Chapter 8: The Executive Branch and the Federal Bureaucracy

Federal Bureaucracy

The thousands of federal government agencies and institutions that implement and administer federal laws and programs.

Spoils System

The firing of public-office holders of a defeated political party to replace them with loyalists of the newly elected party.

Patronage

Jobs, grants, or other special favors that are given as rewards to friends and political allies for their support.

Merit System

A system of employment based on qualifications, test scores, and ability, rather than party loyalty.

Pendleton Act

Reform measure that established the principle of federal employment on the basis of open, competitive exams and created the Civil Service Commission. Stopped the spoils system.

Civil Service System

The merit system by which many federal bureaucrats are selected.

Independent Regulatory Commission

An entity created by Congress outside a major executive department.

Departments

Major administrative units with responsibility for a broad area of government operations. Departmental
status usually indicates a permanent national interest in a particular governmental function, such as defense, commerce, or agriculture.

Agencies fall into four general categories:

(1) Cabinet departments (State, Defense, Treasury); (2) government corporations (Post Office, Amtrak, FDIC); (3) independent executive agencies (NASA, EPA); and, (4) independent regulatory commissions (NLRB, Federal Reserve)

Formal Cabinet Members

The vice president, the heads of all the departments, as well as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, the U.S. Trade Representative, the president's chief of staff, and the heads of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Council of Economic Advisors

Independent Executive Agencies

Governmental units that closely resemble a Cabinet department but have narrower areas of responsibility
and perform services rather than regulatory functions.

EPA

Environmental Protection Agency- an independent agency that the president chooses the director of.

Government Corporations

Businesses established by Congress to perform functions that private businesses could provide. Examples: United States Postal Service,
Amtrak, and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

Hatch Act

The 1939 act to prohibit civil servants from taking activist roles in partisan campaigns. This act prohibited federal employees from making political contributions, working for a particular
party, or campaigning for a particular candidate.

Implementation

The process by which a law or policy is put into operation.

Iron Triangles

The relatively ironclad relationships and patterns of interaction that occur among agencies, interest groups, and congressional committees or subcommittees.

Issue Networks

The loose and informal relationships that exist among a large number of actors who work in broad policy areas.

Iron Triangle

Bureaucratic Agency
Congressional Committees
Interest Groups, Large Corporations, Lobyists

Interagency Councils

Working groups created to facilitate coordination of policy making and implementation across a host of governmental agencies.

Policy Coordinating Committees

Subcabinet-level committees created to facilitate interactions between agencies and departments to handle complex policy problems.

Administrative Discretion

The ability of bureaucrats to make choices concerning the best way to implement congressional or executive intentions.

Rule Making

A quasi-legislative process resulting in regulations that have the characteristics of a legislative act.

Regulations

Rules governing the operation of all government programs that have the force of law.

Administrative Adjudication

A quasi-judicial process in which a bureaucratic agency settles disputes between two parties in a manner similar to the way courts resolve disputes.

8.1

The federal bureaucracy has changed dramatically since President George Washington's time, when the executive branch had only three departments—State, War, and Treasury. The size of the federal bureaucracy increased significantly following the Civil War. As employment opportunities within the federal government expanded, a civil service system was created to ensure that more and more jobs were filled according to merit and not by patronage. By the late 1800s, reform efforts led to further growth of the bureaucracy, as independent regulatory commissions came into existence. In the wake of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal created many new agencies to get the national economy back on course.

8.2

The modern bureaucracy has more than 3 million civilian workers from all walks of life. In general, bureaucratic agencies fall into four categories: departments, independent agencies, independent regulatory commissions, and government corporations. The Hatch Act regulates the political activity of employees in the federal government.

8.3

The bureaucracy is responsible for implementing many laws passed by Congress. A variety of formal and informal mechanisms, such as rule making and administrative adjudication, help bureaucrats make policy.

8.4

Agencies enjoy considerable discretion, but they are also subject to many formal controls that help make them more accountable. The president, Congress, and the judiciary all exercise various degrees of control over the bureaucracy through oversight, funding, or litigation.

Presidency and the Executive Branch

Replace the agency head - cabinet secretaries, not independent agencies, policy preferences of Senate
Reconstructive Agency - fairly difficult for the president
Restrict agency resources - cannot impound funds, limiting budget requests through OMB, lobby Congress not to raise funding levels