Chapter Summary
I. The Bureaucrats (468-473)
A. Some Bureaucratic Myths and Realities
The most prevalent myths about bureaucracy are that 1) Americans dislike
bureaucrats, 2) Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year, 3) Most federal
bureaucrats work in Washington, D.C., and 4) Bureaucracies are ineffective,
inefficient, and always mired in red tape. A plurality of all federal civilian
employees works for just a few federal agencies.
B. Who They Are and How They Got There
There are nearly three million civilian bureaucrats. The permanent bureaucracy
is more broadly representative of the American people than are legislators,
judges, or presidential appointees in the executive branch. There is a diversity
of bureaucratic jobs.
Until about one hundred years ago, a person got a job in government through
the patronage system (hiring and promotion based on knowing the right
people). The Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883) created the federal Civil
Service. All civil service systems are based on the merit principle (using
entrance exams and promotion ratings to reward qualified individuals) to create
a nonpartisan government service. The Hatch Act prohibits civil service
employees from active participation in partisan politics while on duty. The
Office of Personnel Management is in charge of hiring for most agencies of the
federal government. Each job is assigned a GS (General Schedule) rating with
salaries keyed to rating and experience. Members of the Senior Executive
Service earn high salaries and may be moved from one agency to another. Civil
servants are protected from dismissals that are politically motivated. Firing
incompetents is hard work.
The plum book lists the top federal jobs available for direct presidential
appointment, often with Senate confirmation. Once in office, these
administrative policymakers constitute a “government of strangers” whose
most important trait is their transience. Many find it a challenge to exercise
real control over much of what their subordinates do and leave their mark on
policy.
II. What They Do: Some Theories of Bureaucracy (473-475)
According to Max Weber, a bureaucracy depends on a hierarchical authority
structure, task specialization, and extensive rules. Bureaucracies also operate
on the merit principal and behave impersonally. The acquisitive, monopolistic
theory of bureaucracy argues that bureaucracies are essentially acquisitive,
busily maximizing their budgets and expanding their powers. They are also
typically monopolies. No matter how the bureaucracy behaves, it will not lose
its clients. Critics of bureaucracy have favored privatizing some bureaucratic
services. The garbage can theory of bureaucracies argues that they are
ambling and groping, affected by chance and loosely run. Bureaucracies have
lots of ideas floating around and often solutions are in search of problems
rather than the other way around.
III. How Bureaucracies Are Organized (475-479)
A. The Cabinet Departments
A secretary chosen by the president and approved by the Senate heads each
of the fourteen cabinet departments. Each department has a unique mission
and is organized somewhat differently. The real work of a department is done
in the bureaus, which divide the work into more specialized areas.
B. The Regulatory Agencies
Each independent regulatory agency has responsibility for some sector of the
economy—making and enforcing rules designed to protect the public interest.
Their powers are far-reaching. Small commissions, whose members cannot be
fired by the president, govern independent regulatory agencies. Interest
groups consider the rule making by independent regulatory agencies very
important. Critics argue that the regulators have been captured by the
regulatees because members of commissions are often drawn from the ranks of
the regulated.
C. The Government Corporations
Government corporations provide a service that could be handled by the
private sector and typically charge for their services. Examples include the
Tennessee Valley Authority, U.S. Postal Service, and Amtrak.
D. The Independent Executive Agencies
Independent executive agencies are essentially all the rest of the government,
appointed by the president and serve at his will.
IV. Bureaucracies as Implementors (479-487)
A. What Implementation Means
Bureaucracies are essentially implementors of policy. They develop procedures
and rules for implementing policy goals and manage the routines of
government. Public policies are rarely self-executing. Congress typically
announces the goals of a policy in broad terms, sets up an administrative
apparatus, and leaves the bureaucracy the task of working out the details of
the program. Policy implementation is the stage of policymaking between the
establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people
whom it affects. Implementation includes three elements: 1) creation of a new
agency or assignment of responsibility to an old agency, 2) translation of
policy goals into operational rules of thumb, and 3) coordination of resources
and personnel to achieve the goals.
B. Why the Best-Laid Plans Sometimes Flunk the Implementation Test
Well-intended policies may fail for several reasons. First, it is impossible to
implement a policy with faulty program design that is defective in its basic
theoretical conception. Second, policies often lack clarity since Congress is
fond of stating a broad policy goal and leaving implementation up to the
bureaucracies. Not only are goals unclear, they may also be contradictory.
