Bureaucracy – just another dirty
word
Tell me how you feel?
“Bureaucracy is the death of all sound
work”- Einstein
 “Bureaucracy is the art of making the
possible impossible”- Javier Salcedo
 “Any change is resisted because bureaucrats
have a vested interest in the chaos in which
they exist.”- Richard Nixon

“The only thing that saves us from the
bureaucracy is its inefficiency.”- Gene
McCarthy

“Poor Eisenhower, in the military when he
gave an order it was carried out. But
when he gives an order as President
nothing will happen and he won’t
understand why – “ Harry Truman
Bureaucracy- A large organization, some
appointed, most hired professionals for
the management of government
programs. (The toilet article again!)
How big?

Numbers grow as we expect more of
government and agencies are added
1789- 3 cabinet departments and about
50 employees
 1816- about 4,800 employees but 70% in
Post office
 2009- 2.8 million add in military and get
4.4 million ( Defense is largest)

Devolution!!- Remember that?

Even so federal bureaucracy is smaller
than the bureaucracy of the 50 states- all
together the number of government
bureaucrats is near 21,000,000

PLUS when you add in the hidden
workforce, it is even larger- private
contractors.
Who is the bureaucracy?

Four components:
◦ 1. Cabinet departments- And it is
◦ 2. Independent agencies- ex EPA- Not part of
cabinet depts. Report directly to President.
Allows them to operate independently of
Cabinet that might not ant them to exist exSec of Interior and EPA might conflict
◦ 3. Independent Reg Agencies- Fed Res Board,
Nuclear Reg Agency- Regulate business but
often captured by pro biz forces
◦ 4. Government organizations- USPS, TVA
How large could it possibly be?
-Seriously, you've got to be kidding
So what do they do? The big 4
Foreign policy- State Dept/Dept of
Defense/ Homeland Security/200 foreign
embassies-Defense is largest part of
bureaucracy Financial policy- Treasury Dept./Federal
res Board/ Commerce Dept
 Law Enforcement- Justice Dept/
FBI/Homeland Sec
 Postal Service

Big 4 was the original bureaucracy

But we now expect more and more and
more
◦ Natural resources- Interior(1849) Energy
(1977) EPA (1970)
◦ General welfare- Health and Human Services –
originally Health, Education and welfare (1953)
◦ Housing- Housing and Urban Develop(1965)
◦ Transportation- Dept of Transportation (1966)
◦ Education- Dept of Ed (1980)
This is how we see them
But do we really see them like that?
How do they get so much power?
Iron triangle- bureaucratic agency
+Congressional committee+ interest
group
 Issue network- new description- take the
iron triangle and add in lawyers,
consultants, academics, courts etc)
 These groups foster their common
interests.

Make sense now?
Power to legislate?
Regulations- quasi- legislative ( quasi =
seemingly)
Who said they should do this?
Then how does this happen?
Bills are vague ( ex. 1972 Title IX 1972. By
1978 100 words in law became 30 pages
of regulations!!
This is there most important function, it
gives them POWER!

So who checks this power?

2 schools of thought- 1. elected officials
need to check power 2. Bureaucracy
should be autonomous in order to
operate without politics, allowing them to
function freely.
So who checks this power?

President- Hard to do
◦ TJ- Seeks “wise and frugal government
◦ JFK- Instruction to State dept is like putting
the request in a dead letter box
◦ Nixon wanted to combine 50 agencies and 7
dept’s into super dept’s. Too much opposition.
◦ Clinton/Gore task force on reinventing
government- cut 252000 federal jobs
Reinventing bureaucracy
Presidents all try to reinvent the
bureaucracy - Some have real plans!
 In fact Bush made it happen

More Presidential control
President can sign an executive order
forcing agencies to act- ex Exec order
11375 (1967) LBJ added “gender” to antidiscrimination job regulations
 Alter budgets
 Appoint department heads.
 Reorganize, restructure.

Homeland Security
White House aide- “ if we go ahead with
a new border agency, it will mean ripping
big organizations out of two or three
Cabinet departments and no cabinet
secretary I have ever seen wants to give
up a part of his department”
 So- 1.. What problem did Bush face in the
effort? 2. What does this example
illustrate with regard to pres power and
the bureaucracy?

Homeland Security

Controversial aspects required a sales job,
as agencies wanted to protect their
interests. Border issue was very difficult.
Treasury, Justice, Transportation did not
want to cede power. They argued a
reorganization would be highly disruptive
Congress-What can those
knuckleheads do?
 1. Police
patrol- investigate
actions of bureaucracy
 2. Set up and abolish agencies
 3. Provide funding
How bout them judges?
1. Issue injunctions- “ A U.S. District Judge
has issued a preliminary injunction barring
the Food and Drug Administration from
requiring the tobacco industry to include
new, graphic warnings on their cigarette
packages. He that requiring the labels is
compelled speech that violates the First
Amendment.”
 2. Require due process
 3. Litigation by citizens- Environmentalists
suing because Obama is NOT regulating
ozone

Pathologies
1. Red tape- Rules and regs required to
get something done
 2. Conflict- When two agencies want to
accomplish opposite goals
 3. Duplication- When two agencies do the
same thing
 4. Imperialism- the desire to grow the
agency
 5. Waste- Spending more than what seems
necessary to accomplish a goal

Red tape- it’s constricting
Reason for pathologies


Red tape- makes sure one part of
organization does not operate out of step
with another, a check and balance. Comes
from desire to meet many goals-ex. Hiring
on merit vs affirmative action
Conflict and duplication- Congress hopes to
achieve numerous goals, often conflicting (
Tenn Valley Auth vs Nuclear Reg
Commission)- 535 members with various
agendas ( ex econ policy set by Fed Res
Board, Treasury, office of mgt and budget)
More pathology reasons
Imperialism- Comes from vague
directions, provides opportunity to seize
power, grow agency.
 Waste- Often 1 of a kind or cost is higher
to meet political agenda ( ex. Least
expensive vs buying American)
