Transcript 13 - Greenwich Public Schools

13
The
Bureaucracy
Figure 13.2: Federal Government: Money,
People, and Regulations
Source: Expenditures and employment, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2000, Nos. 483 and 582; regulations: Harold W.
Stanley and Richard G. Niemi, Vital Statistics on American Politics (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1998), tables
6-12, 6-14.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
13 - 2
Figure 13.2: Federal Government: Money,
People, and Regulations (cont’d)
Source: Expenditures and employment, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2000, Nos. 483 and 582; regulations: Harold W.
Stanley and Richard G. Niemi, Vital Statistics on American Politics (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1998), tables
6-12, 6-14.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
13 - 3
The Size and Power of the Federal Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy universal, but American system has several unique features:
-Political Authority is shared across several institutions
-Most federal agencies share their functions with agencies of state/local gov’ts
-America’s adversary culture: bureaucratic actions often fought out in court
Constitution silent, except to give appointment power. Control contested
Patronage the chief means of bureaucratic officeholding (next slide)
-1865-1937: Bureaucracy not regulatory, but service oriented
-1937- present: Bureaucracy regulatory, due to WWII, New Deal, Great Society
-Supreme Court has interceded to restrict political patronage Constitutionally
Total # of Civilian federal employees has not increased since WWII
-What has increased: # of indirect federal employees (state/local//private firms)
Power of the Bureaucracy due to Discretionary Authority (See two slides/pp. 392-393)
-the ability to choose courses of action and to make policies not spelled out in
advance by laws
-Power increase due to:
a. vast increase in expenditures channeled through the bureaucracy
b. the vast expansion in the number of regulations issued in the past 30 years
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
13 - 4
Figure 13.3: Characteristics of Federal Civilian
Employees, 1960 and 1999
Sources: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1961, 392-394; Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2000, Nos. 450, 482, 500,
595, 1118.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
13 - 5
Figure 13.4: Department of Homeland Security as
Proposed by George W. Bush, June 6, 2002
Source: Ivo H. Daalder, Statement before the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, October 12, 2001.
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
13 - 6
Control of the Bureaucracy
Power due to Discretionary Authority. 4 influences on bureaucratic conduct:
1.Recruitment and Reward
-Presidential patronage and spoils system in place for two reasons:
a. # of employees was small and easy to change
b. Jobs required little expertise
-
-
This changed with post-war enlargement of bureaucracy, Garfield
assassination, and the Pendleton Act, shifting bureaucracy to the merit
system.
Once hired, one year for tenure, then hard to fire. So, informal: pp. 383, 388.
In spite of the merit system, hiring remains political, esp. in middle and upper
levels. Examples: name-request basis, buddy system, and issue networks.
Most bureaucrats become quite comfortable, and defend their agencies
2.Personal Attributes
-
Middle and upper-level bureaucrats are unrepresentative of the American
public
Highly educated, middle-class white males.
Typically more liberal than population, less liberal than media. Depends on
particular office (ex. Commerce vs. EPA)
Attitudes rarely influence in rules-driven agencies. Can affect loose agencies
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
13 - 7
1.The nature of the job
Control
of the have
Bureaucracy,
Continued
-Some agencies
clear mission, high
morale: FBI, Forest Service, Public Health
-hard to change, resistant to public direction. Ex. Drug warnings last week.
-Agencies’ mission, however, has to work within laws, rules, and regulations
-hiring/firing, freedom of information, accounting for $, affirmative action, environmental
-Sometimes, overlapping/conflicting missions interagency. Hard to control by WH
2.External Forces
-7 external forces: Exec. Branch superiors, President’s staff, Congressional Committees,
interest groups, the media, the courts, and other governmental agencies
(handout)
-All under president, tech. However, agencies with oversight over discrete parties tend to
have strict oversight by Congress and are oriented to it (HUD, Agriculture,
Interior)
-Bureaucrats desire autonomy, so they build external allies that then can control them
-examples: NASA, FBI with public, or private sector support, like Dept. of Labor (min. wage?)
-Iron Triangles: Informal and exclusive policy relationships between agency, interest group,
and congressional committee. Leads to revolving doors (Cheney, Richards)
-Often, though, Iron Triangles must deal with conflicting interest group positions. Then,
issue networks emerge determined to affect public policy
Congressional Checks on bureaucracy: a. money authorization and appropriation
b. Legislative veto: declared unconstitutional in INS v. Chadha (1983). Impact?
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
13 - 8
Bureaucratic Pathologies
Five Major Problems with Bureaucracies:
1.Red Tape (see “Politically Speaking: Red Tape” box, p. 397
-Existence of complex rules/procedures; any large organization must coordinate
2.Conflict
-When some agencies work at cross-purposes with others.
-ARS tells farmers how to grow more efficiently; ASCS pays them to grow less.
-Congress has 535 members with little strong leadership
3.Duplication
-Two government agencies seem to do the same thing: Customs and DEA
4.Imperialism
-Tendency of agency to grow regardless of costs or benefits realized.
-Agencies tasked with vague goals and have vague mandates, and take broad
views of their powers. If they don’t, interest groups or judges may make them
5.Waste
-Agencies can spend more than they need to: $300 hammers. See “Spoils,” p. 376
Bureaucratic problems are hard to correct; cure may be worse than disease
Similar to Congress, the public hates “bureaucrats,” but like the ones they know
Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
13 - 9