CHAPTER 13 STUDY GUIDE: THE BUREAUCRACY

Bureaucracy: A large organization composed of appointed officers in which

authority is divided among several managers. The department and agencies of the
U.S. government make up the federal bureaucracy. Bureaucracies have come to be
associated with “waste, confusion, red tape, and rigidity.” We blame many of our
problems on “the bureaucracy.” But in actuality, many of the problems are a result
of the actions of Congress, the courts, and the president.

American form: The U.S. Bureaucracy is different from that of a parliamentary

regime because political authority over the bureaucracy is shared among several
institutions rather than placed into one set of hands like the British system, where
the prime minister rules over everyone. Also, British bureaucrats report directly to
cabinet officials.

Most agencies of the federal government share functions with related agencies in
state and local government. This contrasts with systems present in places like
France, where the things like education, health, housing, etc. are centralized, with
little or no local control.

American institutions and traditions have given rise to an “adversary culture,” one
where personal rights are given central importance. In other words, we argue more
with every decision made by the government. However, in Sweden, similar
decisions go largely uncontested.

Establishment of civil service system: From 1861 to 1901 many new agencies
were created to serve, not regulate. The bureaucracy we have now is a product of
the Depression and World War II. Since then, the government has played an active
role in dealing with economic and social problems.

Biggest expansion of the bureaucracy: The Civil War is considered a watershed

in bureaucratic development because many new officials were appointed, which
revealed the administrative weakness of the federal government. After the war,
there were increased demands for civil service reform in the United States.

Informal parts of bureaucracy: An indirect growth in the bureaucracy is a

significant indirect increase in the number of employees through use of private
contractors, state and local govt employees.

Expected vs. competitive: A competitive service system is where officials are

appointed after passing criteria set by the Office of Personal Management while an
excepted service system occurs when officials are appointed by agencies on the
basis of qualifications approved by the OPM.
Patronage system: Bureaucratic appointments made on the basis of political
considerations
Spoils system: practice of giving appointive offices to loyal members of the party
in power; when appointments are influenced by congressional preferences and
patronage (give the loyal ones rewards).

Buddy system: also known as the name-request job occurs when an agency
identifies a person for a position by submitting a form describing the job to the OPM.
It doesn’t necessarily produce poor employees. It’s used to hire people who have
special knowledge for a specific committee who don’t need to know all the other
stuff to pass the civil service tests.

Firing a bureaucrat: It is difficult to fire a bureaucrat due to the civil service rules
that are in place to protect workers from partisan politics but instead have made it
difficult to fire anyone for poor performance. You need two consistent negative
reviews to fire a bureaucrat.

Reforming the bureaucracy: An attempt to reform the bureaucracy was made in

1993 when the NPR was designed to reinvent govt. This differed from previous
reform efforts because it emphasized customer satisfaction by bringing citizens in
contact with agencies. But, bureaucratic reform is always difficult to achieve due to
the rules and red tape that result from the struggle between the president and
Congress, which makes bureaucrats nervous about irritating either. Period of
divided govt tend to increase tension, especially in implementing policies.

Appropriation: Money formally set aside for a specific use

Authorization: Legislation that originates in a legislative committee stating the

maximum amount of money that an agency may spend on a given program

The practice of a legislative committee determining the amount an agency can

spend on a yearly basis; curtails the power of the appropriations committees

Powers of appropriations committees and how they’ve changed: In the past,

the Appropriations Committee was rarely challenged due to the enormous power
they wielded: they had the power of “marking up” (revising), amending, and
approving the budget. However, the committee has lost some of its power in three
ways:
a. Trust funds, which pay for many benefits, operate outside
Appropriations.
b. Annual authorizations mean that the legislative committees
must re-authorize the budget of several agencies, and
decreases the limit-setting power of Appropriations.
c. Budget deficits during the ‘80s and early ‘90s meant that
Congress often set target-spending limits without
Appropriations consent.

Bureaucratic pathologies:
a. Red tape: complex rules and procedures that must be followed to get
something done but this is needed to make sure one part of govt
doesn’t operate out of step with another.
b. Conflict: agencies seem to be working against other agencies. This is
because Congress often wants to achieve many different and
sometimes inconsistent goals. Or, it finds that it doesn’t know which
goal it wants to achieve most. Same with duplication.
c. Duplication: two or more agencies seem to be doing the same thing.
d. Imperialism: when agencies grow without regard to benefit or cost.
e. Waste: spending more than is necessary but there is little incentive to
lower costs because there’s personal reward as opposed to private
 businesses. Also, the govt has red tape to go through that private firms
don’t have.

