Ben PeraltaMelissa Tylinski

1-A 11/12/10

• “[No] industrial society could manage the daily operations of its public affairs without bureaucratic organizations in which officials play a minor policymaking role”

• –Norman Thomas

• Bureaucracy is an inevitable consequence of compatibility and scale

• The bureaucracy is expected simultaneously to respond to the direction of partisan officials and to administer programs fairly competently

• Bureaucrats naturally take an “agency point of view.” they seek to promote preserve their agency’s program and power

• Although agencies are subject to scrutiny by the president, Congress and the judiciary, bureaucrats are able to achieve power in their own right.

• Bureaucracy- A system of organization and control based on the principles of hierarchical authority, job specialization, and formalized rules

• Hierarchical Authority- A basic principle of bureaucracy that refers to the chain of command within an organization whereby officials and units have control over those below them

• Job Specialization- A basic principle of bureaucracy that holds the representation should be explicitly defined and that a precise division of labor within the organization should be maintained

• Formalized Rules- A basic Principle of bureaucracy that refers to the standardized procedures and established regulations by which a bureaucracy conducts its operation

• Americans often think bureaucracy as a set of rules and rigidity

• A Bureaucracy is a efficient and effective organization

• Americans often equate the bureaucracy with the Federal government

• Bureaucracy is found when large population and tasks are needed to be managed

• All large scale organizations, public and private, are in bureaucratic form

• Administrators function as a group, NOT individually; their behavior is based on position, specialty, and rule

• 2.5 million US employees in the federal Bureaucracy

• Bureaucracy has more impact on Americans than the President and Congress

• Examples: mail delivery, maintains national forest and parks, administers social security, builds dams and generates hydroelectric power, enforces environmental protection laws, develops the country’s defense, provides school lunch programs, and regulated the stock market

• 5 forms of organization: Cabinet department, independent agency, regulation agency, government's corporation, or president commission

• Cabinet (Executive) department- the major administrative organizations within the federal executive bureaucracy, each of which is headed by a secretary or, in the case of Justice, the attorney generals. Each department has responsibility for a major function of the federal government's, such as the defense, agriculture, or justice

• Vary in size, visibility, and importance• Department of State: one of the oldest and smallest,

25,000 employees• Department of Defense: +600,000 civilian employees

separate from the 1.4 million uniform active service members

• Department of Health and Human Service: largest budget and spends ¼ of all federal spending

• Department of Homeland Security: formed in 2002• Each department is semiautonomous- composed of

smaller groups- with labels of “bureau”, “agency”, “division”, or “service.

• Example: department of justice is made up of the FBI and other groups

• Independent Agency-bureaucratic agencies that are similar to cabinet departments but usually have a narrower area of responsibility. Each agency is headed by a presidential appointee who is not a cabinet member. Example: NASA and the CIA

• Independent agencies exist apart from cabinet departments

• Regulatory Agencies- Administrative units, such as the Federal Communication Commissions (FCC) and EPA, that have responsibilities for the monitoring and regulation of ongoing economic activities.

• Regulatory agencies are “independent” by virtue of their relative freedom from political control

• Heads are presidential appointees, but cannot be removed by the pres.

• Commissioners serve a fixed number of years, a legal stipulation to free them from political interference

• EPA lacks autonomy- self-rule- and the head presidential appointee can be removed by the pres.

• Government Corporations- Bodies that are similar to private corporations in that they charge for services but differ in that they receive federal funding to help defray expenses. Their directors are appointed by the pres. With senate approval.

• Government's corporations include: US postal service, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Nat’l Railroad passenger corporation (Amtrak),

• Presidential Commissions- organizations within the bureaucracy that are headed by commissioners appointed by the pres.

• Commission on Civil Rights and Commission on the Arts

• Some Commissions are temporary to the specific issue

• 2001 Pres. Bush established the President’s commission to strengthen social security; to study ways of reforming social security

• 2.5 million employees include professionals, service workers (from the mailman to high supervisors).

