Chapter+15+Notes

=The Federal Bureaucracy = · Max Weber o Hierarchical authority structure o Task specialization o Extensive rules o Merit principle o Impersonality (so all clients are treated impartially)

//{Rebecca Sydow - 02/13/12} //

__**FACTS about the Federal Bureaucracy: **__

 * Bureaucracies are important because they perform essential routine governmental tasks and employ many Americans.
 * Why are they criticized? (Think of bureaucrats as referees.....)
 * When they work well, no one gives them much credit, but when they work poorly, everyone calls them unfair, incompetent, or inefficient.
 * There are 2.7 million civilian bureaucrats (21 million if you include state and local public employees).
 * Who are these bureaucrats?
 * It is hard to imagine a statistically typical bureaucrat - WHY? - Bureaucrats are male, female, all races and religions, well paid and not so well paid.
 * Although Congress has ordered federal agencies to make special efforts to recruit and promote previously disadvantaged groups, women and non-Whites still are at the lower ranks.
 * OVERALL: The permanent bureaucracy is more broadly representative of the American people than are legislators, judges, or presidential appointees in the executive branch
 * Most federal civilian employees work for just a few of the agencies.
 * The Department of Defense (DOD) employs about 1/4 of federal civilian workers in addition to the 1.4 million men and women in uniform and makes up more than half of the federal bureaucracy.
 * The postal service accounts for an additional 30% of the federal civilian employees.

(Kimberly Varadi - February 20, 2012)

=· The Bureaucrats = o **Myths/Realities** -Americans are generally satisfied with bureaucrats -Federal government employment has been shrinking, but state in local governments employment is growing -Only about 12 percent of bureaucrats live in DC <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Bureaucracies may be inefficient at times, but no one has found a substitute for them; and no one has shown that they are inefficient, <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> ineffective, etc. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;">o **Patronage to Protection** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-**Patronage**: hiring and promotion system based on political reasons rather than on merit or competence. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· Spoils System started by Andrew Jackson <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - Ex: People were given jobs because of their work in a congressional campaign, their large donations, and their connections. <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· Ended by Chester Arthur with passage of Pendleton Civil Service Act (created civil service)
 * =====<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">About 90,000 federal employees work in foreign countries and American territories. California, Texas, and New York contain many federal employees. =====

=
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> - ** Civil Service : ** A system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create a nonpartisan government service. ===== <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· Merit principle: using entrance exams to reward qualification <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· Nonpartisan <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">o Hatch Act: prohibits civil service employees from actively participating partisan politics while on duty <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· Office of Personnel Management (OPM) hires for most fed. Agencies <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">o Elaborate rules <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 3in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Must take a test <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 3in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Sends three names of candidates to an agency with an available position (rule of three) and they must choose from <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 3in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> this <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 3in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Each job is given a GS (General Schedule) rating <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 3.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· 1-18; salaries depend on rating <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 3.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· Senior Executive Service: toppaid, leadership positions <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 3in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Extremely difficult to fire someone once hired, often isn’t worth the trouble <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;">o **Plum Book** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Published by congress; lists top federal jobs available for direct presidential appointment <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Cabinet sercretaires, undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, bureau chiefs, 2500 lesser positions <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Presidents have nation-wide talent searches to fill positions <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Presidents usually tries to include men and women, Whites and non-Whites, and people who represent different interests.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-“Government of stangers” <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· Don’t stay for a long period of time (22 months on average) <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">- WHY? - Many plum book appointees find it difficult to exercise real control over much of what their subordinates do and have difficulty leaving their mark on policy.

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· Don’t have real power <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">- WHY? - The appointees are dependent on senior civil servants who know more, have been there longer, and will outlast them.

