4.14 : Nature of
Federal Bureaucracy
AP U. S. Government
Key Terms: Bureaucracy
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Spoils System
Merit
Bureaucrats
Whig Theory
Garfield Assassination
Civil Service
Pendleton Act of 1883
Politics-Administration Dichotomy
Devolution
Privatization
Glass Ceiling
Cabinet Departments
Independent Agencies
Adjudication
Administrative Discretion
•Hatch Act 1937
•Administrative Procedures Act 1947
•Neutral Competence
•Reinventing Government
•Quasi-Judicial Power
•Regulatory/Policing Power
•Civil Service Reform Act 1978
•Senior Executive Service (SES)
•Office of Personnel Management
•Collective Bargaining
•Affirmative Action
•Independent Regulatory Agencies
•Government Corporations
•Rule-Making
Introduction
• Classic
conception of bureaucracy (Max Weber)—
a hierarchical authority structure that use task
specialization, operates on the merit principle,
and behaves with impersonality
• Bureaucracies
govern modern states.
The Bureaucracy
What is Bureaucracy?
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A complex, hierarchically arranged organization
composed of many small subdivisions with
specialized functions
Bureaucracy means “rule by officialdom”
Bureaucracy is complex
Bureaucracy is hierarchical
What is a Bureaucracy?
Government agencies that
implement Gov. policies
Weber’s Five
Characteristics
of Bureaucracy
5. Hierarchy
4. “Professionalization”
3. Formality
2. Record-keeping
1. Specialization
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The Federal Bureaucracy is:
4
million employees; 2.8 million are civilians or “civil servants”
President
15
only appoints 3% (patronage or political appointments)
cabinet level departments
200+
independent agencies with 2,000+ bureaus, divisions, branches, etc.
Biggest
- Dept. of Defense, U.S. Postal Service, Veterans Administration
The Bureaucracy
•
A few myths about Bureaucrats…
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They’re paper-pushers
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Only about a half million government employees have
characteristically bureaucratic positions such as clerk or
general administrator
The government employs about 147,00 engineers and
architects, 84,000 scientists, and 2,400 veterinarians
They work in Washington DC
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Only about 10% of government civilian employees work in
Washington D.C
Most work in the federal government
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About 22% of government employees work for the federal
government
Bureaucrats
•A
Civil servant
• Permanent
employee of the
government
Who are the “Bureaucrats?”

97% are career government employees
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Only 10% live in the D.C. area
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30% work for the D.O.D.
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Less than 15% work for social welfare agencies
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Most are white collar workers: secretaries, clerks, lawyers, inspectors
& engineers
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Civil employees more diverse demographically than Congress
Neutral Competence
•
The idea of neutral competence
• Despite stereotypes, most government
employees work efficiently and inexpensively.
• Roughly 2.9 million people work for the
government bureaucracy-2nd to Wal-Mart
• The bureaucracy is largely staffed by people
hired for their skills, not their political
leanings.
The Bureaucrats
• How
They Got There
 Civil Service: From Patronage to Protection
 Patronage: job given for political reasons
 Civil Service: system of hiring and promotion based
on merit and nonpartisanship, created by the
Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)
 Merit Principle: entrance exams and promotion
ratings to find people with talent and skill
 Hatch Act: prohibits government employees from
active participation in partisan politics
Not Much Patronage Left.
•
Most civil servants are hired through the government’s
merit system. This used to mean a competitive exam, but
usually today hiring is done mostly by resume evaluation.
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The merit system is overseen by two independent
agencies.
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The Office of Personnel Management supervises the
hiring and job classification of federal employees.
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The Merit Service Protection Board hears appeals from
career civil servants who have been fired or face other
disciplinary action.
The Plum Book
• Presidential
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Appointments.
For day-to-day oversight of the
bureaucracy, presidents rely on
their political appointees. The
top positions in every agency are
held by presidential appointtees.
Patronage can only accomplish
so much….
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There are limits to what presidents can get done through
their appointees. The appointees number in the
hundreds, and many of them lack detailed knowledge of
the agencies they head, making them dependent on
agency careerists. (and in some cases their powers are
limited by statute, such as SSA).
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By the time the Plum Book appointee acquires a
reasonable understanding of the agency’s programs, most
of them leave.
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The typical presidential appointee stays on the job for
less than two years before moving on to other
employment.
GS Ratings
• Most
federal employees have a GS (Graded Service) job
ranking. Rankings range from GS-1 (the lowest rank)
to GS-15 (the highest).
