Ch. 15 The Bureaucracy

What is a bureaucracy? A LARge, complex organization composed of appointed officials whose task it is to help our legislative & executive branches at all 3 levels create/maintain public policy

I. Distinctiveness of the american bureaucracy

a. identify/describe 3 aspects of our constitutional system/political traditions that give our bureaucracy a distinctive character? 1.) Political authority over bureaucracy isn’t in one set of hands but rather shared among several institutions & branches of government 2.) most federal bureaucratic agencies share their functions with related agencies in state & local governments (can you think of any? Ah Hem….hint....me) 3.) many bureaucratic decisions/actions are challenged in our court system in what has become a very ’adversarial culture’ between government and its citizens

III. The growth of the bureaucracy

d. The appointment of officials

i. Identify the 4 traits that are important regarding presidential appointments & why each one is important? 1.) political ideology is important cuz these appointments affect how laws are interpreted 2.) Personal character is important cuz these appointments affect the tone of the president’s administration 3.) competence is important cuz these appointments affect how public business is implemented 4.) party affiliation is important cuz these appointments affect how strong the political party in power will be

f. A change in role

i. What 2 events in u.s. history reshaped the bureaucracy into what it is today & how each event did this? 1.) the great depression & fdr’s new deal (1930’s) – bureaucracies became very active dealing with the social/economic problems of this time period 2.) world war ii (1940’s) – Bureaucracies grew in power due to the federal government’s use of federal income taxes to fund the war through various bureaucratic agencies

Iv. The federal bureaucracy today

d. Recruitment & retention

i. What is political patronage & how did competitive service & the opm solve this problem? 1.) political patronage is when someone is rewarded a bureaucratic job based on their party affiliation &/or campaign contribution & not on their merit 2.) the office of personnel management (opm) created a system known as the competitive service where people are appointed to bureaucratic positions based on merit as ascertained by a written exam or by applying certain criteria

vi. How difficult is it for a bureaucrat to be fired? 1.) it is almost impossible for a bureaucrat to be fired (in 1987, 1/10 of 1% of federal employees were fired for misconduct or poor performance) 2.) as a result, bureaucratic managers get around this by ‘moving’ ineffective bureaucrats to another agency where they will usually quit because they don’t fit in with that particular agency’s ‘political culture’

v. Why so many constraints? …on bureaucracy

a. Briefly describe why there are so many constraints placed on federal agencies? 1.) There are so many constraints on federal bureaucracies because over the years, congress, the courts, the white house, & other influential factions (special interest groups, etc.) have successfully restricted/limited what our bureaucratic agencies can do in many different situations Examples include civil rts. groups wanting bureaucratic agencies to hire women/minorities Environmental groups wanting bureaucratic agencies to file environmental impact statements

vI. Congressional oversight

B (i./ii.) Why is the appropriations committee so powerful over bureaucracy & identify 3 ways in which it has lost some of its power over federal agencies? 1.) All bureaucratic agency’s budgets must be approved by the House appropriations committee 2.) the appropriations committee has lost some of its power… Congress has created trust funds to pay for things outside of the appropriations committee’s reach Congress has changed authorization for many bureaucratic programs to annual renewels where other legislative committees can control spending Our huge budget deficits have forced congress to keep spending low thus nullifying the need for the appropriations committee to restrict spending

viI. Bureaucratic ‘pathologies’

a./B. What is red tape & why does conflict exist because of it? 1.) red tape are complex bureaucratic rules & procedures that must be followed to get something done which slow down government action 2.) conflict exists because some agencies seem to be working at cross-purposes with each other because of a need to satisfy legal/political requirements brought forth because of all the red tape The agricultural research service tells farmers how to grow crops more efficiently in an attempt to increase their harvest yield, while the agricultural stabilization & conservation service pays farmers to grow fewer crops or to produce less

e. Describe waste & identify a specific example? 1.) waste occurs when a bureaucratic agency spends more for something than is necessary because these decisions are based on the need to accumulate as much $ from tax revenue as possible (otherwise the treasury will spend it on another bureaucratic agency) Pentagon paid $91 for screws that cost 3 cents in a hardware store

viiI. Reforming the Bureaucracy

a. How many major attempts were made in the 20th century to reform bureaucracy b. what is the scope of the npr? 1.) 11 major attempts were made in the 20th century to reform bureaucracy 2.) the latest was the national performance review (npr) which emphasized ‘customer satisfaction’ in which the customers in this case were the citizens. If the agency was spending too much tax payer $ and/or it was mismanaged, then the npr would report negatively on its operations. The idea was to move away from centralized management & promote individual employee initiatives where each federal employee was encouraged to look for ways to be more effective/efficient