Bureaucracy Chapter 12 CHAPTER 12 BUREAUCRACY In this
Bureaucracy Chapter 12 CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
In this chapter, you will: • Learn how the bureaucracy developed, how it is meant to work, and why programs and processes sometimes fail. • See how federal agencies do their job. • Examine the different kinds of agencies that comprise the public service. • Consider who—if anyone—controls the bureaucracy. • Review possible reforms. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
How the Bureaucracy Grew • Government jobs were originally distributed as spoils, or political rewards. Reformers challenged this system and eventually built a national bureaucracy. • The ideal bureaucracy has five characteristics: hierarchy, division of labor, fixed routines, equal rules for all, and technical expertise. • Bureaucracies are prone to pathologies, such as hewing too closely to a routine, fighting over turf, favoring some clients over others, and refusing to coordinate. These are all exaggerations of the very features that make bureaucracies efficient. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
What Bureaucracies Do • Once a law is passed or an executive order is signed, the executive bureaucracy takes the lead on implementation. • Bureaucrats propose rules, publish them in the Federal Register, gather comments, rewrite the rules, and publish the final version. The law or executive order is now in effect. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
What Bureaucracies Do • Implementation activity is not carried out by bureaucratic officials alone; Congress, interest groups, cabinet officials and sometimes even presidents all weigh in. Because the work is technical, it mostly takes place far from the political limelight. • Bureaucratic officials take part in every step of the political process—from proposing legislation to putting it into effect. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
How the Bureaucracy is Organized • The federal bureaucracy includes fifteen cabinet departments, as well as other types of bureaucracies. Executive agencies focus on one type of issue, such as environmental quality; independent regulatory commissions oversee specific industries; and service agencies keep all the people and materials moving along. An additional 5. 3 million private contractors are licensed to provide goods and services for the government. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
How the Bureaucracy is Organized • The president appoints a few thousand executive-branch leaders, another two and a half million bureaucrats are members of the permanent civil service. The cabinet and civil service have grown far more diverse in the past thirty years. • The cabinet and other appointed executives provide political direction; civil servants provide expertise and continuity. • Among the many challenges to a smoothly functioning system is the time—often more than a year—that it takes a new administration to get its leadership team in place. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
Who Controls the Federal Bureaucracy? • In a democracy, the public must control the government bureaucracy. The question is how. • Different actors exert influence over the bureaucracy: the president (who names the leaders), Congress (through funding and oversight), and interest groups. • Bureaucrats still operate with considerable autonomy, especially those at the “street level. ” CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
Reforming the Bureaucracy • Critics of the bureaucracy focus on cost, inertia, and public mistrust. • Solutions include sunshine reforms, reinventing government to make it more constituent friendly, and privatizing some of its functions. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
Chapter Summary • The U. S. federal bureaucracy does a vast amount of work in governing the country—and more closely resembles the nation’s population than other branches. However, Americans express deep ambivalence about our bureaucracy, rating it very low in opinion polls. • The American bureaucracy was established in reaction to the spoils system, dominant between 1828 and 1901. A merit-based hiring system has been in place for more than a century. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
Chapter Summary • In theory, all bureaucracies share five characteristics: hierarchy, division of labor, fixed routines, equal rules for all, and technical qualifications. • Bureaucrats in the United States, as in other countries, perform a wide range of functions—from managing the nation’s defense and national economy to providing food stamps and tax cuts. The bureaucracy is specifically charged with implementing the laws passed by Congress and signed by the president. This typically involves an administrative rulemaking process, as well as delivery of services and carrying out of programs. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
Chapter Summary • Since the 1930 s, the federal bureaucracy has grown to nearly four million employees—two-thirds civilians and one-third active-duty military. This growth has occurred despite anti–“big government” sentiment among Americans; helping to overcome this opposition have been the twin forces of war and enforcing morality. • Organizing such a sprawling set of cabinet departments and agencies, populated by civil servants and political appointees, is an immense job. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
Chapter Summary • It is not readily apparent who is in charge of managing the bureaucracy. Many players have a role, including the public, the president, Congress, and interest groups. The result of all those masters: bureaucrats have considerable discretion in how they work. • This freedom can lead to serious tensions between Americans’ democratic ideal of representative accountability and an unelected, often-unaccountable workforce of civil servants. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
Chapter Summary • Public disapproval of the bureaucracy arises from different complaints. Our executive bureaucracy costs too much, say some critics; others argue that bureaucratic inertia makes it difficult to respond to policy crises. Well-reported scandals influence Americans’ perceptions of our bureaucracy, driving up mistrust. • Reform efforts include enhancing the transparency of bureaucratic practices, reinventing government to improve responsiveness and reduce layers of management, and privatizing government services. CHAPTER 12: BUREAUCRACY
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