1. The bureaucracy
Chapter 14

2. Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives
14.1 Explain what the bureaucracy does 14.2 Outline the essential elements of a bureaucracy 14.3 Describe the growth of the bureaucracy over time 14.4 Assess how the bureaucracy is both accountable and responsive, and how it can fail
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

3. The American Bureaucracy
What is the Bureaucracy?
Regulations
Cabinet
Cabinet secretaries
Constitutional Foundations
Appointments
Opinions on Federal Policies
Execution of the Laws
Key Question
Why do you think the Constitution provides so little direction for the bureaucracy?
The federal bureaucracy has a direct impact on your life. Most Americans are familiar with waiting in line at the post office, but not everyone is aware that the quality of the grains in breakfast cereal they eat in the morning, the safety of the highways they drive during the day, and the purity of the water they drink are also regulated by government agencies.
bureaucracy:
Executive branch departments, agencies, boards, and commissions that carry out the responsibilities of the federal government.
regulations:
Guidelines issued by federal agencies for administering federal programs and implementing federal law.
cabinet:
Set of executive departments responsible for carrying out federal policy in specific issue areas.
cabinet secretaries:
Heads of cabinet departments and chief advisers to the president on the issues under their jurisdiction.
Key Questions
What federal employees have you come in contact with in the past? What was the most recent experience like?
What is your impression of the federal bureaucracy? Which branch of government do you think works best? Which works least well?
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

4. The American Bureaucracy
The Structure of the Bureaucracy
Executive Departments
Currently fifteen departments
Federal register
Other Types of Federal Organizations
Office of Management and Budget
Independent agencies
Federal regulatory commission
Federal Register:
Official published record of all executive branch rules, regulations, and orders.
Office of Management and Budget (OMB):
Federal agency that oversees the federal budget and all federal regulations.
independent agency:
Federal organization that has independent authority and does not operate within a cabinet department.
federal regulatory commission:
Federal agency typically run by a small number of officials, known as commissioners, who are appointed by the president for fixed terms and oversee economic or political issues.
Key Questions
Why would the government fund for a for-profit railroad?
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

5. Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Cabinet Departments 2014
Table 14.1
Source: The White House, The White House, Office of Management and Budget, Fiscal Year 2015 Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the U.S. Government (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2014), Table 8-2, Federal Civilian Employment in the Executive Branch, p. 80, For the history of each department, see the websites listed in the preceding table.
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

6. Organizational Chart of the Department of Health and Human Services
Figure 14.1
Cabinet departments are complex hierarchical organizations with layers of authority and sublevel agencies that have jurisdiction over specific federal programs and policies. This organizational chart of the Department of Health and Human Services shows sublevel agencies with lines of responsibility.
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Organizational Chart, accessed May 8, 2014,
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

7. Core Components of the Bureaucracy
Mission
Hierarchical Decision-Making Process
Provides consistency and predictability
Careful consideration of a policy
Expertise
Bureaucratic Culture
Constant drive to self-perpetuate
Gets in the way of good policy implementation
Key Questions
How has the Internet made it easier to interact with, and influence, the bureaucracy?
How important is a hierarchical decision-making process to government responsiveness and citizen equality?
What are the causes of bureaucratic failure?
What are the advantages of a government job? What are the disadvantages?
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

8. The Historical Evolution of the Bureaucracy
The Expansion of Executive Branch Departments
State, Treasury, and War were first
The Growth of Regulatory Agencies and Other Organizations
Food and Drug Administration
Oversight
oversight:
Powers of Congress to monitor how the executive branch implements the laws.
Key Questions
Why was the Post Office so important in the early days of the United States?
The expansion of executive departments reflects the growth of the nation. What do you think will be the next executive department created?
How did the government go from monitoring railroads to funding them? How does this change illustrate the increased role of government in private industry?
Is protecting people from food poisoning the government’s job? Why?
Key Questions
What made the bureaucracy grow?
Is it too big?
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

9. The Historical Evolution of the Bureaucracy
Nineteenth-century presidents complained of being besieged by office seekers, men who hoped their connections with members of Congress or the president could help them land lucrative or powerful positions in the executive departments. In this engraving, office seekers wait to see Abraham Lincoln.
Source: Provided courtesy HarpWeek
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

