AP US Gov Bureaucracy Notes

12/22/11

I.      Bureaucracy

A.    Definition

1.    A bureaucracy is any kind of complex multilayered organization

2.    Don’t always know who is responsible for what because it is so big

3.    There are about 2.7 million people working for the national government

B.    Our bureaucracy is unique

1.    We have both national and state agencies with overlapping responsibilities

a.    Can lead to argument and inefficiency

2.    There is not just one boss

a.    President, Congress, and the Courts assert leadership over the bureaucracy

3.    It is a separate branch of government- they have a lot of individual power

a.    Discretionary authority- they can do things on their own and use their own judgment to make decisions

b.    People in the agencies have this power because they have the expertise and know more than Congress, which is why Congress often defers to the bureaucracy

4.    The bureaucracy is well known and gets attention from the media

a.    Groups are competing with one another and it is easy to sue the government, so the bureaucracy are in the media because people are concerned with what they are doing and want to take action if they are doing something wrong

b.    We know more about our agencies that citizens in England.  We keep track of what the bureaucracy does and are quick to go after them to protect our rights

12/23/11

II.     History of the bureaucracy/ Events that shaped the bureaucracy

A.    It was very small when the country was formed because the national government did very little.  Until the late 1800s, the role of the bureaucracy was about providing services (post office, veterans benefits, defense).  Jobs were based on patronage/spoil system (the president picked people for the agencies who supported him)

B.    There was a major increase in the number of federal workers due to the Civil War and Industrialization, which made the national government more powerful

1.    Growth

a.    More veterans benefits after the Civil War

b.    Department of labor

c.     Growing post office because population grew

d.    Department of Commerce created to promote businesses

e.    Numbers- 200,000 between 1861-1901

2.    Starting in the 1880s the bureaucracy wasn’t only about providing services.  Some agencies began to regulate aspects of the economy

a.    Opposition to a regulatory role

i.      Companies are people and have due process every time they are regulated, and can therefore take regulations to court

ii.     It is unconstitutional- there is nothing about the bureaucracy in the Constitution, so how can the bureaucracy regulate businesses on its own

(a)  Some said that Congress can set guidelines for regulations that the agencies follow.  But it was outrageous for the agencies to create their own regulations

iii.   People feared government and were skeptical of concentrated national power

iv.    Laissez-faire attitude- government should not interfere in business

b.    The first agency created to regulate to economy was the ICC (Interstate Commerce Commission), which regulated railroad prices

3.    Selecting government workers

a.    Shifted away from patronage, because the Civil War showed that the patronage method was inefficient and the agencies weren’t working.  Agencies need educated people to run them

b.    Patronage à merit system

c.     Pendleton Act 1883

i.      Civil Service Exam- need to take a test to work in the government

12/28/11

C.   The Great Depression and WWII

1.    Growth of government

a.    New programs and agencies because of the New Deal

2.    Attitude Change

a.    It was easy for government to get bigger because people had expectations for the government to do more

3.    Supreme Court opinion change

a.    Change in public opinion à change in Supreme Court opinion towards regulatory powers of government agencies

b.    The agencies can now make the rules themselves (discretionary authority- the power of agencies to make decisions)

c.     Congress gives the bureaucracy this power

i.      Bureaucracy has the expertise

ii.     Congress doesn’t want to be blamed

4.    Programs created during this time

a.    Social security

b.    Unemployment benefits

c.     Welfare

D.   The Great Society- 1960s LBJ’s plan to get rid of poverty

1.    Programs created

a.    Medicare- health care for old people

b.    Medicaid- health care for poor people

c.     Food stamps

d.    Head Start- educational opportunities for poor kids

III.   How people today get their jobs in the bureaucracy

A.    Historically, the OPM (Office of Personnel Management) would write the exams and set standards for who is hired. 

1.    “Competitive Service”- the process OPM uses to hire people

2.    The process has been decentralized.  OPM has less power determining who gets hired, and individual agencies have more influence over who gets hired for their agency

a.    Agencies want to have influence over the tests to get in so that people are more qualified for their specific agency

b.    Interest groups pressure agencies to have more diversity of races and gender to look more like the rest of the country.  It is easier for individual agencies to pick people they want based on race and gender and set their own standards

c.    Experts need to be hired quickly by agencies to deal with issues.  We need qualified people to deal with certain issues, which is why OPM is averted.  Government has a bigger role in solving these issues (cantaloupe video)

