Chapter 15

Why do we study the bureaucracy?
• Understand the causes and implications of bureaucratic behavior
• Not to memorize the specific duties of every agency
• We must examine the bureaucracy from several perspectives
• Understand how and why it works the way it does.

A bureaucracy
• A model of organization
• Simply a way of organizing a large group of people.
The bureaucracy
• Various agencies of the federal government
• People who do the day-to-day job of governing

• Bureaucracies govern modern states.
• Classic conception of bureaucracy
(Max Weber)
▫ a hierarchical authority structure that uses:
1. task specialization,
2. operates on the merit principle,
3. and behaves with impersonality.

1. Internal division of labor and specialization by function.
2. Employees are recruited and promoted based on relevant technical expertise.
3. Various units are arranged in hierarchy
(clear lines of authority and communications).
4. Operations are guided and constrained by established rules and procedures ( SOPs ).
5. Emphasis is on establishing goals efficiently and effectively.

• Key Features of a Bureaucracy
1. Hierarchical authority
2. Job specialization
3. Formal rules (SOP)

▫ Americans dislike bureaucrats.
 Americans are generally satisfied with bureaucrats.
▫ Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year.
 Not in 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.
 No more so than private businesses

The Federal Bureaucracy
• Large, complex organization of appointed officials
• Includes all the agencies, people and procedures through which the federal government operates
▫ 2.7 million civilians and 1.4 million military

The Bureaucrats

The Bureaucrats

The Bureaucrats
• Who They Are and How They Got There
▫ Most demographically representative part of government
▫ Diversity of jobs mirrors the private sector

The Bureaucrats
• Who They Are and How They Got There
▫ The Other Route to Federal Jobs: Recruiting from the Plum Book
 Lists the very top jobs available for Presidential appointment
 Presidents work to find capable people to fill the positions.
 Some plum jobs (ambassadorships) are patronage.
 Their most important trait is transience.

Agency Employees
1.
▫ Spend long periods of time, if not entire careers in a single agency
▫ Associate their won success with the agency
▫ Usually on the bottom and are risk averse
▫ Loyal, reliable and stable, but difficult to change their behavior

Agency Employees
1.
Careerist
2.
Politician
▫ Tend to work in an agency for a short period of time
▫ May use the agency as a steppingstone to something bigger and better
▫ Motivated by self interest
▫ In the middle of the organizational structure
▫ Valuable source of creativity and risk-taking new ideas
▫ Can be source of destabilization

Agency Employees
• Careerist
• Politician
• Professional
▫ Get their rewards, norms and standards from professional groups outside the agency
▫ If their profession’s goals are in line with the agency these employees will be productive and easy to manage, otherwise conflict.

Bureaucracies: Agency Employees
• Impact of employees on the agency
• Want a good match between organizational goals and employees
• Good match
▫ Successful agency
▫ Leading employees will be smooth
• Bad match
▫ Difficult to manage employees
▫ Significantly diminished possibility of accomplishing agency goals

Growth of the Federal Bureaucracy
1.
Spoils System o Originally from the elite of upper-class white males o “to the victor the spoils,” declared Andrew
Jackson as he awarded federal jobs to party loyalists

Growth of the Federal Bureaucracy
2.
The Civil Service o Pendleton Act (1883) o Workers selected on merit o Travel the world. Be a diplomat.
o The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) o Administers civil service laws and regs.
o Does the hiring for most federal agencies

Growth of the Federal Bureaucracy
3.
Federal and State Employees o Federal = 3% of all civilian jobs

Growth of the Federal Bureaucracy
3.
Federal and State Employees o Federal = 3% of all civilian jobs o Number of federal employees constant since
1950

Growth of the Federal Bureaucracy
3.
Federal and State
Employees o Federal = 3% of all civilian jobs o Number of federal employees constant since
1950 o Number of state and local employees steadily increased since
1950

Growth of the Federal Bureaucracy
3.
Federal and State Employees o Block grants contribute to this gap by shifting resources form the federal government to state and local governments

Growth of the Federal Bureaucracy
3.
Federal and State
Employees o Federal mandates also shift more responsibility to states also causing an increase in the number of state employees.

