1. American Government Roots and Reform
Thirteenth Edition
Chapter 8
The Executive Branch and the Federal Bureaucracy

2. Learning Objectives
8.1 Outline the development of the federal bureaucracy.
8.2 Describe how the federal budget is organized.
8.3 Describe how the federal bureaucracy is staffed.
8.4 Identify the roles and responsibilities of the federal bureaucracy.
8.5 Identify the means of controlling the federal bureaucracy.

3. 8.1 Roots of the Federal Bureaucracy
The Civil War and the Growth of Government
From the Spoils System to the Merit System
Regulating Commerce
The World Wars and the Growth of Government
As we'll learn in this section, the size of the federal bureaucracy grew from just a small Cabinet that served President Washington to one that critics often argue is too large, too powerful, too wasteful, and too unaccountable. Many Americans are calling for smaller government, less bureaucracy. Yet many of those same Americans who have a negative opinion about the federal government as a whole are more satisfied with the service they have received from departments or agencies.

4. 8.1 The Civil War and the Growth of Government
Permanent Changes to the Federal Bureaucracy
Department of Agriculture (1862)
Pension Office (1866)
Department of Justice (1870)
Authorization of thousands of new employees
The Civil War left its mark on our country in countless ways. Its impact on the size and scope of the federal bureaucracy is no exception. As the nation geared up for war, President Abraham Lincoln authorized the addition of thousands of new employees to existing departments.
Poor harvests, a casualty of the war, led Lincoln to create the Department of Agriculture in 1862 to ensure enough food was grown to feed the soldiers. Congress also created the Pension Office in 1866 to pay benefits to Union veterans who had fought in the war. These changes set the stage for the addition of future departments and the growth of government.

5. 8.1 From the Spoils System to the Merit System
Patronage System (Spoils System)
Federal jobs given to loyal supporters
Merit System
Jobs given according to ability
Established by the Pendleton Act
Civil Service System
Covers more than 90 percent of federal employees
Over the years the patronage system, in which federal government jobs were given to friends and supporters of successful political candidates, had become the norm. By the time James A. Garfield was president, reformers were calling for changes in the loyalty system, also known as the spoils system.
Garfield's predecessor, Rutherford B. Hayes, had favored the idea of replacing the spoil's system with a merit system, in which federal employment is based on qualifications, test scores, and ability, rather than on loyalty. Congress, however, failed to pass the legislation he proposed. Garfield took up the cause, but was assassinated, ironically, by a frustrated job seeker. Public reaction to Garfield's death led Congress to create the beginnings of the current merit-based civil service system, which now covers 90 percent of federal employees.

6. 8.1 Which U.S. President Popularized the Spoils System?
Here, a political cartoonist depicts how President Andrew Jackson might have been immortalized for his use of the spoils system. Note that President Jackson is shown riding a pig, rather than a horse. Words written in the ground below the animal include "fraud," "bribery," and "plunder."

7. 8.1 Regulating Commerce New Agencies
Interstate Commerce Commission (1887)
Federal Trade Commission (1913)
Department of Commerce and Labor split into two departments (1913)
Reaction to Economic Growth and Unfair Business Practices
Sixteenth Amendment (1913)
Federal income tax
Following the Civil War, the nation experienced tremendous growth. Urbanization and Industrialization led to widespread price fixing and other unfair business practices. In particular, exorbitant freight-hauling fees charged by the railroads led Congress to create the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Progressives began calling for more worker protections and a curbing of the big business monopolies. In 1913, it became apparent that one agency could not represent both employers and employees. So President Woodrow Wilson divided the Department of Commerce and Labor. Congress followed a year later with the creation of the Federal Trade Commission to protect small business from monopolies.
Finally, the Sixteenth Amendment gave Congress the authority to levy a federal income tax, which became a revenue source to fund growth in the bureaucracy.

8. Figure 8.1 How Many Employees Work in the Federal Executive Branch?
The size of the federal executive branch has fluctuated with the needs of the nation. The line graph above tracks these changes from the country’s creation to the twenty-first century. Notice the overall growth marked by periods of decline. What events may have caused these fluctuations?
Source: Office of Personnel Management; U.S. Census Bureau.

