Consider: get a reading from the front. Why do some call the Bucy the “4th branch of government”? The Last Word: #14 for tomorrow THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY Unit 4b AP Government and Politics What is a “bureaucracy”? • We know the second half of the word, “cracy” means “to rule”. • And “bureau” is a French word for “desk”… • So together, the word bureaucracy literally means “to rule from a desk”. •The idea is that government workers, who often work at desks, are essentially “ruling us”… –Why might this be controversial? What is a “bureaucracy”? A large, complex group organized according to a certain structure The Federal “B’ucy” Colloquially: the “government”. Divided into 3 basic parts Executive (Cabinet) departments Independent Executive Agencies The Executive Office of the President National Security Council The Executive Branch Executive Office of ("The President") the President Peace Corps FEC SSA White House Office Council of Economic Advisors - The "Right Arm" of the President - Several agencies staffed by the President's closest advisors Executive Deapartments "The Cabinet" - 15 Departments headed by a Secretary - Do most of the work of the Executive branch - Broken down into subunits Justice CIA NASA Independent Agencies - Number in the 100's - Deal with specific areas/ activities outside the scope of the Cabinet depts. - Report directly to the President Other Key Executive Agencies Defense EPA State HS Some Bureaucratic Myths and Americans dislike realities bureaucrats. Americans are generally satisfied with bureaucrats, though they may dislike agencies or the “bucy” as a whole (see: Congress) Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year. Not the federal bureaucracy. Most federal bureaucrats work in Washington, D.C. Only about 12 percent do. Bureaucracies are ineffective, inefficient, and always mired in red tape. Research suggests not much more so than private businesses. How do we feel about government/bureaucracy? Q: How many government bureaucrats does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Two. One to assure everyone that everything possible is being done while the other screws the bulb into the water faucet. Q: How many government workers does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Two. One to screw it in and one to screw it up. Quotes on Bureaucracy There’s a new game that's sweeping the country. It's called "Bureaucracy" Everybody stands in a circle. The first person to do anything loses. “The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.” “In any bureaucracy, paper work increases as you spend more and more time reporting on the less and less you are doing” “Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible” The “Rules” of Bureaucracy Preserve thyself. It is easier to fix the blame than to fix the problem. A penny saved is an oversight. Information deteriorates upward. The first 90% of the task takes 90% of the time; the last 10% takes the other 90%. Experience is what you get just after you need it. For any given large, complex, hard-to-understand, expensive problem, there exists at least one short, simple, easy, cheap wrong answer. Anything that can be changed will be, until time runs out. To err is human; to shrug is civil service. There’s never enough time to do it right, but there’s always enough time to do it over. Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will. O’Toole’s Corollary – Murphy was an optimist. FIGURE 8.1: How many employees work in the federal executive branch? 8.1 Bureaucratic Growth Are these characterizations fair? http://www.learner.org/courses/democracyin america/dia_8/dia_8_video.html Trimming the fat? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSX_ GwGP4s