National performance review: in 1993 designed to reinvent government

• Differs from previous reforms that sought to increase presidential control

○ Emphasizes customer satisfaction by bringing citizens in contact with
agencies
○ NPR calls for innovation and quality consciousness by less-centralized
management, more employee initiatives, and customer satisfaction

Constraints on government agencies: One of the many constraints on the

bureaucracy is that Congress never gives a single job to a single agency. Thus:
Action is slow, action is inconsistent, action is blocked rather than taken, lower-level
employees hesitate to make decisions, and citizens complain of red tape. The
constraints exist because of the people who believe that they need a little bit of
everything and politics actually encourages this thinking.

Iron triangles: An iron triangle is an example of client politics, a relationship

between an agency, a committee, and an interest group, usually tight and mutually
advantageous. However, iron triangles have declined due to the growing
complexity of Congress—the fact that agencies are subject to many interests
instead of just one, the fact that subcommittees bring a single committee under the
control of many different legislative groups, and the fact that courts make it easy
for others to interfere. So now, instead of iron triangles, we have issue networks,
which is a whole bunch of things mashed together. Usually, a president, upon
taking office, will recruit those members of the network most sympathetic to his
view.

Strong agency cultures & impact on employees: The culture of an agency is

formed by the implicit, unspoken understandings among fellow employees
considering proper conduct. Jobs that are career enhancing are part of the culture.
Jobs that are Not Career Enhancing (NCE) are not part of it. A strong culture may
motivate employees to work harder, but it also prevents employees from accepting
jobs and or positions “against the culture” or NCE.

Bureaucracy’s values and beliefs: Critics speculate that the bureaucracy may
be either more liberal or more conservative than the people it supposedly helps to
govern. This is caused by the fact that, while the civil service system as a whole is
a cross-section of the American society, the higher levels are dominated by middle-
aged, college-educated, advantaged, white guys. Surveys say that top-level
bureaucrats are generally more liberal than the average American. However, top-
level bureaucrats also have a habit of going the middle path. The kind of committee
that bureaucrats work for makes a difference, whether it’s activist or
preservationist, etc. Generally, policy views reflect the work done.

Whistleblower protection act: An 1989 law creating an Office of Special Counsel

to investigate complaints from bureaucrats claiming they were punished after
reporting to Congress about waste, fraud, or abuse in their agencies

Other vocabulary:
1883 law which began the process of transferring federal jobs form
Pendleton Act
patronage to the merit system
Members of interest groups, congressional staffers, university faculty,
experts in think tanks, and members of the media who regularly Issue network
debate government policy on a certain subject
1939 law that prohibits civil servants from active participation in
Hatch Act
partisan politics; amended in 1993
Money outside the regular government budget; funds beyond the
Trust fund
control of congressional appropriations committees
A law passed in 1966 giving citizens the right to inspect all Freedom of
government records except those containing military, intelligence, or Information Act
trade secrets or information revealing private personnel actions
The ability of a bureaucracy to choose courses of action and make Discretionary
policies not spelled out in advance by laws authority
Congressional supervision of the bureaucracy Oversight

Other information from practice test questions:

In the early days, the Treasury department was the only federal agency that had
much power.

Patronage in the early republic provided the president with:

Subordinates supportive of his policies.

Influencing recalcitrant members of Congress.
Helping to build up party organization.
Rewarding supporters of the president

The role of the bureaucracy until the 19th century was to provide benefits for interest groups.

The bureaucracy usually grows most often during wartime.

A constitutional limitation on the federal bureaucracy's ability to regulate the

economy is that only Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate
commerce.

One advantage of the merit system to presidents is that it protects them from
patronage demands.

Bureaucrats' own values and beliefs are likely to have the greatest influence on
their work when their duties are loosely defined

The Freedom of Information Act and the Administrative Procedure Act are examples
of government constraints on the bureaucracy.
Iron triangles are less common then they once were because agencies today are
pressured by so many different interest groups.

Authorizations are usually larger than appropriations.

Buying American, using minority contractors, and paying the prevailing wage are all
examples of red tape that drives up costs.