gov ch 8: the executive branch and the bureaucracy

bureaucracy

the complex structure of offices, tasks, rules, and principles of organization that large-scale institutions use to coordinate the work of their personnel

core of bureaucracy

bureaucracy is a hierarchical organization that employs a division of labor and specialization

bureaucrats

agents of elected officials who have discretion in how they do their jobs; they are entrusted to deliver goods efficiently while complying with legislated public policy

bureaucracy in a democracy

bureaucracies are sometimes associated with inefficiency and delay; however, it is actually intended to promote efficiency, speed, and equity. they allow governments to operate by allowing large-scale coordination of individuals working on a task

roles of bureaucrats

1. implementation

2. rule making

3. administrative adjudication

implementation

the development of rules, regulations, and bureaucratic regulations by government agencies

rule making

a quasi-legislative administrative process that produced regulations by government agencies

*involves a period of public comment

administrative adjudication

the application of rules and precedents to specific cases to settle disputes with regulated parties

why have bureaucracy?

1. efficiency

2. policy implementation

3. legislators find it useful to delegate some decisions; this is because:

   a. legislators sometimes lack expertise, time, or resources

   b. bureaucrats are “objective” and unaffected by politics

four executive branch organizations

1. cabinet departments (ex: Department of Homeland Security)

2. independent agencies

3. government corporates

4. independent regulatory commissions

independent agencies

agencies that provide public services that are too important or expensive to entrust to private initiatives (such as NASA)

government corporations

government agencies that operate more like businesses (such as Amtrak)

independent regulator commissions

rule-making bodies at least somewhat insulated from politics (such as the Federal Election Commission)

four types of agencies

1. clientele agencies

2. agencies for maintenance of the Union

3. regulatory agencies

4. redistributive agencies

clientele agencies

a department or bureau of government whose mission is to promote, serve, or represent a particular interest

ex: Department fo Agriculture, Department of Labor

typically have field offices local to their clientele and then lobby in Washington on their behalf

maintenance of the union

related to the core functions of keeping government running and the nation secure:

1. Revenue agencies (Internal Revenue Service)

2. Agencies for internal security (Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice Criminal Division)

3. Agencies for external national security (Departments of State and Defense)

regulatory agencies

a department, bureau, or independent agency whose primary mission is to make rules governing a particular type of activity

ex: Food and Drug Administration in the Department of Health and Human Service

**their rules have the force of law and are referred to as administrative legislation

redistributive agencies

agencies that influence the money supply, the role of the government in the economy, and the redistribution of wealth

policies of redistributive agencies

1. fiscal policy

2. monetary policy (*heavily influenced by the Federal Reserve System (Fed)

3. welfare policy

fiscal policy

regulation of the economy through taxing and spending

**administered largely by the Department of the Treasury

monetary policy

regulation of the economy through manipulation of the supply of money, the price of money via interest rates, and the availability of credit

**heavily influenced by the Federal Reserve System (Fed), or a system of 12 Federal Reserve banks

welfare policy

the transfer of wealth and is responsibility of many agencies (ex: Scoial Security Administration (SSA))

bureaucrats and bureaucratic control

bureaucrats are rational actors and budgetary maximizers (rationality principle) who believe in the mission of the agency and want resources

**congress and the president may have difficulty distinguishing “need” from “want” when reviewing bureaucrats’ budget requests

bureaucratic control and iron triangles

sometimes, members of congressional committees are on those committees because they believe in the mission of the agencies that the committees oversee

as a result, relationships between agencies, committee members, and interest groups working the same policy area will form (iron triangles)

bureaucratic control and principal-agent shifts

bureaucrats are agents of elected officials:

1. bureaucratic drift

2. coalitional drift

**principals can draw on before-the-fact and after-the-fact control mechanisms to remedy drift

bureaucratic drift

the tendency of bureaucracies to implement laws in ways that tilt towards the bureaucrats’ policy preferences and possibly away from the intentions of the elected officials who created the laws

coalitional drift

the prospect that enacted policy will change in the future because the composition of the enacting coalition is temporary and provisional

president as manager-in-chief

1937: FDR reorganized executive branch management —> managerial presidency

presidents frame deliberations and set the policy agenda for the year through the annual budget message transmitted to Congress

congressional oversight

the effort by congress, through hearings, investigations, and other techniques, to exercise control over the activities of executive agencies

**often, the most effective mechanism for control is the power of the purse; the possibility of sanctioning an agency by cutting its budget ensures attentiveness

criticisms of congress

criticisms of congress include:

1. congress abdicates its lawmaking role by granting significant discretion and policy-making authority to bureaucrats

2. congress fails to use its tools of oversight effectively, although there may be more than meets the eye (ex: police-patrol versus fire-alarm oversight)

policy distortions

the bureaucracy is situated between the legislature and the executive, which means that its institutional structure means it may elude systematic oversight

the policy principle predicts the sort of policy distortions that result from this

reforming the bureaucracy

termination (eliminating programs and agencies) and reducing an agency’s budget are ways to reduce the size of the bureaucracy; however, they are very difficult to enforce. therefore, some other methods to reduce the size of government may be more effective:

1. deregulation

2. devolution

3. privatization

deregulation

reduces the number of rules issued by federal regulatory agencies and represents a more incremental approach to downsizing

devolution

the policy of delegating a program or passing it down from one level of government to a lower level, such as from the national government to state/local governments

privatization

the act of moving all or part of a program from the public sector to the private sector. aim is to reduce the cost of government as fewer workers would be counted as part of the bureucracy

criticisms of privatization

critics may claim that private firms:

1. may be less generous to their employers

2. may not be as efficient or cost-effective as government

3. may face less accountability

the policy principle and bureaucracy

combination of institutional arrangements (bureaucracy) and individual preferences (preferences of rational bureaucrats) yields particular kinds of policy outcomes

**these policy outcomes can either be good or bad