Chapter Ten The Bureaucracy
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Enduring Questions Why did the bureaucracy become the “fourth branch” of American government? How many people work for the federal government? What can be done to improve bureaucratic performance?
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Figure 10.1: What a Bureaucracy Looks Like Source: U.S. Government Manual, , p. 379.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Distinctiveness of the U.S. Bureaucracy Political authority over the bureaucracy shared by president and Congress Federal agencies share functions with state/local agencies Government agencies face greater public scrutiny Heavily regulates private enterprise
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved The Growth of the Bureaucracy The early controversies Bureaucracy before the New Deal era A change in role
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Figure 10.3: The Growth of the Federal Government in Money, People, and Rules, 1940– 2000 Source: Outlays: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996, Table 517, and Historical Statistics of the United States, Series F-32 and Y Civilian employment and pages in the Federal Register: Harold W. Stanley and Richard G. Niemi, Vital Statistics on American Politics (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2001), Tables.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved The Federal Bureaucracy Today Direct and indirect growth Growth in discretionary authority more accurate measure of bureaucracy’s power Four factors explain how bureaucrats exercise this discretion
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved The Federal Bureaucracy Today Recruitment and retention Personal attributes Roles and mission External forces
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Table 10.1: Minority Employment in the Federal Bureaucracy, by Rank, 2000
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Table 10.2: Political Attitudes of High-Level Federal Bureaucrats
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Congressional Oversight Forms of congressional supervision The Appropriations Committee and legislative committees The legislative veto Congressional investigations
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Five Major Bureaucratic “Pathologies” “Red tape”: Complex and sometimes conflicting rules among agencies Conflict: Agencies work at cross-purposes Duplication: Two or more agencies seem to do the same thing
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Five Major Bureaucratic “Pathologies” (Cont’d) Imperialism: Agencies tend to grow, regardless of their programs’ benefits and costs Waste: Spending more than is necessary to buy a product or service Bureaucratic problems usually exist due to nature of government
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Reinventing Government: The National Performance Review (NPR) Previous reforms suggested strengthening presidential powers or reorganizing agencies NPR borrowed business standards Government is not a business
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved Reconsidering the Enduring Questions Why did the bureaucracy become the “fourth branch” of American government? How many people work for the federal government? What can be done to improve bureaucratic performance?