9. 8.1 The World Wars and the Growth of Government
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Social programs during Depression
World War II Veterans Benefits
G.I. Bill
Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Department of Housing and Urban Development
Department of Transportation
The stock market crash of 1929 and the resulting Great Depression called for government action. President Franklin D. Roosevelt responded with a series of programs and agencies that regulated business practices and other aspects of the national economy.
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor launched the U.S. into World War II, and jobs were created to support the war effort. Tax rates went up to pay for the new federal agencies and programs needed during the war, and those rates never went back down. The revenues were used after the war to expand the federal bureaucracy even more to support veterans with schooling under the GI Bill and housing.
Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society, with its focus on creating equal opportunity through the recognition of civil rights and reduction of poverty, created even more government programs.

10. 8.1 How Did World War II Change Government?
During World War II, the size of the federal government grew dramatically. Men went off to war and women were encouraged to work in factories in order to help the war effort, as exemplified by this famous poster of Rosie the Riveter. When the war ended, veterans returned to their jobs.

11. 8.1 Journal Prompt
Outline the development of the federal bureaucracy.

12. 8.2 Formal Organization of the Bureaucracy
Government Workers and Political Involvement
One key to understanding the modern bureaucracy is to learn how the bureaucracy is organized, how organizations and employees within the bureaucracy affect each other, and how they all navigate the political process.
Activity: Ask students to evaluate the organization and efficiency of your university. How is it organized? Who is employed in what types of positions? Who are the bureaucrats and how efficiently do they perform their jobs? Do these bureaucrats have the same challenges in implementing policy that federal bureaucrats face?

13. 8.2 Formal Organization Cabinet Departments
Independent Executive Agencies
Independent Regulatory Commissions
Government Corporations
Today, the federal government consists of four different types of organizations: Cabinet departments, independent executive agencies, independent regulatory commissions, and government corporations.
Cabinet departments generally are large organizations responsible for a broad section of policy such as education, national defense, and transportation. About 60 percent of the federal workforce are employed in these departments.
Independent executive agencies tend to have narrower responsibilities for a specific policy area, such as the environment.
There are also independent regulatory commissions, which are not under the control of the president or a department. They have a specific policy mission, such as regulating nuclear power, and their members are drawn from both political parties and are appointed in staggered terms over the course of more than one administration.
Government corporations, like the U.S. Postal Service, have independent boards and are supposed to be run like a business.

14. Figure 8.2 What Are the Cabinet Departments?
Cabinet departments reflect the government's permanent interest in a particular issue area. The modern Cabinet includes fifteen agencies focusing on issues ranging from commerce and foreign affairs to education and health.

15. 8.2 What Do Government Corporations Do?
Amtrak provides train service across the United States. Its most profitable line runs through the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C. Thousands of travelers use these train lines to navigate the important business centers and congested airspace of the Northeast. Vice President Joe Biden is among these commuters; he frequently takes the train from the nation’s capital to his home in Wilmington, Delaware.

16. 8.2 Government Workers and Political Involvement
Hatch Act
Limits federal employees’ political activities
Amendments to the Hatch Act
Employees may run for office in nonpartisan elections.
Employees may donate to political organizations.
Employees may campaign for candidates while off-duty.
As the number of federal employees grew in the 1930s, many Americans began to fear that these workers would play major roles in electing members of Congress and even the president. In response, Congress passed the Political Activities Act of 1939, commonly called the Hatch Act. It prohibited federal employees from becoming directly involved in a political campaign. Critics said it was too harsh, however, and it was later amended to allow federal employees to run for public office in nonpartisan campaigns, contribute money to political organizations, and campaign for or against political candidates—but not during working hours.

17. 8.2 Journal Prompt
Describe how the federal bureaucracy is organized.

18. 8.3 Who Are Bureaucrats? Most Are Part of the Civil Service System.
Positions filled through competitive exams or rankings
10 Percent of Workforce Not Part of Civil Service System
3,500 presidential appointees
Independent regulatory commissioners
Low-level, nonpolicy patronage positions
Decentralization
High Turnover in Key Positions
Federal bureaucrats are career government employees who work in Cabinet-level departments and agencies that comprise more than 2,000 bureaus, divisions, branches, offices, services, and other subunits of the federal government. There are more than 3 million of them, and one quarter of those work for the U.S. Postal Service.
Some 90 percent of these employees are covered by the Civil Service System. Some may have to pass exams to be hired; others submit a resume online. The 10 percent of federal employees not covered by the civil service system tend to fall into one of these three categories:
•presidential appointees
•independent regulatory commissioners
•low-level, non-policy patronage positions, which generally are secretarial assistants
About 15 percent of federal workers are found in or around the nation’s capital; the rest are located in regional, state, and local offices scattered throughout the country. To enhance the efficiency of the bureaucracy, the United States is divided into ten regions, with most agencies having regional offices in at least one city in that region
Some bureaucrats hold onto their jobs for a long time. In other agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, turnover is high.