• +90% are hired by merit criteria: education, experience, Performance/ Competitive tests

• The majority of all federal employees are on the GS scale for job ranking. (smallest g-1 highest g-18)

• The merit system prevents discrimination if partisanship is present

• Public employees receive fringe benefits, full- health insurance, secure retirement plans, and vacation & sick leave

• Federal employees can form Labor Union, but have limited authority; Government's maintains full control of job assignments , compensation, and promotions

• Taft Hartley Act 1947- Prohibits striking by federal employees and permits the firing of workers who do strike.

• Example: President Reagan fired air-traffic controllers on strike 1980

• The hatch act of 1939- prohibits civil servants from holding key positions in election campaigns

• 1993 Congress eased the prohibition and kept prohibition for high-ranking career bureaucrats

• Policy Implementation- The Primary function of the bureaucracy; it refers to the process of carrying out the authoritative decisions of congress, the president, and the courts.

• The bureaucracy’s main function is policy implementation

• Policy implementation is sometimes described as “mere administration”, it is highly significant and creative function

• Administrators create policy ideas that are brought to the pres. Or members of congress

• Legislative Acts identify general goals, which bureaucrats call specific programs

• The Telecommunication Act of 1996- To promote competition and reduce regulation in order to secure lower prices and higher quality services for Americans telecommunication consumers, and encourage the rapid deployment of new telecommunication technologies.

• The implementation of the Act was left for the FCC to decide and promote competition.

• Rulemaking- Determines how laws will work in practice; administrative agencies’ real power

• Agencies are responsible for the delivery services

• Some agencies allow employees to be discreet enough it can be described as “street-level” bureaucracy

• The bureaucracy administers policy and makes policy

• Agencies serve society and maintain partisan interest, which is a constant conflict

• This conflict describes the management systems of bureaucracy: The patronage, merit, and executive leadership systems.

• Patronage System- approach to manage the bureaucracy whereby people are appointed to important government's positions as a reward for political services they have rendered and because of partisan loyalty

• Spoils System- Practice of granting public office to individuals in return for political favors they have rendered.

• The nations first 6 pres. (from G. Washington to John Q. Adams) believed specific men should be allowed to manage national government's.

• Andrew Jackson was the first pres. To believe the government's should be administered by the common people for a better public response

• The federal government's goal is defense and foreign affairs, currency, Interstate commerce, and delivery of mail

• Merit (civil service) system- approach to managing the bureaucracy whereby people are appointed to government's positions on the basis of either competitive examinations of special qualification, such as professional training.

• Neutral Competence- The administration objective of merit-based bureaucracy. “neutral” in the sense that it operates by objective standards rather than partisanship, and “competent” in the sense that the employees are hired and retained on their expertise.

• The Industrial revolution caused economic shifts, and the people began looking at the government's for help.

• 1889 congress created the Department of Agriculture

• 1903 Congress created the Department of Commerce and labor to promote the mutual interest of the nation’s firm and worker.

• 1930 federal employment was 600,000 and in 2010 employment reached 2.5 million.

• The Great Depression caused formation for the economic and social welfare agencies such as the Securities and Exchange commissions (SEC) and the Social Security Board, which was to promote government's action in daily American lives

• 1883 the Pendleton Act established the merit(civil service) system, which created the civil service commission to establish job classification, administer competitive examinations, and oversee merit employees

• 1978 the Civil Service Commission got replaced by The Merit Service Protection Board and Office Personnel Management (OPM).

• A merit based bureaucracy is based on neutral competence.

• Partisanship in beau racy is based on a agency’s self-interest rather than political group.

• Executive Leadership System- An approach to managing the bureaucracy that is based on presidential leadership and presidential management tools, such as the president’s annual budget proposal

• Pres. Provides the general leadership that overcomes agency flaw and provide a common direction

• The (OBM) was created to give the president authority to coordinate the annual budgetary process

• The pres. Is authorized to develop the Executive office other Pres., which supervises agencies on the half of the pres.

