Bureaucratic
Problems and
Reform
Chapter 15, Theme C
Pop Quiz 15
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 Complete quiz then leave the room.
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Understanding Bureaucratic
Behavior
 What
factors explain how a
bureaucrat uses their power?
The
personal attributes of the
person
The agency for which they work
Legal and political constraints
Constraints on the
Bureaucracy

Constraints are much greater on government
agencies than on private bureaucracies
 All

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3 branches place constraints, esp. Congress
Hiring, firing, pay, and other procedures are
established by law, not by the market
Legal constraints like FOIA, National
Environmental Policy Act, etc.
Constraints come from citizens: agencies try to
respond to citizen demands for transparency,
openness, honesty, and fairness
Results of Constraints
 RED
TAPE!!
 Slow decisions
 Inconsistency
 Block action versus Take action
 Hesitancy of employees
Trade-offs of Constraints
 Which
would you rather have?
Fairness
or responsiveness?
Efficiency or effectiveness?
Professional independence or
accountability?
 Can
you have all of the above? Why
or why not?
Congressional Oversight
Congress creates agencies & can end them
 Many programs must be reauthorized yearly
 Congress can change laws/programs’
policies
 Congressional appropriations provide funds
for the agency to spend on its programs
 Congressional investigations & hearings
 Congress investigates Benghazi incident
 Congress investigates Secret Service

The Bureaucracy is a slave to
all three branches!
President drives agenda through
appointments of his allies
 Congress has oversight and powers of the
purse
 Punitive decisions of bureaucratic
agencies are subject to court challenges
 These constraints lead to iron triangles.

Iron Triangles
Also called sub-governments
 Don’t always have public interest at heart
 Become dependent on other groups
within “triangle” and tend to advance own
interests
 Provide services, support, money,
information to other groups in triangle
 Best way to break up Iron trianglespublicity

How Iron Triangles Work
Everyone in triangle has a similar interest
 Legislators get funding from interest
groups and make favorable laws a reality
with the help of the bureaucracy
 Interest groups provide valuable
information to bureaucrats and money to
legislators
 Bureau/Agency chiefs implement
legislator policy and interest group goals.

Example: Why is tobacco not
regulated as a drug?
House and Senate
agricultural committees
Tobacco/farmer
interest groups
(tobacco lobby)
Department of
Agriculture
House and Senate members, sympathetic to tobacco, receive campaign
funds & support from tobacco interest groups. Members then make sure
that tobacco farmers are defended through legislation. USDA executes
legislation while relying on the Congressional budget. The interest groups
provide the USDA with valuable information to effectively execute laws.
-COMMON INTEREST: Keep tobacco alive = keep their jobs alive
Issue Network

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
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Connection today too complicated for Iron Triangles
to perpetuate
Iron triangle too simple – there are lobbies from
opposite sides of an issue who compete (Pluralism)
Issue Network – complex group (includes media)
that debates an issue and slows policy-making
Policy-making is not as smooth with competing
demands from Lobbies
President can appoint an agency head who steers
policy, but can never smoothly control policy
Bureaucratic Pathologies (Problems)

Red tape: complex, sometimes conflicting rules
 ex.:

Can you say FAFSA??
Conflict: agencies work at cross-purposes
 ex.:
Agricultural Research Service tells farmers how
to increase crop yields, but Agricultural Stabilization
Service pays them subsidies to grow fewer crops.

Duplication: two or more agencies seem to do
the same thing
 ex.:
How many agencies can you name that try to
stop the influx of illegal drugs?
 DEA, Coast Guard, ICE, FBI, Border Patrol
Bureaucratic Pathologies (Problems)

Imperialism: tendency of agencies to
grow, irrespective of programs’ benefits
and costs
 Do

we still need 15 Post Offices in Currituck?
Waste: spending more than is necessary
to buy some product or service
 Elaborate
and lavish spending
 GAO is watchdog
 Often occurs because of “gold-plating”
Deregulation
 Take
away rules imposed by
bureaucracy, ex. government steps
back
 Reagan made deregulation a top
priority
 Everyone supports deregulation in
abstract.
Reality:
Deregulation costs jobs and
“pork” spending.
Reforming the Bureaucracy
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National Performance Review (NPR) in 1993
designed to reinvent government with less
centralized management, more employee
initiatives, fewer detailed rules, and more customer
satisfaction—Some success, but…
Most rules and red tape are due to struggles
between the president & Congress or to agencies’
efforts to avoid alienating influential voters
Periods of divided government worsen matters,
especially in implementing policy: Who do you
please??
Bureaucrat Assignment
Research the role you are assigned.
 Share your assignment with me before
8:00 a.m…even if you are going to be
absent!
 Tomorrow morning, come sit with your
assigned group.
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