11 - THE BUREAUCRACY

The bureaucracy is one of the most criticized parts of the United States government. Most Americans at one time or another have criticized a "bureaucrat" for losing an important document, interfering in personal business, or spending to much of the citizens' hard-earned money. Bureaucratic power is felt in almost all areas of American life, and yet bureaucracies are barely mentioned in the Constitution. Bureaucratic agencies are created and funded by Congress, but most of them report to the president, who supervises them as he takes "care that the laws shall be faithfully executed" (Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution). This dual responsibility to Congress and to the president is an indication of the complex nature of the organization and functioning of federal government bureaucracies.

BUREAUCRACY IN MODERN GOVERNMENTS

A bureaucracy is a large, complex organization of appointed, not elected, officials. Bureaucracies exist in many countries in many areas of life, including corporations, universities, and local and state governments. They were not invented by the U.S. federal government. The term "bureau" comes from eighteenth century France, referring initially to a cloth covering the desks or writing tables of French government officials. The term was linked to the suffix "ocracy," meaning rule of government, to create the term "bureaucracy," which came into general use about 100 years ago.

The Weberian Model

Max Weber, a nineteenth century German sociologist, created the classic conception of bureaucracy as a well-organized, complex machine that is a "rational" way for a modern society to organize its business. According to Weber, a bureaucracy has several basic characteristics:

hierarchical authority structure - Power flows from the top down and responsibility from the bottom up.

task specialization - Labor is divided so that "experts" efficiently perform each specific job.

extensive rules - Rules are needed to keep authority and responsibility lines consistent, and similar rules are applied to similar cases.

the merit principle - Jobs and promotions are granted on the basis of demonstrated abilities rather than by patronage, or "who you know."

impersonality - All clients and supervisees are treated impartially and equally.

The American Federal Bureaucracy

The American federal bureaucracy shares common characteristics with other bureaucracies, but it has its own characteristics that distinguish it from others.

(1) Political authority over the bureaucracy is shared, according to the principles of

separation of powers and federalism. On the national level, both Congress and

officials in the executive branch have authority over the bureaucracy. This

divided authority encourages bureaucrats to play one branch of government against

the other. Also, many federal agencies work with other organizations at state and

local levels of government.

(2) Government agencies in this country operate under closer public scrutiny than they

do in most other countries. The emphasis in American political culture on individual

rights and their defense against abuse by government makes court challenges to

agency actions more likely. About half of the cases that come to federal court involve

the United States government as either defendant or plaintiff.

(3) United States government agencies regulate privately owned enterprises, rather than

operate publicly owned ones. In most Western European nations the government

owns and operates large parts of the economy; the U.S. government prefers

regulation to ownership.

THE GROWTH OF THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY

The Constitution made little mention of a bureaucracy other than to make the president responsible for appointing, with the advice and consent of the Senate, public officials, including ambassadors, judges, and "all other officers of the United States whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law" (Article II, Section 3). No provisions created departments or bureaus.

The Spoils System

The bureaucracy began in 1789 when Congress created a Department of State to assist the new Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson. From 1789 to about 1829, the bureaucracy was drawn from an upper-class, white male elite. In 1829, the new President Andrew Jackson employed a spoils system to reward party loyalists with key federal posts. Jackson believed that such rewards would not only provide greater participation by the middle and lower classes, but would insure effectiveness and responsiveness from those who owed their jobs to the president. The spoils system ensured that with each new president came a full turnover in the federal service.

The Pendleton Act

Late in the nineteenth century the spoils system was severely criticized because it allowed people with little knowledge and background to be appointed to important government positions. Some accused presidents of "selling" the positions or using them as bribes to muster support for their election campaigns. After President James Garfield was assassinated in 1881 by a disappointed office seeker, Congress passed the Pendleton Act, which set up a limited merit system for appointing federal offices. Federal service was placed under the Civil Service Commission, which supervised a testing program to evaluate candidates. Federal employees were to be selected and retained according to merit, not party loyalty, but in the beginning the merit system only covered about 10 percent of all federal employees.

By the 1950s the merit system had grown to cover about 90 percent of all federal employees, and in 1978, the functions of the Civil Service Commission were split between two new agencies:

The Office of Personnel Management administers civil service laws, rules, and regulations. The OPM administers written examinations for the competitive service, which includes about two-thirds of all appointed officials. The OPM is in charge of hiring for most agencies. When a position opens, the OPM sends three eligible names to the agency, and the agency must hire one of them, except under unusual circumstances. Once hired, a person is assigned a GS (General Schedule) Rating, ranging from GS 1 to GS 18, which determines salaries. At the top of the civil service system is the Senior Executive Service, executives with high salaries who may be moved from one agency to another.

