The Federal Bureaucracy: Chapter 15
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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