Third, bureaucracies often lack resources, such as staff, supplies, and
equipment, to carry out the tasks they have been assigned to do. Agencies
may also lack the authority to meet their responsibilities. Fourth, administrative
routine may get in the way of effective implementation. Bureaucrats follow
standard operating procedures that save time and bring uniformity to complex
organizations. Routines sometimes become frustrating to citizens when they do
not appear to appropriately address a situation. Sometimes an agency simply
fails to establish routines that are necessary to complete its task. Fifth,
Administrators’ dispositions may also be a barrier to implementation.
Administrative discretion is the authority of administrative actors to select
among various responses to a given problem. Street-level bureaucrats (those
who are in constant contact with the public) have considerable discretion.
Ultimately, how they use discretion depends on their dispositions about the
policies and rules they administer. Controlling discretion is difficult because it is
not easy to fire bureaucrats in the civil service. In the absence of positive and
negative incentives, the government relies heavily on rules to limit the
discretion of implementors. Often these rules end up creating new obstacles to
effective and efficient governing. Sixth, fragmentation and the diffusion of
responsibility make the coordination of policies time-consuming and difficult.
Sometimes those who are supposed to comply with a law receive contradictory
signals from different agencies. It is not easy to reorganize the bureaucracies
to correct this phenomenon.
C. A Case Study: The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The 1965 Voting Rights Act represents a successful case of implementation
because its goal was clear (to register large numbers of African-American
voters); its implementation was straightforward (sending out people to register
them); and the authority of the implementors was clear (they had the support
of the attorney general and even U.S. marshals) and concentrated in the
Justice Department, which was disposed to implementing the law vigorously.
V. Bureaucracies as Regulators (487-492)
A. Regulation in the Economy and in Everyday Life
Government regulation is the use of governmental authority to control or
change some practice in the private sector. Everyday life is the subject of
bureaucratic regulation. Almost all bureaucratic agencies are in the regulatory
business.
B. Regulation: How it Grew, How it Works
In 1877, the Supreme Court upheld the right of government to regulate the
business operations of a firm. In 1887 Congress created the first regulatory
agency. All regulation contains three elements, first, a grant of power and set
of directions from Congress; second a set of rules and guidelines by the
regulated agency often developed in consultation with the people or industries
being regulated; and third some means of enforcing compliance with
congressional goals and agency regulations. Regulation of the American
economy and society has grown in recent decades.
C. Toward Deregulation
The idea behind deregulation is that the number and complexity of regulatory
policies have made regulation too complex and burdensome. Opponents of the
regulatory system argue that it raises prices, hurts America’s competitive
position abroad, and does not always work well. Both conservatives and
liberals have pushed for deregulation. Others argue that many regulations have
proved beneficial to Americans.
VI. Understanding Bureaucracies (492-497)
A. Bureaucracies and Democracies
Bureaucracies constitute one of America’s two unelected policymaking
institutions. This does not mean that bureaucracies cannot respond to and
represent the public’s interests. Presidents try to impose their policy
preferences on agencies by 1) appointing the right people to head the agency;
2) issuing executive orders; 3) tinkering with an agency’s budget; and 4)
reorganizing an agency. Congress can take measures to oversee the
bureaucracy, such as, 1) influencing the appointment of agency heads; 2)
tinkering with an agency’s budget; 3) holding hearings; and 4) rewriting the
legislation or making it more detailed.
Presidents and Congress find it difficult to control bureaucracies because
agencies have strong ties to interest groups and congressional committees and
subcommittees. These close ties are often called iron triangles or
subgovernments. Iron triangles can influence policies, often resulting in
contradictory policies. Hugh Heclo points out that the system of
subgovernments is now overlayed with an amorphous system of issue
networks. There is now more widespread participation in bureaucratic
policymaking, and many of the participants have technical policy expertise and
are interested in issues because of intellectual or emotional commitments
rather than material interests. Subgovernments are not indestructible.
B. Bureaucracy and the Scope of Government
Some observers view the bureaucracy as acquisitive, constantly seeking to
expand its size, budgets, and authority. However, the federal bureaucracy has
not grown over the past two generations. The federal bureaucracy has
actually shrunk in size relative to the population it serves. Government is now
expected to play an active role in dealing with social and economic problems. A
good case can be made that the bureaucracy is actually too small for many of
the tasks currently assigned to it. In addition, when the president and
Congress chose to deregulate certain areas of the economy or cut taxes, the
bureaucracy could not and did not prevent it from doing so.
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