Bureaucracy 1: Content

What’s bureaucracy?

Hierarchical organization that employs a division of labor and specialization of functions

How does bureaucracy work in a democracy?

The executive branch is a bureaucracy

What do bureaucrats do?

• Implementation

• Rulemaking

• Administrative adjudication

What are the types of bureaucratic organizations?

• Cabinet departments

• Independent agencies

• Government corporations

• Independent regulatory commissions

What’s an example of a cabinet department?

The DHS

What are independent agencies?

Agencies that provide public services that are too important/expensive to entrust to private initiatives (like NASA)

What are government corporations?

Government agencies that operate more like businesses (like Amtrak)

What are independent regulatory commissions?

Rulemaking bodies at least somewhat insulated from politics (like the Federal Election Commission)

What are the different types of agencies?

• Clientele agencies

• Agencies for the maintenance of the union

• Regulatory agencies

• Redistributive agencies

What are clientele agencies?

Agencies designed to serve the specific interests of a particular segment of society or industry

What are agencies for the maintenance of the Union?

Independent federal agencies designed to operate outside the direct control of the executive branch to protect national interests

What are regulatory agencies?

Government bodies responsible for exercising authority over enforcing standards and protecting public interests through rule-making

What are redistributive agencies?

Government entities that transfer resources from higher-income individuals or sectors to lower-income groups

What are the problems with bureaucratic control?

• Bureaucrats try to maximize their budget

• Congress and the president might have difficulty distinguishing needs and wants

• Iron triangle

What are principal-agent problems?

• Bureaucratic drift

• Coalitional drift

What’s bureaucratic drift?

Government agencies implementing policies that deviate from the original intent of the lawmakers

What’s coalitional drift?

The risk that enacted policies will diverge from original intentions because of party switches

What are the before-the-fact controls that the president implements for bureaucratic oversight?

• Appointment of sympathetic agency heads

• Regulatory review before rule enactment

What are the after-the-fact controls that the president implements for bureaucratic oversight?

• Executive orders

• Budget changes

• Bureaucratic reorganization

How does Congress implement bureaucratic oversight?

Hearings, investigations, casework, etc. to exercise control over the activities of executive agencies

What’s the most effective mechanism for ex-post control?

Budgeting

What are the four different types of bureaucratic reform?

• Termination

• Deregulation

• Devolution

• Privatization

What’s termination?

Ending an agency, difficult to do especially with clientele agencies

What’s deregulation?

The agency can still exist but is limited by reducing rules it can implement

What’s devolution?

Passing something from the federal level to the state level, associated with regulated federalism

What’s privatization?

Services should be run by a private enterprise, from the public to the private sector

What’s the main takeaway from the McCubbins and Schwartz reading?

Fire alarm oversight is more efficient, politically beneficial, and more commonly used.