19. Figure 8.5 Who Are Federal Workers?
The federal government employs 2.6 million people in a diverse range of jobs, from administrative assistant to scientist. But, bureaucrats do not necessarily match the demographics of America. Older Americans and men are overrepresented at the highest levels of the federal workforce, while other groups, such as Hispanics and African Americans, are underrepresented.
Source: EEOC Annual Report on the Federal Work Force Part II, Workforce Statistics, Fiscal Year 2011 (EEOC
Annual Report FY 2011).

20. Figure 8.6 What Are the Federal Agency Regions and Where Are Their Headquarters Located?
To bring the federal bureaucracy closer to citizens and increase the efficiency of providing government services, the federal agencies maintain an office in Washington, D.C. and in ten other regional locations across the country. These cities are shown on the map above.
Source: Department of Health and Human Services,

21. 8.3 Journal Prompt
Describe how the federal bureaucracy is staffed.

22. 8.4 How the Bureaucracy Works
Relationships among Policy Actors
Making Policy
In this section, we will identify the roles and responsibilities of the federal bureaucracy.

23. 8.4 Relationships among Policy Actors
Iron Triangles
Issue Networks
Interagency Councils
Policy Coordinating Committees
German sociologist Max Weber believed bureaucracies were rational ways for complex societies to organize themselves. Such bureaucracies would include a chain of command, division of labor, clear lines of authority, a goal orientation that helped shape the organization's structure, impersonality, in which all employees are treated fairly, and productivity. This is the ideal, of course, but government agencies do try to work this way.
The relationships and interaction among federal agency workers, interest groups, and key congressional committee staffers has been called the iron triangle of implementation.
Many political scientists who examine external influences on the modern bureaucracy
prefer to study issue networks. In general, issue networks, like iron triangles, include agency officials, members of Congress (and committee staffers), and interest group lobbyists. But, they also include lawyers, consultants, academics, public relations specialists, and sometimes even the courts.
As a result of the increasing complexity of many policy domains, a number of alliances have also arisen within the bureaucracy. One such example is interagency councils, working groups established to facilitate the coordination of policy making and implementation across a host of agencies.
In areas marked by extraordinarily complex policy problems, recent presidential administrations have set up policy coordinating committees (PCCs) to facilitate interaction among agencies and departments at the sub-Cabinet level. For example, the Homeland Security Council PCC (the HSC-PCC) is composed of representatives from various executive departments as well as the FBI, CIA, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the vice president’s office, among others.

24. Figure 8.7 What Constitutes an Iron Triangle?
Iron triangles are the relatively stable relationships formed between bureaucratic agencies, congressional committees, and interest groups. Cooperation between these three policy actors may make policymaking in some issue areas, such as veterans' affairs, an insular process confined to a small clientele.

25. 8.4 Making Policy Rule Making Administrative Adjudication
Quasi-legislative process
Regulations have the force of law
Administrative Procedures Act establishes process.
Administrative Adjudication
Quasi-judicial process
Method of settling disputes between parties
Many decisions are left up to individual government employees on a day-to-day basis. Government employees have administrative discretion, and can choose how to implement congressional or executive intentions. There are two formal procedures for this: rule making and administrative adjudication.
Rule making is the quasi-judicial process resulting in regulations that have the force of law. Put simply, bureaucratic rule-makers often act both as lawmakers as well as law enforcers when they make rules or write regulations to implement congressional acts.
The Administrative Procedures Act was passed in Among other things, it requires that the public be made aware of proposed rules and be given the chance to comment.
If people or businesses are not in compliance with federal laws, rules or regulations, the agencies may resort to administrative adjudication. This is a quasi-judicial process that settles disputes between two parties much like the way disputes are handled in court. An administrative law judge presides over the hearings. The judge's rulings can be further reviewed and challenged in court.