• College
graduates who enter the federal service usually
start at the GS-5 level (yearly salary of $27,000 for a
beginning employee).
• Although
economists show that federal employees are
underpaid in comparison with their counterparts in the
private sector, they receive better fringe benefits—and
under most circumstances have better job security.
Limitations on Federal
Employees
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Federal employees can form labor unions, but their unions by law have
limited scope; the government has full control of job assignments,
compensation, and promotion.
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Moreover, the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 prohibits strikes by federal
employees and permits the firing of striking workers. When federal air
traffic controllers went on strike anyway in 1981, President Reagan fired
them.
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There are also limits on the partisan activities of civil servants. The
Hatch Act of 1939 prohibited them from holding key jobs in election
campaigns. Congress relaxed this prohibition in 1993, although some
high-ranking administrators are still barred from taking such positions.
What do bureaucrats
do?
The Bureaucracy
• Five
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Functions of Bureaucrats
Implement the law
Provide expertise
Provide research and information to the President
Provide research and information to Congress
Quasi-judicial powers and responsibilities
Roles of the Bureaucracy
• Rulemaking
 The process of deciding what exactly the laws passed by
Congress mean.
• Adjudication
 A process designed to establish whether a rule has been
violated.
• Bureaucratic
Lobbying
 bureaucrats identify the problems and limitations of
existing laws and programs and recommend changes to
the president and congressional committees.
Functions of Bureaucracy
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Policy Implementation
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Making Policy-delegated legislative authority because
what Congress passes is to vague to be effective
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Regulation-establish standards and impose restrictions
on violations of those standards
 They must publish their rule-making procedures, hold open
hearings on proposed rules and hear public input
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Collecting Data and Doing Research
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Provide Continuity-elected officials come and go,
bureaucrats never leave which provides for continuity
and professionalization and consistency; but also means
change is slow and expensive
Functions of the Federal Bureaucracy
Implementation - carry out laws of Congress,
executive orders of the President
Administration - routine administrative work;
provide services (ex: SSA sends social security
checks to beneficiaries)
Regulation - issue rules and regulations that
impact the public (ex: EPA sets clean air
standards)
Bureaucracies as Implementers
• What
Implementation Means
 Translating the goals and objectives of a policy into an
operating, ongoing program
 Implementation includes:
 Creating and assigning an agency the policy
 Translating policy into rules, regulations and forms
 Coordinating resources to achieve the goals
 Stage of policymaking that takes place between
establishment and consequences of a policy
Bureaucracies as Regulators
• Regulation
in the Economy and in
Everyday Life
 Regulation: use of governmental authority to
control or change some practice in the private
sector
 A Full Day of Regulation
 Federal agencies check, verify, and inspect many of
the products and services we take for granted.
 Federal and state agencies provide many services.
Bureaucracies as Regulators
• Regulation:
How It Grew, How It Works
 All regulation contains these elements:
 A grant of power and set of directions from Congress
 A set of rules and guidelines by the regulatory agency
itself
 Some means of enforcing compliance with
congressional goals and agency regulations
Bureaucracies as Regulators
• Regulation:
How It Grew, How It Works
 Command-and-Control Policy: The government
tells business how to reach certain goals, checks
the progress, and punishes offenders.
 Incentive System: market-like strategies used
to manage public policy
 Some agencies are proactive; some are reactive.
Structure of
Bureaucracy
Four Types of Federal Agencies
• 1.
Executive Departments
• 2.
Independent Regulatory Commissions
• 3.
Government Corporations
 Cabinet Heads appointed by the president
 Confirmed by Senate with its advice & consent
 Small commissions w/greater independence
 Fix terms – can only be fired “for cause”
 Government companies that serve Public for fee
 Suppose to be self supporting (examples?) *
 Insurance (FDIC), Energy (TVA), Comms (PO), Trans
(AMTRAC)
• 4.
