Mega-Unit V: Institutions
The Federal Bureaucracy (Chapter 15)
I.
II.
Bureaucracy Basics
A. Constitutional Framework: Unlike the other entities discussed in the Institutions Unit the Constitution
gives no formal authority to the Bureaucracy. Instead it was created to assist the president and Congress
in the implementation of laws and policies.
B. Defining the Bureaucracy:
1. “A” bureaucracy is a hierarchical power structure. You’ll find them in your home, school, sports
team, church, and political party
2. “The” federal bureaucracy is the authority structure of the executive branch.
C. Myth v. Reality: there are a number of misconceptions surrounding the bureaucracy within the federal
government. (Lineberry 468)
1. Americans are generally satisfied with the role of the bureaucracy.
2. Contrary to popular belief the bureaucracy within the federal government is not growing each
year. The majority of government employees across the United States work at the state or local
level (Lineberry 469: Figure 15.1)
3. Most federal bureaucrats DO NOT work in Washington D.C., instead they work at various
federal offices across the US.
Work in the Bureaucracy
A. Who works in the Bureaucracy?
1. Approximately 3 million people work in the federal bureaucracy ( roughly 17 million more at the
state and local levels)
2. Demographically, the bureaucracy “is more broadly representative of the American people than
are legislators, judges, or presidential appointees in the executive branch” (Lineberry 470: Figure
15.2).
B. How do they get the job?
1. For the first 100 plus years of the republic bureaucrats received their positions through patronage
(the appointment and promotion system based on political support and “who you know”).
2. Civil service (merit based hiring): the practice of patronage ended with the passing of the
Pendleton Civil Service Act, 1883. Today, candidates are hired based on the merit principle (their
ability to do the job and competitive exams/interviews, instead of “who they know”).1 This
creates a nonpartisan government service.
a. Career bureaucrats: the majority of those working in the bureaucracy make a career out
of it. This means that most bureaucrats are loyal to their agency and not to the current
secretary of their department or POTUS. Once a bureaucrat receives a job it is extremely
difficult to fire them.
b. Hatch Act: creates guidelines and restrictions on campaigning and other forms partisan
politics by federal government employees.2
3. Presidential Appointments: The POTUS has the authority to make a number of appointments
(approximately 3000 jobs) during his tenure in office. These are known as Plum Book
appointments. According to your textbook, the average appointee stays on the job 22 months,
which means she/he is not on the job long enough to make lasting relationships and substantive
change. These short terms make the job of the career bureaucrat that much more important.3
C. How is the Bureaucracy organized?
1. Max Weber: A hierarchical authority structure that flows from the top down.: task specialization,
extensive rules (Standard Operating Procedures), clear goals, merit principle, impersonality (it’s all
about productivity)4
2. Organization:
It just has to be said: “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job!”
Here is an example of a flyer sent to federal employees detailing the political participation at work. (Hatch Act flyer)
3 The nature of the short-term plum positions and long-term career positions makes it difficult for the President to have control over the behavior of
the bureaucracy. This concept usually appears in the AP Exam Multiple Choice section.
4 On the other hand, remember what you read about “garbage cans” in your study guide. There is much evidence to suggest that bureaucracies are
messy collections of dysfunctional agencies, offices, and committees.
1
2
The Cabinet: the POTUS is the head of the executive and thus the head of the
Bureaucracy. Under the POTUS are the fifteen cabinet departments. Each department
is headed by a secretary, who in turn gives authority of agencies under each department
to “Deputy” or “Assistant” secretaries. Under each of the assistant secretaries are the
career bureaucrats and street level bureaucrats(Lineberry 477: Figure 15.4)5
b. Independent Regulatory Agencies “are responsible for some sector of the economy,
making and enforcing rules to protect the public interest.”