//<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">{Rebecca Sydow - 02/13/12} //

(Edited by Kimberly Varadi - February 20, 2012)

=<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">**· Bureaucratic Organization** = <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;">o Cabinet departments, regulatory agencies, government corporations, and independent executive agencies <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;">o **Cabinet** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-15, headed by secretary, chosen by president, approved by senate, each manages specific policy areas <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Departments are organized into bureaus, which divide work into more specialized areas <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Largest was Department of Defense, then Department of Health and Human Services (in dollars spent), and now the largest is the Social <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> Security Administration <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;">o **Regulatory Agencies** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Responsible for some sector of the economy <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· FRB (federal reserve board) governs banks and regulates supply of money and interest rates <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· NLRB (national labor relations board) regulates labor-management relations <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· FCC (federal communications commission) licenses radio/TV stations, regulates programming, regulates interstate long-distance <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> telephone rates, cable, Internet <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· FTC (federal trade commission) regulates business practices and controls monopolistic behavior <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· SEC (securities and exchange commission) polices stock market <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Governed by small commission of 5-10 members <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 2in; text-indent: -0.25in;">· Can’t be fired easily after //Humphrey’s Executor v. US (1935)// <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;">o **Government Corporations** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"> -1. Provide a service that could be handled by the private sector 2.Charge for services <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Government can take over “sick industry” and turn it into a government corporation <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1in; text-indent: -0.25in;">o **Independent Executive Agencies** <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Appointed by the president and serve at his will <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;">-Listed in the //United States Government Manual//

//<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">{Rebecca Sydow - 02/13/12} //

=Bureaucracies as Implementors=

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**The Role**: When congress passes a law or when the President issues an Executive Order, they are not doing anything concrete. They are creating a task that various Bureaucracies will then carry out - or IMPLEMENT. This involves such things as:
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Creation of new agencies or new duties for an existing agency.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">construction of operational rules and guidelines through which the policy will be enforced or implemented.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Coordination of resources so that the task may be carried out.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">In other words, when pork barrel legislation passes (for example, to build a bridge), its a bureaucracy that (1) allocates the resources toward that project, (2) hires architects, engineers, researches real estate, gets permits, (3) assigns and pays people to overlook the building of said project.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Why its not an easy job: Many things can go wrong while implementing policy.
 * 1) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Program Design**: causes problems when a policy decision is not implementable by its very nature.
 * 2) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Lack of Clarity:** When **Legislators overlook problems with policy**, it is unlikely the bureaucracy will find a way to resolve those problems.
 * 3) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Title IX of the Education Act of 1972__: Said that women may not be excluded from "participation... under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." Soon, Sports were explicitly added in a provision.
 * 4) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">This overlooked the fact that Football and Basketball were and still are massive revenue-producers for colleges. This resulted in many colleges outright ignoring the bill.
 * 5) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">This was **open to interpretation**. Joseph Califano, for example, published a 30 page interpretation of this Title ("it does not apply to football because football is 'unique,' thus exempt").
 * 6) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">This was **unclear**: "did female sports programs' funding have to match males' dollar per dollar?" "How much money should be allocated?"
 * 7) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Litigation concerning this Title continues even today, partly because it is ineffective.
 * 8) __Immigration and Naturalization Service__: provided contradictory orders. It was expected to keep illegal immigrants from getting into the U.S. while promoting the entry of agricultural workers, among other things.
 * 9) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Lack of Resources**: Government programs have been seen lacking in:
 * 10) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Funds__; as seen with many national parks, which are readily deteriorating.
 * 11) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Number of Staff members__: as seen with the INS which lacks the personnel to keep track of and prosecute identified illegal aliens.
 * 12) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Qualified Staff members__: Environmental Protection Agency inspectors are known to overlook over half the violations in the facilities they inspect.
 * 13) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Equipment__: the IRS lacks enough computers to adequately keep track of relevant data.
 * 14) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Authority__: the Department of Agriculture cannot close the health standard-violating meat processing plants they themselves inspected.
 * 15) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Administrative Routine:** Administrators are given a set of **Standard Operating procedures (SOPs)** to make everyday decisions. These:Administrators' Dispositions: Seen when Administrators deal with minutia by applying their own judgment - termed **administrative discretion.** The lower a bureaucrat is in the hierarchy, the more discretion they enjoy.
 * 16) termed **"Red Tape,"** these giv<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">e programs Inertia, not allowing them to adapt to new problems as they appear.
 * 17) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Example: In 1983, 241 marines were killed in Lebanon, partly because they had not adapted their SOPs to meet this unforeseen threat.
 * 18) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Are followed by its subjects religiously, to the point that some "common sense" procedures not explicitly listed are not carried out.
 * 19) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Federal Aviation Agency was unable to follow-up on its own investigations because it lacked the paperwork to do so.
 * 20) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Administrative dispositions**: also termed **Administrative discretion**, this involves a bureaucrat's ability to deal with minutia and seen more and more as one goes down the hierarchy.
 * 21) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">This potentially allows bureaucrats to undermine the procedures they are supposed to follow.
 * 22) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird never followed President Nixon's orders to bomb a Palestinian hideout, blaming the nonexistent "bad weather" until the order was rescinded.
 * 23) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Fragmentation**: several units within the bureaucracy are sometimes in charge of carrying out a similar task and lack authority to act on their own. This **Diffusion of responsibility** makes coordination difficult as seen with President Bush's inability to quickly coordinate the Office of Homeland Security's 46 agencies.
 * 24) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Hyperpluralism** does not allow for easy reform - many jobs would be lost, and many interest groups would lose contact with agencies that favor them should these agencies be reformed and/or erased.

