Public Opinion and Government Waste

What is Bureaucracy?

• Bureaucracy is a diverse collection of departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions, and other units of the executive branch that carry out national policies

• The roots of the bureaucracy are found in the Constitution, which authorizes Congress to make laws and the president to see that they are faithfully executed.

Do we really want bureacracies?

• No.• But, bureaucracies are indispensable. – Take on functions that would waste the time and

effort of elected leaders– They do pretty much everything that actually gets

done by government

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKIE3IUkkp8

The Ideals of Bureaucratic Governance

The German sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920) recognized that modern nation-statesneeded professional bureaucracies.

• He argued that the ideal bureaucracy should beefficient and rational.

• It should function like a machine, with each ofits parts playing a well-defined role.

• Weber argued that there were a few criticalelements for achieving this ideal:

– Clear assignment of roles: In order to fittogether and function in unison, each of theparts in the bureaucratic machine must knowboth what it is supposed to do and how it fitswithin the larger organization.

– Rules, Rules, Rules, and More Rules: Forboth efficiency and fairness, decisions andchoices made by bureaucrats need to beimpersonal and consistent

“Only he has the calling forpolitics who is sure that he will not crumble when the world from his point of view is too stupid or basefor what he wants to offer.” – MaxWeber

The Ideals of Bureaucratic Governance

Peter: And here's something else, Bob I have eight different bosses right now.Bob: I beg your pardon?Peter: Eight bosses.Bob: Eight?Peter: Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tellme about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enoughnot to get fired.

– Hierarchy: bureaucracies arestrictly hierarchical, eachperson should have only oneimmediate supervisor, andeach supervisor should haveonly a limited number ofsubordinates.

– Professionals: Mostimportantly, the selection ofpersons to fill roles within thebureaucracy, must be done onthe basis of merit

Policymaking versus Administration

The only thing that saves us from thebureaucracy is inefficiency. – Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-MN)

• As bureaucracies grew in size andnumber, there has been constant concern that they might assume the roles meant for elected officials.

• People feared that they would move from implementing laws to actually making the laws.

• This would be particularly disturbingbecause they were not designed to beresponsive to the people.

Policymaking versus Administration

“I bet I can eat that entireburrito.” – President Woodrow Wilson

• Woodrow Wilson wrote an essaydeclaring that there should be a strictdichotomy between politics andadministration.

• Frank Goodnow picked up this theme andargued that there should be a sharpdistinction between the political branchesmaking the laws and the bureaucracyimplementing them.

• In reality completely severing politicsfrom administration would be a disasterfor democracy.

Bureaucratic Roles

• Bureaucracies are involved in service regulation, implementation, and policymaking.• Governments provide many services; they run hospitals, carry out welfare programs, run public schools, operate parks, etc.• Administrative agencies also regulate; The FBI regulates personal behavior, the Food and Drug Administration regulates medicine, the Securities and Exchange Commission tries to regulate Wall Street, etc.• Agencies are also primarily responsible for implementation; they make sure that the laws that legislatures pass get put into place.• The bureaucracy is also responsible for making public policy; legislatures often pass laws that are general, and they will leave the specifics to the expertise of bureaucracies.

Development of the Bureaucracy

• The Framers viewed the executive as the necessary source of “energy” in government, but questions of administration received little attention at the Constitutional Convention.

• The Constitution said little about how the executive would be organized.

• From the beginning, Congress was wary of delegating too much power to the executive but realized the impracticality of delegating too little.

• John Adams served on ninety committees and worked 18 hours a day while in Congress.

Development of the Bureaucracy

• The first Congress began the foundations of the executive branch by reestablishing the departments that had existed under the Articles:– Treasury.– Foreign Affairs (renamed State).– War.

• Congress also authorized the hiring of an attorney general to give the president and department heads legal advice.

Development of the Bureaucracy

• The larger departments were soon subdivided into a few more specialized offices called bureaus.

• Congress set up single officials to be responsible for the departments’ operations. However, it was unclear whether they should report to Congress or the president.

• Congress faced the dilemma of delegation.• The resolution: Delegate, but incorporate institutional

controls that would maintain the agencies’ responsiveness to Congress. This was accomplished primarily through the power of the purse.

The Dilemma of Delegation

• The executive struggled with the same dilemma.

• Even the skimpy government of the Federalist period was too large to be managed by the president and his cabinet alone.

• How could they ensure that agents acting ostensibly on their behalf would faithfully carry out official policies?

The Dilemma of Delegation• The Federalists: Responsible office-holders.• For many decades the federal government had few responsibilities.• George Washington had so few staff that he would sometimes call

in his cabinet chiefs to take dictation.• Delegation was difficult.