1. Federal Reserve Board is responsible for setting interest rates in an attempt to
balance the supply and circulation of money as well as the rate of inflation.6
2. National Labor Relations Board serves as the guiding force in promoting stability
between corporations and labor unions across the country.7
3. Federal Communications Commission is the media police as per the
Communication Act of 1934. They license television and radio station as well as
internet providers to operate within the US. The other primary duty of the FCC
is to enforce regulations regarding protection of the public (profanity/”wardrobe
malfunctions”) and local competition among stations.8
4. Securities and Exchange Commission: Its task “is to protect investors, maintain
fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation.” They do this
through a complicated set of regulations investment groups (“Wall Street”) must
follow. They monitor these companies, making sure they follow the rules.9
c. Government Corporations: slightly different than private companies (no buying or selling
of stock). They provide services that could be handled by private companies (i.e USPS v.
UPS or FedEx). Like private companies they charge for their services.
1. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was part of the New Deal it provides
electricity to millions of households in Alabama, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
2. United States Postal Service was created by Congress as a delegated power in
Article I of the Constitution. It is the government’s largest corporation,
responsible for delivering mail within the United States six days a week.
3. Amtrak, the railroad passenger company, is an example of government
intervention on behalf of a financially-ailing company. The company was not
profitable and eats billions of federal dollars every year. The government
maintains this service because it is believed to be an essential service for the
country. Although Amtrak is not widely used here in the western United States,
it is on the east coast.
d. Independent Executive Agencies (every other bureaucratic agency that does not fall
under the above mentioned.)
1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the government
space agency.10
2. National Science Foundation is responsible for funding scientific and
engineering educational research. Its mission is “to promote the progress of
science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the
national defense.” According to its website it has an annual operation budget of
about $6.6 billion.11
Evaluating Bureaucracy: Regulation v. Deregulation12
1. Regulation is “the use of government authority to control or change some practice in the private
sector” (Lineberry 487).13 It occurs in all aspects of one’s daily life. Those who support the
concept of regulation point to its protection element. It protects the consumer, worker,
Your teachers spent almost no class time practicing these concepts, but they do occasionally show up on unit
exams and/or the AP Exam. Spend some time reviewing these agencies/organizations and have a basic
understanding of how each of them might function within a hypothetical iron triangle of policymaking. When
you see the FRQ options for this unit you’ll notice one question that deals specifically with some of these
“alphabet soup” agencies.
a.
III.
For more on patronage, plum book appointments, and merit based employment check out this article.
A concise article on the role of the Federal Reserve Board can be found @http://wfhummel.cnchost.com/fedoverview.html.
7 More on this @ www.nlrb.gov
8 So when Eminem proclaims “the FCC won't let me be or let me be me, so let me see.” The FCC is censoring his message and stymieing his creative
juices. More @ http://www.fcc.gov/
9 Information on the SEC can be found at their web site. Start at the “about us” page (http://www.sec.gov/about/whatwedo.shtml).
10 All you need to know about NASA can be found at their home page.
11 The National Science Foundation claims they are the place “where discoveries begin.” If you would like to find out more about what they do check
out their site. (http://www.nsf.gov/index.jsp)
12 This is a heated subject because it is essentially the very core of the debate between liberal and conservative ideology. If you are interested in
learning more, just Google “regulation good or bad” and away you go.
13President Obama recently signed an executive order about cleaning up confusing regulatory process. He even created the website
www.regulations.gov in order to improve the function (and certainly the public image of federal regulations).
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environment, and our civil liberties. Furthermore it creates a sense of equality and fairness that
would be void without regulation. Those on the left of the political spectrum traditionally look
more favorably on the idea of regulation.
2. Deregulation is the “lifting of restrictions on business, industry, and professional activities for
which government rules have been established” (Lineberry 492). Deregulation is traditionally
supported by those on the right side of the political spectrum. To them, deregulation allows for
the freedoms, which create more competition, higher quality goods, and lower costs. Obviously
there is less government involvement thus becomes a smaller government. The emphasis shifts
the responsibility of government to the individual.
