SC POLI 201 - Logic6eCh08Outline (17 pages)

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8 The Bureaucracy The Development of the Federal Bureaucracy Constitution leaves Congress responsibility to establish executive departments and agencies as well as how they will be staffed Congress was wary of delegating too much power to the executive but realized the impracticality of delegating too little Congress created executive branch agencies with authority to implement laws Presidents delegated their executive chores to senior executive branch officials Over 2 000 departments agencies etc employing some 2 9 million nonmilitary personnel Modest Beginnings The Dilemma of Delegation The First Congress reestablished three departments that existed under the Articles of Confederation Department of Treasury Department of Foreign Affairs Department of State Department of War Congress authorized the hiring of an attorney general to give the president and department heads legal advice The larger departments were subdivided into more specialized offices which later called bureaus Modest Beginnings The Dilemma of Delegation Each executive department should be headed by a single official responsible for its operations But accountable to President or Congress Presidents would appoint senior officials with Senate approval Congress established executive branch agencies and set their annual budgets The concern for presidents was whether appointees would faithfully carry out official policies Standard principal agent model The Development of the Federal Bureaucracy Characteristic features of bureaucratic institutions Max Weber a hierarchal structure of offices a division of labor a consistent set of abstract rules impersonality a career system specified goals Model bureaucracy a purposive machine with interchangeable human parts designed to facilitate collective action while enabling principals to control agents Impose heavy conformity costs for bureaucrats and people they interact with An Expanding Government Government could only grow if presidents delegated authority to