Download - Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman · Text Credits • U.S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman



Chapter 15: The Federal

Bureaucracy

• The Bureaucrats

• How Bureaucracies Are Organized

• Bureaucracies as Implementors

• Bureaucracies as Regulators

• Understanding Bureaucracies

• Summary


Chapter Outline and Learning

Objectives

• The Bureaucrats

• LO 15.1: Describe the federal bureaucrats

and the ways in which they obtain their

jobs.


• LO 15.2: Differentiate the four types of

agencies into which the federal

bureaucracy is organized.



Objectives


• LO 15.3: Identify the factors that influence

the effectiveness of bureaucratic

implementation of public policy.


• LO 15.4: Describe how bureaucracies

regulate, and assess deregulation and

alternative approaches to regulation.



Objectives


• LO 15.5: Assess means of controlling

unelected bureaucrats in American

democracy and the impact of the

bureaucracy on the scope of government.

The BureaucratsLO 15.1: Describe the federal bureaucrats

and the ways in which they obtain their jobs.

• Bureaucracy (Max Weber)

• Has a hierarchical authority structure.

• Uses task specialization.

• Operates on the merit principle.

• Develops extensive rules.

• Behaves with impersonality.

To Learning ObjectivesCopyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Longman


The Bureaucrats

• Some Bureaucratic Myths and

Realities

• Civil Servants

• Political Appointees

LO

15.1

To Learning Objectives


The Bureaucrats


Realities

• Americans dislike bureaucrats.

• Americans are generally satisfied with

bureaucrats and the treatment they get

from them.

LO

15.1



The Bureaucrats


Realities (cont.)

• Bureaucracies are growing bigger each

year.

• All growth is state and local.

• Employees – 20 million state and local

and 2.8 million federal civilian (2% of

workforce) and 1.4 million federal military.

LO

15.1



The Bureaucrats


Realities (cont.)

• Most federal bureaucrats work in

Washington, D.C.

• About 12% of the 2.8 million federal civilian

employees work in Washington.

LO

15.1


LO 15.1



The Bureaucrats


Realities (cont.)

• Bureaucracies are ineffective, inefficient,

and always mired in red tape.

• Government bureaucracies are no more or

less inefficient, ineffective, or mired in red

tape than private bureaucracies.


LO 15.1


LO 15.1


The Bureaucrats

• Civil Servants

• Patronage – Jobs and promotions

awarded for political reasons.

• Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883

created a federal civil service so hiring and

promotion would be based on merit.

• Civil Service – Hiring and promotion

based on the merit and nonpartisan

government service.


LO 15.1


LO 15.1


The Bureaucrats

• Civil Servants (cont.)

• Merit Principle – Entrance exams and

promotion ratings to get people with talent

and skill.

• Hatch Act (1939) – Government

employees can not participate in partisan

politics while on duty.

• Office of Personnel Management created

in 1978 to hire for most federal agencies

using rules.To Learning Objectives

LO 15.1


The Bureaucrats

• Civil Servants (cont.)

• GS (General Schedule) rating – A

schedule for federal employees, ranging

from GS 1 to GS 18, by which salaries can

be keyed to rating and experience.

• Senior Executive Service – 9,000 federal

government managers that provide

leadership at the top of the civil service

system.


LO 15.1


The Bureaucrats

• Political Appointees

• Plum Book – A listing of the top federal

jobs available for direct presidential

appointment, often with Senate

confirmation.

• 500 top policymaking posts (mostly cabinet

secretaries, undersecretaries, assistant

secretaries, and bureau chiefs) and 2,500

lesser positions.


LO 15.1


The Bureaucrats

• Political Appointees (cont.)

• Incoming presidents seek people who

combine executive talent, political skills,

and policy positions similar to the

administration.

• Incoming presidents try to ensure diversity

and balance in terms of gender, ethnicity,

region, and party interests.


LO 15.1

How Bureaucracies Are OrganizedLO 15.2: Differentiate the four types of

agencies into which the federal bureaucracy

is organized.

• Cabinet Departments

• Independent Regulatory

Commissions

• Government Corporations

• The Independent Executive Agencies


LO 15.2



How Bureaucracies Are Organized

• Cabinet Departments

• Each department manages specific policy

areas, and each has its own budget and its

own staff.

