Chapter 12 Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy

government agencies carrying out laws

The system of government departments, agencies, and employees responsible for implementing and administering public policies.

Bureaucrat

a government employee implementing policy

A person who works within a government bureaucracy, especially someone responsible for administering government programs or policies.

What do bureaucrats do?

carry out laws, administer programs, provide services, enforce regulations, and make decisions about individual cases.

Job of Bureaucracy

The overall purpose of bureaucracy is to implement public policy and maintain the government's administrative operations.

General attitudes toward bureaucracy

Public opinions about government agencies and administrative institutions.

People may value bureaucracies for expertise, consistency, and services but criticize them for inefficiency, excessive rules, and limited accountability.

Red Tape

Too much paperwork or unnecessary administrative complexity

Excessive or burdensome administrative rules, paperwork, or procedures that make completing tasks difficult.

Standard operating procedure (SOP)

Routine, standardized procedures.

Established instructions that government employees follow when performing recurring tasks.

State Capacity

How effectively government can accomplish its responsibilities.

The ability of government institutions to effectively implement policies, collect resources, enforce laws, and deliver services.

Federal civil services

Career federal government workforce.

The body of civilian government employees working in federal agencies, particularly career employees hired through civil service systems.

Civil Servants

Career government employees.

Government employees who perform administrative or professional work, often as career employees rather than elected officials.

Merit system

Hiring based on qualification

A hiring and promotion system based on qualifications, skills, examinations, and performance rather than political loyalty.

Patronage / spoils system

Government job awarded for political support.
Giving government jobs to political supporters as rewards for loyalty or assistance.

Pendleton Act

Established merit-based civil service reform

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 established a merit-based federal civil service system for covered positions.

Garfield assassination

President James Garfield was assassinated in 1881 by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker.

How did the Garfield assassination help?

Helped increase public support for civil service reform

Hatch Act

Restricts certain partisan political activities

A federal law restricting certain partisan political activities by covered government employees.

What is the Hatch Act purpose?

protecting government administration from inappropriate partisan political influence.

Political appointees

Selected through political appointment

Officials selected through political appointment processes rather than ordinary career civil service hiring.

Some require Senate confirmation; others do not.

Organization of bureaucracy

Federal bureaucracy includes several kinds of organizations with different responsibilities and degrees of independence.

Executive departments

Cabinet-level department

Major executive branch organizations responsible for broad areas of government policy.

Their leaders are generally Cabinet secretaries.

Independent agencies

Federal agencies organized outside the traditional Cabinet department structure, often with some statutory protections from direct presidential control.

Governmental corporations

Government-owned organizations that provide services or carry out public functions using a business-like structure.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

An office within the Executive Office of the President that helps prepare the president's budget and oversees important aspects of federal agency management and regulatory review.

Central Clearance

Executive branch review and coordination of agency proposals, communications, or legislative recommendations to ensure consistency with presidential policy.

Regulation

Government rules controlling or guiding behavior

A government rule that establishes requirements, restrictions, or standards for individuals, businesses, or organizations.

Rulemaking

Agency creates detailed rules under a statue

The administrative process through which agencies develop and issue regulations under authority delegated by law.

Notice-and-comment procedure

proposed regulation → public feedback → final regulation

A common administrative rulemaking process in which an agency publishes a proposed regulation, allows public comments, considers relevant feedback, and then issues a final rule.

Impact of laws like the Pure Food and Drug Act

Expansion of federal consumer protection and regulatory responsibilities

Laws such as the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 expanded the federal government's role in regulating products and protecting consumers.

The 1906 law targeted adulterated and misbranded foods and drugs in interstate commerce.

Power of bureaucracy over implementing policy

Agencies influence how a law works in practice

Agencies often have discretion in interpreting and administering laws, especially when statutes leave implementation details unresolved.

Street-level bureaucrat

Frontline government employee making everyday decisions

A frontline government worker who interacts directly with the public and exercises discretion in implementing policy.

Principle-agent game

Delegation, different incentives, difficult monitoring

A situation where one actor (the principal) delegates a task to another actor (the agent), but their goals or information may differ.

In government, elected officials often delegate responsibilities to bureaucratic agencies.

Bureaucrat drift

Agency moves away from elected officials’ preferences

When an agency's implementation of policy moves away from what elected officials originally intended.

Budget maximizers

Bureaucrats trying to increase their budget

A theory associated with William Niskanen suggesting that bureaucratic leaders may seek to increase their agencies' budgets because larger budgets can bring more resources, influence, and organizational benefits.

Problems of control

The challenges elected officials face when trying to ensure agencies follow their policy goals.

What type of problems are there of control?

limited information, bureaucratic expertise, competing political instructions, and difficulty monitoring implementation.

Oversight

Checking agency behavior and performance

Monitoring and evaluating government agencies to ensure they follow laws and perform their responsibilities.

Police patrol oversight

Active, ongoing monitoring

Regular, direct, and systematic monitoring of agencies by Congress or other overseers.

Fire Alarm oversight

Someone raises an alarm, and Congress responds

Oversight triggered when outside actors, such as citizens, interest groups, or the media, report a problem.

What power does congress have to control bureaucracy?

• Pass or amend laws.

• Control appropriations.

• Hold oversight hearings.

• Investigate agencies.

What power does president have to control bureaucracy?

• Appoint eligible agency leaders.

• Issue lawful executive directives.

• Coordinate executive policy.

• Exercise budgetary and administrative supervision.

What power does the courts have to control bureaucracy?

• Review agency actions in cases properly before them.

• Set aside unlawful agency decisions.

• Interpret statutes and constitutional limits.

Whistleblowing

An insider reports wrongdoing

Reporting suspected misconduct, fraud, waste, abuse, or legal violations within an organization.

Privatization

private organizations performing work previously done by government

Shifting government functions or service delivery to private organizations, often through contracting or transferring ownership.

Role of civil service in government

Career civil servants provide continuity, expertise, and administrative capacity across changes in political leadership.

Police patrol oversight example

Congress schedules routine inspections of an agency.

Fire alarm oversight example

A citizen complains about an agency, and Congress investigates.

Rulemaking example

An agency develops detailed regulations under a law passed by Congress.

Principal-agent problem example

Congress delegates implementation to an agency but cannot perfectly monitor its behavior.