Chapter 11Bureaucracy in a Democracy

Bureaucracy Basics

• Most private and public organizations are bureaucracies

• Means “rule by office or desk”• A hierarchical organization design to

accomplish policy goals/decisions.• Basis for efficient, efficacious, operations• Public examples - USPS, DOD, DOT,

FEMA, CDC

Bureaucrats

• Public bureaucracies usually draw criticism not praise.

• Bureaucrats perform the day-to-day tasks of the federal government.

• Bureaucrats

— maintain a paper trail,

— communicate,

— implement policy through rulemaking,

— adjudicate disputes.

Growth of the Federal Bureaucracy

• 1789 - State, Tres, War and Justice

• 1849 - Interior• 1889 - Agriculture• 1913 - Commerce and

Labor

• 1953 - HHS• 1965 - HUD• 1966 - DOT• 1977 - Energy• 1989 - VA• 2003 - Home Land

Security

• 1800 - 2000 employees• 1900 - 250,000 employees• 1945 - 4 million employees• 2002 - 2.7 million employees

About 3,000 appointed by President

15-2

Federal Agencies and Their Respective Numbers of Civilian Employees

15-3

Government Employment at Federal, State, and Local Levels

Federal Bureaucracy As a % of Total Workforce

Ethnic Makeup

Types of Bureaucracies

• Executive Office of President

• Executive Departments

• Independent Agencies

• Independent Regulatory Commissions

• Government Corporations

15-5Organization Chart of the Federal Government

Cabinet Departments

• Fifteen Departments

• Three Layered Levels– Secretary and Deputy– Undersecretaries– Bureau Level Service Agencies

Independent Agencies

• Bureaucratic agency not included in cabinet department headed by single individual

• CIA

• NASA

• General Services Administration (GSA)

• Small Business Administration (SBA)

• National Science Foundation (NSF)

Independent Regulatory Commissions

• Agency outside the cabinet headed by a commission regulating a specific industry or economic activity

• Interstate Commerce Commission– abolished in 1995

• Civil Aeronautics Board– abolished in 1985

• Securities and Exchange Commission• Federal Communications Commission

Government Corporations

• Government agency run like a business so as to operate on self created revenue not taxes.

• USPS

• National Railroad Passenger Corp (Amtrak)

• FDIC

Bureaucrats - Civil Servants• “Government by Gentleman”

• Jacksonian “spoils system”– party loyalists and campaign staff

• The Civil Service System is based on merit and replaced the spoils system with the Civil Service Reform Act - 1883

• Civil Service Reform Act of 1978– Includes the OPM (in EOP) and a Merit Pay System with

tenure and appointments.

– Whistle-blower protection

Controlling the Bureaucracy

• Presidents Power

• Congresses Role

• Special Interest Groups

• Courts

Presidents Power Has limits

• Article II, Section 3 “ ..he shall take care that the laws are faithfully executed….”

• Size and Diversity make it a challenging task– 1.7 million employees in cabinet departments– 1.0 million employees in independent agencies

• Commitment to specialty not President

• Budget process can be as a control tool

Congress and Bureaucracy• Congress creates agencies through legislative process• Can control the conduct of the federal bureaucracy

through appointment confirmations, oversight and the appropriations process.

• Oversight research tools– GAO, CBO, CRS

• Republican staff cuts in late 90s caused reductions in oversight

Termination

• Termination is the only certain way to reduce the size of the bureaucracy.

• Become very politicized and parochial

• Because of clientele relationships, it is practically impossible to terminate an agency.

Devolution

• Devolution is a policy of removing programs from federal control and placing them under the direction of state and local governments.

• Problems with unequal assumption of responsibilities by states.

Privatization

• Privatization is the process of removing all or part of a program from the public sector and turning its operation over to the private sector.

• Bush wants to move 850,000 federal jobs to the private sector.

Special Interest Groups

• Lobbying

• Going public– grassroots and issue advocacy

• Litigation

• Iron Triangle

Three Iron Triangles

Courts

• Judicial review of constitutionality

• Procedural fairness - groups must be given notice to comment on new rules and procedures.

• Interpreting practices - rules are reasonable in light of available evidence.

Regulation Types

• Economic - shape/limit industry or business practices

• Social• Regulatory quasi -legislative• Regulatory quasi-judicial

Regulation Process

Constitution

Congress President

Laws Agencies

Individuals or Businesses Code of Regulations