// {Diego Farias. 02/15/12} //

= Bureaucracies as Regulators =

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">[Read pages 489 to 490 to get an idea of the scope of the Bureaucracies and how much they affect your life]


 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Regulation's growth: **
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1877 - **Munn v. Illinois** - The Supreme Court upholds the right of government to regulate the business operations of a firm.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">During that decade, tension had mounted as farmers protest expensive railroad prices.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">1887 - **The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC)** is created to regulate railroads's prices and services to farmers.


 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">How an agency works: **
 * 1) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The agency is created by Congress and are given a large grant of powers. **Congress gives them a task.**
 * 2) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The agency **defines its own guidelines** - a set of rules and limits on its own regulatory power. This can be done in cooperation with, for example, an industry which the agency may be in charge of regulating.
 * 3) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The Agency **applies and enforces rules**. Some agencies wait for complaints, while others send inspectors.
 * 4) <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">An agency may take violators to court.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Agencies a always have (1) a grant of power and set of directions from congress, (2) a set of regulations, (3) means of enforcing compliance.

//<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">{Diego Farias. 02/15/12} //

**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">How should we regulate? **
>>
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">According to Charles L. Schultze, our existing system is based on a command-and-control policy, but he advocates for an incentive system:
 * =====**<span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Command-and-control policy **=====
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Definition - A system of regulation whereby government tells business how to reach certain goals, checks that these commands are followed, and punishes offenders.
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Defenders of this system argue:
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">This system is designed to minimize pollution or workplace accidents BEFORE they become too severe.
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">This system imposes penalties only after substantial damage has been done.
 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Georgia,serif;">If taxes on pollution or unsafe work environments were merely externalized (that is, passed along to the consumer as higher prices), they would not be much of a deterrent.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Incentive system**
 * Definition - According to Schultze, it is a more effective and efficient policy than command-and-control policy. Market-like strategies are used to manage public policy.
 * For example, Schultze argues that, instead of telling construction businesses how their ladders must be constructed, measuring the ladders, and charging a small fine for violators (command-and-control policy), it would be more efficient and effective to levy a high tax on firms with excessive worker injuries.

(Kimberly Varadi - February 20, 2012)

=Toward Deregulation:=

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">**Deregulation** advocates state that the complexity and the sheer number of regulations has made administration too difficult and, ultimately, counterproductive. To them, the Bureaucratic system: <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Deregulation is meant to decrease the scope of government. Support for this movement has been growing since before the Reagan Administration.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Raises prices__, since producers are faced with expensive regulations. Many times, the burden of these costs falls on the consumers.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Places the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage__, since many nations don't force their businesses to undergo as many regulations.
 * <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">__Is ineffective and failure-prone__, with agencies sometimes not achieving their main goals while still taking federal or state funding.

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Regulations can't completely disappear, however, since U.S. citizens receive many benefits, such as clean air and quality control of products.

//<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">{Diego Farias. 02/15/12} //


 * AND - Deregulation is not always in the nation's best interest. **
 * Examples
 * Critics point to severe environmental damage resulting from less enforcement of environmental protection standards during the Reagan administration.
 * Observers attribute at least a substantial portion of the blame for the enormously expensive bailout of the savings and loan industry to deregulation in the 1980s.
 * Californians found that deregulation led to severe power shortages in 2001.

(Kimberly Varadi - February 20, 2012)