CH. 15 Fed. Bureaucracy

1. CH. 15 Fed. Bureaucracy

2. What is a bureaucracy? • What exactly is a bureaucracy? • An organization that operates with individuals specialized in various tasks and works with impersonality. • Example: The BMV • Bureau of Motor Vehicles. • Impersonality? • Regardless of thoughts or feelings, all individuals are treated the same. • Focus more on procedures.

3. Misconceptions • Americans dislike bureaucrats: Americans generally are satisfied with bureaucrats, not bureaucracies • Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year: Number of employees is growing, but not in the federal gov’t • Mainly in local • Most federal bureaucrats are in D.C: Fewer than 1 in 5 are in D.C. • Bureaucracies are ineffective and inefficient: When they work, people love them. When they don’t, people make a scene.

4. Want to become a Bureaucrat?! • Patronage: Hiring and promotions based on political affiliation. • Friends with a Senator of the majority, here, have a job. • Pendleton Civil Service Act: Made hiring based on merit • Evidence of your good work/ability • Hatch Act: Prohibits gov’t employees from active participation in politics while on duty.

5. More Important terms • Office of Personnel: Office in charge of hiring for most agencies of the fed. Government • GS (General Schedule) rating: System of rating for salaries and experience • GS 1 – GS 18 • Senior Executive Service: Top 9000 federal gov’t managers at the top of the system *Organizational Charts on Pgs. 440-441

6. Important Groups • Independent Regulatory Commission: A gov’t eagency with responsibility for making/enforcing rules to protect public interest. • Works within sectors of the economy and judging disputes • Ex: • FRB(Federal Reserve Board): Governs banks, regulates currency supply • NLRB(National Labor Relations Board): Labor-management disputes • FCC: Licensing radio and television stations for the public interest • FTC(Fed. Trade Commission): Prevents against unfair business practices and monopolies

7. Government Corporations • Two important facts: • Provide a service that could be handled by the private sector. • Typically charge for a service • Cheaper than the private sector • Example: • Shipping a package through the U.S. Postal Service.

8. Independent Agencies • Independent Executive Agency: • Gov’t agencies that are not a part of cabinet departments • Administrators are appointed by the President • Examples: • NASA • National Science Foundation

9. Rest Slide

10. Policy Implementation • The stage between between the creation of a policy and the establishment of consequences for violating that policy • 3 steps. • 1. Creation of a new agency/assignment of a new responsibility • 2. Translation of policy goals into operational rules • 3. Coordination of resources and employees to reach goal. • Walk through the Steps. Colorado and recreation Marijuana

11. Why do programs break? • Program design: theory not made into practice • Lack of clarity: too broad of a goal • Title IX pg. 444 • Lack of resources: lacking staff, materials and funding • Ex: lacking of funding limits Head Start’s ability to teach all eligible children • Administrative routine: routine can help to streamline but leads to “red-tape” issues • 9/11 plane hijackings

12. More reasons • Administrator’s disposition: use discretion to administer a variety of responses to a single problem • Street-level bureaucrats: Welfare workers, lower-court judges. • Fragmentation: The ability to handle a problem is distributed to many organizations

13. The Voting Rights of 1965 • Outlawed literacy tests and other tests used to discriminate against African American registrants • Dispatched registrars to the 6 most notorious southern states to register voters. • Protected by U.S. Marshalls • African American voting increased from 43% in 1965 to 66% by 1970 • Example of successful policy: • Clear goal(register voters), clear implementation(registrars) and clear support(Justice Department)