Chapter 15: The Federal Bureaucracy

I. The BureaucratsII. How Bureaucracies Are OrganizedIII. Bureaucracies as ImplementorsIV. Bureaucracies as Regulators

I. The Bureaucrats

A. Bureaucracy (Max Weber)– Has a hierarchical authority structure.– Uses task specialization.– Operates on the merit principle.– Develops extensive rules.– Behaves with impersonality.

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I. The Bureaucrats

B. Some Bureaucratic Myths and Realities– Americans dislike bureaucrats.– Americans are generally satisfied with bureaucrats

and the treatment they get from them.– Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year.– All growth is state and local.– Employees – 20 million state and local and 2.8

million federal civilian (2% of workforce) and 1.4 million federal military.

I. The Bureaucrats

B. Some Bureacratic Myths and Realities (cont’d):

– Most federal bureaucrats work in Washington, D.C.

– About 12% of the 2.8 million federal civilian employees work in Washington.

– Bureaucracies are ineffective, inefficient, and always mired in red tape.

– Government bureaucracies are no more or less inefficient, ineffective, or mired in red tape than private bureaucracies.

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I. The Bureaucrats

C. Civil Servants1. Patronage – Jobs and promotions awarded

for political reasons.

2. Pendleton Civil Service Act of 1883 created a federal civil service so hiring and promotion would be based on merit.

3. Civil Service – Hiring and promotion based on the merit and nonpartisan government service.

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I. The Bureaucrats

C. Civil Servants (cont.)4. Merit Principle – Entrance exams and

promotion ratings to get people with talent and skill.

5. Hatch Act (1939) – Government employees can not participate in partisan politics while on duty.

6. Office of Personnel Management created in 1978 to hire for most federal agencies using rules.

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I. The Bureaucrats

C. Civil Servants (cont.)7. GS (General Schedule) rating – A schedule for

federal employees, ranging from GS 1 to GS 18, by which salaries can be keyed to rating and experience.

8. Senior Executive Service – 9,000 federal government managers that provide leadership at the top of the civil service system.

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I. The BureaucratsD. Political Appointees

1. Plum Book – A listing of the top federal jobs available for direct presidential appointment, often with Senate confirmation.

2. 500 top policymaking posts (mostly cabinet secretaries, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, and bureau chiefs) and 2,500 lesser positions.

3. Incoming presidents seek people who combine executive talent, political skills, and policy positions similar to the administration.

4. Incoming presidents try to ensure diversity and balance in terms of gender, ethnicity, region, and party interests. To Learning Objectives

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II. How Bureaucracies Are OrganizedLO 15.2: Differentiate the four types of agencies into

which the federal bureaucracy is organized.

A. Cabinet DepartmentsB. Independent Regulatory CommissionsC. Government CorporationsD. The Independent Executive Agencies

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II. How Bureaucracies Are Organized

A. Cabinet Departments1. Each department manages specific policy areas,

and each has its own budget and its own staff.

2. Each department has a mission and is organized differently.

3. Bureaus (sometimes they are called administration, service, or office) divide the work into more specialized areas.

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II. How Bureaucracies Are Organized

B. Independent Regulatory Commissions1. Government agency responsible for making

(legislative) and enforcing (executive) rules to protect the public interest in some sector of the economy and for judging (judicial) disputes over these rules.

1. Example – Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)2. Example - Environmental Protection Agency.

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II. How Bureaucracies Are Organized

D. Government Corporations1. Government organization provides a service that

could be provided by private sector and typically charges for its services.

2. You can not buy stock and you can not collect dividends like with private corporations.1. Example – U.S. Postal Service, Tennessee Valley

Authority (TVA), Amtrack

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II. How Bureaucracies Are Organized

D. The Independent Executive Agencies1. The government agencies not accounted for by

cabinet departments, independent regulatory commissions, and government corporations.• Example – Social Security Administration, NASA, NOAA,

National Science Foundation

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III. Bureaucracies as Implementors

A. What Implementation MeansB. Why the Best-Laid Plans Sometimes Flunk

the Implementation TestC. A Case Study of Successful Implementation:

The Voting Rights Act of 1965D. Privatization

III. Bureaucracies as Implementors

A. What Implementation Means1. Policy Implementation – The stage of

policymaking between the establishment of a policy and the consequences of the policy for the people affected.

