Public Administration
POLS 304
Fall 2009
What Can You Do in Public Administration?
LOTS!
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Stillman:
Inside Public Bureaucracy
Five Subsystems:
 Political Appointees
 Professional Careerists
 General Civil Service
 Unionized Workers
 Contractual Employees
I. Political Appointees
“Birds of Passage”: average federal political appointee lasts 22 months.
If they are to accomplish anything they must move quickly.
Cabinet (inner, outer, sub); advisors to secretary, directors of agencies and
bureaus
[most expert and specialized]; Senior Executive Service.
SES - (1978 Civil Service Reform Act) - limbo land between quasi-political and
non-political territory - about 8,000 + fed. emp. (10% are political appointees, 90%
from “ranks”). Greater mobility and responsibility among top executive.
Networks - Those near the top have close personal ties, even long friendships,
w/chief elected official. Those on lower rungs tend to be experts in the particular
field and to have personal networks that run downward into the agency and
outward into various external support groups. (p.177)
II.
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Professional Careerist
Powerful experts
Social workers, lawyers, budgeteers, engineers, foreign service, educators,
public health
doctors.
“Politics of expertise”
 Professional elites - degrees, certifications, experts
 Line professionals - carry out day to day functions
 Staff professionals - like legal counsels
 Administrative professionals - budget, planning, finance personnel,
auditing, supply.
 Para-professional - paralegals, law clerks, nurse practitioner.
 “If political appointees draw support from their elected chiefs,
professionals in government conversely derive their legitimacy from
expertise acquired through higher education.” (p.182)
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III.
General Civil Service
Career Civil Servants
Rank is inherent in the job and not the person.
They identify with the agency or skill at which they work or with the people with
whom they work.
“I’m a bureaucrat” or “I work for the Civil Service.” vs. “I work for the Department of
Education”
An average of 17 to 25 years in the same agency for GS-14's,
Intrinsically incrementalist; strategy of gradualism is at odds with political
appointee’s immediacy desires.
Remember: The Pendleton Act of 1883
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“Whether because of the pejorative connotations attached to government
work or the more personal attachment to a particular assigned task, most
bureaucrats lack common ties with government as a whole or with the broad
public orientation of their work.” (p.184)
IV.
Unionized Workers
1912 - Lloyd La Follet Act: right of Fed. Workers to unionize. (p.187)
1962 - John Kennedy signed Executive Orders giving unions the right to bargain
collectively with federal management on a limited range of items.
AFSCME - American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Unions
About 35% of government workers are unionized (90% of postal workers)
Education, transportation, refuse collection have a higher level of union activity.
Bargaining is difficult because of the fractured (80,000 jurisdictions) nature of
government as the “management’ side of a negotiation.
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Also - wages and hours are generally legislated, and beyond the scope of
negotiations.
“Blue flu” or “sick outs”.
How do you organize a union if you can’t strike? (13 states allow it. Not the
Federal Government; not most states).
Union values often at odds with civil service values of open, competitive exams,
individual competence, etc.
V.
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Contracting Out
 New PA skills needed: contract negotiation, formal agreements, legal
sanctions, economic rewards and penalties for inducing contractor
compliance, auditing and contract management.
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Contract Employment
16% of total annual operating budget for Fed. Gov’t. is “other contractual
services” (p.191)
14% is for internal personnel and benefits (not including pensions)
Common examples: Weapons systems, NASA, Capitol Projects, grants for
research and development.
“If their personnel were counted as government employees, the size of the
government bureaucracy would probably be twice as large as it is.” (p.192)
Contracting Games
 Contracting out allows claims of “Keeping the lid on government personnel
costs while still providing services for constituents.” (p.192)
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Problems:
Imposing government values of responsiveness, accountability, equity,
accessibility etc. on private contract workers.
“Captives” to the contractor.
Public Administration
POLS 304
Fall 2009
Politics and the Public Interest
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Which came first, the chicken or the Hatch Act?
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Politics and the Public Interest
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Whatever happened to Wilson’s Politics/Administration Dichotomy?
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Was Weber right? Can the bureaucracy become a well oiled machine?
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Is Caiden right? Do we risk the loss of liberty and civilization if we take neutrality
too far?
The Big Three
Federal Public Administration Legislation That You Should Know!
Pendleton Act - 1883
Hatch Act - 1939
Civil Service Reform Act - 1978
The Big Three
Federal Public Administration Legislation
Pendleton Act - 1883
 Chet Arthur
 US Civil Service Commission
 Job Related Competence
Civil Service Reform Act - 1978
 Jimmy Carter
 Senior Executive Service
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Merit System
First major reform since 1883
The Hatch Act of 1939
The “Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities”
Prohibited Political Activity by Federal Employees
Was originally aimed at
 Protecting, not stifling, employees
 creating a more merit based system
Was VERY stringent: No active participation in campaigns, period.
The Hatch Act Revisions
1939, 1940, 1966 Prohibited any active participation in political campaigns
1972 DC District court rules unconstitutional
1973 Supreme Court overrules; Act upheld
1990 Repeal/revision passed; Bush I vetoes
1993 Repeal/revision Passed; Clinton Signed
The Hatch Act Today
Federal Employees may not run for public office or solicit campaign contributions
from the general public
Much greater flexibility including allowing employees to take part in party
leadership
Is an elected official a federal employee?
A question for you to ponder…
How involved should an administrator be in the “politics” of her program?
 Public Information
 Public Advocacy
 Legislative Monitoring
 Lobbying
Are the taxpayers paying you to convince lawmakers to spend more of their
money?
David and Goliath
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Will We Ever Be Free of Politics?
Partisan (Party) Politics
 “Big D, Big R”
Local Politics
 Is it ALL local?
Non-partisan
 Is a non-partisan election also non-political?
Inter-agency turf wars
 You can’t serve those people; those are my people!
Office Politics
 Where’s a good label when you need one?
“The Difference Between Neutral and Mindless”
Gerald Caiden
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What are the weaknesses of neutrality?
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What is his conclusion about the concept of neutrality?
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Unit 4 Readings:
Text:
 Stillman - Inside Public Bureaucracy p. 180
Handouts:
 Josephson - Six Pillars of Character
 The Difference Between Neutral and Mindless (Caiden)
 GORR
Cases:
 How Kristin Died p. 64
 Orange County - Handout
PowerPoint Outlines are on the Web
The Final is Test 4 for Unit Four and then a Comprehensive Section.
Tues, Dec. 15th 10:30-12:30