• Each department has a mission and is

organized differently.

• Bureaus (sometimes they are called

administration, service, or office) divide the

work into more specialized areas.


LO 15.2


LO 15.2



• Independent Regulatory

Commissions

• Government agency responsible for

making (legislative) and enforcing

(executive) rules to protect the public

interest in some sector of the economy and

for judging (judicial) disputes over these

rules.

• Example – Federal Reserve Board


LO 15.2


LO 15.2



• Government Corporations

• Government organization provides a

service that could be provided by private

sector and typically charges for its

services.

• You can not buy stock and you can not

collect dividends like with private

corporations.

• Example – U.S. Postal Service


LO 15.2



• The Independent Executive Agencies

• The government agencies not accounted

for by cabinet departments, independent

regulatory commissions, and government

corporations.

• Example – Social Security Administration


LO 15.2

Bureaucracies as ImplementorsLO 15.3: Identify the factors that influence

the effectiveness of bureaucratic

implementation of public policy.

• What Implementation Means

• Why the Best-Laid Plans Sometimes

Flunk the Implementation Test

• A Case Study of Successful

Implementation: The Voting Rights

Act of 1965

• Privatization



Bureaucracies as Implementors

• What Implementation Means

• Policy Implementation – The stage of

policymaking between the establishment of

a policy and the consequences of the

policy for the people affected.

• Implementation involves translating the

goals and objectives of a policy into an

operating, ongoing program.

LO 15.3




• What Implementation Means (cont.)

• 3 elements of implementation:

• Create new agency or assign new

responsibility to an old agency.

• Translate policy goals into operational

rules and develop guidelines for the

program.

• Coordination of resources and personnel to

achieve the goals.To Learning Objectives

LO 15.3




Flunk the Implementation Test

• Program Design – It’s impossible to

implement a policy or program that is

defective in its basic theoretical conception.


LO 15.3




Flunk the Implementation Test (cont.)

• Lack of Clarity – Bureaucracies are often

asked to implement unclear laws and

Congress can thus escape the messy

details.

• Example – Title IX of Education Act of

1972 was unclear, making implementation

very complex.


LO 15.3


LO 15.3





• Lack of Resources – Bureaucracy can

lack the staff, necessary training, funding,

supplies, equipment, and/or authority to

carry out the tasks it has been assigned to

do.


LO 15.3





• Administrative Routine – SOPs bring

efficiency and uniformity to everyday

decision making.

• Routines become frustrating “red tape” or

potentially dangerous obstacles to action

when not appropriate to a situation.


LO 15.3





• Administrators’ Dispositions – A

bureaucrat uses administrative discretion

to select from many responses to a given

problem.

• Street-level bureaucrats are in constant

contact with public and have considerable

discretion.


LO 15.3


LO 15.3



• Why the Best-Laid Plans Sometimes Flunk the Implementation Test (cont.)

• Fragmentation – Responsibility for a policy is dispersed among many units within bureaucracy.

• Makes coordination of policies time consuming and difficult.

• Produces contradictory signals among the agencies involved.


LO 15.3


LO 15.3





Act of 1965

• Goal was clear – To register large

numbers of African American voters.

• Implementation was straightforward –

Sending out people to register them.


LO 15.3





Act of 1965 (cont.)

• Authority of the implementors was clear

– They had the support of the attorney

general and even U.S. marshals.

• Authority concentrated in the Justice

Department disposed to implementing the

law vigorously.


LO 15.3



• Privatization

• Private contractors have become a 4th

branch of government.

• Contracting for services – The theory is

that private sector competition will result in

better service at lower costs, but no

evidence has proved this.

• Contracting leads to less public scrutiny as

programs are hidden.


LO 15.3

Bureaucracies as RegulatorsLO 15.4: Describe how bureaucracies

regulate, and assess deregulation and

alternative approaches to regulation.

• Regulation

• Use of governmental authority to control or

change some practice in the private sector.

• Congress gives bureaucrats broad

mandates to regulate activities as diverse

as interest rates, the location of nuclear

power plants, and food additives.


LO 15.4



Bureaucracies as Regulators

• Regulation in the Economy and in

Everyday Life

• Munn v. Illinois (1877) – Right of

government to regulate the business

operations of a firm.

