Bureaucratic Problems and Reform

1. Bureaucratic Problems and Reform Chapter 15, Theme C

2. Pop Quiz 15 Log on to www.socrative.com Join Room number 917563. Wait for quiz to start. Complete quiz then leave the room.

3. Understanding Bureaucratic Behavior • What factors explain how a bureaucrat uses their power? • The personal attributes of the person • The agency for which they work • Legal and political constraints

4. Constraints on the Bureaucracy • Constraints are much greater on government agencies than on private bureaucracies • All 3 branches place constraints, esp. Congress • Hiring, firing, pay, and other procedures are established by law, not by the market • Legal constraints like FOIA, National Environmental Policy Act, etc. • Constraints come from citizens: agencies try to respond to citizen demands for transparency, openness, honesty, and fairness

5. Results of Constraints • RED TAPE!! • Slow decisions • Inconsistency • Block action versus Take action • Hesitancy of employees

6. Trade-offs of Constraints • Which would you rather have? • Fairness or responsiveness? • Efficiency or effectiveness? • Professional independence or accountability? • Can you have all of the above? Why or why not?

7. Congressional Oversight • Congress creates agencies & can end them • Many programs must be reauthorized yearly • Congress can change laws/programs’ policies • Congressional appropriations provide funds for the agency to spend on its programs • Congressional investigations & hearings • Congress investigates Benghazi incident • Congress investigates Secret Service

8. The Bureaucracy is a slave to all three branches! President drives agenda through appointments of his allies Congress has oversight and powers of the purse Punitive decisions of bureaucratic agencies are subject to court challenges These constraints lead to iron triangles.

9. Iron Triangles • Also called sub-governments • Don’t always have public interest at heart • Become dependent on other groups within “triangle” and tend to advance own interests • Provide services, support, money, information to other groups in triangle • Best way to break up Iron triangles- publicity

11. How Iron Triangles Work • Everyone in triangle has a similar interest • Legislatorsget funding from interest groups and make favorable laws a reality with the help of the bureaucracy • Interest groups provide valuable information to bureaucrats and money to legislators • Bureau/Agency chiefs implement legislator policy and interest group goals.

12. Example: Why is tobacco not regulated as a drug? House and Senate agricultural committees Department of Agriculture Tobacco/farmer interest groups (tobacco lobby) House and Senate members, sympathetic to tobacco, receive campaign funds & support from tobacco interest groups. Members then make sure that tobacco farmers are defended through legislation. USDA executes legislation while relying on the Congressional budget. The interest groups provide the USDA with valuable information to effectively execute laws. -COMMON INTEREST: Keep tobacco alive = keep their jobs alive

13. Issue Network • Connection today too complicated for Iron Triangles to perpetuate • Iron triangle too simple – there are lobbies from opposite sides of an issue who compete (Pluralism) • Issue Network – complex group (includes media) that debates an issue and slows policy-making • Policy-making is not as smooth with competing demands from Lobbies • President can appoint an agency head who steers policy, but can never smoothly control policy

14. Bureaucratic Pathologies (Problems) • Red tape: complex, sometimes conflicting rules • ex.: Can you say FAFSA?? • Conflict: agencies work at cross-purposes • ex.: Agricultural Research Service tells farmers how to increase crop yields, but Agricultural Stabilization Service pays them subsidies to grow fewer crops. • Duplication: two or more agencies seem to do the same thing • ex.: How many agencies can you name that try to stop the influx of illegal drugs? • DEA, Coast Guard, ICE, FBI, Border Patrol

15. Bureaucratic Pathologies (Problems) • Imperialism: tendency of agencies to grow, irrespective of programs’ benefits and costs • Do we still need 15 Post Offices in Currituck? • Waste: spending more than is necessary to buy some product or service • Elaborate and lavish spending • GAO is watchdog • Often occurs because of “gold-plating”

16. Deregulation • Take away rules imposed by bureaucracy, ex. government steps back • Reagan made deregulation a top priority • Everyone supports deregulation in abstract. • Reality: Deregulation costs jobs and “pork” spending.

17. Reforming the Bureaucracy • National Performance Review (NPR) in 1993 designed to reinvent government with less centralized management, more employee initiatives, fewer detailed rules, and more customer satisfaction—Some success, but… • Most rules and red tape are due to struggles between the president & Congress or to agencies’ efforts to avoid alienating influential voters • Periods of divided government worsen matters, especially in implementing policy: Who do you please??

18. Iron Triangle Simulation Assignment Research the role you are assigned. Read the handouts you are assigned. Tomorrow morning, come sit with your assigned group.