositions: bureaucrats operate not only within the confines of routines but often with considerable discretion to behave independently. Fragmentation: sometimes responsibility for a policy is dispersed among several units within the bureaucracy. if fragmentation is a problem, why not reorganize the government? the answer lies in hyper pluralism and the decentralization of power. congressional committees recognize that they would lose jurisdiction over agencies if these agencies were merged with others. interest groups do not want to give up the close relationships they have developed with "their" agencies. agencies themselves do not want to be submerged within a broader bureaucratic unit. most bureaucratic units have multiple responsibilities, making it difficult to subsume them under one organizational umbrella.
Hatch Act
prohibits civil service employees from actively participating in partisan politics while on duty
executive Branch Administrative units: Foundations
separated from the rest of government to protect them from political interference
administrative discretion:
the authority of administrative actors to select among various responses to a given problem
What do Bureaucrats Do? Executing programs and policies
the constitution assumed that congress would be the principal national policymaker and that the president and his appointees "shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed" Article II, Section 2 some executive responcibilities are routine: mail is delivered, troops are trained, social security checks are mailed on time, foreign intelligence is collected sometimes executing the law is not so easy, because it is not always clear what the law means often, congress passes lawas that are vague aout goals and short on procedural guidelines
how the executive branch is organized
the constitution does not specify the number or kinds of departments to be established, nor other bureaucratic agencies it left these decisions to the congress and the president the executive branch is made up of several kinds of administrative units which make up the federal bureaucracy
divided control
the federal bureaucracy has two bosses: the president ad congress bother are constantly vying with one another for control the federal courts also keep an eye on the bureaucracy civil servants in other countries are accountable to a single boss, a cabinet minister appointed by the prime minister
government corporations
the federal government also has a handful of government corporations. these are not exactly like private corporations in which you can buy stock and collect dividends, but they are like private corporations and different from other parts of the government in two ways. First they provide a service that could be handled by the private sector, second they typically change for their services, though often at rates cheaper than those the consumer would pay to a private sector producer
political appointees
the highest policymakeing positions, about 3,000 are not by merit examination, but by political appointment about 600 require senate confirmation (executive schedule) these people are personally loyal to the president and become important policymakers and public figures in their own right presidents use patronage appointments to build support for their programs and firm up political coalitions presidents also reserve important appointments for people they trust and who bring expertise and experience presidents also want to find places for appointments for people who played important roles in their election most make financial sacrifices to work in government and are accomplished in their own fields in the private sector
policy implementation
the stage of policy making between the establishment of a policy and the results of the policy for individuals. implementation is critical aspect of policy making. includes three things: creation of a new agency or assignment of a new responsibility to an old agency, translation of policy goals into operational rules and development of guidelines for the program, coordination of resources and personnel to achieve the intended goals
understanding bureaucracies
they are more representative of the american people then most elected officials. it has not grown in the past 40 years, in fact due to population growth it has relatively shrunk.
How different are civil servants
they are similar to other Americans educational levels and regional origins are similar, though civil servants tend to be a bit older they are a bit better paid at lower and mid-levels compared to the private sector they have better job security, retirement plans, and health insurance that most Americans politically they are a bit more liberal on social issues and tend to be democrats women and minorities are very well represented
unintended consequences of vague laws:
unintended consequences of this: more subject t manipulation ad abuse, to vast shift in interpretation
merit principal
using entrance exams and promotion ratings to reward qualified individuals intended to produce an administration of people with talent and skill. creating a nonpartisan civil service means insulating government workers from the risk of being fired when a new party comes to power.