• The pres.’s executive leadership weakens congress’s check on presidential power.

System Strengths Weakness

Patronage Makes the bureaucracy more responsive to election outcomes by allowing the president to appoint some executive officials

Gives executive authority to individuals chosen for their partisanship loyalty rather than for their administrative or policy expertise; can favor interests that supported the president’s election

Merit Provides for Competent administration in that employees are hired on the basis of ability and allowed to remain on the job and provides for neutral administration in that civil servants are not partisan appointees and are expected to work in even handed way

Can result in fragmented, unresponsive administration because career bureaucrats are secure in their jobs and tend to place the interest of their particular agency ahead of those other agencies or the nation’s interest as a whole

System Strength Weakness

Executive Leadership Provides for presidential leadership of the bureaucracy in order to make it more responsive and to coordinate and direct it

Can upset the balance between executive and legislative power and can make the president’s priorities, not fairness or effective management, the basis for administrative action.

• Common misperception: President has the sole claim on the bureaucracy’s loyalty

• President and Congress differ in their constituencies thus differing in the interests to which they are most responsive

• Since the president and congress are elected separately, the White House as well as the two houses may consist of opposing parties o Agencies still find a way to operate successfully in this system, therefore they must seek

support where they can find it—if not from the president, then from congress

• -the tendency of bureaucrats to place the interests of their agency ahead of other interests and ahead of the priorities sought by the president or Congress

• Administrators look out for their agency’s interests• Professionalism also cements agency loyalties.

Positions have been filled with scientists, engineers, lawyers, and other professionals.

• Bureaucrats believe in the importance of their agency’s work

• Bureaucrats rely on their specialized knowledge, the support of interests, and the backing of the president and Congress

• The Power of the Expertise:o Expert knowledge is essential to the development of effective

public policyo Elected officials are generalists; members of congress do

specialize in their committee work; the president’s understanding is much more general so Congress and president depend heavily on the bureaucrats for advice and guidance

• The Power of Clientele Groups:o Clientele groups are special interest groups that benefit directly

from the activities of a particular bureaucratic agency and therefore are strong advocates of the agency

o Agencies both assist and are assisted by clientele groupso Many agencies were created for the purpose of promoting

particular interests

• The Power of Friends in High Placeso An agency’s resources—its programs, expertise, and

group support—can assist elected officials in their efforts to achieve their goals

o Bureaucrats also seek help with the members of Congress

o Iron triangles-permanent alliances that form among agencies, clientele groups, and congressional subcommittees

o Also, temporary issue networks form among bureaucrats, lobbyists, and members of Congress

o They are a means of gaining support from legislators and groups supporting their goals

• Americans tend to have an unfavorable impression of the bureaucracy as a whole

• US bureaucracy compares favorably to government bureaucracies elsewhere, but the performance of US agencies is superior to counterparts in other industrialized democracies. Ex: Postal service

• Bureaucracy is the antithesis of Democracy—they are unelected and hold office indefinitely and make decisions based on rules rather than debate

• Bureaucratic Accountability-the degree to which bureaucrats are held accountable for the power they exercise

• Accountability through the Presidencyo President can only broadly influence the bureaucracyo He cannot unilaterally eliminate an agency or its funding and

programs; however, he can apply management tools: reorganization, presidential appointees, and the executive budget

• Reorganizationo Agencies pursue independent and contradictory paths. Ex. Over 100

units responsible for different pieces of education o Recent presidents tried to streamline the bureaucracy to make it

more accountable which greatly improve things but also produce marginal gains

o Reorganization cannot fully correct the coordination problems

• Presidential Appointmentso President does not have time to check the bureaucratic order, he

relies on political appointees in the agencieso Some cases, presidential appointees have greater power than

some agencies, such as the Social Security Administration (SSA)

• Contrastingly, most regulatory agencies have broad discretion over regulatory policy

• There are limits to what the president can accomplish through appointments; the number of appointees lies in the hundreds with a high turnover rate. The average appointee remains for two years not allowing the president to keep track of them

