Bureaucracy (Ch 15) Outline

Bureaucracy:

I. The Bureaucrats

A. Some Bureaucratic Myths and Realities

1. Americans dislike bureaucrats:

2. Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year:

3. Most federal bureaucrats work in Washington, DC:

4. Bureaucracies are ineffective, inefficient, and always mired in red tape:

i. there have been no

B. Civil Servants

1. The bureaucracy is more

2. patronage:

a. started

b. “”

4. Pendleton Civil Service Act:

a. civil service:

b. merit system:

5. Hatch Act:
6. Office of Personal Management:

a. for positions not

b. GS (General Schedule) rating:

i. Senior Executive Service:

7. Once given a job,

C. Political Appointees

1. talent search takes place after a new president is elected with various desires:

a.

b.

2. “government of strangers” -

a. don’t get to know

i.

3. presidents place a

a. career civil servants

4. Big problem

II. How Bureaucracies are Organized

A. Cabinet Departments

1.

2.

3.

B. Independent Regulatory Commissions:

1. Alphabet Soup bc

a. FRB – Federal Reserve Board:

b. NLRB – National Labor Relations Board:

c. FCC – Federal Communications Commission:

d. FTC – Federal Trade Commission:

e. SEC – Securities and Exchange Commission:

2. Leaders appointed by President, approved by Congress

a.

3. Affect interest groups heavily,

4. Many interest group leaders

C. Government Corporations:

1. USPS –

2. TVA – Tennessee Valley Authority:

D. Independent Executive Agencies:

1. Biggest regarding the budget:

a. General Services Admin (GSA):

b. National Science Foundation (NSF):

c. National Aeronautic and Space Admin (NASA):

III. Bureaucracies as Implementors

A. What Implementation Means

1. Congress creates

2. Policy Implementation:
3. 3 Implementation elements:

a.

b.

c.

B. Why the Best-Laid Plans Sometimes Flunk the Implementation Test

1. Program Design –

2. Lack of Clarity –

a. Title IX –

b. Bureaucrats also receive

i. ex:

3. Lack of Resources –

a. ex (pick one):

b. Reasons Congress does not allocate more funds:

i.

ii.

iii.

iv.

v.

c. Agencies may lack

i. FDA

d. federal control

4. Administrative Routine

a. standard operating procedure:

b. some rules can

i. ex:

c. proper routines

5. Administrator’s Dispositions

a. administrative discretion:

b. street level bureaucrats:

i. ex:

c. discretion varies

d. controlling discretion

e. rules are

6. Fragmentation –

a. often different security agencies

b. reorganization of the gov’t

i. Congress

ii. IGs

iii. agencies

iv. the countless diff responsibilities

c. agencies can be reorganized – ex:

d. fragmentation allows

C. A Case Study of Successful Implementation: The Voting Rights Act of 1965

1. controversial policy can

2. Voting Rights Act –

 a. what happened:

3. the act was successful bc

D. Privatization

1. decentralize

2. gov’t cannot

3. theory of contracting

4. Less scrutiny,

III. Bureaucracies as Regulators

A. regulation:

B. Regulation in the Economy and Everyday Life – heavy economic regulation

1. Regulation as shown through the automobile industry:

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

2. Until Munn v Illinois the gov’t

3. Interstate Commerce Commission

4. Regulatory agencies

5. Rule enforcement
6. All regulation contains:

a.

b.

c.

7. command-and-control policy:

8. incentive system:

C. Deregulation:

1. some think

2. Problems with regulation:

a. Raising prices:

b. Hurting America’s

c. Failing to work well:

3. Deregulation opponents

V. Understanding Bureaucracies

A. Bureaucracy and Democracy –

1. couldn’t possibly

2. Presidents try to control the bureaucracy, tactics:

a. Appoint the right people to head the agency:

b. Issue Order

i. executive orders:
 ii.

c. Alter an agency’s budget –

d. Reorganize an agency –

i. small reorganization

3. Congress tries to control the bureaucracy

a. influence the appointment of agency heads:

b. Alter an agency’s budget:

c. Hold Hearings:

d. rewrite legislation and make it more detailed:

4. Iron Triangles and Issue Networks: Iron Triangles:

a. complicates control of the bureaucracy –

b. WH is busy w/ foreign relations and Congress defers to subcommittees =

c. strong relationship between all 3 sides:

d. issue networks:

e. subgovernments are not

i. nuclear power:

B. Bureaucracy and the Scope of Government

1.

2.

3.