Chapter 12: Bureaucracy

Who Controls the Federal Bureaucracy?

(4 million civ bureau and military personnel, more than 5 million private contractors. The people (limited), the president

U.S. national departments and agencies employ 2.6 million civilians (4 million including active duty military).

19 million Americans work for state and local gov. Thats like 23 million total on gov. payrolls.

Birth of the Bureaucracy

1900th century George Washington Plunkitt decided to enter politics. Won his position by delivering the votes of all his friends and neighbors. This system was inefficient, unfair, and corrupt. "To the victor belong the spoils."

Ways bureaucracies work differently:

2010 8 year old Mikey Hicks kept being stopped at airport and interrogated everytime he traveled by plane. TSA (Transportation Security Authority) said that his name was on the agency's no fly list. A real suspect had a similar name. Took TSA long time to remove Mikey from list. Then they missed stopping a real terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded a northwest airlines flight and unsuccessfully tried to blow it up. No questions were asked even though his father reported his son was training at an Al Qaeda camp for terrorists in Yemen.

Proposed rule

A draft of administrative regulations sent to the OMB for approval and then published in the Federal Register for the purpose of gathering comments from interested parties.

Whistleblowers

A federal worker who reports corruption or fraud within a department or agency.

Universalistic politics

A government that is run according to transparent rules, impartially applied.

An Army of Their Own:

A small support army maintains and services the massive office buildings housing the executive branch, most notably the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration (GSA). If you want a job for U.S. gov as civil servant OPM manages the giant "USAJobs website, listing hundreds of thousands of federal bureaucracy job openings each year. Application is read and screened by OPM. GSA manages all details of maintenance and supply.

Overhead democracy

A system by which the people elect the president who through political appointees controls the bureaucracy from the top.

Spoils system

A system in which government jobs are given out as political favors. (To political friends)

Bureaucrats

Active at every stage in the process. For example they sometimes shape proposed programs by suggesting legislatives language to allies in Congress and testify before congressional committees that are considering the law. They often develop close alliances with members of Congress as well as with interest-group lobbyists.

What Bureaucracies Do

After congress and president pass a law or issue executive order, Bureaucracies put law into effect. Issue checks, Congress leaves technical details for bureaucracies to fill or clarify.

Clientelism

Agency routines may favor some constituents over others.Department of Agriculture favor agricultural corporations over small family farms with little time to complete 50-page forms.

Executive branch agencies and commissions challenges

Appointment process is cumbersome. Partisan politics slow it down further. New appointees scramble to learn bureaucratic ropes as the work piles on. After three years they back their bags and new selection of people begins.

Bureaucratic Autonomy

Because they have so many would-be masters, bureaucrats wind up with considerable autonomy in their work. Especially street-level bureaucrats.

Division of Labor

Bureaucracies divide up complex programs and assign each piece to an individual or a group, who are experts at their specialized tasks. Hierarchy coordinates them into smoothly working operation. EX: State Department staff each region of the globe, each language, and most countries.

Imperialism

Bureaucracies looking for bigger budgets and better staffs can lead them to grow immense and waste time in turf wars.

1946

By 1946 the country had developed many of the agencies that govern America to this day.

Federal Gov organization includes four types of agencies:

Cabinet departments, autonomous bureaus, independent regulatory agencies, and the bureaucracy's service org.

New secretaries also must manage a large bureaucracy that they know very little about.

Cabinet secretaries usually do not have any experience with the many facets of their department. Trump's first secretary of Department of Homeland Security John Kelly was previously a Marine Corps general. He did not have experience on a lot of bureaus that were under his direction once he was appointed.

Interest Group

Closely engage bureaucrats as they administer laws. Lobbying groups comment extensively on proposed rules. This makes bureaucrats engage interest group representatives from industry to consumer organizations which may be necessary to make the program work smoothly. Relations may develop making lobbyists influential in regular operations of executive agencies.Interest can also complain and sue overzealous regulators.

IRC Commissioners

Commissioners are frequently drawn from the ranks of the regulated industry. "Independent regulatory agencies are captured or acquired by the industry and simply do its bidding".

Reorganization

Congress can change structure of executive branch organizations.

Funding

Congress funds nearly all executive branch programs because it is incharge of federal budget.

Oversight

Congress has power to supervise executive branch. Policing departments and agencies. It can also launch investigations and the mere mention of oversight hearings is a major threat to the bureaucracy.

Authorization

Congress has to reauthorize laws after some time. Congress can change programs or even deny their reauthorization.

Congress on bureaucrats

Congress shapes bureaucracy through four powers: funding, oversight, authorization, reorganization. These make agency heads and cabinet secretaries more responsive to Congress rather than to the president. Bureaucrats complain about congressional "micromanagement"

Principal Agent theory

Details how policymakers control the actors who work for them (principals & agents) Agents have far more info.