• Interstate Commerce Commission

(1887) was the 1st regulatory agency and it

regulated the railroads, their prices, and

their services to farmers.


LO 15.4



• Regulation in the Economy and in

Everyday Life (cont.)

• Command-and-control policy – The

government tells business how to reach

certain goals, checks that these commands

are followed, and punishes offenders.

• Incentive system – Market like strategies

such as rewards are used to manage

public policy.


LO 15.4



• Regulation in the Economy and in Everyday Life (cont.)

• 3 elements of regulation:

• A grant of power and set of directions from Congress.

• A set of rules and guidelines by the regulatory agency itself.

• Some means of enforcing compliance with congressional goals and agency regulations.


LO 15.4



• Deregulation

• The lifting of government restrictions on

business, industry, and professional

activities.

• Regulation critics – Regulation distorts

market forces, raises prices, hurts

America’s competitive position abroad,

and fails to work well.


LO 15.4



• Deregulation (cont.)

• Deregulation critics – Point out that

deregulation does not protect the public

against severe environmental damage and

power shortages, failures in the savings

and loan industry, and bursts in real estate

market.


LO 15.4

Understanding BureaucraciesLO 15.5: Assess means of controlling

unelected bureaucrats in American

democracy and the impact of the

bureaucracy on the scope of government.

• Bureaucracy and Democracy

• Bureaucracy and the Scope of

Government



Understanding Bureaucracies

• Bureaucracy and Democracy

• Popular control of government depends on

elections, but we do not elect the 4.2

million federal employees.

• The fact that voters do not elect civil

servants does not mean that bureaucracies

cannot respond to and represent the

public’s interests.

LO 15.5




• Bureaucracy and Democracy (cont.)

• Presidents – Methods to control the

bureaucracy are (1) appoint the right

people to head the agency; (2) issue

executive orders; (3) alter an agency’s

budget; and (4) reorganize an agency.


LO 15.5




• Congress – Methods to control the

bureaucracy are (1) influence the

appointment of agency heads; (2) alter an

agency’s budget; (3) hold hearings; and

(4) rewrite the legislation or make it more

detailed.


LO 15.5




• Iron Triangles – Subgovernments; a

mutually dependent and advantageous

relationship between bureaucratic

agencies, interest groups, and

congressional committees or

subcommittees.

• Iron triangles dominate some areas of

domestic policymaking.


LO 15.5


LO 15.5




• Issue Networks – Have led to more

widespread participation in bureaucratic

policymaking.

• They include many participants who have

technical policy expertise and are drawn to

issues because of intellectual or emotional

commitments rather than material

interests.


LO 15.5



• Bureaucracy and the Scope of

Government

• Size of federal bureaucracy has shrunk

compared to labor force.

• Agencies need more resources to do what

they are expected to do.

• Bureaucracy carry out policies, but

Congress and the president decide what

government does.To Learning Objectives

LO 15.5


LO 15.1Summary

• The Bureaucrats

• Bureaucrats perform vital services the federal

government provides, although their number

has not grown, even as the population has

increased and the public has made additional

demands on government.

• Bureaucrats shape policy as administrators, as

implementors, and as regulators.



LO 15.1Summary

• The Bureaucrats (cont.)

• Most federal bureaucrats get their jobs through

the civil service system; as a group, these civil

servants are broadly representative of the

American people.

• The top policymaking posts, however, are filled

through presidential appointments, often with

Senate confirmation.



The civil service system was designed to

A. hire and promote bureaucrats on

the basis of merit.

B. produce an administration with

talent and skill.

C. protect workers from politically

motivated firings.

D. all of the above.

LO 15.1



The civil service system was designed to

A. hire and promote bureaucrats on

the basis of merit.

B. produce an administration with

talent and skill.

C. protect workers from politically

motivated firings.

D. all of the above.


LO 15.1


LO 15.2Summary


• The organization of the federal bureaucracy

categorizes agencies into four types: cabinet

departments, independent regulatory

commissions, government corporations, and

independent executive agencies.

• The 15 cabinet departments each manage a

specific policy area.



LO 15.2Summary

• How Bureaucracies Are Organize (cont.)

• Independent regulatory commissions make

and enforce rules in a particular sector of the

economy.

• Government corporations provide services and

charge for services.