– Long distances.

– Primitive conditions between the capital and the states.• Most federal workers worked far from their bosses.

– Occupied with delivering the mail.– Collecting duties and taxes.

– Potential for corruption considerable.

The Spoils SystemThe most prominent spokespersonfor the democratic spirit, AndrewJackson, challenged the use offederal offices as private property.

Jackson claimed it would “divert government from its legitimate ends and make itan engine for the support of the few at the expense of the many.”

He advocated rotation in office. Officials would serve in positions for a short,fixed period, then move on to something else.

This notion meshed with the practical need of party organizations to inspire andreward activists who had helped them gain office.

Thus democratization of the civil service was also motivated by pragmatic politics,and thus the spoils system was born.

Civil Service ReformThe principle of rotation (the spoils system) did not allow for the development of government service as a career with job security and advancement based on merit.

The emerging industrial revolution was raising new problems of administration.The most dramatic incident of the period was the exposure of the Whiskey Ring.

Moreover, President James Garfield was assassinated in 1881 by a demented jobseeker incensed at having lost a chance for a patronage appointment. Revulsionagainst the spoils system led to the passage of the Pendleton Act in 1883.

This act is the basis of the modern civil service. Put 10 percent of federal jobsunder the merit system; presidents have extended through executive order. By thetime FDR became president in 1933, 80 percent of federal workers were includedin the merit system.

Bureaucratic Problems of a Different Sort

Career civil service led to its own agency problems. Career bureaucrats developed their own personal and institutional interests, and often acted on them.

•Nonresponsive to citizens and electedofficials.•Yet it was difficult to “punish” suchbehavior.

Their expertise in procedures and policy domains could shield their actionsfrom outside oversight by their principals. (Hidden action.)

Civil servants (agents) might also have access to information that is not available to the public or other branches of government (principals) and not be willing to share it if it goes against their goals. (Hidden information.)

An Expanding GovernmentAfter the Civil War, the federal government began expanding its activities and personnel, and that trend, with few exceptions, hascontinued on with steady growth and dramatic increases during the New Deal period.

Government could only grow if Congress and the president were willing todelegate authority to new agencies.

- To handle large-scale administrative tasks.- To exploit expertise.- To avoid blame for unpopular decisions.- To make credible commitments to stable policy.- To deal with crises demanding swift, coordinated action.

Bureaucratic ComponentsThe cabinet:

Until 1849, Treasury, State, Navy, and Warstood alone as cabinet-level departments.Joined that year by the Department of theInterior. This was a major victory formembers of Congress from western states --more attention would be paid to the issuesfacing their constituents.

The Department of Justice achieved cabinet status in 1879 after Congress, inresponse to the Civil War, Reconstruction, and industrial growth, expandedthe government’s role in law enforcement.

Clientele agencies:The Departments of Agriculture (1889), Labor (1903), and Commerce (1903).

Bureaucratic Components

• The military establishment.– Department of Defense (1947)was a legacy of World War

II and the emergence of the United States as an international superpower.

• Department of Health and Human Services.– Established 1979. Umbrella department containing

numerous social welfare agencies and programs that have their roots in the New Deal.

Bureaucratic Components

• Department of Housing and Urban Development.– Embodied the commitments of Kennedy and Johnson to revitalizing the

inner cities.

• Department of Transportation– Became home to all the agencies established piecemeal over the years

to promote the different forms of transportation.• Department of Energy.

– Embodied another effort to coordinate policy, this time for sources of energy.

• Departments of Education (1979) and Veterans Affairs (1988).– Creations were almost entirely symbolic.

• Department of Homeland Security.

Bureaucratic ComponentsNon-cabinet agencies.

These are generally categorized as:

• Independent executive agencies.• Regulatory agencies.• Government corporations.

Independent executive agencies are placed outside departments for political reasons.

CIA, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, and Selective ServiceSystem all report directly to the president.

Keep important defense-related activities under predominantly civilian control.

Bureaucratic ComponentsIndependent regulatory commissions.

• Designed to maintain their independence from the president and the executive departments.

• Postal Rate Commission; Federal Reserve Board; NLRB.

Independence insulates the president and Congress from the fallout of unpopular decisions.

Independent government corporations.• U.S. Postal Service; the most important government corporations are the Tennessee Valley Authority and Amtrak

Who Controls the Bureaucracy?

• Role of Congress:

– It creates and empowers the bureaucracy with ordinary legislation.

– It provides the funding that allows bureaucrats to carry out their work through yearly budgeting.

– Thus it maintains significant indirect control.– The agencies, as agents, know that their existence

depends on Congress, the principal, and generally respond accordingly.