26. Figure 8.8 How Is a Regulation Made?
The 1946 Administrative Procedures Act spells out a specific process for rule making in the federal bureaucracy. Similar to the process of making legislation, a proposed rule has many opportunities to fail to be implemented. Affected citizens also have a number of opportunities to offer their opinions of a proposed rule.

27. 8.4 Journal Prompt
Identify the roles and responsibilities of the federal bureaucracy.

28. 8.5 Toward Reform: Making the Bureaucracy Accountable
Executive Control
Congressional Control
Judicial Control
So which branch of the federal government controls the federal bureaucracy? The answer, as you will see in this last section, is that they all do. The president, under the Constitution, is in charge of executing the laws of Congress. But Congress certainly has an interest in how its laws are implemented. And, as with most other matters, the judicial branch has the ultimate authority to review the actions of the bureaucracy.

29. 8.5 Executive Control Delegation of Power
Makes controlling bureaucracy difficult
Reorganization of the Bureaucracy
Requires congressional approval
Executive Orders
Directions to agencies that have the force of law
Given the growth in the size of the federal government over the last half-century, presidents have delegated more and more power to the bureaucrats. But that delegation has come with its own challenges. Sometimes, those agencies don't always seem to hear even the words of the highest authority: President John F. Kennedy once complained that to give a directive to the Department of State was like putting the directive in a dead-letter box. Nothing would happen. So presidents have learned how important it is to appoint the right person to head up an agency.
Presidents can also reorganize aspects of agencies, with congressional approval. Finally, presidents can issue executive orders, which direct agencies to follow certain rules or regulations. Such executive orders have the force of law.

30. 8.5 Congressional Control
Confirmation or Rejection of Agency Appointees
Oversight and Investigations
Proactive or reactive
Power of the Purse
Budget authorization
Appropriations
Congress checks the power of the federal bureaucracy in several important ways. It must confirm the president's nominees for key government bureaucracy posts. Congress also has oversight power and can investigate when it suspects an agency has not implemented its laws properly. Finally, it controls the money by authorizing agencies to spend revenues and then determining a specific allocation of funds to be spent.
To help Congress oversee the bureaucracy's financial affairs, Congress created the General Accounting Office in That office is now known as the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

31. 8.5 Judicial Control Injunctions or Orders
Even before a rule is publicized
Enforcement of Due Process Rights
Threat of Litigation
Compared to the executive and legislative oversight of the bureaucracy, judicial oversight is more subtle but no less important. Federal judges can issue injunctions or orders to a federal bureaucracy even before a rule has been publicized. Due process must be granted to individuals who are affected by rules and regulations.
On a more informal, indirect level, litigation, or even the threat of litigation, often
exerts a strong influence on bureaucrats. Injured parties can bring suit against agencies for their failure to enforce a law and can challenge agency interpretations of any law.

32. Table 8.2 How Are Agencies Made Accountable?
The President Has the Authority to
The Congress Has the Authority to
The Judiciary Has the Authority to
Appoint and remove agency heads and other top bureaucrats.
Pass legislation that alters the bureaucracy’s activities.
Rule on whether bureaucrats have acted within the law and require policy changes to comply with the law.
Reorganize the bureaucracy (with congressional approval).
Abolish existing programs and agencies.
Force agencies to respect the rights of individuals through hearings and other proceedings.
Make changes in an agency’s annual budget proposals.
Refuse to appropriate funds for certain programs.
Rule on the constitutionality of all challenged rules and regulations.
Ignore legislative initiatives originating within the bureaucracy.
Investigate agency activities and compel bureaucrats to testify about them. --
Initiate or adjust policies that would, if enacted by Congress, alter the bureaucracy’s activities.
Influence presidential appointments of agency heads and other top bureaucratic officials.
Issue executive orders.
Write legislation to limit bureaucratic discretion.
This table provides an overview of how authority and control are divided among the three branches.

33. 8.5 Journal Prompt
Identify the means of controlling the federal bureaucracy.

34. 8.6 Shared Writing
Consider the topic of the “American Politics in Comparative Perspective” feature. In parliamentary systems, both the prime minister and the cabinet are ultimately accountable to parliament. In the United States, the executive and legislative branches are separate and co-equal. What are the major advantages and disadvantages of each system?

35. Photo Credits
Chapter 8
173: Bettmann/Getty Images; 176: Bettmann/Getty Images; 178: AP Images; 182: Gerald Herbert/AP Images; 191: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images