Independent Agencies
 Not part of Executive Department w/sub-cabinet rank
 NASA, EPA, CIA
 All heads serve at Pleasure of President
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The Bureaucracy
The Shape of the Federal
Bureaucracy
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Cabinet Departments
Independent Agencies
Independent Regulatory Agencies/Commissions
Government Corporations
Major operating departments of government
headed by the “Secretary of...” except Justice,
which is headed by the Attorney General
The Bureaucracy
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The Executive Branch Departments in order of
creation:
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State (1789)
Defense (1789)
Treasury (1789)
Justice (1789)
Interior (1849)
Agriculture (1862)
Commerce (1913)
Labor (1913)
Health & Human Services (1953)
Housing and Urban Development (1965)
Transportation (1966)
Energy (1977)
Education (1979)
Veterans’ Affairs (1988)
Homeland Security (2002)
The Bureaucracy
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Independent Agencies
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Some are housed in departments
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Administered by a presidential appointee with no fixed term
Responsible for narrower set of functions than department
Social Security Administration is part of HHS, Coast Guard is
part of Transportation
Others are independent of any department
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Examples include The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
The Bureaucracy
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Independent Regulatory
Agencies and Commissions
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Independent of any department or agency
Each headed by a group of 5 - 10 commissioners who
are appointed by president to fixed terms and not
subject to removal by president
Example include the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) and Federal Communication
Commission (FCC)
The Bureaucracy
• What
Government Agencies
and Commissions Do:
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Agency investigations
Rule making
Adjudication
Informal actions
The Bureaucracy
• Government
Corporations
 Permits organizations to use businesslike method and remain
politically independent
 Run by boards of directors appointed by President to long terms
 Examples include the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(FDIC), the Student Loan Management Authority (SallieMae) and
the U.S. Postal Service
History of the
Bureaucracy
The Bureaucracy
History of the Bureaucracy
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The Whig Theory (1780s – 1828)
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The idea that public service was domain of an
elite class.
Families had a tradition of public service.
The Spoils System (1828 – 1883)
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Andrew Jackson used government jobs or
“patronage” to reward supporters and to remove
elitists from the bureaucracy
The Bureaucracy
• History
of the Bureaucracy
 The Civil Service System (1883 – Present)
 Garfield’s Assassination 1881
 The Pendleton Act (Civil Service Reform Act of 1883) established
the principle of employment on the basis of merit and created the
Civil Service System to oversee the hiring and firing of
government employees
 Professor Max Weber’s ideas (1870s)
 Professor Woodrow Wilson’s ideas (1880s)
 The Progressive Era and Bureaucratic Reform
 Calls for “neutral” competence and expertise
The Bureaucracy
• History
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The Civil Service System (1883 – Present)
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of the Bureaucracy
New Deal reforms
The federal bureaucracy grew tremendously
FDR and political control issues
Hatch Act of 1937
Post WWII and beyond
 The need for technological expertise
 The need for control
 The “thickening” of government
Blame it on FDR! (Everyone else does.)
• The
biggest spurt in the bureaucracy’s
growth took place in the 1930s. Franklin
D. Roosevelt’s New Deal included creation
of the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC), the Social Security
Administration (SSA), the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and
numerous other federal agencies.
Blame it on LBJ (At least he’s more
recent.)
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Three decades later, Lyndon Johnson’s
Great Society initiatives, which thrust the
federal government into policy areas
traditionally dominated by the states,
resulted in the creation of additional
federal agencies, including the Department
of Transportation and the Department of
Housing and Urban Development
The Bureaucracy
• History
• The
of the Bureaucracy
Civil Service System (1883 – Present)
• Civil
Service Reform Act of 1978
 Jimmy Carter’s “Greatest Domestic Policy
Achievement”
 Created the Office of Personnel Management
 Revised and expanded the Grade (“GS”) system
 Created the Senior Executive Service
Political Control of
the Bureaucracy
The Bureaucracy
• Which
branch controls the bureaucracy?
 The Executive branch with chief executive?
 The Legislative branch with the budget?
 The Judicial branch with the judges/justices that
interpret the Constitution?
• Answer:
All and None…
The Bureaucracy
• Political
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Control of the Bureaucracy
Congressional mechanisms
 Power of the purse
 Revision of empowering or limiting statutes
 Senate approval of certain appointees
 Threats of hearings and investigations
 The power to create or destroy agencies
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Presidential mechanisms
 Appointment power
 Budget proposal
 Reorganization of bureaucratic structure
 Executive orders
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Judicial mechanisms
 Judicial Review
Controlling the Bureaucracy, cont.
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Congress and the Bureaucracies
 Oversight-often counteracted by iron triangles
 Appropriations, creating or reorganizing
 Legislative vetoes
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The President and the Bureaucracies
 Appointment and dismissal-many employees protected from
president by seniority and merit
 Budget process
 Lobbying and mobilizing public opinion
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The Judiciary and the Bureaucracies
 Judicial review
President Supervises the Bureaucracy
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appoint & remove agency heads
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reorganize the
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issue executive orders
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reduce an agency's budget
President Bush speaks about his budget
priorities for FY 2007
bureaucracy
Congress Oversees the Bureaucracy
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create or abolish agencies
departments
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cut or reduce funding
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investigate agency activities
&
Former FEMA Chief Michael Brown testifies before
House committee investigating Hurricane Katrina
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hold committee hearings
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pass legislation that alters an agency's functions
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influence or even fail to confirm presidential
appointments
Federal courts can:
al Courts Check the Bureaucracy
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through judicial review rule on whether the
bureaucracy has acted within the law and the U.S.
