Staffing the Bureaucracy 4 16 Staffing the Bureaucracy
Staffing the Bureaucracy 4. 16
Staffing the Bureaucracy Political Appointees ◦ Difficulties in Making Appointments ◦ The Aristocracy of the Federal Government ◦ The Difficulty in Firing Civil Servants ◦ Civil servant Test ◦ Competitive system ◦ Spoil system or Buddy system History of the Federal Service ◦ ◦ To the Victory Belong the Spoils The Civil Service Reform Act of 1883 The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 Federal Employees and Political Campaigns
Staffing the Bureaucracy Political Appointees -Top jobs *about - “Plum Book”-lists jobs that go to the politically well connected -Minorities have an impact -Ambassadors go to campaign donors -Brief! (average <2 years) -Civil Service Reform Act 1978: Receive salary bonuses & other benefits as incentives for being productive and responsive to goals Civil Service -National Aristocracy= “fit to rule” under Jefferson -Spoils System: Aristocrats out and common man in for rewards. Grew under Jackson. -Civil Service Act of 1883 (Pendleton Act): Created a system of merit instead of rewards (after Garfield Assassination) -The Hatch Act 1939 (political Activities Act): Civil Service employees can’t take an active role in political campaigns (can’t hold key positions in election campaigns). Relaxed since 1993. -Civil Service Reform act of 1978: Divided Civil Service Commission into: 1. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and 2. Merit System Protection Board 3
Political Appointees • Plum Book • Contains all the Presidential appointments • Aka Non-Career Executives Assignments ( NEA’s) • For day to day oversight of the bureaucracy, President relies on their political appointees • The top positions in the every agency are held by presidential appointees 4
Career Civil Servants • Civil servant test or competitive system dominated the hires in the federal bureaucracy. • Civil servant test aka competitive exam • Office of Personnel Management (OPM) were give test and rank potential hires • Now most agencies hire their own employees without much help from OMP aka merit system • OMP supervise and Merit Service Protection hears appeal from career civil servants who have been fire or are on probation. • Difficult to fire a career civil servant (CCS) • Get moved around, given meaningless work • CCS work through many administrations and political appointees 5
History of Federal Service • Federal Bureaucracy’s Personnel System A History of Change… (1789 -1829) • Government by Gentlemen • Political appointees were generally recruited from the educated elite class. • (A Calling or Duty in service to the Nation) • Changes in Fed Bureaucracy’s Personnel System (1829 -1883) • • • The “Spoils System” Appointees of the President replace pervious President’s appointees Gov’t jobs = “spoils of war Spoils System first associated with Jackson Administration involved presidents rewarding supporters with jobs were not given on merit, but on service were not good for employees - could be fired at will became difficult for presidents to meet all demands of those who felt entitled to employment (Garfield assassin) Ends with Pendelton Act • • eliminated spoils system, created merit system Civil Service Exam - required for all rules make it difficult to fire someone Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hires all employees (heads of bureaus have little control)
History of Federal Service • Merit System (1883 - kind of now) • Major changes to Federal hiring ensued: • Competence for job stressed • Political affiliation & political loyalty not a requirement for getting hired (at least in theory) • “What you know” more important than “who you know • Civil servant test or competitive system dominated the hires in the federal bureaucracy. • Civil servant test aka competitive exam • Office of Personnel Management (OPM) were give test and rank potential hires • Now most agencies hire their own employees without much help from OMP aka merit system • OMP supervise and Merit Service Protection hears appeal from career civil servants who have been fire or are on probation. • Difficult to fire a career civil servant (CCS) • Get moved around, given meaningless work • CCS work through many administrations and political appointees
History of Federal Service • Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 • President Carter initiated major reforms to Civil Service • Reorganized agencies that oversee civil service in order to eliminate previous conflicts of interests: • Office of Personnel Management (Gov. interest) • Merit System Protection Board (Protect employee) • Also created the Senior Executive Service (SES) • Allows high level civil servants to move into other vacant policy making positions. • Remains a “work in progress” (NA to Homeland Security) 8
Limitations on Federal Employees • Federal employees (CCS) can form labor unions • Limited scope • Gov’t has full control of job assignment, compensation, and promotion • Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 • Prohibits strikes • Regan fired federal air traffic controllers in 1981 for striking 9
Limitations on Federal Employees • The Hatch Act • • • Limits on partisan activity of civil servants Prohibited from holding key jobs in election campaigns designed to prevent corruption in national elections. 4 million people could manipulate election outcomes. prohibits federal employees from taking an active role in politics many argue that this prevents otherwise qualified individuals from actively participating in government • Clinton in 1993 reserved a lot of Hatch Act • Clinton administration made Hatch Act less restrictive • bureaucrats can't • 1 - run for public office • 2 - fund raise for politicians during work • 3 - discourage political activity • bureaucrats can • • 1 - vote and assist in voter registration 2 - contribute money to campaigns 3 - campaign off duty 4 - hold elected office in political parties
Criticisms of Bureaucracy I. RED TAPE • too many rigid procedures >>> ex: all hiring must be done through OPM • too many policies with no flexibility for special circumstances • too many forms to fill out, lines to wait A couple examples II. Inefficiency • lack of incentive to be productive - no profit motive 11
Criticisms of Bureaucracy III. Duplication of Services • agencies are performing similar and sometimes the same functions • Dept. of Commerce overlaps with Dept. of Agriculture, GSA overlaps with Dept. of Interior, etc. • federalism makes this more complicated, many services are provided at the state and national level both 12
Criticisms of Bureaucracy IV. Bureaucracy is the 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. 13
- Slides: 13