What is the message of this cartoon?
Bureaucrats write memoranda
both because they appear to be
busy when they are writing and
because the memos, once
written, immediately become
proof that they were busy.
- Charles Peters
Growth of Bureaucracy
• No Constitutional protocol
• Industrialism and National
economy
• Munn v. Illinois – state can
regulate private industry
• Progressive Era
• Income tax
• Depression and WWII
Executive-Level Department
• The Cabinet
– 15 executive departments
– Headed by Political appointees
• Regulatory agencies
– Quasi legislative and judicial
– ICC, FTC, FDA, SEC, OSHA
• Government corporations
– Created for various purposes
– TVA, Post Office.
• Independent agencies
– Specific responsibilities, facilitate
day to day operations
– NASA, CIA.
Bureaucratic Models
• Weber’s Model
– Hierarchical (power down,
responsibility up), specialization,
rules, meritocracy (peter’s
principle), impersonal
– Unity of and chain of command,
line and staff control, span of
control, decentralization of
administration
• Acquisitive bureaucracy
– Self perpetuating, jockey for
continued existence
• Monopolistic bureaucracy
– No competitive equal in the
private sector
Staffing the Bureaucracy
• Political Appointments
– Presidential appointments
– Senate advice and consent
• Civil Service
–
–
–
–
Spoils System (1828)
Pendleton Act (1883)
Hatch Act (1939)
Civil Service Reform Act (1978)
Policymaking Process and Control
• Rulemaking
– Waiting periods and
challenges
– Negotiated rulemaking
• Policymaking
– Iron triangles
– Issue Networks
• Control
– Investigatory and purse power
– “Police patrol” and “fire alarm”
Reform
• Sunshine Laws
– Open meetings and disclosure
• Sunset Laws
– Requires reauthorization
• Privatization
– Contracting out, vouchers
• Incentives
– Making agencies more
entrepreneurial, “performancebased budgeting”
• Whistleblowers
– Reveal gross inefficiency or
illegal activity
“I’m sorry, dear, but you knew I was a bureaucrat
when you married me.”