Constitution
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provide due process for individuals affected by a
bureaucratic action
Supreme Court of the United States
Issues in today’s
bureaucracy
The Bureaucracy
• Issues for bureaucracy
today:
 Diversity and ”Glass Ceiling” Issues
 Technological Competence
 Privatization
 “Devolution”
 “Re-inventing Government”
Whistleblowing
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Although the bureaucratic corruption that is common place in some
countries is rare in the United States, a certain amount of fraud and
abuse is inevitable in any large bureaucracy.
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One way to stop these prohibited practices is whistleblowing—the
act of reporting instances of official mismanagement.
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To encourage whistleblowers to come forward with their
information, Congress enacted the Whistle- blower Protection Act.
Whistleblowing is not for the
faint- hearted.
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Many federal employees are reluctant
to report instances of mismanagement
because they fear retaliation
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Their superiors might claim that they
are malcontents or the whistleblower
“wasn’t in the loop” and could not
possibly have known what was going
on in the Bush administration’s inner
circle, and find ways to ruin their
careers.
A case in point is former CIA intelligence official
John Kiriakou, who said in 2007 that the CIA had • As a result, whistleblowing often does
not occur until an employee has moved
used waterboarding to interrogate Abu Zubaydah,
to another agency or quit government
a high-ranking leader of al Qaeda. It was the first
service entirely.
such admission by a CIA operative and prompted
some CIA officials to demand an FBI investigation
of Kiriakou.
Controlling the Bureaucracy
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Interest Groups and Individuals-interest groups want bureaucracies
to adopt rules and enforcement practices they favor
Iron Triangle- influence committees
Pressure agency directly
Indirect influence-some commissioners
come to their regulatory agencies from
the industries they regulate
Individual citizens- “whistleblowers” can
open their agencies to the public’s view
(Civil Service Reform Act 1978)
Criticism of Bureaucracy
I. RED TAPE
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too many rigid procedures >>> ex: all hiring must be done through OPM
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too many policies with no flexibility for special circumstances
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too many forms to fill out, lines to wait
II. INEFFICIENCY
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lack of incentive to be productive - no profit motive
III. DUPLICATION OF SERVICES
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bureaucracy is so complicated
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agencies are performing similar and sometimes the same functions
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Dept. of Commerce overlaps with Dept. of Agriculture, GSA overlaps with Dept. of
Interior, etc.
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federalism makes this more complicated, many services are provided at the state and
national level both
Criticisms Continued
IV. BUREAUCRACY IS LAW MAKER
 regulations end up having the effect of law.
V. BUREAUCRACY IS TOO BIG
 privatization would be more effective
VI. BUREAUCRACY IS CORRUPT
 iron triangle - reveals the relationship between
the Executive branch, Congress and private
interest groups that can lead to decisions which
benefit the private sector at the expense of the
government.
Understanding Bureaucracies
• Bureaucracy
and Democracy
 Iron Triangles and Issue Networks
 Iron Triangles: a mutually dependent relationship
between bureaucratic agencies, interest groups, and
congressional committees or subcommittees
 Exist independently of each other
 They are tough, but not impossible, to get rid of
 Some argue they are being replaced by wider issue
networks that focus on more than one policy.
Understanding Bureaucracies
The Bureaucracy
• Reasons
for the growth of
Federal Bureaucracy
 We have over 3 million federal bureaucrats paid for by the
taxpayers
 Issues and problems require more expertise today because society
and technology is so complex
 The size of our nation in both geographic size and population leads
to more bureaucrats
 Americans demand more services from their government, requiring
the use of more people to provide those government services
THREE POINTS TO
REMEMBER:
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Bureaucracy is an inevitable consequence
of complexity and scale. Modern
government could not function without a
large bureaucracy. Through authority,
specialization, and rules, bureaucracy
provides a means of managing thousands
of tasks and employees.
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Bureaucrats naturally take an “agency
point of view,” seeking to promote their
agency’s programs and power. They do
this through their expert knowledge,
support from clientele groups, and
backing by Congress or the president.
•
Although agencies are subject to oversight
by the president, Congress, and the
judiciary, bureaucrats exercise
considerable power in their own right.