The Bureaucracy

1
The Bureaucracy
The Logic of American Politics
Chapter Eight
2
The Bureaucracy

• The bureaucracy a diverse collection of
  departments, agencies, bureaus, commissions, and
  other units of the executive branch that carry
  out national policies.
• Where most of the day to day work of government
  occurs.

3
Modest Beginnings The Dilemma of Delegation

• The Constitution had little to say about its
  structure.
• The first Congress set up 3 departments with
  single officials responsible for the departments
  operations.
• It was unclear to whom they should report
  Congress or the president.
• Officially part of the executive branch but
  created by Congress.
• Who is the principal?

4
The Dilemma of Delegation

• Delegation brings tradeoffs.
• The increasing workload of both Congress and the
  president made delegation necessary.
• Delegation offered clear increases in efficiency.
• But, how could Congress and the President insure
  their wishes were carried out?
• This problem of potential agency loss is
  complicated by the presence of multiple
  principals, who would not always agree, fighting
  for control.

5
The Federalist Years A Reliance on
Respectability

• One way to help solve the problem of delegation
  was to choose good agents.
• During the Federalist era there was an emphasis
  on appointing civil servants known for their
  character and ability and who were respected in
  their community.
• These officials were sometimes required to post
  bonds of money or property that they would
  forfeit if they failed to perform their duties
  (shirking).

6
The Federalist Years A Reliance on
Respectability

• Job-based incentives and rewards were also fairly
  common.
• Customs and alcohol tax collectors received a
  share of the proceeds from the sale of goods they
  seized from smugglers.
• During this period, the informal custom was that
  civil servants served their tenure during good
  behavior.
• Dismissal was rare.
• Jobs sometimes even passed on to offspring.

7
Democratization of the Civil Service The Spoils
System

• Andrew Jackson, challenged this use of federal
  offices as private property
• Jackson advocated rotation in office. Officials
  would serve in positions for a short, fixed
  period, then move on to something else.
• This fit with the practical need of party
  organizations to reward those who helped them
  gain office.
• The party that won the presidency controlled the
  jobs.
• to the victor go the spoils

8
The Rise of Bureaucratization

• Rotation in office and the spoils system were
  intended to democratize the administration.
• Instead they eventually resulted in
  bureaucratization.

9
The Spoiling of the Executive and the Rise of
Bureaucratization

• The principle of rotation (the spoils system) did
  not allow for the development of government
  service as a career with job security and
  advancement based on merit.
• New problems emerging that required experts
  rather than amateurs.
• Problem of incompetence and corruption associated
  with the spoils system.
• The country wanted honesty and efficiency from
  government.
• The Solution bureaucratization

10
The Characteristics of Bureaucracy

• According to Max Weber, bureaucracies embody
• Hierarchical structures of authority in which
  commands flow downward and information upward
• A division of labor
• A consistent set of abstract rules regarding what
  is to be done and who is to do it
• Impersonality, treating everyone in the same
  category regardless of who they are
• A career system, with appointment and advancement
  by demonstrated merit. Considerable job security
• Specified goals toward which the collective
  action is aimed.

11
The Rise of Bureaucratization

• Bureaucratization helped solved some of the
  problems of rotation in office/the spoils system.
• Specialization and clearly defined jobs could be
  mastered more quickly.
• Hierarchies more closely monitored and controlled
  subordinate officers.
• Record keeping was meticulous.
• Government became more impersonal.
• And red tape was born.

12
Civil Service Reform Eliminating the Spoils

• Tragedy paved the way for reform.
• President James Garfield was assassinated in 1881
  by a demented job seeker
• This helped spawn reform of the spoils system
  through the Pendleton Act in 1883.
• Put 10 percent of federal jobs under the merit
  system and authorized presidents to extend this
  through executive orders.
• By the time FDR became president in 1933, 80
  percent of federal workers were included in the
  merit system.

13
Civil Service and Delegation Problems

• But career civil service leads to its own agency
  problems
• How do you keep an agent faithful? How do you
  avoid agency loss?
• Career bureaucrats develop their own personal and
  institutional interests, and often act on them.
• Can become non-responsive to citizens and elected
  officials.
• May prove difficult to punish such behavior.

14
Civil Service and Delegation Problems

• Agents become experts in procedures and in their
  policy domains.
• Their actions are often shielded from outside
  oversight (hidden action).
• Impossible to monitor an agents every move.
• Civil servants have access to information that is
  not available to the public or to other branches
  of government
• They may not be willing to share this information
  if it goes against their goals (hidden
  information)

15
An Expanding Government
16
The Cabinet

• Some of the most well known government
  departments.
• Often reflects which issues are politically
  important.