10. The Historical Evolution of the Bureaucracy
From Patronage to the Civil Service
Pendleton Act
Civil Service Commission
Merit system
Civil service
Political appointees
Pendleton Act:
1883 act that established a merit- and performance-based system for federal employment.
Civil Service Commission:
Created by the Pendleton Act to administer entrance exams for the federal civil service and set standards for promotion based on merit.
merit system:
System of employment under which employees are chosen and promoted based on merit.
civil service:
The nonpartisan federal workforce employed to carry out government programs and policies.
political appointees:
Federal employees appointed by the president with the explicit task of carrying out his political and partisan agenda.
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

11. The Historical Evolution of the Bureaucracy
Career Civil Service
Political Appointees
Schedule C appointees
Senior Executive Service (SES)
career civil servants:
Federal employees who are hired through a merit-based system to implement federal programs and who are expected to be neutral in their political affiliations.
Schedule C appointees:
Federal employees appointed by the president to oversee civil service employees.
Senior Executive Service (SES):
Senior management personnel in the federal government appointed by the president.
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

12. Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.
Political Appointees
Source: AP Images/Gerald Herbert
In large part due to the unpopularity of the Iraq War, which he oversaw, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced his resignation on November 8, 2006, after big Republican losses in the congressional midterm election. The announcement took place in the Oval Office.
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

13. The Historical Evolution of the Bureaucracy
Diversity in the Federal Bureaucracy
Private-Sector Contract Workers
Bureaucrats and Politics
Civil Service Reform Act of 1978
Key Questions
How did the merit-based civil service improve the job performance of federal employees?
What are two gateways to becoming a presidential appointee?
How much authority should the president have over executive branch employees?
Are there government services that should not be contracted out to the private sector?
Should there be a gate that blocks government employees from engaging in certain kinds of political activities? Would such a gate compromise citizen equality?
Why was the civil service designed so that employees remain in place despite turnover in the presidency and in Congress?
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

14. Distribution of Federal Government Workforce, 2014
Figure 14.2
Federal employment is divided into several categories: executive branch, active military forces, and the U.S. Postal Service.
Source: The White House, Office of Management and Budget, FY 2015 Analytical Perspectives Budget of the U.S. Government, Table 8-3, “Total Federal Employment,” p. 81,
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

15. Composition of the Federal Workforce
Figure 14.3
These charts show the demographics of the federal workforce. For the first time, statistics on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) workers are available with 2.2 percent of the federal workforce identifying in this category. © Cengage Learning
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

16. The Historical Evolution of the Bureaucracy
The federal bureaucracy often employs private-sector workers and organizations to administer federal programs or help support military operations. Here private security personnel help guard government officials in Afghanistan.
Although there is a need for more personnel to supplement U.S. efforts, controversies can arise in terms of oversight of private workers, as well as the dangers they encounter on the job.
Source: Umit Bektas/Reuters
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

17. Accountability and Responsiveness in the Bureaucracy
The Roles of the Legislative and Judicial Branches
“Power of the purse”
Veterans’ Administration 2014 bureaucratic failure
Power to authorize and appropriate
Courts serve as effective monitors
Key Questions
Is it easy or hard for citizens to hold the bureaucracy accountable for its actions? Why?
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

18. Accountability and Responsiveness in the Bureaucracy
Source: Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS
In 2014, the Veterans Administration came under heavy criticism when it was discovered that thousands of veterans were forced to wait months for health care services and that personnel in the VA had falsified records to hide these delays. Here General Eric Shinseki is testifying before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee about the scandal; he resigned two weeks later.
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

19. Accountability and Responsiveness in the Bureaucracy
Efficiency and Transparency
Major issues require caution, thus take time
1996 Freedom of Information Act
Whistleblowing
1989 Whistleblower Protection Act
Bureaucratic Failure
whistleblowers:
Employees who report mismanagement, corruption, or illegal activity within their agencies.
Key Questions
What is more important, transparency or efficiency?
Are private contractors working for the government likely to be whistleblowers? Why or why not?
What can be done about lack of responsiveness by the bureaucracy?
Key Question
Why is transparency important in a democracy?
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

20. The Bureaucracy and Democracy
Federal government has grown to be more responsible for needs of average individual
Many gates bar speedy implementation
Rules and guidelines designed to foster equal implementation
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

21. Veteran Affairs and PTSD Care
Click picture to view video
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

22. Video Discussion Questions
Why did it take whistleblowers to focus attention on problems within the Veteran’s Administration system?
Is championing the care of veterans a popular political tactic? Why or why not?
Should care for veterans be turned over to private enterprise? Why might this cause further delays in care?
Copyright © 2016 Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.