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Chapter Introduction
  1. The National Performance Review (NPR), (headed by Al Gore) recommended 384 ways of improving government administration through efficiency, responsiveness, accountability
    1. examples:
      1. Reduce red tape
      2. Put customers first
      3. Empower administrators
      4. Cut government back to basic services
  2. Modern government is impossible without a bureaucracy, but a bureaucracy has problems
  3. The chapter's main points:
    1. Bureaucracy is an inevitable consequence of complexity and scale
    2. The bureaucracy is expected simultaneously to respond to partisan officials and administer programs fairly and competently
    3. Bureaucrats are prone to take the "agency point of view"
    4. Agencies are subject to oversight, but also inherently powerful in their own right
Federal Administration: Form, Personnel, and Activities
  1. Section Introduction
    1. Bureaucracy: image of waste, rigidity, mindless rules
    2. But also an efficient and effective method of organization
      1. Needed wherever management of many people is involved
      2. All large-scale, task-oriented organizations are bureaucratic in form
    3. Bureaucracy is based on three principles:
      1. Hierarchical authority-chain of command (reduces decisional conflict)
      2. Job specialization-precise division of labor (yields efficiency)
      3. Formalized rules-standardized procedures and regulations (speeds action)
    4. Bureaucracy's "pathologies":
      1. Administrators perform as parts of an organizational entity
      2. Behavior governed by "position, specialty, and rule"
      3. Bureaucracy can be insensitive to human feelings and needs
  2. The Federal Bureaucracy in Americans' Daily Lives
    1. U.S. federal bureaucracy has more than 2.5 million employees
  3. Types of Administrative Organizations
    1. Cabinet Departments
      1. Fourteen, varying in size, status, visibility
      2. Examples:
        1. State-Most prestigious, has only 25,000 employees
        2. Defense-largest, 650,000 civilians, more than 2.3 million military
        3. Health and Human Services-largest budget, a third of all spending
        4. Veterans Affairs-newest, formed in 1988
      3. Each department has smaller operating units called bureaus, agencies, divisions, or services
    2. Independent Agencies
      1. Narrower areas of responsibility
      2. Examples:
        1. CIA, NASA; agency heads appointed by president, not in cabinet
        2. NASA-both military and civilian purposes
    3. Regulatory Agencies
      1. Are created when Congress recognizes the importance of close and continuous regrulation of an economic activity
      2. Examples:
        1. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
        2. Environmental Protection Agencies (EPA)
          • Have legislative and judicial functions
          • Some have significant political freedom (no removal by president)
          • Commissioners serve a fixed term (free from political interference)
          • Newer agencies: head is a political appointee (can be removed)
    4. Government Corporations
      1. Similar to private corporations, except subsidized by the federal government to defray operating costs
      2. Largest is U.S. Postal Service (800,00 employees)
      3. Receive federal funding to help defray expenses
      4. Other examples: FDIC, Amtrak
    5. Presidential Commissions
      1. Some permanent which provide ongoing recommendations to president in particular areas of responsibility
        1. Commissions on Civil Rights, Fine Arts
      2. Others temporary such as commission to study racial reconciliation
  4. Federal Employment
    1. More than 90 percent hired by merit criteria (education, experience, test scores)
    2. Supreme Court in 1990; prohibits patronage in personnel unless party affiliation can be proved vital to a particular position
    3. Salaries competitive (except at top levels); GS (Graded Service) 1-18;
    4. Public service has some drawbacks:
      1. Few rights of collective action, strikes prohibited
      2. Some limits on partisan activities (Hatch Act relaxed, but relevant to top)
  5. The Federal Bureaucracy's Policy Responsibilities
    1. Primary function is policy implementation (carrying out the law)
      1. Agencies come up with policy ideas, deliver services
      2. "Street-level bureaucracy"-arbitrary application of laws by employees
  6. Development of the Federal Bureaucracy: Politics and Administration
    1. Each agency carries out two simultaneous but incompatible demands:
      1. To administer programs fairly and competently
      2. To respond to partisan claims
  7. Small Government and Patronage System
    1. The federal bureaucracy was originally small (three thousand employees)
    2. Andrew Jackson had wide reaching patronage system
  8. Growth in Government and the Merit System
    1. Industrial Revolution-created economic pressure groups
      1. Farmers-Congress created Department of Agriculture in 1889
      2. Department of Commerce and Labor in 1903 (business and labor)
        1. By 1930, federal employment had reached 600,000; under FDR to 1.2 million
        2. Pendleton Act of 1883-merit or civil service system created
          • Transition to career civil service gradual (10 percent in 1885 to 70 percent in 1920)
            • Since 1950, merit employees not below 80 percent
          • Created a Civil Service Commission
            • In 1978 Office of Personnel Management created (OPM)
        3. Also, Merit Service Protection Board created in 1978
        4. Neutral competence is administrative objective of merit system
