1. Chapter 12: The Bureaucracy

2. The Bureaucracy: The Power of Rule-Making
Click the icon to open the movie
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3. Questions Why does Congress allow for bureaucratic rulemaking?
What are the potential conflicts in a system that allows bureaucratic rulemaking?
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4. Bureaucracies
Bureaucracies are often handy political targets to blame for society’s ills.
Yet, the same bureaucrats who are blamed for red tape have also accomplished some remarkable tasks:
NASA
TVA
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5. Bureaucracies (cont.)
Americans tend to be against “Big Government” in the abstract, but they also demand all kinds of government services.
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6. 2002 AP/ Wide World Photos
© 2003 AP/Wide World Photos
As a new bureaucracy created in 2002, how effective is the Department of Homeland Security ?
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7. Bureaucracy and the Policy Process
Client Groups
Congress
Triangles and Subgovernments
Issue Networks
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8. The Veterans Affairs “Triangle”
Iron Triangles: three-way alliance among legislators, bureaucrats, and interest groups that seeks to make or preserve policies that benefit their respective interests
Issue Networks: legislators, interest groups, bureaucrats, scholars and experts, and members of the media who share a position on a given issue may attempt to exert influence on the executive branch, on Congress, on the courts or on the media to see their policy position enacted.
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9. The Politics of Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy and Public Opinion
Bureaucracy and the President
Bureaucracy and Policymaking
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10. Models of Bureaucracy Weberian Model Acquisitive Model
Hierarchy
Specialization
Rules and regulations
Neutrality
Acquisitive Model
Monopolistic Model
Bureaucracies Compared
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11. The Size of the Bureaucracy
Today there are about 2.7 million civilian employees of the federal government.
The two biggest employers are the U.S. Postal Service, with almost 800,000 workers, and the Department of Defense, with more than 650,000 civilian staff.
In recent years, the greatest growth in government employment has been at the local level. Federal employment has remained stable.
(UPI Photo/Bill Greenblatt/Landov)
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12. A Profile of Bureaucracy: Government Employment—Federal, State, and Local
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© Bob Daemmrich /Stock, Boston /PictureQuest
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14. Federal Agencies and Their Employees
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15. Government Employment at the Federal, State, and Local Levels
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17. The Organization of the Federal Bureaucracy
Cabinet Departments
Independent Executive Agencies
Independent Regulatory Agencies
The Purpose and Nature of Regulatory Agencies
Agency Capture
Deregulation and Reregulation
Government Corporations
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18. Major Regulatory Agencies
The Federal Trade Commission (1914)
The Federal Communications Commission (1934)
The Securities and Exchange Commission (1934)
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (1978)
The Federal Trade Commission (1914): five members, seven-year terms; regulates industry; responsible for preventing unfair competition, price fixing, deceptive advertising, mislabeling of textile and fur products, false packaging, and similar abuses.
2. The Federal Communications Commission
(1934): five members, five-year terms; licenses and regulates all television and radio stations
in the United States; regulates frequencies used by police, aviation, taxicabs, citizens’ band and
“ham” operators, and others; fixes rates for telephone and telegraph companies in interstate
commerce.
3. The Securities and Exchange Commission (1934):
five members, five-year terms; created to protect the public from investing in securities on the basis of false or misleading claims; requires companies offering securities for sale to file an accurate registration statement and prospectus; registers brokers; regulates stock exchanges.
4. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(1978): five members, five-year terms; although within the Department of Energy, is an independent
regulatory commission; regulates and has jurisdiction over natural gas companies, electric utilities, and interstate oil pipelines.
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19. Deregulation
The government regulation of industry, which increased during the New Deal administration of FDR, had by the 1970s, become a target of criticism.
In the 1970s, President Carter called for deregulation of airlines, banking, trucking, railroads, and telecommunications.
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20. The Growth of Social Regulation
Although considerable deregulation of transportation, communications, and financial industries took place, social regulation increased during the 1970s and 1980s.
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21. Staffing the Bureaucracy
Political Appointees
The aristocracy of the federal government
The difficulty of firing civil servants
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22. Modern Attempts at Bureaucratic Reform
Sunshine Laws
The 1966 Freedom of Information Act
Changes after 9/11
Sunset Laws require congressional review of existing programs to determine their effectiveness. If Congress does not explicitly reauthorize a program, it expires.
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23. The Civil Service The Spoils System The Road to Reform 1850s
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24. The Carter Reforms The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978
Whistle-blowers
The Senior Executive Service
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25. “I’m sorry, dear, but you knew I was a
bureaucrat when you married me.”
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The New Yorker Collection Robert Weber from cartoonbank.com. All rights reserved.

26. Modern Attempts at Bureaucratic Reform (cont.)
Privatization
Incentives for Efficiency and Productivity
The Government Performance and Results Act of 1997
Saving Costs through E-Government
Helping Out the Whistle Blowers
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27. Bureaucrats as Politicians and Policy-Makers
The Rulemaking Environment
Waiting periods and court challenges
Negotiated Rulemaking
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28. Congressional Control of the Bureaucracy
The ultimate control is in the hands of Congress because Congress controls the purse strings.
Congressional control of the bureaucracy includes the establishment of agencies and departments, the budget process, and oversight conducted through investigations, hearings, and review.
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29. Questions for Critical Thinking
What could be done to eliminate iron triangles?
In modern times, we tend to equate the term “bureaucracy” with “red tape” or inefficiency. How does the goal of neutrality and the need for specialization help reinforce those images?
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30. Web Links US Office of Personnel Management
The Project on Government Oversight
USA Jobs
Office of Personnel Management
The federal government’s human resources agency;
contains general information for current and prospective
federal employees and statistics about federal government
workers.
Project on Government Oversight
A nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that investigates,
exposes, and tries to remedy abuses of power within
the government. The site includes POGO Alerts, which
are brief reports about the project’s investigations, and
legal resources for those who are considering becoming
a whistle-blower.
USAJobs
The federal government’s official site for jobs and employment
information. Current job openings, online
applications for jobs, and information about working
for the government are available.
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31. Web Links (cont.) GAO—U.S. Government Accountability Office
FAS—Federation of American Scientists
OMB Watch
Openthegovernment.org
This is the site of the Government Accountability Office, the congressional
office that monitors the performance of executive branch
agencies.
This is the site of the Federation of American Scientists.
This is a site set up by interest groups and private individuals to
monitor the performance of executive branch agencies. You can
review agency evaluations, changes in FOIA, and other laws and
rules governing openness in government.
This website is devoted to tracking government policy on issues of
secrecy and public access to government documents. Site managers
advocate for greater openness.
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