2. Implementation involves translating the goals and objectives of a policy into an operating, ongoing program.

III. Bureaucracies as Implementors

A. What Implementation Means (cont’d.)1. 3 elements of implementation:

• Create new agency or assign new responsibility to an old agency.

• Translate policy goals into operational rules and develop guidelines for the program.

• Coordination of resources and personnel to achieve the goals.

III. Bureaucracies as Implementors

B. Why the Best-Laid Plans Sometimes Flunk the Implementation Test

1. Program Design – It’s impossible to implement a policy or program that is defective in its basic theoretical conception.

2. Lack of Clarity – Bureaucracies are often asked to implement unclear laws and Congress can thus escape the messy details.

• Example – Title IX of Education Act of 1972 was unclear, making implementation very complex.

III. Bureaucracies as ImplementorsB. Why the Best-Laid Plans Sometimes Flunk the Implementation Test (cont’d.)

3. Lack of Resources – Bureaucracy can lack the staff, necessary training, funding, supplies, equipment, and/or authority to carry out the tasks it has been assigned to do.

4. Administrative Routine – SOPs bring efficiency and uniformity to everyday decision making.

• Routines become frustrating “red tape” or potentially dangerous obstacles to action when not appropriate to a situation.

III. Bureaucracies as ImplementorsB. Why the Best-Laid Plans Sometimes Flunk

the Implementation Test (cont’d.)5. Administrators’ Dispositions – A bureaucrat uses

administrative discretion to select from many responses to a given problem.• Street-level bureaucrats are in constant contact with

public and have considerable discretion.

6. Fragmentation – Responsibility for a policy is dispersed among many units within bureaucracy.• Makes coordination of policies time consuming and

difficult.• Produces contradictory signals among the agencies

involved.

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III. Bureaucracies as ImplementorsC. A Case Study of Successful Implementation:

The Voting Rights Act of 19651. Goal was clear – To register large numbers of

African American voters.2. Implementation was straightforward – Sending

out people to register them.3. Authority of the implementors was clear – They

had the support of the attorney general and even U.S. marshals.

• Authority concentrated in the Justice Department disposed to implementing the law vigorously.

III. Bureaucracies as ImplementorsD. Privatization

1. Private contractors have become a 4th branch of government.

2. Contracting for services – The theory is that private sector competition will result in better service at lower costs, but no evidence has proved this.

3. Contracting leads to less public scrutiny as programs are hidden.

IV. Bureaucracies as Regulators

A. Regulation1. Use of governmental authority to control or

change some practice in the private sector.

2. Congress gives bureaucrats broad mandates to regulate activities as diverse as interest rates, the location of nuclear power plants, and food additives.

IV. Bureaucracies as RegulatorsB. Regulation in the Economy and in Everyday Life

1. Munn v. Illinois (1877) – Right of government to regulate the business operations of a firm.

2. Interstate Commerce Commission (1887) was the 1st regulatory agency and it regulated the railroads, their prices, and their services to farmers.

IV. Bureaucracies as Regulators

B. Regulation in the Economy and in Everyday Life (cont.)

3. Command-and-control policy – The government tells business how to reach certain goals, checks that these commands are followed, and punishes offenders.

4. Incentive system – Market like strategies such as rewards are used to manage public policy.

IV. Bureaucracies as Regulators

B. Regulation in the Economy and in Everyday Life (cont.)

5. 3 elements of regulation:• A grant of power and set of directions from Congress.

• A set of rules and guidelines by the regulatory agency itself.

• Some means of enforcing compliance with congressional goals and agency regulations.

IV. Bureaucracies as Regulators

C. Deregulation1. The lifting of government restrictions on

business, industry, and professional activities.

2. Regulation critics – Regulation distorts market forces, raises prices, hurts America’s competitive position abroad, and fails to work well.

IV. Bureaucracies as Regulators

C. Deregulation (cont.)3. Deregulation critics – Point out that

deregulation does not protect the public against severe environmental damage and power shortages, failures in the savings and loan industry, and bursts in real estate market.

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