Bureaucrats Are People Employed in a Government Executive Branch Unit to Implement Public

Youssef Taha 4th hr

BUREAUCRATS AND BUREAUCRACY

Bureaucrats are people employed in a government executive branch unit to implement public policy.

Bureaucrats include government employees.

Ex. The administrator who reviews college students’ Pell Grant applications or the FDA inspector who monitors food and drug quality.

Bureaucrats are also called public servants.

Shadow bureaucrats are people hired and paid by private-for-profit and nonprofit organizations that implement public policy through a government contract.

Through the process of contracting-out (also called outsourcing or privatizing), the government signs work contracts with these organizations to assist in the implementation of national policy.

BUREAUCRACY: AN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

A bureaucracy is any organization with a hierarchical structure (not unique to government).

Ex. A college or university.

FEDERAL BUREAUCRATS

Before the creation of the civil service system in 1883, presidents had the authority to hire bureaucrats, selecting whomever they wanted and establishing whatever qualifications they desired, in a noncompetitive hiring system known as patronage.

Today, federal agencies hire the majority of bureaucrats based on merit - a system of hiring and promotion based on an individual’s competence - rather than patronage.

After the election of a new president, Congress publishes the plum book, which lists the top jobs in the bureaucracy to which the president will appoint people through the patronage system. Patronage positions do not have job security. The president can hire and fire political appointees at his pleasure.

CIVIL SERVANTS

In 1883, Congress and President Chester Arthur approved the Pendleton Civil Service Act. This law introduced a merit-based civil service system to the national government.

Merit-based civil service is a personnel system in which bureaucrats are hired on the basis of the principles of competence, equal opportunity (open competition), and political neutrality. Once hired, these civil servants have job protection.

Civil servants are bureaucrats hired through a merit-based personnel system who have job protection.

The 1978 Civil Service Reform Act reinforced these merit principles and legislated the right to unionize for many federal civil servants.

Merit-based civil servants can be fired only due to poor quality of work (misfeasance), non-performance of their work (nonfeasance), or for violating the rules or regulations that guide their work (malfeasance).

In 1939, Congress approved the Hatch Act, limiting civil servants’ rights to engage in political activity. The Hatch Act has been modified in the last few decades to loosen the restrictions on civil servants’ political activities. This was due to civil servants contesting the constitutionality of the legal limits on their political engagement.

CIVIL SERVICE REFORM ACT OF 1978

President Jimmy Carter’s Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 reaffirmed and expanded the merit principles established by the Pendleton Act and reorganized the management of the national civil service.

It also eliminated the Civil Service Commission, the central personnel office created by the Pendleton Act. Three new independent administrative agencies, the Office of Personnel Management, the Merit System Protection Board, and the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

UNIONIZED CIVIL SERVANTS

Three out of every five U.S. federal civil servants belong to labor unions.

Ex. American Federation of Government Employees

THE SENIOR EXECUTIVE SERVICE

The senior executive service is a unique personnel system for top managerial, supervisory, and policy positions offering less job security but higher pay than the merit-based civil service system. These employees can be moved from job to job (less job security), but they are immune from firing, except for proven misfeasance, nonfeasance, or malfeasance.