The Merit Systems Protection Board protects the integrity of the federal merit system and the rights of federal employees. The board hears charges of wrongdoing and employee appeals against agency actions and orders disciplinary actions against agency executives or employees.

The federal bureaucracy grew tremendously as a result of Roosevelt's New Deal programs and World War II, but the number of federal bureaucrats has leveled off in the years since then. Whereas the number of employees of state and local governments has grown tremendously in the past fifty years, the number of federal employees has remained a relatively constant three percent of all civilian jobs. One reason for the growth on the state and local levels is that many recently created federal programs are administered at the lower levels of government, not by federal employees.

WHO ARE THE BUREAUCRATS?

Bureaucrats work in the executive branch in the fourteen cabinet-level departments and in the more than fifty independent agencies, including about 2,000 bureaus, offices, services, and other subdivisions of the government. The five biggest employers are the Departments of Army, Navy, and Air Force, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the U.S. Postal Service. A total of about 3.2 million civilians and 1.8 million military are employed by the executive branch of the federal government.

Most people still think of a bureaucrat as being a white, middle-aged man, but the permanent bureaucracy today is more representative of the American people than are members of Congress, judges, or presidential appointees in the executive branch. Consider the following statistics for federal civilian employees:

About 57% are male, 43% are female.

About 73% are white, 27% are minority (includes blacks, Asians, native Americans, and Hispanics).

About 33% are hired by the Defense Department, 26% by the Postal Service, and 41% in other agencies.

Only about 11% work in the Washington area, 89% work in other parts of the United States.

The average age is about 42.

Federal employment per 1,000 people in the U.S. population has decreased steadily over the past fifty years.

Bureaucrats hold a huge variety of jobs, but most federal employees are white-collar workers, such as secretaries, clerks, lawyers, inspectors, and engineers.

Nearly 20,000 federal civilian employees work in U.S. territories, and another 100,000 work in foreign nations.

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BUREAUCRACY

Agencies of the executive branch may be organized into four basic types:

The Cabinet Departments

Each of the fourteen cabinet departments is headed by a secretary, except for the Department of Justice, which is headed by the attorney general. All of the heads are chosen by the president and approved by the Senate, and each manages a specific policy area. Responsibility is further divided among undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, who manage various agencies. The fourteen cabinet departments, in order of creation, are:

The Department of State (founded in 1789)

The Department of Treasury (founded in 1789)

The Department of Defense (created in 1947, but replaced the Department of War,

founded in 1789)

The Department of Justice (created in 1870 to serve the attorney general, a position

created by George Washington in 1789)

The Department of the Interior (created in 1849)

The Department of Agriculture (created in 1862)

The Department of Commerce (created in 1903 as the Department of Commerce

and Labor)

The Department of Labor (separated from the Department of Commerce in 1913)

The Department of Health

and Human Services (created as the Department of Health, Education, and

Welfare in 1953)

The Department of Housing

and Urban Development (created in 1966)

The Department of

Transportation (created in 1966)

The Department of Energy (created in 1977)

The Department of Education (separated from the Department of Health, Education,

and Welfare in 1979)

The Department of Veterans

Affairs (created in 1988)

Each department is organized somewhat differently, but the real work of a department usually is done in the bureaus (sometimes called a service, office, or administration). Until the 1970s, the largest department was The Department of Defense, but today the Department of Health and Human Services spends more money, although the Department of Defense still has more employees. Health and Human Services runs huge programs, such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

The Independent Regulatory Agencies

Independent regulatory agencies enforce rules designed to protect the public interest and judge disputes over those rules. Each agency has responsibility for a particular sector of the economy, and their powers can be far-reaching. Some examples are:

The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) - Founded in 1887, the ICC is the oldest of the regulatory agencies. It first regulated railroads, but now oversees trucking as well.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) - The FTC regulates business practices and controls monopolies

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) - The NLRB regulates labor-management relations.

The Federal Reserve Board (FRB) - The FRB governs banks and regulates the supply of money.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - The SEC polices the stock market.

The regulatory agencies are governed by a small commission - five to ten members appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. These commissioners are somewhat more "independent" than are the cabinet secretaries because they cannot be fired by the president.

The Government Corporations

Government corporations are a blend of private corporation and government agency. They were created to allow more freedom and flexibility than exists in regular government agencies. They have more control over their budgets, and often have the right to decide how to use their own earnings. Since they still ultimately are controlled by the government, they do not operate like true private corporations. Some examples are:

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting - This controversial government corporation still operates public radio and television stations. Although largely funded by private donations, the government still provides policies and money to support their programs.

The Tennessee Valley Authority - This corporation was created as one of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs. Its mission is to harness the power of the Tennessee River to protect farmlands and provide cheap electricity.