    2. Big Government and the Executive Leadership System
      1. President-provides leadership to overcome agency fragmentation
      2. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was created to give the president the authority to coordinate the annual budgetary process
      3. The president was authorized to develop the Executive Office of the President, which oversees the agencies' activities on the president's behalf
      4. The executive leadership system is not a panace
The Bureaucracy's Power Imperative
  1. Section Introduction
    1. Agencies may seek support from president and /or Congress
    2. Agencies must play politics (struggle for money, resources, policy)
  2. The Agency Point of View
    1. Administrators look out for their agency's interests
    2. More than 80 percent of all top careerists rise through ranks of same agency
    3. Professionalism also cements agency loyalties
    4. Bureaucrats believe in the importance of their agency's work
  3. Sources of Bureaucratic Power
    1. The Power of Expertise
      1. Elected officials are generalists, not specialists
      2. Bureaucrats-more likely to be source of policy ideas, solutions
      3. Some agencies have unanimity of values, others in conflict
    2. The Power of Clientele Groups
      1. Special interests helped by agency's programs
      2. Gingrich backed down after threat to cancel public broadcasting programs
      3. Many agencies lead and are led by their related clientele groups
        1. Example of Department of Agriculture
    3. The Power of Friends in High Places
      1. Members of Congress and the president needs the bureaucracy's programs, expertise and group support
      2. President George W. Bush needed expertise of careerists from Justice Department and CIA for War on Terrorism
      3. Congressional support vital for funding and programs
      4. "Issue networks" remain important
Bureaucratic Accountability
  1. Section Introduction
    1. Most Americans have unfavorable view of federal bureaucracy-somewhat unfair
    2. Accountability-public's ability to hold public officials responsible
  2. Accountability Through the Presidency
    1. Reorganization
      1. Agencies pursue contradictory, independent paths
        1. For example - more than a hundred units have different pieces of education policy
      2. Nixon's program was resisted by clientele groups, agencies, Congress
      3. Presidents can often reduce autonomy of agency or number of personnel
    2. Presidential Appointments
      1. President relies on political appointees to ensure that directives are followed
        1. For example, Reagan's appointment of Miller as FTC head reduced cases against firms, in consort with Reagan's policies
      2. There is a limit to what a president can accomplish through appointments
    3. The Executive Budget
      1. Office of Management and Budget handles funding, programs, regulations
  3. Accountability Through Congress
    1. Section Introduction
      1. Congress has power to authorize and fund bureaucratic programs
      2. It can also void actions through legislation
    2. Correcting Administrative Error: Legislative Oversight
      1. Congress exerts control through its oversight function
        1. Oversight function not use much unless their is a negative story or scandal
          • 1983 EPA example
      2. Legislative veto - authority of Congress to void bureaucratic decisions
        1. In 1983, the Supreme Court ruled the legislative veto was unconstitutional
      3. Congress has shifted oversight to GAO-Government Accounting Office
      4. Oversight also, a role for CBO-Congressional Budget Office
    3. Restricting the Bureaucracy in Advance
      1. Drafting of restrictive laws that limit bureaucrats' options
      2. "Sunset law"-date for law's expiration
  4. Accountability Through the Courts
    1. Example: lawsuits directed at an agency
    2. Courts have tended to support administrators so long as they act responsibly
      1. Agencies can choose rules that meet guidelines of Congress
      2. Agencies have wide discretion in deciding whether to enforce laws
      3. Agency can apply a reasonable interpretation of a statute
  5. Accountability Within the Bureaucracy Itself
    1. Whistle-Blowing
      1. Defined as reporting of agency corruption/mismanagement by a bureaucrat
      2. Has not been highly successful (many employees fear reprisals)
      3. Congress passed Whistle Blower Protection Act, with financial rewards in some cases
    2. Demographic Representativeness
      1. At present, the bureaucracy is not demographically representative at its top levels
      2. More than 60 percent of managerial and professional positions held by white males
      3. A fully representative civil service would still be required to play agency politics
Reinventing Government
  1. There have been many attempts in twentieth century to reform bureaucracy
  2. David Osborne and Ted Gaebler argue that bureaucracy of today was created in response to spoils system of the past
    1. They argue that a more flexible system is needed for information age
      1. more decentralized
      2. more oriented toward consumers and results
    2. This concept informed the Clinton administration's National Performance Review
    3. Critics of decentralized management are concerned it weakens the connection between elected  and administrative officials
      1. Favoritism could result
      2. There are practical limits on how much the federal bureaucracy can be trimmed
  3. How can the federal government be made more efficient, and yet accomplish citizens' expectations





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