• Independent executive agencies account for

most of the rest of the federal bureaucracy.



Which of the following is NOT one of

the four types of agencies into which

the federal bureaucracy is organized?

A. Cabinet Departments

B. Independent Regulatory

Commissions

C. Government Corporations

D. Independent Legislative Agencies

LO 15.2




the four types of agencies into which

the federal bureaucracy is organized?

A. Cabinet Departments

B. Independent Regulatory

Commissions

C. Government Corporations

D. Independent Legislative Agencies


LO 15.2


LO 15.3Summary


• As policy implementors, bureaucrats translate

legislative policy goals into programs.

• The policy or program design and the clarity of

the legislation or regulations being

implemented influence the effectiveness of

policy implementation.



LO 15.3Summary

• Bureaucracies as Implementors (cont.)

• The resources available for implementation;

the ability of administrators to depart from

SOPs when necessary; and the disposition of

administrators toward the policy they

implement influence the effectiveness of policy

implementation.



LO 15.3Summary


• The extent to which responsibility for policy

implementation is concentrated rather than

dispersed across agencies influence the

effectiveness of policy implementation.




the three main factors that make

policy implementation difficult?

A. faulty program design

B. unclear laws

C. lack of resources

D. clear goals

LO 15.3




the three main factors that make

policy implementation difficult?

A. faulty program design

B. unclear laws

C. lack of resources

D. clear goals


LO 15.3


LO 15.4Summary


• Congress increasingly delegates large

amounts of power to bureaucratic agencies to

develop rules regulating practices in the private

sector.

• Agencies apply and enforce their rules, in court

or through administrative procedures.



LO 15.4Summary

• Bureaucracies as Regulators (cont.)

• Regulation affects most areas of American

society, and criticism that regulations are

overly complicated and burdensome has led to

a movement to deregulate.

• However, many regulations have proved

beneficial, and deregulation has itself resulted

in policy failures.



Government is the use of

governmental authority to control or change

some practice in the private sector.

A. regulation

B. command-and-control policy

C. incentive system

D. deregulation

LO 15.4



Government is the use of

governmental authority to control or change

some practice in the private sector.

A. regulation

B. command-and-control policy

C. incentive system

D. deregulation


LO 15.4


LO 15.5Summary


• Bureaucrats are not elected, but they are

competent and reasonably representative of

Americans.

• The president and Congress try to control the

bureaucracies, but iron triangles challenge

their control.

• The role of government and hence the size of

the bureaucracy depends more on voters than

on bureaucrats.To Learning Objectives


The development of subgovernments

to include a system of issue networks

ensures more

A. presidents are now involved in all policy areas.

B. subgovernments are virtually impossible to dismantle.

C. policymaking is stable and predictable.

D. widespread participation in the policy process.

LO 15.5



The development of subgovernments

to include a system of issue networks

ensures more

A. presidents are now involved in all policy areas.

B. subgovernments are virtually impossible to dismantle.

C. policymaking is stable and predictable.

D. widespread participation in the policy process. To Learning Objectives

LO 15.5


Text Credits

• U.S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United

States, 2010 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office,

2010),Table 486.

• Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2011:

Analytical Perspectives (Washington, DC: U.S. Government

Printing Office, 2010),Tables 23-1 and 23-2.

• United States Office of Personnel Management, Profile of Federal

Civilian Non-Postal Employees, September 30, 2008.

• Federal Register, Office of the Federal Register, United States

Government Manual 2009-2010 (Washington, DC: U.S.

Government Printing Office, 2010), 21.

• Office of the Federal Register, United States Government Manual

2009–2010 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office,

2010), 240.


Photo Credits

• 434: AP Photos

• 443T: Jim West/The Image Works

• 433TC: Chuck Nacke/Woodfin Camp

• 433TB: Brian Pohorylo/Corbis

• 433B: Jack Kurtz/The Image Works

• 440: “Lot #1”

• 444: Jim West/the Image Works

• 443: Chuck Nacke/Woodfin Camp

• 444: Brian Pohoryllo/Corbis

• 454: Joe Heller

• 449: Jack Kurtz/The Image Works

• 451: Bettmann/Corbis

• 448: Frank Cotham/The New Yorker Collection/www.cartoonbank.com