17
The Symbolism of Cabinet Status

• Some divisions of present-day departments are as
  prominent as the departments themselves.
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (Justice)
• The Census Bureau (Commerce)
• The National Park Service (Interior)
• The U.S. Coast Guard (was Transportation, now
  Department of Homeland Security)

18
The Symbolism of Cabinet Status

• The big spenders . . .
• DOD
• HHS
• DHS quickly joining.

19
More bureaucracy

• Types of non-cabinet agencies
• Independent executive agencies
• Report directly to the president and are not
  under a cabinet secretary.
• Placed outside departments for political reasons
  including the president wanting to keep a closer
  eye on them or avoid interference, increase their
  effectiveness or make them more prestigious.
• Independent regulatory commissions
• Designed to be independent. Bipartisan with
  fixed terms.
• Often made independent to be able to do things
  that need done that would be politically
  unpopular (and thus very hard for the president
  and congress to do).
• Government corporations
• When Congress puts the government in the business
  of providing services a private corporation might
  usually provide
• Often created when the services arent being
  provided and arent likely to be without
  government involvement

20
The bureaucracy Who is in control?

• Possible answers
• Congress
• The president
• The courts
• The bureaucracy
• Interest groups

21
Methods of Congressional Control

• Congress has a number of ways to exert control
  over the bureaucracy.
• It creates and empowers them with ordinary
  legislation.
• It provides the funding that allows them to carry
  out their work through yearly budgeting the
  power of the purse.
• The agencies, as agents, know that their
  existence depends on Congress, the principal, and
  often respond accordingly.

22
Methods of Congressional Control

• Congress has a number of direct means of
  influencing the bureaucracy
• Hearings and investigations where agencies
  testify
• Mandatory reports on programs provided to
  Congress
• Legislative vetoes on agency policy proposals
• Committee and conference reports that provide
  instruction to agencies
• Inspectors general who audit the books and
  investigate the activities of agencies for
  Congress
• The General Accounting Office, which audits
  programs and agencies and reports their
  performance to Congress.

23
Methods of Congressional Control

• Congress may also exert control by controlling
  the procedure by which agencies operate.
• Congress normally regulates by delegating broad
  grants of authority to regulatory agencies and
  letting them fill in the details by making rules.
• These rules have the force of law.
• When an agency wants to make a rule, it must
  first give public notice in the Federal Register,
  outline the proposed rule, disclose the data and
  analysis on which it is based, and invite written
  comments from the public. Public hearings may be
  held as well.

24
Methods of Congressional Control

• These procedures serve several purposes
• They make rule making a public act.
• They give members of Congress and agency
  officials advance notice of the political fallout
  that any particular regulation would produce,
  allowing them to avoid political trouble.
• When it chooses, Congress can fine-tune
  procedures to guarantee a desired balance of
  interests in regulatory policy making.

25
Congressional Control

• At issue Has Congress delegated too much
  authority with only vague outlines for how it is
  to be exercised? Has Congress abdicated their
  power or are they still in control over the
  bureaucracy?

26
Congressional Control

• police patrol versus fire alarms (McCubbins
  and Schwartz).
• Congress can actively go out and look for
  problems or they can respond to problems as they
  hear about them.
• The process for rule making under the
  Administrative Procedures Act of 1946 contains
  opportunities to raise fire alarms.

27
The President and the Bureaucracy

• The president sits officially atop the
  bureaucratic hierarchies of the executive branch.
• But methods of control are limited.

28
The President and the Bureaucracy

• One area where presidents have some clear control
  is in the selection of agents.
• Presidents pursue their policy goals by
  appointing senior officials loyal to them and
  their ideas.

29
The President and the Bureaucracy

• Presidents can exert control through issuing
  executive orders.
• Presidents also use the OMB to exert control
  through central clearance and other practices.
• For bureaucrats, favorable treatment in the
  presidents budget is worth pursuing -- so they
  have an incentive to keep the White House happy.

30
Limits on Presidential Control

• The Senate as check on appointments.
• Choosing good agents only goes so far.
• Good treatment in the presidents budget is a
  motivating factor but Congress holds the final
  say over the budget.

