The Bureaucracy Today

Chapter 15, Theme B

Civil Servants

• ~3.5 million work directly for fed gov’t, 17 million if you include states

• Spoils System- Patronage system used up to late 1800s; hiring of friends and supporters

• Spoils system was in direct conflict with neutral competence.

• Needed a merit based system

Civil Servants

• Garfield’s assassination provided impetus to end spoils system

• Pendleton Act (1883)- gov’t employees are chosen by exams to protect from results of Pres. Election

• Hatch Act (1939)- civil servants cannot be coerced or cannot participate in political campaigns or contribute money

3 Types of Agency Employees

• Careerist: Stay with agency long-term, work for a single agency, personal success equated with agency success, found at bottom of agency, loyal, reliable, stable, but very resistant to change

• Politician: Short-term employment, use agency as stepping stone, motivated by self-interest, found in middle management, creative risk-takers, but cause a great deal of instability

• Professional: Identify more with their professional peers outside agency (think attorneys, physicists), productivity depends upon whether agency goals match their professional goals, but if goals are adverse to professional goals they will create conflict.

Bureaucratic Accountability

• President- head of executive bureaucracy• Congress- controls funding, sets

mandates, oversight– Fire alarm oversight- whistleblowers

• Public- we essentially are the customers

What this means:• Federal Bureaucracy has a great deal of

Discretionary Authority.

Discretionary Authority

• Define term.

• In what 3 areas has it grown?– Paying subsidies

– Transferring grants-in-aid

– Devising and enforcing regulations

• What has caused this shift in authority?

Why does Congress give discretionary authority?

• Congress lacks the expertise & agencies hire the experts

• If policies become unpopular, Congress can shift the blame

• Congress simply does not have the time

• With the lack of details in a bill, it is easier for Congress to agree on a bill

• It is more efficient

Limited Growth of Bureaucracy to 1900

• First major growth came with increasing population…What agency? Why?

• Second wave of growth came after Civil War…What agency? Why?

• Third wave came over the issue of industrialization…What agency? Why?

• Still the bureaucracy was small:– Laissez-faire, States controlled most

regulation, fear of discretionary authority, & SC said “no to regulatory purposes.”

Growth of Bureaucracy

Grown exponentially since the New Deal…Why? (Depression, Wars)

1. Society more complex2. Business regulation3. Attitude towards social welfare4. Attitude towards national security5. Times change- new functions and

responsibilities

Competitive vs. Excepted Service

• Old Competitive Service system:– Pass written exam by Office of Personnel

Management. (Take example & discuss)– Meet job criteria developed by the agency.– Achieve the top 3 ranking

• The Excepted Service System Today:– Decentralized—Needed too many professionals– Agency develops job criteria, hires without OPM

exam or approval. Affirmative Action considered– Less cumbersome and more timely in hiring

Buddy System• Used for High ranking or high profile jobs.• Generally get qualified, knowledgeable

people, but dedicated to administration-not agency (Politicians: see earlier slide!)

• Use name-request job to get the person the agency wants.– Still must describe job to OPM, but sends name,

too– Often only one person (named) fits criteria– Used as a form of patronage

• Do class example!

Firing a Bureaucrat• Extremely difficult and arduous procedure• Review. Can take years to end.• Very few get axed—Less than 1/10 of 1%• Can use other tactics to make bureaucrat

miserable:– Transfer, no promotion, change job

description or duties, etc.

• Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 created the Senior Executive Service– Only marginally successful

Agency Point of View

• Discuss meaning• Advantages?

– Experts in fields and in policy of agency– Continuity in agency behavior

• Disadvantages?– New executives must “earn” respect– Sabotage more likely by going over the

heads of executives

Demographics• Overall very similar in structure to US society.• Minorities and women are overrepresented in

lower grades and underrepresented at the highest levels of employment.

