Bureaucracy
• Def’n: A large, complex organization composed
of appointed officials
• No one person can make all the decisions
• 3 peculiarities of American bureaucracy:
• 1) Political authority over the bureaucracy is
shared—in Britain, bureaucrats don’t deal with
Parliament
• 2) Most of the agencies of the federal government
share their functions with related agencies in
state/local government (FEDERALISM)
• 3)Adversary culture; litigious society. In Sweden,
decisions made by bureaucrats are rarely
challenged
Bureaucracy…in the Beginning
• Constitution does not mention
departments/bureaus
• Madison introduced bill to create Department of
State; debate on whether President could remove
subordinates, settled in favor of President
• But Congress could appropriate money, could
investigate, and shape the laws that are executed
• Still, bureaucracy had potential to become a
“spoils system” or patronage system
Weber’s ideal type bureaucracy
• Individual officials are personally free, but constrained by their
employment when performing the impersonal duties of their
offices
• There is a clear hierarchy of officials
• The functions of each official in the hierarchy are clearly specified
• Each official has a contract of employment
• Officials are selected by professional qualification, ideally through
competitive examinations
• Officials have a monetary salary, usually with pension rights, and
reflecting their position in the hierarchy. Officials may leave their
jobs when they desire and their contracts may be terminated
under certain circumstances
• The official’s post is his sole or main occupation
• There is a clear career structure with promotion by seniority or
merit according to the judgement of superiors
• The official may not appropriate for his personal use the post or
its resources
• The official is under a unified control and disciplinary system
Appointments
• Congressional preferences often controlled the
appointment of officials, esp. 1800s.
• Civil service reform in 1880s, Pendleton Act (1883)
• 1816-CW: Jobs increased 8X
• CW led to massive bureaucracy
• After CW, rapid industrialization created a need to
control burgeoning industries; balanced by laissezfaire attitude of Americans and Cong. oversight
• Dep’t of Agriculture, 1862; Dep’t of Labor (1882);
Dep’t of Commerce (1903)
• Difference: Clientele agencies, supposed to serve
Changing Role of the Bureaucracy
• Today’s bureaucracy is a product of the 1930s
Depression and World War II
• Supreme Court in 1930s changed its mind and
allowed Congress to delegate legislative authority to
bureaucratic agencies
• Nixon in 1971 set up a system of wage/price
controls after Congress passed legislation
• World War II brought income taxes; IRS
• No President today, however, wants to admit that he
has increased the bureaucracy—but the # working
for private agencies funded by gov’t has increased
Bureaucratic Power
• Real measure of authority: Discretionary
Authority—the ability to choose actions independent
of laws
• Bureaucracy has grown much in this respect;
Subsidies to farmers, grants-in-aid; arsenic standard
in water, granting TV licenses, corporate mergers
• To really find out where the power is, talk to
program managers—not top appointees
• Average life of cabinet appointee= 20 months
• Average career of project manager= 20 years
4 Factors that Explain Behavior
• 1. The manner of recruitment/rewards
• 2. Their personal attributes, socioeconomic
backgrounds, political attitudes
• 3. The nature of their jobs
• 4. The constraints of outside forces—political
superiors, legislators, interest groups, and
journalists—impose on their agencies
#1 Factor: Recruitment/Retention
• Many federal officials belong to competitive service (passed
exam/credential check by OPM)
• Recent trend—each agency hires without OPM ok
• 3 Reasons: 1) Old system was cumbersome, 2) Agencies
needed professionals, 3)Minority hiring
• Diverse, white color workforce now the rule; biologists
AND paper-pushers
• Excepted service: makes up half of all workers, appointed
(3%) or hired by agencies like CIA, FBI, USPS that have
their own selection process
• Patronage consists of reg. appointments, Schedule C
(confidential) appt’s, NEA (noncareer exec. Assignments)
NEAs participate heavily in policy and decision-making
The Buddy System
• Actual recruitment more difficult
• Name-request job: Filled by a person who
the agency has already identified
• Frequently a capable way of hiring
employees, but can be a way to put political
hacks into office
• “Old boys” and “Old girls” networks
Firing a Bureaucrat
• Executives must jump through hoops to fire nonappointed bureaucrats, and this rarely works
• .1% of Federal workers get fired
• Civil Service Reform Act of 1978: Rationale: Many highlevel senior civil servants actually make policy.