31
The Courts and the Bureaucracy

• The judiciary also shares authority over the
  bureaucracy.
• They determine when agencies actions are out of
  step with the Constitution or U.S. law
• Under the Administrative Procedures Act, any
  agency dealing with individual cases like a court
  must act like a court. Must hold hearings
  conducted by neutral referees (administrative law
  judges).
• If it does not, its decisions could be challenged
  and overturned in federal court.

32
Bureaucratic Autonomy

• Some agencies operate with substantial autonomy
  while others are carefully monitored by their
  multiple principals.
• The ability of agencies to expand their autonomy
  depends on a number of factors, including the
  political skill of their directors.
• They may attempt to exploit differences of
  opinion among principals to achieve their own
  goals.

33
Bureaucratic Autonomy

• Once-loyal officials sometimes marry the
  natives, becoming agents of their departments or
  bureaus.
• Bureaucratic culture persistent, patterned way
  of thinking about the central tasks of and human
  relationships within the organization.
• Bureaucrats imbued with their agencys culture
  come to dislike interference from outsiders

34
Bureaucratic Autonomy

• Out of necessity, top bureaucrats learn to behave
  as politicians
• They operate in a world of competition for scarce
  resources, often intense conflicts among
  interests and values, and multiple bosses
  (principals).
• They have goals and these goals can only be
  achieved through politics mobilizing supporters,
  gathering allies, negotiating mutually beneficial
  deals with other politicians, etc.

35
Bureaucratic Goals

• The goals of bureaucrats often include
• Occupational goals
• Budgetary security
• Budgetary growth
• Serve own conception of the public interest
• Personal goals

36
Iron Triangles

• Bureaucrats, members of Congress, and organized
  interest groups have powerful incentives to form
  mutually beneficial alliances to manage policy in
  their areas of specialization.
• When successful, these alliances become iron
  triangles narrowly focused subgovernments
  controlling policy in their domains -- out of
  sight or oversight of the full Congress, the
  president, and the public at large.
• Classic examples areas of agriculture, water,
  and public works.

37
Captured Agencies

• Capture theory agencies are captured and
  controlled by the very interests theyre supposed
  to regulate.
• Industries exert tremendous political pressure on
  the regulators.
• Agencies, especially if overworked and
  under-funded, come to rely on information
  provided by industries they are supposed to
  regulate.

38
Issue Networks

• Congress has worked to break down iron triangles
  and release captured agencies.
• Scholars now typically talk of issue networks
  amorphous, ever-changing sets of politicians,
  lobbyists, academic and think-tank experts, and
  public interest entrepreneurs rather than rigid
  iron triangles or captured agencies.
• And, the most common answer to who controls the
  bureaucracy is that Congress wins much of the
  time in its efforts.

39
The Logic of Bureaucratic Organization

• Congress creates and designs the bureaucracy and
  the president and the courts help to shape it.
• While bureaucracy bashing is common, even by
  members of Congress, its organization reflects
  congressional design.
• Often the very thing members of Congress complain
  about are a direct product of their design.
• The rules they put in place are intended to
  insure agencies follow the intent of the
  legislators creating the agency.

40
The Logic of Red Tape

• Red tape does not flourish by accident.
• It helps principals control and monitor their
  agents
• It helps agents demonstrate that they are doing
  their jobs correctly
• Empowering bureaucrats on the front lines of
  service delivery may increase efficiency and
  customer satisfaction, but it also makes it
  easier for them to go astray.
• Thus Congress rails against red tape, but without
  the red tape it could not easily monitor and
  influence administration.
• (It would also lose a number of opportunities for
  constituency service).

41
The Power of Procedural Rules

• The amended US Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic
  Act of 1938 requires pharmaceutical companies to
  prove that a drug is safe and efficacious before
  marketing it.
• The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 requires
  that the EPA must prove that a new chemical is
  hazardous to human health or the environment
  before regulating it.
• The result few new drugs are approved and
  virtually no chemicals have been proven
  hazardous.

42
The Rationality of Incoherence

• Presidents have frequently promised to reduce
  waste and improve policy coordination by
  eliminating senseless duplication.
• Members of Congress also frequently rail against
  an inefficient bureaucracy.
• However, duplication would all seem senseless
  only if government pursued a coherent set of
  interrelated goals. But it does not.
• Government pursues overlapping, conflicting, or
  disconnected goals in response to the diverse
  demands Americans place on it.
• Reform is difficult but not impossible.
• The bureaucracy generally changes when the larger
  social and political environment changes.