Governmental and
Administrative Structures
Outline
I. What is the Context in Which Public
Organizations Operate
II. What is the Relationship Between Public
Organizations and the Executive
III. What is the Relationship Between Public
Organizations and the Legislature
Outline
IV. What is the Relationship Between Public
Organizations and the Judiciary
V. What is the Relationship Between Public
Organizations and Other Interested Parties
VI. Organizational Resources and Issues
I. What is the Context in Which
Public Organizations Operate
A. What is Context?
Context is not merely physical, it
includes the….
beliefs and values that shape our
expectations of public organizations
as well as the structures we have
developed to try and maintain those
values.
Kaufman
This author argues that the
administrative history of our
governmental machinery can by
captured by change in emphasis among
3 values - representativeness, political
neutral competence, and executive
leadership
Kaufman
For this author, group discontent is the
dynamic force that motivates the quest
for new forms of administration; at
particular points in time, enough people
will be persuaded by one another of
these discontents to support remedial
action
Kaufman
During the time the author was writing,
he noted that most people were
dissatisfied with the representativeness
of the process; he argued that the
solution would be greater
decentralization of power to lower levels
of government
B. What are the Features of U.S Context?
Complex due to founding fathers’ fear of
concentrated power

Hamilton/Federalists: strong, centralized
government staffed by men of wealth, class and
education; reflects distrust of the people

Jefferson/Anti-Federalists: saw administration
as linked to the issue of extending democracy more decentralized approach with controls on the
executive
II. What is the Relationship Between Public
Organizations and the Executive
A. Administrative Organizations
Executive Office of the President (Office of Management and
Budget; National Security Council; Council of Economic
Advisors) advises and assists the President in formulating and
implementing national policy
Cabinet Level Executive Departments—DOD; HHS; Treasury;
Agriculture; Interior; Transportation; Justice; Commerce; State;
Labor; Energy; HUD; Education; Veterans Affairs, Homeland
Security
Independent agencies, regulatory commissions, and public
corporations
Government Printing Office, Library of Congress, General
Accounting Office
II. What is the Relationship Between Public
Organizations and the Executive
B. Tools for executive control over
administrative organizations
Executive order—presidential mandate directed to
and governing, with the effect of law, the actions of
government officials and agencies
Veto
Political appointees
III. What is the Relationship Between Public
Organizations and the Legislature
A.
Structural control mechanisms

Legislative veto—any action proposed by the executive or
agency under provisions of a particular piece of legislation is
subject to the approval or disapproval of Congress, usually
within 30 to 90 days (declared unconstitutional in Chadha
(1983) but still used)

Sunset laws—used to assess the performance of agencies
and to eliminate those that are not successful; specify life
span for program and require renewal for continuation

Sunshine laws—require agencies to conduct work in public
view
III. What is the Relationship Between Public
Organizations and the Legislature
B. Supervisory control mechanisms

Oversight—committee with jurisdiction over
particular agencies; hearings; CBO; GAO

Casework—using agencies to meet
constituent needs
IV. What is the Relationship Between
Public Organizations and the Judiciary
Rulemaking-concerned with establishing
general guidelines that would apply to a class
of people or a class of actions in the future

Governed by the Administrative Procedures Act:
seeks to insure that rules are based on proper
legal authority, that there are both adequate notice
of the rule making and an opportunity for citizens
to be heard, that the rule is clear and
unambiguous, and that people are given sufficient
advance warning that the new rule will take affect
Negotiated rulemaking - an alternative
means of dispute resolution that would
not require formal legal process
Brings together interested parties and
try to arrive at consensus
Adjudication- desire to see that
citizens are treated fairly and are not
subjected to arbitrary decisions
Rules vs Standards Debate
Here is the rules and standards debate in a nutshell. Law
translates background social policies or political principles such
as truth, fairness, efficiency, autonomy, and democracy into a
grid of legal directives that decision makers in turn apply to
particular cases and facts.
These mediating legal directives take different forms that vary in
the relative discretion they afford the decision maker.
These forms can be classified as either rules or standards to
signify where they fall on the continuum of discretion.
Rules, once formulated, afford decision makers less discretion
that do standards
V. What is the Relationship Between Public
Organizations and Other Interested
Parties
Political appointee connection—friction tends to exist
between the executives appointed by elected officials and the
government employees they are supposed to lead
Client connection—top administrators are quite sensitive to
the dominant interests or clients they represent
Cognate agency connection—related or connected; seldom
one agency alone involved in policy; jurisdictional and mission
overlap
Media connection—better relations with press, more
successful policy makers are in doing their job, easy to
understand, cover and report
Activist connection—no organization is safe from the wrath of
activists groups; demonstrations, boycotts,
VI. Organizational Resources and
Issues
A. Resources Denhardt
Staff (expertise); legislation is vague giving
discretion to the administration; political
clout
 External-public opinion, support from
clientele groups, members of the
legislature, others in executive branch
 Internal-information, expertise, cohesion,
leadership

A. Resources con’t
Starling

Resources, external support
(strength/size, dispersion, unity)

Professionalism,

Leadership-basis of power
Coercive power-ability to threaten punishment and deliver
penalties; magnitude of punishment real or imagined, other
party's estimate of the probability the leader will mete out
punishment
Connection power-personal ties with important people inside
and outside an organization
Expert power-reputation for special knowledge, expertise, or
skills in a given area
Dependence power-peoples perception that they are
dependent on the leader either for help or for protection
Obligation power-efforts to do favors for people who they
expect will feel an obligation to return those favors
Legitimate power-formal position held by the leader
Referent power-identification of others with the leader-liked,
admired, respected
Reward power-ability to make followers believe that compliance
with the leaders wishes will lead to pay, promotion, recognition,
or other rewards
B. Costs:
Every important administrative action
has indirect costs, externalities, or
spillover costs
Who is going to be glad? How glad?
Who is going to be mad? How mad?
C. Strategies
Cooperation: 2 groups can share compatible goals without one
having to completely give in to the other
Persuasion-ability to link behavior wanted to self-interest of
other party
Bargaining-negotiation of an agreement
Compromise-single, isolated issue, outcome one of more or
less
Logrolling-more than one issue at stake, reciprocity
Coalition-combination of 2 or more organizations for a specific
purpose
Competition- struggle between 2 or more parties with a 3rd
party mediating--seize the initiation or co-opting the opposition
Conflict-pursue goals that are fundamentally incompatible
Wilson
Three Key Organizational Issues
Critical Tasks—those behaviors, which if performed
successfully, enable the organization to manage its
critical environmental problem
Mission—agreement and widespread endorsement of
the way the critical task is defined
Autonomy—sufficient freedom of action and external
political support to permit it to redefine its tasks as it
sees best