8. Brazilian Bureaucracy: Do I Even Need to Bother with the Jokes?

1. 8. Brazilian Bureaucracy: Do I Even Need to Bother with the Jokes?

2. Bureaucracy, It Goes to Eleven • Many of us find interacting with bureaucracies to be frustrating. • This has less to do with their flaws and more to do with their ideals of strict adherence to rule-based actions. • Bureaucracies are indispensable for performing many of the routine administrative functions we demand of government. • The vast majority of stuff that governments do is done by bureaucracies.

3. The Ideals of Bureaucratic Governance • Max Weber (1864–1920) recognized that modern nation-states need bureaucracies. • He argued that an ideal bureaucracy should be rational and efficient. • A few critical elements: • Clear assignment of roles: Clear organization avoids both duplication of effort and gaps in the process.

4. The Ideals of Bureaucratic Governance • Rules: Rules ensure that decisions are impersonal and consistent and avoid favoring or discriminating. • Hierarchy: A clear hierarchy allows for effective control of the bureaucracy and for handling challenges to the rule-based decision making. • Professionals: The recruitment and promotion of personnel on the basis of merit helps to make sure the right people are in the optimum positions.

5. The Ideals of Bureaucratic Governance • The ideal of rule-based decision making is to protect the less powerful and influential from those with more power and influence. • Rule-based decision making is intended to make sure everyone is treated the same.

6. Bureaucratic Roles • Bureaucracies are omnipresent. • They can be categorized by function: • Service: providing services such as education, health care, welfare programs, parks • Regulation: watching over particular segments of the economy (e.g., the Food and Drug Administration or the Securities and Exchange Commission)

7. Bureaucratic Roles • Implementation: making sure that laws get put in place and determining all of the relevant details • Policymaking: handling the specifics of general laws passed by legislatures

8. There Be Flaws in Yonder Bureaucracy, Obviously • Democracies are supposed to be responsive to the public. • Bureaucracies are designed to be consistent, not responsive. • This is a potential problem.

9. Overhead Democracy • Overhead democracy occurs when elected officials, who are accountable to the public, are put at the top of the bureaucratic hierarchy.

10. Authority Leakage • Authority leakage occurs when efforts to control a bureaucracy become distorted as each level interprets ambiguities and makes adjustments to fit its ability to implement. • It is almost impossible for the top of the hierarchy to direct the outputs at the bottom consistently and effectively.

11. The Iron Triangle • Elected leaders typically have little interest in exerting the effort necessary to monitor and control bureaucracies. • In contrast, the interest groups directly affected by bureaucracies have a great deal of interest. • This can result in an “iron triangle” formed by bureaucracies, interest groups, and the relevant congressional committee(s).

12. The Iron Triangle • Bureaucracies can be “captured” so that they focus on the needs of interest groups rather than the public interest. • These iron triangles can be very powerful and all but impenetrable by outside actors. • Are bureaucracies and democracy compatible? • The vast majority of bureaucratic agencies perform quite effectively in the democratic context.

13. Agency Theory and the Responsive Bureaucracy • Agency theory, or the principal-agent model, asserts that bureaucracies work like contractors to the legislature. • Elected officials do not have to monitor bureaucracies closely, they just need to monitor the results and keep an eye out for problems. • This explains how bureaucracies do adjust to the will of elected officials and the public.

14. The Cockroach Theory of Bureaucracy • Bureaucracies struggle against other demands for limited government funds. • Those that fail to meet their public service demands or draw critical attention could have their budgets cut. • The goal is to avoid negative attention (from the media or elsewhere). • Bureaucracies thus monitor their own behavior accordingly.