B.    Don’t need to know Accepted Service, except that the president still has some patronage

1.    President appoints White House Staff

2.    President chooses Cabinet secretaries

3.    Federal judges

4.    Policy advisors he can bring in on his own to give him advice on specific issues

5.    The number of people the president can appoint has gone up, however relative to the amount of people who work for the national government, it is a small percentage

IV.   Specific Agencies

A.    Federal Reserve

1.    Regulates the money supply through the setting of interest rates

2.    Controls inflation

3.    Its general mission is monetary policy- prevent extremes in the economic cycle.  They do this by adjusting the money supply

B.    SEC- Securities and Exchange Commission

1.    Purpose is to makes sure that investors have access to accurate information as far as a companies assets, holdings, and liabilities.  They make sure companies don’t lie to their investors

2.    Doesn’t give you advice on how to invest

a.    Caveat Emptor- buyer be ware

b.    They will make sure it’s a level playing field, but you have to do your own research on your investments

C.   EPA- Environmental Protection Agency

1.    Goals

a.    Reduce pollution in the air and water

b.    Clean Air Act- regulate air quality to protect public health

2.    Controversial- business community fights its regulations

D.   FCC- Federal Communications Commission

1.    Goals

a.    To set up a radio or TV station you need to get a license from the FCC to use airwaves

b.    Responsible to do things that serve the community (ex- FCC sued CBS after the Janet Jackson Super Bowl incident)

E.    There is a relationship between the agencies and the courts

FCC

Control media so no one dominates the media

If one person controls the newspaper, radio, and/or TV, all the news in that area will be slanted

POV- Homeland Security

Howard- management flexibility

Civil service doesn't work

Hard to fire

Incompetency

Wants a big Homeland Security Dept

Bureaucracy is too focused on rules, and people cannot think outside the box

People need to think in a flexible way

Need manager flexibility- managers should be able to fire people right away, without going through an 18 month period

Workers have become robots

Pops- rights of workers

Its a big agency that's the issue, not the civil service

The merit system has its problems, but the real problem is the new cabinet department (Homeland Security) that is just too big

Problems with the Civil Service/merit system (but we still can't get rid of it)

Give preference to veterans in hiring, which is not fair

Discrimination in the system- race and gender

Doesn't like that the bureaucracy in general is centralized (hiring and implementing policy)

Homeland Security shouldn't have absorbed some smaller agencies, but yet it didn't absorb the CIA and the FBI

If we have management flexibility, we will go back to the patronage system

Nowadays the patronage system would be based on political parties and religion.  Managers would start hiring based on political and cultural reasons, not based on talent

Pops wants the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate with agencies, not control and administer the smaller, lower agencies

Congress and the Bureuacracy

How does Congress check the bureaucracy?

Oversight

Congress can call people in from the bureaucracy to answer questions

Investigations- Congress can investigate the bureaucracy

Congress funds the government- it controls each agency's buget 

Congress creates and can abolish agencies- controls the status and existence of agencies

Congress sets the rules for how agencies operate and determines how much discretionary authority an agency has.  Congress can give the same power to more than one agency which limits an agencies power.

Senate confirmation process of certain appointments

Why does Congress defer?

Agencies have the expertise

Congress will defer so they won't be blamed for things

Congress lacks the time

Government Corporations- a company that is run by the government.  They are set up because private companies are not able to make a profit, but the government thinks it is an important service so they take it over

Amtrak 

TVA (Tennessee Valley Association)- provides electricity for people who live in the South

5 Pathologies

Legislative veto

Issue networks and how they differ from iron triangles (media is part of issue networks, and sometimes the president)

P168 in the textbook- Hatch Act