POLS 1101 1st edition Lecture 23Outline of Previous LectureI. CongressII. PresidencyIII. Political PartiesOutline of Current Lecture I. Federal BureaucracyII. Development of the Federal BureaucracyIII. Civil Service ReformIV. Government Expansion Leads to more BureaucracyV. CabinetVI. History of Federal BureaucraciesCurrent Lecture I. Federal Bureaucracy Executive branch agency administering national policyo Max Weber definition for bureaucracy: Division of labor Hierarchy, run by set of rules (some abstract, some concrete) Impersonality it is supposed to be impersonal so that everything is fair and even Career system – once you are working there you are in for life, they are very loyal Monitoring of subordinates by superiors What does the bureaucracy doo Collects information from regulated industry to do its job Problems-regulated industry can have too much influenceo Reduces coordination problems of enforcement and reduces transaction costs of policy implementationo But, enhances power of whomever sits at the top – you want to be in control of these agency’s because of their power and access to things Expands range of influence and control of individualsII. Development of the Federal Bureaucracy Congress was wary of delegating too much power to the executive realized the impracticality of delegating too littleThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. Appointed individuals to head new bureaus Gave President shared power to appoint but sole power to remove Congress: Dilemma of delegationo Congress is delegating more power to the President because they don’t want to deal with certain stufo Solution: Power of the purse (budget) President: dilemma of delegationo Standard P-A problemo Solution: Selection criteria, sanctions, rewards President Jackson advocated rotation in office of certain jobso Rewarded allies and friends with jobs Because permanent, led to huge problems of coordination and delegationo Weber’s characteristics took holdo Red tape Patronage and corruption prevalento With patronage comes corruptiono Most people in office don’t monitor corruption because their friends don’t want to rat out their friends or close allies or they trust their friends and don’t look for corruptionIII. Civil Service Reform Progressives pushed to make civil a career, not political jobso Pendleton Act of 1883: jobs should be doled out based on merit, not politicso They wanted to get rid of patronage which would lead to getting rid of corruption Problems: Bureaucracies become less responsive citizens and elected officialso It is hard to get rid of a civil servant because they are there for life unlessthey do a bad jobo The Civil Servants are supposed to be partial and they take it to an extreme which leads to not paying attention to the citizenso Hidden Action: now have experts o Hidden Information: Now have expertsIV. Government Expansion Leads to more Bureaucracy Federal government expands which leads to more bureaucracy So the officials aren’t paying attention to what the Citizens of the US want Reasons for Growtho Natural population growth and Congress just has too much to do or they don’t know how to fix certain problems that are in the private sector so they delegate Handle large-scale administrative tasks Exploit expertise Avoid blame for unpopular decisions – they don’t want to take the blame for certain things so they send the problems to other groups of people so those people will take the blame Make credible commitments to stable policy Deal with crises demanding swift, coordinated actionV. Cabinet Until 1849 – Treasury, State, Navy, and War were only cabinet-level departmentso Cabinet level people are elected by the Presidento Department of Interior comes that yearo Major victory for MCs from Western States Department of Justice in 1879o In response to Reconstruction, industrial growthVI. History of Federal Bureaucracies Clientele agencies: meeting the demand of Important constituency groupso Agricultureo Laboro Commerce DOT: home to agencies established piece meal over years to promote diferent forms of transportation Agencies are created to deal with certain groups There are also non-cabinet agencieso Executive agencies are independent Are not a part of the cabinet because the head of these agencies meet directly with the president When something goes wrong with NASA, the President doesn’t want to be caught completely ignorant of the fact. The president wants to know exactly what is going on at all timeso Regulatory Commission Agencies – high levels of expertise Designed to maintain their independence from President and executive departments Deal with real problems and when things go wrong no one in the government wants to be blamed for it so it is completely separatefrom Government officialso Independent Government Corporations Provide services for private sector companies Governments create corporations that look like corporations but they are directly related to Congress It has indirect
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