Growth of the Federal Bureaucracy
1.
Spoils System
2.
Civil Service
3.
Federal and State Employees

Conflicts in a Bureaucracy
• Fairness versus responsiveness: Do we want our bureaucracies to be fair and treat each individual or case as a special interest, or do we want them to be as responsive to all as possible?

Conflicts in a Bureaucracy
• Efficiency versus effectiveness: Do we want our bureaucracy to select the most efficient
(best use of resources, cost, time etc…) way to do something or do we want it to select the most effective
(best, most successful)
?

• Professional independence versus accountability: What do we want and expect of our bureaucrats? Do we want them to have the professional independence to make decisions as needed, or do we want them to be accountable, and we can know what conditions/situations will yield what types of decisions?

• 15 cabinet departments
▫ Department secretary
▫ Attorney general
• Individual budgets, staff and policy areas
• Broad mission
• Political focus
• Leadership appointed by president, confirmed by
Senate
• Short tenure
• Extremely visible/political job
• Cabinet secretaries often develop a strong loyalty to their departments
▫ Thus they are not usually close presidential advisors

• Real work in the bureaus
• Service, administration, etc.
• Department of Health and Human Services

Independent
• Regulate key sectors of the economy
•
▫ The commissioners cannot be removed by the president during their terms of office

Independent
• Government agency responsible for some sector of the economy, making and enforcing rules to protect the public interest. Also, judges disputes over these rules.
• Leadership appointed by president, confirmed by Senate
• Leadership consists of a small commission
• “alphabet soup” agencies

Independent
• Longer tenure in office, typically serve long, staggered, over-lapping terms.
• Not easily fired
• Interest groups and agencies
▫ “capture” of the regulators by the regulatees
• FCC
• FTC
• SEC
• FRB
• NLRB

Independent
• Special Word about the Federal Reserve
Board
▫ Primary goal to set monetary policy
▫ Monetary policy includes interest rates, controlling inflation, regulating the money supply
▫ Great independence

Test Tip
• Be sure you know the difference between monetary and fiscal policy.
•
= money supply and interest rates
•
= taxing and spending policies

• Smaller of more focused mission
• Leadership appointed by president, confirmed by Senate
• Not in the cabinet, thus meant to be less political
• Tends to be long tenure in office

• Similar to, and different from private corporations
▫ Provide a service that could be “privatized”
▫ Typically charge for their services
• TVA
• Amtrak
• CPB
• USPS
• Fannie Mae
• Freddie Mac

Bureaucracies as Implementers
• What Implementation Means
▫ It involves translating the goals and objectives of a policy into an operating, ongoing program
▫ Stage of policymaking that takes place between establishment and consequences of a policy
▫ Implementation includes:
 Creating and assigning an agency the policy
 Translating policy into rules, regulations and forms
 Coordinating resources to achieve the goals

Bureaucracies as Implementers
Why the Best-Laid Plans Sometimes Flunk the
Implementation Test
1. Program Design
2. Lack of Clarity
 Congressional laws are ambiguous and imprecise.
 Sometimes the laws conflict with each other.

Bureaucracies as Implementers
3. Lack of Resources
 Agencies may be big, but may not have staff to carry out policy goals.
 Many different types of resources are needed: personnel, training, supplies & equipment
 May also lack the authority to act
4. Administrative Routine
 Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) bring uniformity to complex organizations.
 It is often difficult to change the routines.

Bureaucracies as Implementers
5. Administrator’s Dispositions
 Administrative discretion is the authority to select among various responses.
 Street-level bureaucrats have the most discretion.
 Discretion is greatest where SOPs are not prevalent.
6. Fragmentation
 Some policies are spread among several agencies.
 Some agencies have different rules for the same policy.

Bureaucracies as Implementers
• A Case Study: The Voting Rights Act of 1965
▫ Generally considered a success
▫ Had a clear, concise goal
▫ The implementation was clear
▫ Those carrying out the law had obvious authority and vigor to do so.

Bureaucracies as Regulators
• Regulation in the Economy and in Everyday Life
▫ Regulation: use of governmental authority to control or change some practice in the private sector
▫ A Full Day of Regulation
 Federal agencies check, verify, and inspect many of the products and services we take for granted.
 Federal and state agencies provide many services.

