The U.S.

Bureaucracy

A Comparative View of the American Bureaucracy

The American bureaucracy is different from bureaucracies in other democratic nations.
Structural influences such as the American political culture and the constitutional rules of the game have a great deal to do with these differences.

Hostile political culture Americans do not trust government and they do not think it can accomplish most tasks that are assigned to it. Civil Servants have so little prestige and many of the most talented tend to stay away.

 Incoherent organization the American bureaucracy has few clear lines of control, responsibility, and accountability Divided control bureaucratic agencies have two bosses, the president and Congress, who are constantly battling for control Accessibility individuals and groups can get a hearing and a response from bureaucrats without necessarily starting at the top

Transformation of the Executive Branch: The Structural Context

Executive departments and officers are referred to only indirectly in the Constitution. Administrative history expansion in the size and responsibilities of the executive branch
Political linkage sector pressures on government decision makers Changes in structural factors Nineteenth-century changes NineteenthThe corporation and the progressives The Great Depression World War II and its aftermath The regulatory state Devolution and rollback

Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy has always been an unsavory word to the American public it implies red tape, inefficiency, and nonresponsiveness. To social scientists, bureaucracy and bureaucrat are neutral terms that describe a type of social organization and the people who work in it.

 The ideal bureaucracy: a model

Large organizations in which people with specialized knowledge are organized into a clearly defined hierarchy of bureaus or offices A clear chain of command in which each person has only one boss or supervisor and a set of formal rules to guide behavior Appointment and advancement based on merit rather than on inheritance, power, or election

 Advantages of bureaucracies
Ability to organize large tasks Concentration of specialized talent

How the Executive Branch Is Organized

The executive branch is made up several different kinds of administrative units.
Departments are headed by cabinet-level secretaries cabinetappointed by the president and approved by the Senate. Bureaus and agencies are subdivisions within cabinet departments. Independent executive agencies are federal agencies that are not included in any of the departments and are not corporations or regulatory commissions.

 Government corporations are agencies that operate in a market setting and are organized much like a business enterprise. Quasi-governmental organizations are hybrids of public Quasiand private organizations Independent regulatory commissions are responsible for regulating aspects of the economy where it is judged that the free market does not work properly to protect the public interest. Foundations are units that are separated from the rest of government to protect them from political interference with science and the arts.

What Do Bureaucrats Do?

Executing the law Regulating (rule making) Adjudicating

Who Are The Bureaucrats?

Personnel systems in the executive branch
Career civil service Separate merit services in specific agencies Political appointees

Staffing the Executive Branch

The executive branch was staffed through a spoils system from the election of Andrew Jackson (1828) until the late nineteenth century.
Corruption and favoritism during the years after the Civil War gave emphasis to the reform effort. The final catalyst for change was the assassination of President James Garfield, who was shot by a disappointed Garfield, officeoffice-seeker.

 Civil Service Act of 1883 (Pendleton Act) Act)

Created a bipartisan Civil Service Commission to oversee a system of appointments to certain executive branch posts on the basis of merit Competitive exams were to be used to determine merit. Congress abolished the Civil Service Commission in 1978 and replaced it with two separate agencies.
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Merit Systems Protection Board

 Overview
The career civil service covers about 60 percent of all federal employees at the present time. Declining status of the civil service The recent increase in anti-federal-government anti-federalfeelings has made the lives of civil servants even less enviable than before. Characteristics of civil servants

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Are any of you planning a career with the U.S. bureaucracy? Local or State bureaucracy?