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PO 111: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS

Explore the various problems within bureaucratic organizations and potential reforms to address them. Understand the differing incentives, muddled hierarchies, and overlapping principal-agent relationships that contribute to these issues.

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PO 111: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS

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  1. PO 111: INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN POLITICS Summer I (2014) Claire Leavitt Boston University

  2. TABLE OF CONTENTS • What is “bureaucracy”? • What do government agencies do? • Types of government agencies • Problems with bureaucratic organization: • Differing incentives • Muddled hierarchies and “thickening” • Principal agent problem (misaligned incentives) • Overlapping principal-agent relationships • Possibilities for reform?

  3. WHAT IS BUREAUCRACY? • A type of organizational structure • Hierarchical command structure (pyramidal) • Division of labor by comparative advantage • Consistent set of rules that govern action • Advancement according to merit • Impartiality • Overarching collective goal • Problems arise not in spite of but because of these structural characteristics

  4. WHAT DO GOVERNMENT AGENCIES DO? • Public agencies in the modern era are generally bureaucratic • Part of the executive branch • Responsibility for implementing the law and overseeing a particular policy arena • Fifteen governmental departments • All department Secretaries are members of presidential cabinet

  5. OTHER TYPES OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES • Independent Executive Agencies • Independent of departmental control for political reasons • Directors appointed by the president and report directly to the president • Examples: CIA; NASA; Peace Corps; EPA

  6. OTHER TYPES OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES • Regulatory Commissions • Independent from both Congress and the president • Non-partisan; free from political influence • Directors appointed by the president • Examples: Federal Reserve; FEC; FCC; SEC

  7. OTHER TYPES OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES • Public Corporations • Operate like private corporations but with public money and Congressional oversight • Examples: US Postal Service; Amtrak

  8. PROBLEMS OF BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION: #1 • Institutional incentives in government agencies differ from the private sector • Maximization of efficiency greater in private sector • Differing purposes: profit versus social/policy goals • Congressional constraints on resource redistribution within a department • Innovation not rewarded in public sector due to top-down constraints

  9. PROBLEMS OF BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION: #2 • Muddled Hierarchies and “Thickening”: • Ideal organizational structure is tightly-packed pyramid • Bureaucracy has been growing and thickening since the 1950s   IDEAL PRESENT FUTURE

  10. PROBLEMS OF BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION: #2 • Why does thickening occur? • Retention of talented employees • Change in the perception and prestige of government work • Politicization: Non-career civil servants appointed to agency positions by the president • Jacksonian patronage versus the merit system • Return to an era of politicization • Lack of clear command structure

  11. PROBLEMS OF BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION: #3 • The principal-agent problem • Conflict that occurs when the principal and the agent have different incentives, interests and access to information • Principals want their directives carried out faithfully • Agents want to maximize personal benefits within the constraints set by the principal • Principals don’t always know if an agent is carrying out their will

  12. PROBLEMS OF BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION: #3 • Examples of the principal-agent problem • Truman and MacArthur • The US Constitution • Some delegations of authority were necessary for government to work • But how do you prevent agents from becoming tyrannical? • American people (P)  federal institutions (A) • Congress (P)  other branches (A)

  13. PROBLEMS OF BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION: #4 • Multiple and Overlapping Principal-Agent Relationships • The bureaucracy is an agent to four principals: • The American people • The president • Congress • The courts • Each of these principals has more than thirty different agents (all govt. agencies)

  14. PROBLEMS OF BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION: #4 • Each agent (government agency) also acts as a principal for two of its own agents: • The agency’s different bureaus and employees • Private contractors and non-governmental organizations (outsourcing)

  15. PROBLEMS OF BUREAUCRATIC ORGANIZATION: #4 • Complicated network of delegable relationships Employees Executive branch Congress Managers Governmental agencies American people Bureaus Non-governmental contractors Federal courts

  16. POSSIBLE REFORMS? • Reorganization? • Decrease politicization? • Inspired leadership? • Eliminate federal deficit and regulatory red tape? • Increased delegation from Congress to agencies; increased bureaucratic autonomy?

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