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Administrative Law Judge
An official who presides at a trial-like administrative hearing to settle a dispute between an agency and someone adversely affected by a decision of that agency.
Agency Point of View
The tendency of bureaucrats to place the interests of their agency ahead of other interests and ahead of the priorities sought by the president or Congress.
Budgetary Process
The process through which annual federal spending and revenue determinations are made.
Bureaucracy
A system of organization and control based on the principles of hierarchical authority, job specialization, and formalized rules.
Bureaucratic Accountability
The degree to which bureaucrats are held accountable for the power they exercise.
Cabinet (executive) departments
the major administrative organizations within the federal executive bureaucracy, each of which is headed by a secretary or, in the case of Justice, the attorney general. Each department has responsibility for a major function of the federal government, such as defense, agriculture, or justice.
Clientele Groups
Special interest groups that benefit directly from the activities of a particular bureaucratic agency and therefore are strong advocates of the agency.
Demographic Representativeness
the idea that the bureaucracy will be more responsive to the public if its employees at all levels are demographically representative of the population as a whole.
Formalized Rules
A basic principle of bureaucracy that refers to the standardized procedures and established regulations by which bureaucracy conducts its operations.
Government Corporations
government bodies, such as the U.S. Postal Service and Amtrak, that are similar to private corporations in that they charge for their services but differ in that they receive federal funding to help defray expenses. Their directors are appointed by the president with Senate approval.
Hierarchical authority
a basic principle or bureaucracy that refers to the chain of command within an organization whereby officials and units have control over those below them.
Independent agencies
bureaucratic agencies that are similar to cabinet departments but usually have a narrower area responsibility. Each such agency is headed by a presidential appointee who is not a cabinet member. An example is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Job Specialization
a basic principle of bureaucracy holding that the responsibilities of each job position should be defined explicitly and that a precise division of labor within the organization should be maintained.
Merit System
An approach to managing the bureaucracy whereby people are appointed to government positions on the basic of either competitive examinations or special qualifications, such as professional training.
neutral competence
the administrative objective of a merit-based bureaucracy. Such a bureaucracy should be “competent” in the sense that its employees are hired and retained on the basis of their expertise and “neutral” in the sense that it operates by objective standards rather than partisan ones.
Patronage System
An approach to managing the bureaucracy whereby people are appointed to important government positions as a reward for political services they have rendered and because of their partisan loyalty.
policy implementation
the primary function of the bureaucracy; it refers to the process of carrying out the authoritative decisions of Congress, the president, and the courts.
presidential commissions
organizations within the bureaucracy that are headed by commissioners appointed by the presidents. An example is the Commission on Civil Rights
Regulatory Agencies
administrative units, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), that have responsibility for monitoring and regulating ongoing economic activities and regulating industrial pollution, respectively.
Rule-making
the process by which bureaucratic agencies develop and make known the details on how legislation will be implemented. Rule-making is a main source of bureaucratic power.
Senior Executive Service (SES)
Top-level career civil servants who qualify through a competitive process to receive higher salaries than their peers but who can be assigned or transferred by order of the president.
Spoils system
the practice of granting public office to individuals in return for political favors they have rendered.
Whistleblowing
An internal check on the bureaucracy whereby employees report instances of mismanagement that they observe.
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