 |
Chapter Eight: The Bureaucracy
Bureaucracies are the agents through which elected officials execute policies. As with any principal-agent relationship, the elected officials face the risk that the bureaucracy will use this power to suit its own ends. The huge expansion of bureaucratic power and responsibilities in recent years has led some to conclude that the bureaucracy is out of control.
In reality, elected officials and especially Congress have worked to establish and maintain a great deal of control over the bureaucracy. Although it is nearly impossible for elected officials to monitor all the activities of the bureaucracy directly, politicians have the ability to subject wayward bureaucrats to severe punishments, including dismissal, reduced funding, or even legislation that puts the offending agency out of existence. Elected officials also have the ability to structure the bureaucracy and its rules and procedures to achieve desired ends. Such rules and procedures compose the red tape that constrains and guides the operation of the bureaucracy. However, political considerations also figure into the establishment or modification of agencies. The difficulties faced by President George W. Bush and Congress in establishing a new Department of Homeland Security only served to highlight this problem.
In the past, political parties used positions in the bureaucracy to reward their loyal partisans. Currently, parties are able to court key constituencies or clienteles by establishing, expanding, or promoting key agencies. In other cases, politicians choose to "wash their hands" of unpopular or troublesome policy decisions by delegating them to bureaucracies insulated from political influence. In any case, bureaucracies are complex because of, not despite, the needs and desires of elected officials.
After reading this chapter, you should understand…
-
- the political incentives that led to the establishment and abandonment of the spoils system
- the different types of agencies, commissions, and departments within the bureaucracy, their development over time, and the reason why some of these actors are more important or independent than others
- the principal-agent dilemmas Congress faces in delegating tasks to the bureaucracy, and how it copes with them
- the tools Congress, the president, and the courts have at their disposal in their attempts to control the bureaucracy
- the tools that can be used by politically astute bureaucrats to their agencies’ advantage
- how organized interests in the public can influence the bureaucracy, and the limits of these interests
- the obstacles to "reinventing" government (and the bureaucracy) and even to determining whether government is succeeding in pursuing its goals
- Why is a bureaucracy necessary? What are the general characteristics of bureaucracies as set forth by Max Weber?
- What powers does the president have over the bureaucracy? What powers does Congress have over the bureaucracy? Why would political actors ever choose to have less control over a bureaucratic actor?
- How were members of the bureaucracy selected in George Washington's time? Andrew Jackson's? The present?
- What political considerations go into a decision to establish a bureaucratic agency? How about the decision to grant a bureaucracy cabinet-level status?
- Why are bureaucratic tasks increasingly delegated to the states or to private organizations?
- How can the rules or procedures Congress establishes for bureaucratic agencies affect how those bureaucracies do their jobs?
- If everybody hates "red tape," why does it still flourish? Why might bureaucrats themselves prefer to have detailed rules governing some of their actions?
- What sorts of activities are rewarded in bureaucratic service? How does the bureaucratic reward system differ from that of private industry?
|