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The Bureaucracy | |||||||||||||||||
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When exploring the institutional connection between the President and the other branches of government, we not only explore relations between the President and the Congress, and between the President and the courts, but also the relations between the President and the bureaucracy.
Prior to Andrew Jackson, a small government was run by a relatively small number of administrators who tended to be reflective of the values and power of the Eastern, establishment. One of Jackson's campaign arguments settled on the need to take into account the desires of western and southern elites. When Jackson became President he was sure that Eastern elites would try to undermine his authority. He thus argued for: rotation-in-office. The President, as chief executive, needed to be able to control those who were executing policies. The President thus needed to be able to fill key administrative positions with those who would be loyal to him. Sounds logical, doesn't it? According to some, the only problem is: does loyalty trump competence? Some argue the positions become rewards for faithful service and have nothing to do with "good management". They call this "the spoils systems" The "spoils system" was in full blossom from Andrew Jackson's presidency until 1883. The assassination of Garfield in 1881 by a disappointed office-seeker led to demands for reform of the system. In 1883, the Civil Service Reform Act (also known as the Pendleton Act) created the modern civil service.
Bureaucracy is a term coined by Max Weber and emphasizes the nature of administration in a rational/ legal political system.
The principles of bureaucracy: 1) division of labor and specialization 2) hierarchy 3) formal rules 4) detachment 5) merit 6) efficiency What subverts the goal?: 1) the informal hierarchy 2) goal displacement 3) goal non-achievement (2 , 3 are products of organizations being composed of human beings!) the desired effect is to create an organization of people with "neutral competence", ie., people who will enforce the rules and regulations, etc., without prejudice or favoritism
In effect, there are two tiers to administration in the US: 1) presidential appointees "political executives" (approximately 3500 of 3 million+ "bureaucrats")
Can a president find people who meet these criteria? Generally yes. Some have argued that recent events (trouble with nominees, "Nannygate", intrusiveness into personal life, etc.) has, and will, continue to reduce this pool of people.
Presidential appointees owe their allegiance to the President although some serve with the "advice and consent" of the Senate. As part of the "checks and balances" system, this serves to place some constraints on presidents (usually only if Senate is controlled by the other party). There are many who argue that this allows special interests to dominate the appointment process (this sees the Senate as a conduit for special interests- ie., the Cozy or Iron Triangle) The power of appointment is thus constrained by: 2) the consent of the Senate and
special interests 2) the career civil service
2) high educational levels 3) white 4) male
What is the impact of this system on Presidential/ Bureaucratic relations? Many argue that it creates another "branch of government" with its own goals (system stability) and conservative agenda (maintenance of current situation) Many also argue that it sets up a unique set of relationships known as "the cozy or iron triangle" which has a separate objective from the public purpose. The
Cozy Triangle In the Cozy of Iron Triangle identified by Lowi, each of these three actors acts rationally-pursuing their self-interest-at the expense of "the public interest" the "self-interest" of the bureaucracy is persistence and expansion
2) is the final judge of appeals 3) defends the merit system 4) tries to prevent political activity 5) tries to solve personnel problems
Indeed, some classify federal agencies (with the exception of those that "preserve the Union"-Treasury, Justice, State and Defense---Homeland Security??) as either clientele (created to satisfy the desires of a particular special interest such as education) or regulatory (agencies designed to eliminate or restrict certain behaviors such as EPA) agencies.
The Informal Budget Strategy of Public Organizations:
2) never request less than your current allocation 3) put top priority items (even if new) into existing programs 4) any increases desired should be made to appear small 5) give them something to cut
A: Virtually impossible, but here are the options:
3) reorganize The Reorganization Act of 1939 gives President the ability to transfer or consolidate the organizations of government unless the plans are vetoed by both houses of the legislature within 60 days (product of the Brownlow Commission) Presidents are generally not successful in their attempts to reorganize:
2) not enough time/ other problems 3) opposition by both special interests and Congress It has been argued that the threat of reorganization is often enough
things tend to remain the same Reagan came to power promising to cut the number of bureaucracies and the number of people in the bureaucracy the number of bureaucracies expanded!
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