CHAPTER 15:
GOVERNMENT AT WORK
THE BUREAUCRACY
Section 1: The Federal Bureaucracy
Section 2: The Executive Office of the President
Section 3: The Executive Departments
Section 4: Independent Agencies
Section 5: The Civil Service
SECTION 1:
THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY
➢ BUREAUCRACY - a large, complex
administrative structure that handles the
everyday business of an organization.
○ What does the federal government do as an
administrative structure?
■ Deliver mail
■ Regulate business practices
■ Collect taxes
■ Conduct foreign policy
■ Administer Social Security
THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY
➢ Many believe that it suggests
○ Red tape
○ Waste
○ Delay
■ Bureaucracy is used as an organized and efficient way
to conduct business.
●
What are some types of bureaucracy in the private sector
○ 3 Features
■ Hierarchical Authority
■ Job Specialization
●
BUREAUCRAT - person who works for organization with certain
responsibilities and duties.
THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY
➢ What are the benefits?
○ Allow people to work together
○ Can reduce conflicts
○ Gain specialized skills
○ Allow for easy transition
■ Employees leave, new employees hired
○ Hold appointed positions
■ They are not elected - private sector
○ Democracy - depends on elected officials
running the bureaucracy
THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY
➢ Almost all bureaucracy is located in the executive
branch.
○ Article II of the Constitution suggests executive
departments.
■ Anticipates the creation of two departments
●
Military and Foreign Affairs
○ ADMINISTRATION - the officials in the executive
branch of government and their policies and
principles.
■ Framers realization that without people the laws of
Congress would be just words and phrases
THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY
➢ The term department is saved for those in the
President’s cabinet.
○ All others are known as - agency, administration,
commission, corporation, and authority
■ Agency - refers to governmental bodies (EPA)
■ Administration - government bodies (NASA)
■ Commission - business regulation (FCC)
■ Corporation and Authority - conduct business
activities - Federal Deposit and Insurance
Corporation
THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY
➢ 2 types of administration
○ Staff Agencies - aid the chief executive and
other administrators by offering advice and
other assistance in the management of the
organization
○ Line Agencies - actually perform the tasks for
which the organization exists.
■ Line agencies are given goals to meet by Congress
and President
■ Staff agencies help line agencies meet those goals.
Section 2: The Executive Office of the
President
➢ Jefferson paid his employees out of his pocket
○ 1857 changed that
➢ EXECUTIVE OFFICE of the PRESIDENT organization of several agencies staffed by the
President’s closest advisors
○ Staffed by Congress in 1939
➢ Nerve Center is the White House Office
○ President’s key personal and political staff
■ Most held in the two wings on either side of the White
House
● Most (West) Oval Office - Few (East) Tours
The Executive Office of the President
➢ National Security Council (NSC)
○ Meet on short notice
○ President is the chair
○ Discuss matters pertaining to
■ Domestic
■ Foreign
■ Military
● Members
○ VP
○ Secretary of State and Defense
○ Director of CIA
○ Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Executive Office of the President
➢ Newest Agency
○ Developed following 9/11
○ Purpose is to advise President on matters relating to the
security of the country.
➢ Office of Management and Budget
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○
○
Largest and most influential after White House Office
Headed by an appointee
Required to prepare a national budget
Federal Budget - very detailed estimate of receipts
and expenditures, and an anticipation of federal
income and outgo during next fiscal year.
The Executive Office of the President
➢ Office of Policy Development ○ Advises President on all matters relating to domestic
affairs.
○ Domestic Affairs - all matters not related to the
realm of foreign affairs.
Section 3: The Executive Departments
➢ Executive Departments - traditional units of
federal administration, and each of them is built
around some field of activity.
○ Created three departments in 1789
■ Department of State
■ Department of Treasury
■ Department of War
●
●
Departments were added over the years based on the constantly
growing workload of the government
New departments replaced old or encompassed those departments
The Executive Departments
➢ Chief Officers and Staff
○ Secretary - head of a department
○ Attorney General - head of the Department of Justice
■ Department heads serve in the President’s cabinet
■ Link between Presidential policy and their department
○ Departments are divided into Subunits
■ Made up of Staff and Line Agencies
● Have focuses on separate issues within the department
■ Vary in terms of visibility, size, and importance
The Executive Departments
➢ The Cabinet
○ Informal advisory body to the President
○ Product of custom and usage
○ 1789 Four departments
■ Washington consistently used them
■ Became permanent positions
■ Now consists of 15 departments
○ Cabinet members
■ Chosen by President
■ Approved by Senate
●
●
Party affiliation
Qualifications and experience
The Executive Departments
➢ Women and Minorities
○ Just starting to take a more active role
■ First woman cabinet member
● Frances T. Perkins - Secretary of Labor
○ Appointed by Franklin Roosevelt
● Ford administration
○ Woman and African American in cabinet
➢ Cabinet’s Role
○ 2 Job’s
■ Administrative head of an executive department
■ Advisor to the President
Section 4: Independent Agencies
Objectives:
1) Explain why Congress has created
independent agencies.