• The Executive Budgeto Presidents rely heavily on their personal bureaucracy, the EOP

Key unit in it is the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Every agency consists of funding, programs, and regulations No agency can issue major regulation without the OMB’s

verification that benefits outweigh its costs OMB’s greatest influence over agency derives from its

budgetary role

• Congress can greatly influence the bureaucracy• Most substantial role: power to authorize and fund programs• Without authorization or funding, the program does not exist• They can exert control through oversight function where

they take decisive corrective action when agency is interrupted. Here they hold hearings and interrogate

• Due to the oversight’s burdensome, the General Accounting Office (GAO) holds responsibility to keep track of funds and monitors what policies are being implemented

• Congress has also devised ways to constrain the bureaucracy before it acts with the sunset law or drafting laws that limit the bureaucrats’ options

• Accountability through the Courtso Judiciary has less of a direct effect but can also ensure the bureaucracy’s

compliance or order and agency to change an application of a lawo Courts tend to support administrators, but the administration is flexible since they

can interpret legislation how they wish unless explicitly stated by Congresso Judges recognize that constraints on bureaucracy must work mainly through the

president and Congress

• Accountability with the Bureaucracy Itselfo Two measures to ensure accountability:

Whistle-Blowing: and internal check on the bureaucracy whereby employees report instances of mismanagement that they observe

Demographic Representatives: the idea that the bureaucracy will be more responsive to the public if its employees at all levels are demographically representative of the population as a whole

• A wave of effort began in 1990s- sought to improve the administration of government by the reduction of its size, cost, and lines of authority

• Reinventing Government- Osborne and Gaebler: bureaucracy today was created in the response to earlier problems, particularly the Industrial Revolution and spoils system

• These ideas informed the Clinton administration’s National Performance Review by creating laws requiring systematic monitoring of agencies by efficiency, responsiveness, and outcomes

• But, there are limits on how much the federal bureaucracy can be trimmed

• How can the federal government be made more efficient and accomplish all that American’s expect of it?

• Political socialization is the learning process by which people acquire their political opinions, beliefs, and values.

• Socialization process starts with the familyo It is a life long process

• Political socialization in the United States has several major characteristicso Most political outlook is influenced by childhood

learning. Typically follow views of the parents

o Cumulative in nature Early learning influences later learning Change in view is possible

Normally after a catastrophic event Roosevelt and the New Deal Age-cohort tendency

• Families o Member of a political party because it is the party of

your parents.o Having a voice in the family

• Schools o Support in the nation

Pledge of Allegiance Equality

• Mass Media o Media affects people’s perception on the world

• Peerso Reinforce what people believe

• Political Institutions and Leaders o Citizens look to political leaders and

institutions, particularly the president and political parties as guides to opinion.

• Churches o Many believe that religion has the answer to

many of the world’s problems.

• Frames of reference that guide political thinking of Americans- Why is this important?o The ways in which citizens think politically provide

clues about the way in which public opinion I likely to affect government. Government should work more often reflecting public opinion,

than against it.o Shared frame of reference can bring citizens together

in the pursuit of a common goal. Exert political power

• Cultural Thinking: Common Ideas o Americans embrace common ideals

Liberty, equality, and individualism• Ideological Thinking: The Outlook of Some

o Ideology is a consistent pattern of political attitudes that stems from a core belief. Socialism and Communism Four types of American ideologies

Liberals Conservatives Libertarians Populists

• Most Americans find groups to be more important than ideologies.o Religiono Classo Regiono Race and Ethnicity o Gender o Age o Crosscutting Cleavages

• Most people identify themselves by means of partisanship.

• Republicans and Democrats have views that are at least somewhat different.

• Party identification refers to a person’s ingrained sense of loyalty to a political party.

• What impact does public policy have on government?o People’s views ought to prevail on public

issues. It is difficult to put into practice. Size makes it impossible for the people to directly

formulate public policy.