The U.S. Postal Service - The post office now is a corporation that competes with private services.

Amtrak - Congress created Amtrak to provide railroad passenger service that is heavily subsidized by the federal government. Part of the motivation for its creation was the lack of private companies providing the service, and Amtrak has suffered some huge financial losses. Recently, in an attempt to make the corporation more profitably, Congress has allowed Amtrak to drop some of its less popular routes.

The Independent Executive Agencies

Other agencies that do not fall into the first three categories are called independent executive agencies. Their main function is not to regulate, but to fulfill a myriad of other responsibilities. Some well known examples are

The General Services Administration (GSA) - The GSA operates and maintains federal properties, handling buildings, supplies, and purchasing.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) - The NSF supports scientific research.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) - NASA administers the United States space program, financing ventures into space since 1958.

WHAT DO BUREAUCRATS DO?

Because federal bureaucrats are usually not as visible as are elected officials, their duties and responsibilities are not always as clear either. Their main function is to do the nuts and bolts of "executing" policies that are made by Congress, the president, and the Supreme Court.

Implementation

After the president signs a bill into law, it must be implemented by the bureaucracy in the executive branch. Bureaucrats develop procedures and rules for implementing policy goals, and they manage the routines of government, such as delivering mail and collecting taxes.

Most policies do not implement themselves. Usually Congress announces the goals of a policy, sets up a broad administrative apparatus, and leaves the task of working out details to the bureaucracy. The implementors take a policy handed down to them from Congress, the president, or the Court, and actually put it into effect, with real consequences for real people.

Implementation involves more power in the policymaking process than is readily apparent. During this stage, many key decisions are made. Congress often passes ambiguous legislation, or the supporters of a bill that is passed into law get involved with other bills and lose contact with laws passed on to the executive branch. By the very nature of the compromise that passed the bill into law in Congress, it often sets general goals and passes the responsibility for interpretation on to the bureaucrats. As a result, the bureaucracy is given latitude in translating general guidelines into specific directives.

Regulation

The function of regulation of private sector activities has developed over the course of the twentieth century. The earlier function of service (the Post Office, benefits to veterans, agriculture) dominated the bureaucracy until the early twentieth century Progressive movement, when the government slowly began to regulate businesses. As early as 1877 the Supreme Court upheld the right of government to regulate business in Munn v. Ohio, a case which upheld the rights of the state of Illinois to regulate the charges and services of a Chicago warehouse. The New Deal legislation of the 1930s created more regulatory agencies, and World War II allowed government a great deal more regulation than every before.

Today all sorts of activities are subject to federal regulation from automobile production to buying and selling stock to the production and distribution of meat and poultry. Hundreds of agencies supervise and enforce a vast array of regulations.

As regulators, agencies first receive a grant of power from Congress to sketch out the means of executing broad policy decisions. Next, the agency develops a set of guidelines to govern an industry, usually in consultation with people who work in those industries. Next, the agency must apply and enforce its rules and guidelines, often through its own administrative procedures, but sometimes in court. Sometimes it reacts to complaints, and other times it sends inspectors out to the field. Regulation may be executed by requiring applicants to acquire a permit or license to operate under their guidelines and Congressional policies.

ACCOUNTABILITY

The biggest difference between a government agency and a private organization is the number of constraints placed on agencies from other parts of government and by law. A government bureau cannot hire, fire, build, or sell without going through procedures set down by Congress, often through law. Presidents also exert considerable power over the bureaucracies.

Congress

Congress often acts as the problem-solving branch of government, setting the agenda and then letting the agencies decide how to implement them. On the other hand, Congress serves as a check on the activities of the bureaucracy. Congress oversees the bureaucracy in a number of ways.

1) Congress rarely gives any one job to a single agency. For example, drug trafficking is

the task of the Customs Services, the FBI, the Drum Enforcement Administration, the

Border Patrol, and the Defense Department. Although this spreading out of the

responsibility often leads to contradictions among agencies and sometimes inhibits the

responsiveness of government, it also keeps any one agency from becoming all

powerful.

2) Congress may also influence the appointment of agency heads. Even though the

president appoints the senior bureaucrats, Congress must approve them. Even for

appointments that Congress does not have to approve, members often express

their opinions about who should be appointed where.

3) No agency may spend money unless it has first been authorized by Congress.

Authorization legislation originates in a legislative committee, and states the maximum

amount of money that an agency may spend on a given program. Furthermore, even

if funds have been authorized, Congress must also appropriate the money. An

appropriation is money formally set aside for a specific use, and it usually is less than

the amount authorized. The Appropriations Committee in Congress must divide all

available money among the agencies, and almost always they cut agency budgets from

the levels authorized.