• Tend to have more intense, political views. Whether these are liberal or conservative depends upon 2 factors:– The President’s party—chooses appointees– The agency in which one works

Figure 15.2: Federal Government: Money, People, and Regulations

Expenditures and employment: Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2000, Nos. 483 and 582; regulations; Harold W. Stanley and Richard G. Miemi, Vital Statistics on American Politics (Washington D.C>: Congressional

Quarterly Press, 1998), tables 6-12, 6-14. Post-2000 data updated by Marc Siegal.

Table 15. Federal Executive Branch (Non-postal) Employment by Race and National Origin: 1990 to 2008 Pay system 1990 % of Total 2008 % of Total

All personnel 2,150,359 1,916,726

White, non-Hispanic 1,562,846 73% 1,297,772 68%

....Grades 1 to 4 132,028 44,324 58%

....Grades 5 to 8 337,453 211,004

....Grades 9 to 12 510,261 351,302

....Grades 13 to 15 238,446 251,420

..Total executives/senior pay levels 9,337 21,793 80%

Black 356,867 17% 337,742 18%

....Grades 1 to 4 65,077 18,286 24%

....Grades 5 to 8 114,993 90,410

....Grades 9 to 12 74,985 86,054

....Grades 13 to 15 17,602 41,775

..Total executives/senior pay levels 479 1,565 6%

Hispanic 115,170 5% 136,167 7%

....Grades 1 to 4 15,738 5,459 8%

....Grades 5 to 8 28,727 31,261

....Grades 9 to 12 31,615 42,542

....Grades 13 to 15 7,138 15,754

..Total executives/senior pay levels 154 1,109 4%

Other Minority 115,476 5% 145,045 8%

....Grades 1 to 4 15,286 7,608 10%

....Grades 5 to 8 24,960 26,046

....Grades 9 to 12 31,346 35,259

....Grades 13 to 15 9,907 24,284

..Total executives/senior pay levels 148 2,851 10%

% of total% of top executives% of scales 1-4

Figure 15.3: Characteristics of Federal Civilian Employees, 1960 and 1999

Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1961, 392-394; Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2000, Nos. 450, 482, 500, 595, 1118.

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

Ideology by Agency

• Examples of liberal agencies?– EPA, FTC, FDA, State– Explanation?

• Examples of conservative agencies?– DOD, USDA, Treasury, Commerce– Explanation

• Do agencies hire because of ideology or does a person’s ideology attract them to agency?

Culture & Careers

• What is the “culture” of an agency?– Give examples of the culture of:

• Air Force• CIA• State Dept

• What are the pros & cons of a strong culture?

Sabotage• When the appointee is of a differing ideology,

how do bureaucrats respond?– Depends on how they are treated– If treated fairly, most bureaucrats do their job out

of loyalty to agency– If ignored or discredited: leaks, obstruction, and

bad PR• Civil servants are protected by the Whistle

Blower Protection Act of 1989 in some cases.– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X39zdgXSqs

• Depends on whether job is highly or loosely structured and the values of its professionals. Examples?

Below are the four factors that account for the behavior of bureaucrats.

Which one do you think the behavior of bureaucrats is most heavily determined by

(a) the manner in which they are recruited and rewarded;

(b) their personal attributes, such as their socioeconomic background and their political attitudes;

(c) the nature of the jobs they have;

(d) responsiveness to outside forces—political superiors, legislators, interest groups, or journalists?

Why? Having reached this conclusion, how much authority would you delegate to bureaucrats using these factors?

Review Questions

Discretionary Authority• You are an OSHA agent who has been sent to Dare

County to inspect a building site. The construction company responsible for the site has had continuous safety violations, one that resulted in the death of a 22-year-old man. When you arrive, you find 5 violations, including the lack of using safety harnesses. These harnesses are just the type of devices that, had the company used them 2 years ago, their worker would not have died. The violations here are enough to shut down the site. Each violation carries up to a $10,000 fine, as well. You must decide whether to shut them down and how much to fine them. For many of the company’s workers, this is the first job they have worked on in 6 months due to the sluggish economy. What will you do? Explain why.

Assignment

• Give “You are the Bureaucrat” assignment. Due Friday.

• Finish reading chapter 15, pp. 422-432.

• Take notes on iron triangles, constraints, pathologies, Congress. oversight & reforms.