Pairing a suitable philosophy with skilled political leadership can make a real difference in an agency's management.

EX: is the Federal Emergency Management Agency responds to natural disasters. When the George W. Bush administration came to office, they installed an inexperienced campaign donor, Michael Brown as director. FEMA responded feebly to Hurricane Katrina, it was so bad that Director Brown lost his job and Bush's popularity ratings tumbled.

How is Bureaucracy organized?

Each presidential administration names the heads of the gov bureaucracy (four thousand people known as political appointees). Senate approves the highest-ranking twelve hundred or so, who include cabinet secretaries, their assistants and deputies, the ambassadors to countries around the world, and other top figures. Their role: steer their agencies in the direction charted by the president. Under these four thousand appointees toil some 2.6 million civil servants who work at their jobs regardless of which party occupies the White House. Civil servants are acutely aware of the rules, regulations, and SOPs that guide their agency. They tell their new bosses what they can do and how they should do it.

Morality

Enforcing moral rules required the creation of increasingly sophisticated agencies. Ex: Effort to Outlaw all liquor under Prohibition 1920-1933) created a powerful new enforcement agency in the Department of the Treasury.

Two other categories of federal workers each offer a different twist on the bureaucracy:

Executive Agencies and Independent Regulatory Commissions.

Economics

Federal gov assumed responsibility for economic performance which caused the creation of many new government offices. (Commissions designed to regulate business, Federal Reserve, intended to stabilize banking, and a host of offices and agencies in response to the Great Depression.

Cabinet Meetings

Fifteen department heads get together in white house conference room with the president, vice pres and as many as ten additional senior leaders. (White House Chief of Staff and CIA director.

Why contract out government services?

First, private companies, foundations and nongov organizations have special skills and resources they can bring to a job and private companies can sometimes do a better and cheaper job.

Rule-making

Fixes process with multiple steps, always carried out the same way. First the agency studies law and proposes rule that spells out how new program will operate.After agency drafts the language it sends the proposed rule to the Office of Management and Budget for approval.

Fixed Routines

Follow well-specified codes of conduct called standard operating procedures (SOPs) EX: Being stopped by highway patrols for speeding and they ask for your license and registration is a fixed routine.

Rote

Followed familiar standardized routines instead of new developments. Didn't adjust. When members of an organization strictly follow SOPs, they avoid responsibility and potential blame by hiding behind assigned routines.

Do we have too many regulations?

Health systems have to comply with hundreds of regulatory requirements issued by state and federal bureaucratic agencies. These regulations are designed to ensure patient safety and compliance with a wide expanse of policies. The judiciary and Congress also affect the regulation, providing oversight.

Cost

High cost of bureaucracy and programs. It is actually remained steady but people still complain. They actually meet real needs through services but people say it is as waste and fraud. Bill Clinton reduced nonmilitary civil servants by 400,000 bureaucrats.

Equal Rules for All

Ideal should always be the same in a bureaucracy. Rules apply equally to everyone. Can't give special treatment if you're someone's husband daughter or cousin.

The Challenge of Governing

If in Secretary's shoes, first you must win Senate confirmation. Increasingly partisan environment in Washington any past discretion may force you to withdraw. If everything goes good then you take office when the president does in late January.

Compare Parliamentary Systems

In Parliamentary gov senior members of the legislature become ministers, the equivalent of cabinet secretaries in the U.S. No one sends in a resume to become a department head, you must win an election to parliament and work your way up the party hierarchy. There is no long confirmation process, no hostile congressional oversight, no checks and balances between executive and legislative branches. In comparison, U.S. bars members of Congress from taking any civil office. If they want to join the bureaucracy or the judiciary, they must resign their House or Senate seat. The founders always insisted on checks and balances.

Who reads the Federal Register?

In theory, any citizen can read the proposal and make comments on it. Realistically citizens barely know they exist so the commenting and suggesting is left to lobbyists and lawyers.

Critiques of Bureaucracy

Inertia, cost and public mistrust.

Rule making

Involves a narrow slice of American life that takes place far from the public eye. Congress gets the media attention when they consider legislation but negotiations over rules take place in the shadows, where only the most informed experts understand what is going on. These not-very-public debates shape every law, executive order, and public policy.

What is bureaucracy supposed to look like?

It should have five characteristics (Max Weber): Hierarchy, Division of Labor, Fixed Routines, Equal Rules for All, and Technical Qualifications.

Problem with Mikey kid being stopped all the time?

Lack of coordination compounded by a turf war. Agencies Failed to communicate.