4) Congressional committees may hold hearings as part of their oversight job. Agency

abuses may be questioned publicly, although the committee holding the hearings typically

has the oversight responsibility, so a bad agency may reflect bad oversight.

5) If they wish to restrict the power of an agency, Congress may rewrite legislation or

make it more detailed. Every statute is filled with instructions to its administrators, the

more detailed the instructions, the better able Congress is to restrict the agency's power.

Still, an agency usually finds a way to influence the policy, no matter how detailed the

orders of Congress.

The President

Agencies are also accountable to the chief administrator of the U.S. government: the president. Presidents use a number of methods to impress their policy preferences on the bureaucracy.

1) The most obvious control the president has over the executive branch is his power to

appoint the senior bureaucrats, including agency heads and subheads. If a president

disagrees with the policies of an agency, he can appoint a head that agrees with him.

This strategy may lead to problems because the agency can work against the new

head, possibly seeking support in Congress. Also, because agencies tend to have

strong points of view, a new head may sometimes be swayed to their beliefs.

2) A president may issue executive orders to agencies that they must obey. More

typically, aides may pass the word informally to agencies as to the president's

wishes. Even though agencies may resist, they usually pay attention to the

president's preferences.

3) The president may exercise authority through the Office of Management and the

Budget, which is the president's own final authority on any agency's budget. The

OMB may cut or add to an agency's budget, although Congress ultimately does

the appropriating.

4) The president may reorganize or combine agencies to reward or punish them. This

power is limited, however, because entrenched bureaucracies, Congress, and

supporting interest groups may keep a president from acting as he might like.

Interest Groups

Although interest groups have no formal control over agencies, the informal ties between them may greatly influence the implementation of policy. Interest groups may provide agencies with valuable information they need to execute a policy. Interest groups may pressure agency bureaucrats to interpret policy in ways that are favorable to the interests they represent. Bureau chiefs may also recruit interest groups as allies in pursuing common goals. They often share with them a common view that more money should be spent on federal programs run by the bureau in question..

Iron Triangles and Issue Networks

Alliances among bureaucrats, interest groups, and congressional subcommittee members and staff sometimes form to promote their common causes. Such an alliance is sometimes described as an iron triangle. These triangles are sometimes so strong that they are referred to as subgovernments - the place where the real decisions are made. For example, an important issue that government has recently addressed is the effect of tobacco on health and the government's role in regulating it. The tobacco farmers and industry have numerous interest groups, a "tobacco lobby," that provide information to the tobacco division of the Department of Agriculture and to subcommittees of the House and Senate agricultural committees. They support the agency's budget requests and make contributions to the election campaigns of the subcommittee members. The subcommittees pass legislation affecting tobacco farmers and other members of the industry and approval higher budget requests from the agency. The agency gives the subcommittees information, help with constituents' complaints, and develop rules on tobacco production and prices. They all have a common interest - the promotion of tobacco farming and industry, and they can help one another achieve their goals. As a result, the president and Congress beyond the subcommittee have little decision-making power.

The iron triangle may be criticized because interest groups today are so prolific that they are bound to create cross-demands on subcommittees and the bureaucracy. In the tobacco issue discussed above, interest groups have formed demanding that tobacco products be banned or heavily restricted by the federal government. With these counter-demands, the policymaking process would not run so smoothly and would broaden the number of people involved in the system. The issue is discussed on many levels, both inside and outside government. An agency, then, can be described as being embedded, not in an iron triangle, but in an issue network. These issue networks consist of people in interest groups, on congressional staffs, in universities, and in the mass media who regularly debate an issue. The networks are contentious, with arguments and disagreements occurring along partisan, ideological, and economic lines. When a president appoints a new agency head, he will often choose someone from the issue network who agrees with his views.

RECENT REFORMS

Throughout American history, presidents and Congress have attempted to reform the bureaucracy to make it work better and cost less. The latest effort began in 1993 with the establishment of the National Performance Review - the plan to "reinvent government' - led by Vice President Al Gore. Previous reform suggestions had advocated more centralization of control of governmental agencies, usually in the president's office, but the NPR suggested the opposite. It identified the main problem was that the bureaucracy had become too centralized, too rule-bound, and too little concerned with making programs work. The NPR report recounted horror stories of "red tape" (bureaucratic inefficiency), numerous regulations, and cumbersome procedures that make it difficult for the agency to perform its duties. The NPR made more than 800 recommendations for encouraging efficiency, productivity, and responsiveness to customer needs. Some recommendations included closing or consolidating offices, reducing programs, eliminating federal support payments, cleaning up disability rolls, allowing funds for creative innovation, and reducing the time required to fire incompetent federal employees.