Transcript The Bureaucracy

The Bureaucracy
Chapter 7
© 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.
Constitutional Background
Background: The American bureaucracy
developed in the scheme of separation of
powers rather than by explicit constitutional
provisions. The bureaucracy is an important
fourth branch of government that is often
autonomous and has played a very important
role in the power struggle between presidents
and Congress.
Constitutional Democracy and
Bureaucratic Power (P. Woll)
 Agencies are responsible for making concrete decisions,
carrying out vague policies initiated by Congress and the
president
 They often determine policies that the legislature and
executive recommended, affecting the policymaking
process
 The bureaucracy is a semi-autonomous branch of
government
How can we control it when there are no constitutional limits
upon it?
 The administrative process was incorporated
constitutionally under the executive branch
 At the time, the concept of administration was simply “the
mere execution of executive details”
Constitutional Democracy and
Bureaucratic Power (P. Woll)
 The system created bureaucratic organization and
functions independent of the president
 Both Congress and the president have power over the
bureaucracy
 Congress controls the organization, creation, and
destruction of agencies and final approval of high-level
presidential appointments
 Congress also can set up agencies beyond presidential
purview
 The president plays a very small role over the
bureaucracy
 He appoints certain officials with the consent of the
Senate
Constitutional Democracy and
Bureaucratic Power (P. Woll)
 Constitutionally, the president is the Commander in Chief,
Chief Diplomat, and Chief Administrator
 The president is the only official elected nationally and
thus he alone stands as the administration’s
representative
 The absence of legal authority diminishes presidential
power
 The rule of law establishes judicial review of administrative
decisions
 The nature of our constitutional system poses many
problems for the development of administrative
responsibility
 The three branches do not fully exert their authority to
regulate the bureaucracy
The Rise of the Bureaucratic State
(J. Wilson)
 The Constitution is virtually silent on the administrative
apparatus
 The Founders’ concern was mainly over how heads of
departments would be selected
 At the time, there was no dispute over the administration
falling under executive jurisdiction
 Original departments were small and had limited duties
but have been growing in size steadily over the years
 To measure the bureaucratic problem merely in terms of
size is misleading
The Rise of the Bureaucratic State
(J. Wilson)
Three ways by which the bureaucracy can gain power:
 If it becomes too large as to be immune from public
control
 By placing power over a governmental bureaucracy in
private rather than public hands
 By placing discretionary authority in the hands of a public
agency whereas the exercise of that power is not
responsive to the public good
Three theories that explain the growth of the bureaucracy
 To consume available resources
 Personnel are promoted up to that point where their
incompetence becomes manifest
 They maximize their total budget
The Rise of the Bureaucratic State
(J. Wilson)
 Bureaucracies perform essential services that the public
demands
 The military establishment: not all large bureaucracies
grow in response to demands for service. Some grow
because they are so vast and well-entrenched they can
virtually ignore the branches of government
 There are bureaucracies devoted to the interests and
aspiration of particular interest groups: agriculture, labor,
etc. Their original purpose was to gather data.
 Wholesale delegation of public power to private interests
was declared unconstitutional, but the piecemeal
delegation was not
The Rise of the Bureaucratic State
(J. Wilson)
 The chief clients of federal domestic expenditures are
state and local government agencies
 The states are the principal client group for grants-in-aid
 Bureaucratic clientelism becomes self-perpetuating in the
absence of some crisis or scandal
 The Madisonian system makes it easy for the delegation
of public power to private groups to go unchallenged