User:Atcovi/AP Government/Bureaucracy

Civil Servant vs. Political Appointee


 * PA appointed by president and approved by the Senate.
 * Civil Servant: Someone who works for the government that is not appointed (career bureaucrat).

Bureaucratic scapegoating is popular

Myths

 * Americans dislike bureaucrats. Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year. Most federal bureaucrats work in DC. Bureaucracies are mired in red tape.
 * Most bureaucrats work for a few agencies (DoD employees 34% of bureaucrats).

Development of civil service system

 * Patronage v. Merit
 * Pendleton Act - 1883
 * [1. Government job openings must be publicly posted]; [2. Opened hiring process (anybody can apply for this job)]; [Has to have specific criteria that people need to meet. Ex: Every CS in the US must take and pass a civil service examination, different jobs have different tests].
 * Hatch Act - 1939: prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activity.

Political Appointees

 * Plum Book - Jobs that the president must appoint (500 top policymaking posts, 2,500 lesser posts, ambassadorships go to contributors, demographic balance)
 * Transient employees - Last less than two years, dependent upon senior civil servants, less power than anticipated, take one for team.

Organization

 * 15 cabinet departments
 * Each headed by secretary
 * Undersecretaries, deputy undersecretaries, assistant secretaries, etc. [no secretary of justice]
 * Own policy area, own budget, own staff
 * Bureaus within departments

Independent Regulatory Commissions

 * Alphabet Soup: FRB, NLRB, FCC, FTC, SEC, etc.
 * Make and enforce rules
 * Judge disputes over rules
 * Governed by 5-10 commissioners with fixed terms
 * Somewhat insulated from politics
 * Regulatory capture

Quasi-legislative, quasi-judicial power

 * QL - They can write rules pursuant to laws passed by Congress. They have been delegated authority to do so in the legislation.
 * QJ - Employ civil law judges to adjudicate disputes that are non-criminal in nature.

Government Corporations

 * Different from other government agencies (provide services that could be handled by private sector; charge consumers for these services, albeit at cheaper rates) [sell a product, operate like a business].
 * Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
 * U.S. Postal Service
 * Amtrak

Independent Executive Agencies
Difference: Just an executive agency that doesn't fit in the cabinet department

Everything else (45-50 agencies, administrators appointed by president)

GSA, NSF, NASA

Bureaucrats as Implementors

 * What implementation means
 * Why the best-laid plans sometimes flunk the implementation Test
 * A Case Study of Successful Implementation: The Voting Rights Act of 1965
 * Privatization

Policies are not self-executing

 * Laws are vague
 * Bureaucracies work out the details

Implementation is critical

 * Create new agency or assign new responsibility to existing agency
 * Translate policy goals into rules and guidelines
 * Coordinate resources

Why do some federal programs fail?

 * High expectations
 * Program design
 * Lack of clarity and resources (funding and personnel)
 * Lack of authority
 * Administrative routines (SPOs)
 * Administrators' dispositions
 * Fragmentation


 * Title IX - funding for both sexes must be equal. Problem with this was not enforced.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

 * Clear goals: African Americans were able to vote.
 * Adequate means to achieve them: Federal registrars sent to counties, protected by US marshals and federal penalties for obstruction.

Reinventing gov't

 * 1) Decentralize authority
 * 2) Room for innovation
 * 3) Performance incentives
 * 4) Make gov't look more like private sector.

Contractors

 * 1) Private sector competition
 * 2) Theoretical cost savings
 * 3) Creates appearance of reducing size of gov't
 * 4) Less public scrutiny

Free enterprise is highly regulated

 * Many agencies regulate each company

History of regulation

 * Virtually none
 * State and local
 * Federal after 1887
 * Interstate Commerce Commission
 * Guidelines developed with industry
 * Enforcement varies

Two types of regulatory activity

 * Command-and-control policy
 * Incentive System

Perceived problems

 * Raising prices, failing to work and hurt America's competitive position abroad

Hazards

 * Net Neutrality

Presidents try to control Bureaucracy

 * Appoint agency heads
 * Issue orders (Executive orders carry federal laws)
 * Alter agency budgets
 * Reorganize agencies

Paradoxical relationship

 * Provide services to constituents
 * Problem-solve

Methods of congressional control

 * Influence the appointment of agency heads
 * After agency budgets
 * Hold oversight hearings
 * Rewrite the legislation or make it more detailed