Methods of Congressional Control

• At the same time, Congress has a variety means to influence administrative agencies:– Hearings and investigations where agencies testify.– Mandatory reports on programs provided to Congress.– Legislative vetoes on agency policy proposals.– Committee and conference reports that provide instruction to

agencies.– Inspectors general who audit the books and investigate the

activities of agencies for Congress.– The General Accounting Office, which audits programs and

agencies and reports their performance to Congress.– Time limit on delegations of authority.

Methods of Congressional Control

• Procedural devices: – Administrative Procedures Act of 1946

– Rulemaking: • Congress normally regulates by delegating broad grants of authority to regulatory

agencies and letting them fill in the details by making rules. These rules have the

force of law.• Federal Register

– When an agency wants to make a rule, it must:– Give public notice in the Federal Register.

• Outline the proposed rule.• Disclose the data and analysis on which it is based.• Invite written comments from the public.• Public hearings may be held as well.

The President, the Courts, and theBureaucracy

The president is at the top of hierarchy.But difficult to control.Use of appointments.

Congress can intercede.Senatorial approval.Role of clientele groups.Appointments “marry the natives.”

Mechanisms for presidential supervision.OMB.Special authority over agencies involved in

diplomacy and national defense.

The judiciary also shares authority over the bureaucracy. United States inherited the common law principle that the government, no less than its citizens, is bound by law.

Rules and Hierarchy versus Adaptation,Responsiveness, and Democracy

• Given Weber’s insistence on hierarchy it would seem change must come from the top down.

• However, Anthony Downs’ concept of authority leakage questions if it is possible for those at the top of the hierarchy to effectively direct the actions of those at the bottom.

• Even if everyone acts in good faith, the top officials attempts to control the bureaucracy gets distorted as each successive layer of the bureaucracy interprets the orders.

• Even if each of these alterations is minor, they multiply and accumulate and magnify one another as the order passes down through the levels within the bureaucracy.

• It becomes almost impossible for the top of the hierarchy to consistently and effectively direct the outputs at the bottom.

The Iron Triangle• The most obvious way to integratebureaucracies into a democraticsystem is to create a system ofoverhead democracy.

• In this system, elected officials areput at the top of the bureaucratichierarchy.

• However, serious doubts has beencast over a top-down model of ademocratic bureaucracy.

• One problem is Downs’ authorityleakage.

• Another problem is the iron triangle.

Iron Triangles, CapturedAgencies, and Issue Networks

Iron triangles

Narrowly focused subgovernments controlling policy in theirdomains -- out of sight or oversight of the full Congress, thepresident, and the public at large.

Classic examples: areas of agriculture, water, and public works.

The Iron Triangle

• The same electoral dynamics expected to encourage responsiveness to the public create an imbalance of interests in the activities of the bureaucracies.• This leads to agencies being “captured” by small interests group that are often those the bureaucracy is directed to regulate.• The executive and legislature typically have little interest in bureaucratic oversight. In contrast, the interest groups directly affected by the bureaucracy have a great deal of interest in it.

Iron Triangles, CapturedAgencies, and Issue Networks

• Issue networks

– Amorphous, ever-changing sets of politicians, lobbyists, academic and think-tank experts, and public interest entrepreneurs -- rather than the rigid iron triangle.

Agencies Adapt

• Agencies have adapted to changing political landscapes.– Department of Agriculture now pays attention to

nutrition and other consumer concerns in addition to agribusiness concerns.

• Today’s Environmental Protection Agency considers the economic as well as environmental effects of its decisions.

• Some agencies have a harder time adapting

Bureaucratic Reform – A Hardy Perennial

• Every administration attempts to reform the federal bureaucracy.

• Red tape is logical. It serves a purpose.

• Proliferates because it helps principals control and monitor their and because it helps agents demonstrate that they are doing their jobs correctly.

The Rationality of Incoherence

• Government pursues overlapping, conflicting, or disconnected goals in response to the diverse demands Americans place on it.

• It is not impossible to reform the bureaucracy, but it is impossible to do so without changing power relationships among interests and institutions.

• It does generally change, however, when the larger social and political environment changes.

Bureaucratic Reform – A Hardy Perennial

• Efficiency and entrepreneurship may be good, but they run counter to other goals -- like control and evaluation.

• Changing government to reflect the creative, entrepreneurial model may be difficult.

• Entrepreneurs take risks.• Civil servants seldom profit from risk taking. Easier to

stick to the routine.• If something goes wrong, it is due to the routine and

not the bureaucrat.

The Size of the Bureaucracy

The Size of Federal Spending