Objectives

1. Compare and contrast the American and British models of government bureaucracy.

2. Sketch the history of the growth of bureaucracy in this country, and the different uses to which it has been put.

3. Discuss the recruitment, retention, and personal characteristics of federal bureaucrats.

4. Show how the roles and missions of the agencies are affected by both internal and external factors.

5. Review congressional measures to control the bureaucracy, and evaluate their effectiveness.

6. List the "pathologies" that may affect bureaucracies, and discuss why it is so difficult to reform the bureaucracy.

Text Outline

I. Distinctiveness of the American bureaucracy

A. Constitutional system and traditions make bureaucracy distinctive

1. Supervision shared by president and Congress

2. Federal agencies share functions with state and local governments

3. Adversary culture leads to closer scrutiny; court challenges more likely

B . Scope of bureaucracy

1. Little public ownership of industry in the United States

2. High degree of regulation in the United States of private industries

II. The growth of the bureaucracy

A. The early controversies

1. Supporters of a strong president argue against Senate consent being required for Senate-confirmed appointees

2. President itrators and a slight enduring increase in personnel

D. Depression and World War 11 lead to government activism

1. Supreme Court upheld laws that granted discretion to administrative agencies

2. Introduction of heavy income taxes supports a large bureaucracy

Ill. The federal bureaucracy today

A Direct and indirect growth

1. Modest increase in number of government employees

2. Significant indirect increase in number of employees through use of private contractors, state and local government employees

B Growth in discretionary authority

1. Delegation of undefined authority by Congress greatly increased

2. Primary areas of delegation

a. Subsidies to groups

b. Grant-in-aid programs

c. Enforcement of regulations

C. Factors explaining behavior of officials

1. Recruitment and retention

a . The competitive service: most bureaucrats compete for jobs through OPM

(1) Appointment by merit based on written exam

b. The excepted service: most are appointed by other agencies on the basis of qualifications approved by OPM

c. Competitive service becoming more decentralized-increasing numbers recruited by agency-specific procedures

d. Workers less often blue-collar; increasing diversity of white-collar occupations e. Still some presidential patronage-presidential appointments, Schedule C jobs, non-career executive assignments

(1) Pendleton Act (1883): transferred basis of government jobs from patronage to merit

(2) Merit system protects president from pressure and protects patronage appointees from new presidents (blanketing in)

f. The buddy system

(1) Name-request job: filled by a person whom an agency has already identified for middle- and upper-level jobs

(2) Job description may be tailored for person

(3) Circumvents usual search process but also encourages issue networks based on shared policy views

g. Firing a bureaucrat

(1) Most bureaucrats cannot be fired, although there are informal methods of discipline

(2) Senior Executive Service (SES) can more easily be fired or transferred

(3) SES managers receive cash bonuses for good performance

tant to change

This is also an aspect of Bureaucratic Inertia.

1. Appropriations Committee most powerful

a . Most expenditure recommendations are approved by House

b. Tends to recommend amount lower than agency request

c. Has power to influence an agency's policies through "marking up" an agency's budget

d . But becoming less powerful due to:

(1) Trust funds operate outside the regular government budget

(2) Annual authorizations

(3) Budget deficits have necessitated cuts

2. Legislative committees are important when

a. A law is first passed

b. An agency is first created

c. An agency is subject to annual authorization

3. Informal congressional controls over agencies

a. Individual members of Congress can seek privileges for constituents

b. Congressional committees may seek committee clearance: right to pass on certain agency decisions

C. The legislative veto

1. Declared unconstitutional by Supreme Court in Chadha (1983)

2. Weakens traditional legislative oversight but Congress continues creating such vetoes

3. Their constitutionality is uncertain; debate about the legislative veto continues

D. Congressional investigations

1. Power inferred from power to legislate

2. Means for checking agency discretion and for authorizing agency actions contrary to presidential preferences

3. Means for limiting presidential control-though executive may claim executive privilege

V. Bureaucratic pathologies

A. Red tape--complex and sometimes conflicting rules

B . Conflict-agencies work at cross-purposes

C. Duplication-two or more agencies seem to do the same thing

D. Imperialism-tendency of agencies to grow, irrespective of benefits and costs of programs

E. Waste-spending more than is necessary to buy some product or service

VI. Reforming the Bureaucracy

A. Numerous attempts to make bureaucracy work better for less money

1. Eleven attempts to reform this century alone

2. National Performance Review (NPR) in 1993 designed to reinvent government

a. Differs from previous reforms that sought to increase presidential control

b. Emphasizes customer satisfaction by bringing citizens in contact with agenciesannual authorization The practice of a legislative committee determining the amount an agency can spend on a yearly basis. This practice is a recent one and curtails the power of the appropriations committees.

appropriation Money formally set aside for a specific use; issued by the House Appropriations Committee.

authorization legislation Legislation that originates in a legislative committee stating the maximum amount of money that an agency may spend on a given program.

buddy system A job description by an agency which is tailor-made for a specific person. These appointments occur in middle- and upper-level positions in the bureaucracy.

bureaucracy A large organization composed of appointed officers in which authority is divided among several managers.

bureaucratic culture An informal understanding among fellow employees of an agency as to how they are supposed to act.

committee clearance A request made by congressional committees to pass on certain agency decisions. Although usually not binding, it is seldom ignored by agencies.

competitive service The set of civil servants appointed on the basis of a written exam administered by the Office of Personnel Management or by meeting certain selection criteria.

conflict A bureaucratic pathology in which some agencies seem to be working at cross-purposes to other agencies.

discretionary authority The ability of a bureaucracy to choose courses of action and make policies not spelled out in advance by laws.

duplication A bureaucratic pathology in which two government agencies seem to be doing the same thing.

Freedom of Information Act A law passed in 1966 giving citizens the right to inspect all government records except those containing military, intelligence, or trade secrets or material revealing private personnel actions.

imperialism A bureaucratic pathology in which agencies tend to grow without regard to the benefits their programs confer or the costs they entail.

iron triangle The policy-making network composed of a government agency, a congressional committee, and an interest group. This network is less common today because of the variety of interest groups that exist and the proliferation of congressional subcommittees.

issue network Members of Washington-based interest groups, congressional staffers, university faculty, experts participating in think tanks, and representatives of the mass media who regularly debate government policy on a certain subject. Such networks are replacing the iron triangles.

laissez-faire A belief in a freely competitive economy that was widely held in the late nineteenth century.

legislative veto Congressional veto of an executive decision during the specified period it must lie before Congress before it can take effect. The veto is effected through a resolution of disapproval passed by either house or by both houses. These resolutions do not need the president's signature. In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled such vetoes were unconstitutional, but Congress continues to enact laws containing them.

name-request job A job in the federal bureaucracy that is filled by a pe