Therefore, they should be easily hired/fired, transferred,
and paid better
• Created SES (Senior Executive Service): 8000 people,
theoretically, can be hired/fired more easily, can be
transferred from department to department more easily,
employees get cash bonuses for job well done
• Didn’t quite work out as planned: None fired, very very
jobs filled via interagency transfer
#2 Factor Shaping Bureaucratic
Behavior: Personal Attributes
• Bureaucracy as a whole resembles American population;
white males rule top
• 1/3 of public Conservative, 1/5 of Civil Service is
• “Activist” vs. “Traditionalist” Agencies
• Bureaucrats can either drag heels or be overzealous in
policy enforcement/making processes—usually they obey
and carry out directives
• Whistle blower Protection Act, 1989: Created Office of
Special Counsel, investigates bureaucratic complaints
• Even bureaucrats within agencies have power struggles (ex:
FTC lawyers and economists)
#3 Factor Shaping Bureaucratic
Behavior: Nature of their Jobs
• Jobs are spelled out by formal and informal rules
(a.k.a. the “culture of the agency”
• Most bureaucrats don’t have much freedom; if you
are an AF pilot, you don’t order the planes you fly
• Jobs are ranked; some jobs more prestigious than
others
• Strong cultures motivate employees but makes it
hard to change an agency
#4 Factor Shaping Bureaucratic
Behavior: Constraints
• Exact procedures can be spelled out by Congress
• EX: DOD must contract out to small businesses
• Administrative Procedures Act of 1946: Agency must give
notice, solicit comments before adopting a new rule/policy
• Freedom of Information Act (1946): Citizens may inspect
any nonsensitive government record
• National Environmental Policy Act (1969): Agencies must
issue environmental impact statement
• Privacy Act (1974): Gov’t files on persons are kept secret
• Open Meeting Law (1974): Exception: military/trade secrets
• Few policies under only 1 agency (drugs)
Effects of Constraints
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Government is slower
Inconsistency (FOIA endangers right to privacy)
Blocking action is easier than taking action
Lower-ranking employees do not feel empowered
Citizens complain of red tape
Rosenbloom: 3 sets of goals contradictory: Legal,
Political, Managerial
Examples of Red Tape: FEIS
• The US-31 freeway
connection to I-94 was
approved in 1981for
construction later (orange)
• The discovery of the
Mitchell’s Satyr Butterfly
halted construction in the
1990s.
• The freeway remains
incomplete but new
alternatives are being
explored. (red and blue)
Example of Citizen Input:
St. Louis, MI CAG
• The EPA Superfund program
signed a consent judgement
with Velsicol Chemical in 1982
(Velsicol bought Michigan
Chemical, which had polluted
the area with DDT and PCBs
• Cleanup was done in 1980s but
was faulty
• In 1998, cleanup began again
• In 1999, the CAG forced EPA to
move more slowly and install
misters so chemicals did not
become airborne during the
cleanup
Agency Allies
• Iron Triangle/cozy Triangle
• EX: Department of Veterans Affairs, Senate
Committee on Veterans Affairs, American Legion
form a tight, mutually advantageous alliance
• Even Reagan couldn’t defeat Small Business
Administration
• Iron triangles much less common today—politics
more complicated
• Issue Network now the rule—Washington-based
interest groups, Congressional staffs, recruiting
source for Presidents
Congressional Oversight
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No agency may exist without Congress’s approval
Money can’t be spent w/o authorization legislation
Funds must be appropriated (budget cutter)
In past, appropriations committee cuts rarely challenged by
House as a whole..this has changed now…3 reasons…1)
Trust funds operate quasi-independently, 2) Annual
reauthorizations 3) Existence of huge budget deficits in
1980s
• Individual Congressmen can help constituents, order
committee clearance rule
• Legislative Veto
• Hearings
Bureaucratic “Pathologies”
• Red tape—can actually be good; think of a
terrorist trying to get a passport
• Imperialism—agency trying to expand role,
scope, funding,
• Duplication—2 agencies working on similar
problem (Customs/DEA)
• Waste
Reform Efforts
• Brownlow Commission (1939): “The
President needs help.”
• Hoover Commissions: top-level
management
• Ash Council (1969-1971): “Big
departments”
• National Performance Review (1993):
“customer satisfaction”
Ways to Eliminate a Bureaucrat
(Without actually firing them)
• Frontal Assault— “Quit and I’ll give you a
nice letter of recommendation
• Transfer Technique—Send a Bostonian to
Texas
• Special-Assignments
• Layering Technique—put loyal
subordinates in charge of the troublemaker
Chapter 15 Learning Objectives
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After reading and reviewing the material in this chapter, the student should be
able to do each of the following:
1.
Compare and contrast the United States and British models of
government bureaucracy.
2.
Sketch the history of the executive branch bureaucracy and the different
uses to which it has been put.
3.
Discuss the recruitment, retention, and demographic profiles of federal
bureaucrats.
4.
Show how the roles and missions of the agencies are affected by internal
and external factors.
5.
Review congressional measures to control the bureaucracy and evaluate
their effectiveness.
6.
List the “pathologies” that may affect bureaucracies and discuss why it
is so difficult to reform the executive branch bureaucracy.