Bureaucracies as Regulators
• Regulation: How It Grew, How It
Works
▫ All regulation contains these elements:
1. A grant of power and set of directions from Congress
2. A set of rules and guidelines by the regulatory agency itself
3. Some means of enforcing compliance with congressional goals and agency regulations

Bureaucracies as Regulators
• Regulation: How It Grew, How
It Works
▫ Command-and-Control Policy:
The government tells business how to reach certain goals, checks the progress, and punishes offenders.
▫ Incentive System: market-like strategies used to manage public policy
▫ Some agencies are proactive; some are reactive.

• Toward Deregulation
▫ Deregulation: the lifting of restrictions on business, industry, and professional activities
▫ Regulatory problems:
 Raises prices
 Hurts U.S.’s competitive position abroad
 Does not always work well
▫ But some argue regulation is needed

and Regulation
• Implementation is the translation of policy goals into rules and SOPs
• How can implementation breakdown?
▫ Conflicting goals
▫ Faulty program design
▫ Lack of resources
▫ Fragmentation of resources
• Congress provides general goals, thus agencies have broad discretion to set specific guidelines

Implementation and
• Regulation is the use of government authority to control or change things
• Munn v. Illinois (1877)
▫ Feds have the right to regulate businesses
• Deregulation: Lifting of regulations, controls and restrictions.

The President and the Bureaucracy
Appointments
• President can appoint senior agency heads and subhead giving him some influence
• President’s power is limited.
1. Senate gets to approve the appointments
2. Agency heads develop strong relationships to their agencies

The President and the Bureaucracy
Executive Orders
• An executive order is a directive, order, or regulation issued by the president.
• Constitutional or statutory authority and have the force of law

The President and the Bureaucracy
Economic Powers
• The president can use the OMB to cut or add to an agency’s budget.
• President’s power is limited.
▫ Congress has the sole power to appropriate funds to an agency.

The President and the Bureaucracy
1.
Appointments
2.
Executive Orders
3.
Economic Powers

Congress and the Bureaucracy
Divided Authority
• Both the president and Congress exercise authority over the federal bureaucracy.
• Creates checks and balances but also encourages…
• …agencies to play one branch off against the other.

Congress and the Bureaucracy
Oversight
• Congress is responsibility to exercise legislative oversight over the bureaucracy
▫ Budgetary control
▫ Hearings and investigations
▫ Reorganization
▫ Guidelines
▫ Spread out responsibility to prevent an agency from becoming too powerful

SIGS and the Bureaucracy
Iron Triangles
• What is an iron trianlgle?
• They are so pervasive and powerful that they are sometimes called subgovernment

SIGS and the Bureaucracy
Issue Networks
• Includes policy experts, media congressional staff and SIGS who regularly debate and discuss and issue
• President often fills agency positions with people from an issue network who support his views.

Test Tip
• Be sure you know the difference between an
Iron Triangle and an
Issue Network.
•
= three interlocking players that seek to control policy.
•
= wide range of people who debate major policies.

Sources of Bureaucratic Power
1.

Sources of Bureaucratic Power
1.
They are essential.
2.

Sources of Bureaucratic Power
1.
They are essential.
2.
Expertise
3.

Sources of Bureaucratic Power
1.
They are essential
2.
Expertise
3.
Discretion
4.

Understanding Bureaucracies
• Bureaucracy and Democracy
▫ Presidents Try to Control the Bureaucracy
 Appoint the right people
 Issue executive orders
 Carry force of law and are used to implement policies
 Alter an agency’s budget
 Reorganize an agency
 Creation of Department of Homeland Security

Understanding Bureaucracies
• Bureaucracy and Democracy
▫ Congress Tries to Control the Bureaucracy
 Influence appointment of agency heads
 Senate confirms presidential nominees
 Alter an agency’s budget
 Hold oversight hearings
 Rewrite legislation or make it more detailed

• Bureaucracy and the Scope of Government
▫ The size of federal bureaucracy is an example of a government out of control.
▫ Even though the size of the bureaucracy has shrunk
▫ Some agencies don’t have enough resources to do what they are expected to do.
▫ Bureaucracy only carries out policies; Congress and the president decide what needs to be done.

Summary
• Bureaucrats shape policy as administrators, implementers, and regulators.
• Bureaucracy’s primary responsibility is the implementation of public policy.
• Federal bureaucracy has not grown but has in fact shrunk of late.