2) Identify the characteristics of independent
regulatory commissions.
3) Describe the structure of government
corporations.
Independent Agencies
❏ Prior to 1880 most of the work completed in the
executive branch was done so through the
cabinet positions.
❏ Independent Agencies - additional agencies
created by Congress but located outside of
the departments.
❏ NASA / SSA
❏ Why? Numerous reasons
❏ Do not fit in any department
❏ To protect from partisan and pressure politics
Independent Agencies
❏ Independent Executive Agencies
❏ Independent Executive Agencies - headed by
a single administrator with regional subunits,
but lacking Cabinet status.
❏ Some are large
❏ GSA, NASA, and EPA three of the largest
❏ Operate much like cabinet positions
❏ Single administrator
❏ Subunits
❏ Operate on a regional basis
❏ Most important difference - no cabinet status
Independent Agencies
❏ Other agencies
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Civil Rights Commission
Peace Corps
Federal Election Commission
National Transportation Safety Board
❏ Much smaller agencies, still have important jobs.
❏ American Battle Monuments Commission
❏ Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee
❏ Migratory Bird Conservation Commission
❏ Seldom seen or heard.
Independent Agencies
❏ Independent Regulatory Commission designed to regulate important aspects of
the nation’s economy.
❏ Created by Congress
❏ Largely beyond the reach of the President
❏ Headed by a board or commission
❏ 5 to 7 members
❏ Appointed by President
❏ Must be bipartisan
❏ Appointed for terms (staggered)
Independent Agencies
❏ Quasi-Legislative - powers that are related to
legislative.
❏ Make rules and regulations
❏ Securities and Exchange Commission
❏
Provide details for borrowing of money, stocks, bonds, and etc....
❏ Quasi-Judicial - powers that are to some extent
judicial.
❏ Decide disputes for which they are granted power.
❏ Securities and Exchange Commission
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Investigates reports of fraud or scandal
Cases can be taken to U.S. courts of appeals.
Independent Agencies
❏ Government Corporations - are within the
executive branch and subject to the President’
s direction and control.
❏ Were used very little until WWI and depression
❏ 50+ organizations today
❏ What was the first? Bank of the United States (1791)
❏ Run by board of directors
❏ GM directing operations
❏ Income goes back into business
❏ Congress decides reasoning for public agencies
❏ What they can do.
Section 5: The Civil Service
Objectives:
1) Describe the development of the civil service.
2) Identify characteristics of the civil service as it
exists today.
3) Analyze the restrictions on the political
activities of members of the civil service.
The Civil Service
❏ Civil Service - composed of those civilian
employees who perform the administrative
work of government.
❏ How many?
❏ Of those 300,000 work in D.C. area
❏ President appoints approximately 2500 positions
❏ Again Article II of the Constitution
❏ Washington and Adams appointed with party
❏ Jefferson realized to appoint to office not only must they be
qualified and experienced but have political acceptance.
❏ Spoils System - the practice of giving offices
and other favors of government to political
supporters and friends.
❏ 1829 Jackson dismisses 200+ presidential
appointees and 2000 officeholders. Why?
❏ Replaced them with people he wanted.
❏ Patronage - the practice of giving jobs to
supporters and friends.
❏ 4 Reasons (Jackson)
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1) duties are simple - anyone with intelligence can do it.
2) there should be a rotation in office.
3) long service can lead to tyranny and inefficiency.
4) people are entitled to have the party they put in office in control
The Civil Service
❏ A need for change.
❏ Many sought change but could not accomplish it.
❏ No change took place until events in 1881
❏ President Garfield
❏ Fatally shot by office-seeker
❏ President Arthur assumes office
❏ Gets the Pendleton Act passed.
❏
Establishes the Civil Service System
❏ Pendleton Act - established the means for office.
❏ quality of one’s work
❏ hiring / promotion / personnel actions
The Civil Service
❏ First goal of civil service reform
❏ Elimination of spoils system
❏ New system recruiting and keeping best qualified
in federal work force.
❏ Most are hired through a competitive process now
❏ Paid and promoted based on written evaluations
❏ Protected from disciplinary or dismissal actions
❏ party lines
The Civil Service
❏ Office of Personnel Management
❏ Federal government’s central personnel agency
❏ Independent agency in executive branch
❏ Headed by single person appointed by President
❏ Responsibilities
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Federal recruiting
Examining
Hiring process
Maintain registers
Registers - lists of those applicants who pass
its tests and are qualified for employment.
The Civil Service
❏ Merit Systems Protection Board
❏ Enforces the merit principle in federal
bureaucracy
❏ Board is bipartisan
❏ Bipartisan - it includes members from both
parties.
❏ 3-member panel picked by President and Senate
❏ Hears appeals from federal employees
❏ denial of pay increases
❏ demotions
❏ firings