POL 3162
Introduction to American Politics
BUREAUCRACY
SHANG E. HA
SOGANG UNIVERSITY
Overview
 APT, Chapter 12
 What is the federal bureaucracy?
 What does federal bureaucracy do?
 What do the public think about bureaucracy?
 How does Congress control the bureaucracy?
Bureaucracy
 Bureaucrats at different levels make rules, implement
rules, and (re-)interpret rules. (i.e., implement the
laws passed in Congress)
 They are checked by oversight from Congress, the
courts, and other bureaucrats (such as special
inspectors’ offices and special administrative law
courts).
 Critics believe that bureaucracies are inherently
dangerous and have too much power, but the fact is
that they are at the heart of our modern, complex
system of government.
What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?:
Functions

What do bureaucrats do?
 Implement policies established by Congress or the
president
 Develop programs and policies to achieve goals of laws
 When laws are specific, bureaucrats have very little
discretion.
 More commonly, laws provide general guidelines.
What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?:
Regulations

Regulations
 Government rules that give government control over
individuals and corporations by restricting behaviors
 Developed via the “notice and comment “procedure
 Very political
Regulations: An Example
Federal regulations affect all parts of everyday life.
• Think about federal regulations for car safety. Fact:
Over 30,000 people a year are killed in car accidents.
That’s 10 times the number of people who died in the
September 11 attacks every single year.
• Now think about imposing a new safety regulation. It
will make cars more expensive. By definition, this hurts
poor people the most. But, on the other hand, a new
mandatory safety feature might save lives. Is it worth it?
Regulations: An Example (con’t)
• This is called “cost-benefit analysis.” This basic
formula is applied many, many times by bureaucrats and
fundamentally affects the safety of the world we live in.
• When we mandate that we have more fuel-efficient
cars, we recognize that one way to achieve those
standards is to make cars lighter. But lighter cars are
generally less safe than heavier cars. Is the loss of safety
worth the increase in fuel economy (less pollution)?
These are the types of calculations that bureaucrats
make every day.
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?:
Responsibilities
 Procurement
Bureaucrats are in charge of government purchases.
 Make decisions regarding the criteria of what they will buy
 Providing services
 Street-level bureaucrats provide government services to
regular Americans.
 Research and development
 Government scientists do research covering a wide variety of
areas.
 Managing and directing
 Supervising: For example, the Department of Defense uses
civilian contractors to complete a wide variety of services in
Iraq

What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?:
The Experts
•
Bureaucratic expertise
 Bureaucrats are experts; in general, more so than
members of Congress or the president.
•
Criticism of bureaucracies
 Too much “red tape”
 The existence of red tape (also known as unnecessary
rules) as part of standard operating procedure is one of
the reasons that the words bureaucracy and
bureaucrat are commonly used in a pejorative way in
everyday speech. Political scientists use it in a more
value-neutral, nonjudgmental way.
What Is the Federal Bureaucracy?: Internal
Control

Problem of control
 Principal-agent game
 When Congress passes a law that mandates that
regulators write rules to further a goal, Congress is
the principal and the bureaucracy is the agent.
 Regulatory capture
 There is a danger that regulators (bureaucrats) will be
“captured” by the industries that they regulate. (One
possibility is that they may think they will be able to
leave the civil service for a better-paying job in
industry.)
The Executive Branch of the Federal
Government
The Structure of the Department of
Agriculture
The Size of the Federal Budget
Employment in Selected
Federal Organizations
The Human Face of the Bureaucracy
 Civil service regulations
 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.

Helps remove politics from the bureaucracy
The Human Face of the Bureaucracy:
Limitations

Limits on political activity



The Hatch Act (1939) prohibits federal workers
from engaging in organized political activities.
Senior White House staffers are exempt from
these restrictions.
However, they are prevented from using
government resources for political purposes
But….
 It is not completely clear which activities are allowed
or prohibited by these laws.
 For example, in spring 2007 Karl Rove, deputy White
House chief of staff and a close political adviser to
President George W. Bush, had given briefings to
senior political appointees on Republican losses in the
2006 midterm elections and plans for the 2008
campaign.
 As a senior member of the White House staff, Rove
was exempt from the Hatch Act’s prohibitions, but the
more junior White House staff involved in the briefings
probably were not.
The Human Face of the Bureaucracy:
Political Appointments

Political appointees and the senior
executive service



The president appoints about 7,000 political
appointees.
Some potentially less-competent campaign
staffers are awarded positions on “turkey farms.”
The ability to make political appointments helps
the president exercise some control over the
bureaucracy.
How Americans View the Federal
Bureaucracy
The Bureaucracy: Bureaucrats Make
Mistakes
Controlling the Bureaucracy

Lawmakers must determine how to get the
benefits of bureaucratic expertise without
giving bureaucrats complete control over
their own behavior.
Controlling the Bureaucracy: Monitoring
 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: Violations
 Correcting violations
 Legislation and executive orders can correct problems.
 Correcting problems is most challenging when Congress and
the president disagree.

This is when agencies often have the most discretion.