B. Policy Implementation: Your textbook defines this as “the stage of policymaking between the
establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people whom it affects.” When
implementing new policy three steps frequently occur.
1. “Creation of a new agency or assignment of a new responsibility to an old agency.”
2. “Translation of policy goals into operational rules and development of guidelines for the
program.”
3. “Coordination of resources and personnel to achieve the intended goals.” (Lineberry 480)
C. Failed implementation: although legislation may have the best intentions, often times the implementation
does not go accordingly. Why?
1. Poor program design can doom a policy. If the program is not designed properly it does not have
a likely chance of being effective.
2. If the policy goals passed by Congress or the POTUS are not clear the bureaucracy will have a
difficult time successfully implementing policy. The textbook provides the example of Title IX.
The lack of clarity in one section of the law leaves in question what sports require equality.
(Lineberry 480-481)
3. Lack of resources also adversely effects the implementation of policy/legislation. These resources
may include money, people, and equipment.
4. Administrative discretion is a major factor in failed policy implementation. Often the guidelines
provided by Congress do not fit specific circumstances surrounding the policy. As a result
bureaucrats are forced to add-lib on the fly. Street level bureaucrats, those who have the most
contact with the public use the most discretion when implementing the policy. Often this can
result in the unintended execution of the policy.
D. Other obstacles for the Bureaucracy
1. Whose jurisdiction is it? This question arises more
often than one would suspect. The bureaucracy has
a tremendous amount of redundancy. As a result
there is a lack of clarity as to who is responsible for
the policy’s implementation which makes the
bureaucracy react slowly.14
14
You should recall the Katrina documentary we watched, as well as some of the documents in our DBQ collection.
This is an important
topic that frequently
finds its way onto
AP Exams!
2. Loyalty (See PowerPoint visual below): the overwhelming majority of bureaucrats are career
oriented and thus dedicated to their department rather than the POTUS or cabinet secretary.15
3. Cabinet member’s loyalties are split between the needs of their department and the preferences of
the POTUS.
4. POTUS v. Congress, Managing the Bureaucracy: struggle for power between the two.
a. Congress attempts to control the Bureaucracy by using its confirmation power on
presidential appointments, having the CBO dispute elements of the president’s budget,
writing sunset legislation that create specific ending dates for spending and programs.
Most importantly Congress has the power to create and terminate bureaucratic agencies.
This power provides a tremendous amount power to Congress.
b. The president attempts to combat this power through appointing members to the
Bureaucracy that he knows will be loyal to his agenda (appointments that require both
Senate confirmation and plum jobs that do not). The president also set a clear agenda for
the Bureaucracy and uses his budget to emphasize his plan. Finally, he uses executive
orders and signing statements to circumvent the power of Congress.
5. The iron triangle is both an obstacle and an essential component to an effective bureaucracy. The
iron triangle can be cumbersome and overbearing at times by requiring government agencies to
spend valuable time reporting back to Congress. However, at the same time, the dialogue that
occurs within the iron triangle is the best way to make sure policy implementation is proceeding
with its original intent (Lineberry 495-497).
6. Red tape and redundancy is a common complaint amongst detractors of the current bureaucratic
system. Many assert the current system requires too many steps with many of them being
duplications of something already done16.
Top Tier = Presidential appointments requiring Senate confirmation
“Plum Jobs” = True patronage positions
(Short Timers…ladder climbers)
Civil Service Employees =
•
•
•
•
•
Vast majority of bureaucracy
Merit based
Career oriented positions
Policies make it difficult to fire
“Institutional memory” aka…
“Bureaucratic inertia”
For this reason, change happens slowwwwwly in the bureaucracy. It has often been referred to as “bureaucratic inertia.” This is bad news for any
president who pledges to bring “CHANGE” to the federal government. The vast majority of the government bureaucrats he oversees have been in
their jobs for many years before his arrival, and they will remain in their jobs for many years after his departure.
16 Here is a CNN.com article on how red tape is slowing progress to save endangered species.
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