Geography

Manifest Destiny and the U.S. rapid spread across the continent required a more sophisticated postal service. (Pony Express), new forms of transportations, the distribution of public lands to homesteaders , and repeated military actions against Native Americans.

Civil Servants

Members of the permanent bureaucracy who are employed on the basis of competitive exams and keep their positions regardless of the presidential administration. They have developed their own vocab "bureaucratese" they are cautions, cover your backside language of experts with lifetime positions who are tasked with providing three trillion dollars' worth of federal services each years.

How many people work in the cabinet departments?

Nearly three quarters of the federal bureaucracy about 1.9 million civilians.

Does the whole group serve as president's central advisory team?

No cs there's too many people there to have a serious discussion. Cabinets meet less often in recent years. D Trump only called his full cabinet nine times during first year in office.

Is this the end of the process?

No. If an individual citizen, group, or corporate firm objecting to the result can sue the agency for misinterpreting Congress's intent. Or can appeal to its allies in Congress to criticize the rule and push the agency to restart the process.

Office of the Attorney General

Now Justice Department.

War

Now called Defense

Deregulation brings us full circle

Once farmers and small business pleaded for relief from predatory markets. Now, a new generation of reformers offers a solution to creaky regulatory agencies: Return to the Markets.

Implementation

Once the rules are defined and approved, they are implemented. EX: shark fishing fleets inspected, power plant emissions regulated, and of services (GI Bill benefits or Veterans Administration) medical care delivered to recipients.

PROPOSED REFORMS

Open up the System, Reinvent Government, and Privatization.

Independent Regulatory Commissions

Originally emerged to regulate business. Farmers and small business complained bitterly about the railroads' arbitrary freight rates and pleaded for government controls. However, powerful railroad owners dominated the state legislatures and Congress. This is why they were made to protect against wealthy "robber barons". Reformers organized a regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commissions (ICC), that would operate separately from Congress and the White House and regulate industry free from corrupting lobbyists and politics.

Turf War

Overlapping of jobs causes tension about who's responsible for what. Can fail to share vital information with each other.

Cabinet Departments

P. George Washington's cabinet had just four departments: State, Treasure, War, and the Office of the Attorney General. Over time more departments were added totaling 15. State and Treasury are the two oldest departments that's why the secretaries of both departments sit next to the president in cabinet meetings.

Technical Qualifications

People should be hired based on their qualifications. EX: Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) staff are hired thanks to their scientific expertise.

Public Mistrust

Politicians from both sides bash the bureaucracy. There are scandals andmistakes many covered in detail by the media. Corruption is inevitable because of how massive bureaucracy is.

Full Process

President and/or members of congress proposed the law; the House and Senate passed it; the courts upheld it; and the bureaucratic agency proposed draft rules, gathered comments, and published final rules in the Federal Register.

Private contractors

Private companies that contract to provide goods and service for the government.

1881 crazed office seeker assassinated President James Garfield

Reformers used him as a martyr for their case and explained that the spoils system had caused the president's assassination.

Two-step process of putting a law into practice:

Rule-making and implementation.

The Cabinet and Diversity

Secretaries and cabinet-level officials increasingly reflect American public. Until 1960s just two women had served in the cabinet in all of American history, and not a single other race. Since 1980s every president appointed a diverse set of secretaries that reflects the nation. Trump slowed that by appointing mostly white males.

Next step

Select your team. Pick names for deputies, assistants, and leaders in agency. Sent them to white house for a thumbs up. The White House staffers may have their own favorites, so you'll have to negotiate over some of their choices. FBI examines all of their nominee's background, sometimes takes months. Each nominee goes to Senate for confirmation.

Race/Ethnicity

Slavery and civil rights engaged the federal gov. leading to the civil war and the subsequent occupation of southern lands by the federal army. Also shifting immigration policies, based on ethnicity (like Chinese Exclusion Act 1880s), require a huge network of federal officials deciding who was permitted to settle in the U.S.

Who does the implementation work?

Street-level bureaucrats-Public officials who deal directly with the public. They implement gov policies by running programs and carrying out oversight.

The President

The Constitution states the executive power is in the president. Bureaucratic chief, overhead democracy.

2017-2018

The EPA proposed repeal of a "Clean Power" rule directing states to curb carbon pollution from power plants. Coal producers and power-plant operators originally fought the rule as a direct attack on their livelihood; the proposal to repeal drew fire from environmental groups and the battle is likely to drag on in the courts for years.

What happens after it is published and commented on in the Federal Register?

The agency reviews all comments and makes changes, which can take months or years, then makes a final rule proposal and analysis of impact of new rule. It is submitted to the OMB for approval again. They have 30 days to review it and then publish it to the Federal Register once more. 30 days later the regulation goes into effect.

Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)

The law that shifted American government toward a merit-based public service. Required federal gov yo hire well-qualified individuals who took demanding exams tow in their posts.

Bureaucratic Pathologies

The problems that tend to develop in bureaucratic systems. Rote, Imperialism, Turf War, lack of coordination, and clientelism.

Final Rule:

The rule that specifies how a program will actually operate.

Inertia

The slow, rule-bound hierarchical bureaucracy never seems to keep up. Once bureaucratic routines are set they are hard to change. Clashing political desires. Can't purchase knives, forks, and spoons from abroad and can't fly aboard non-american airlines.Congress, reflecting many voices focuses on efficient purchasing policies and buying American. REcruiting of the best and brightest to gov service.

Regulatory Capture

The theory that industries dominate the agencies that regulate them. (Consumer groups also lobby, provide info to and sue agencies) Moreover, agency civil servants often work hard to achieve their institution's goals and express pride in its independent stance.

How many IRCs are there?

There are sixteen IRCs and they each have authority to issue regulations, enforce laws, and settle disputes--essentially combining legislative, executive, and judicial powers in one agency.

Private Contractors

They do not work directly for the gov but come from private companies that give goods and services under contract to the gov. There are an estimated 5.3 million private contractors performing many jobs for gov. EX: Military relies on private companies to provide meals, transportation, security services, and even commando teams.

Executive Agencies

They have more specific assignments than do the cabinet departments. In contrast, the Department of the Interior has responsibilities that include supervising Indian affairs, national parks, geological surveys etc. There are more than 30 independent executive agencies. NASA, PEACE CORPS, FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION, FEDERAL RESERVE, EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION.

Hierarchy

They must have a clear chain of command. Leaders coordinate subordinates work. Every individual has well-defined superiors and subordinates. EX: (D0E)Department of Energy: cabinet secretary moving to elaborate subsets of assistants, deputies, and associate administrators. 15,000 men and women work in the agency, while another 40,000 work under contracts with DOE.

Political Scientists

Think the bureaucracy does work. They believe civil service does its job, often quite well.

Lobbyists

Those representing industries and concerned consumer groups negotiate with the agency as proposed and final rules are being written. Can offer advice or threaten to sue.

What are IRCs made for?

To be independent from political influence and perform many different jobs. Federal Election Commission 1975 oversees U.S. electoral practices. A commissioner which is nominated by the president and confirmed by senate runs each agency for a fixed term that does not overlap with the president's term, minimizing political influence.

The Rotating Bureaucracy

U.S. Bureaucracy is unique as no other democracy works in this way. No company or anything routinely asks thousands of outsiders to take over for three or so years, then step aside and make way for a new crop of leaders. Constitution doesn't mention cabinet departments.

War

U.S. mobilizes for war = bureaucracy grows. Military efforts spurred a search for competent administrators and well organized offices. The number of civilian employees doubled during World War I and tripled during World War II. Second war led to the large national bureaucracy we have today.

Five key forces pushed U.S. toward modern bureaucracy

War. Morality, Economics, Geography, Race/Ethnicity

The People

We do our research and have our opinions, but we need someone to act on our behalf. People elect the president who through their appointees controls the bureaucracy from the top

Reformers fighting for efficient gov had a big advantage

because there were jobs that needed doing. American society and economy grew but the spoils system failed to answer to nation's needs.

Today business-friendly Republicans target the Consumer Financial Protection, Bureau

created to aid consumers in the wake of the 'Great Recession' of 2008-2009, for elimination.

Many agents like the president, courts, and congress, and interest groups

exert some control over the bureaucracy and try to maximise their own discretion todo what they think is best.

President Trump raised concerns when he replaced

five cabinet-level officials in his first hundred days (record).

If a proposed political appointee gets caught in a bottleneck, at the White House, the FBI, or in Congress,

it can be a year or more before team members are in place.

Today's proposed rules

mostly about countering climate change and ensuring a steady food supply; tomorrow's could affect student loans and affordable housing.

All these forces

pushed our gov to more professional bureaus and agencies. Pendleton Act of 1883 laid the cornerstone for the civil service that developed into a national bureaucracy by 1900.

In the past forty years,

reformers have promoted deregulation- abolishing the agencies and letting free-market competition protect consumers. Original ICC dismantled in 1995. Civil Aeronautics Board was abolished in 1985.

After 500 days in office, the Trump administration still had not filled 204 of the top 605 posts in the executive branch. As Washington has grown more partisan,

the confirmation process has become more difficult.

The younger the agency,

the farther away from the president the secretary sits. Events leaders of older deps. first then younger and newer ones (EX: Homeland Security). If there is catastrophe, the secretary of state is fourth in line to take over the presidency followed by each cabinet secretary, in the order the agencies were founded