Have a conversation with someone in America today about the state of government, and it is almost guaranteed that the conversation will turn towards expressing a deep confusion, even mistrust, about the role of government in the lives of citizens. Indeed, it is almost an unconscious part of our society’s collective understanding that to be critical of government is not only a right, but also a duty. This, I believe, can be partly attributed to a general lack of insight, into the incredible complexity of governing. But, I also believe the ambivalence of citizens toward our government can be explained as a reaction to the shortcomings inherent in our modern system of governance – specifically, the shortcomings of the bureaucracy of our federal …show more content…
It is not the goal of this paper to acquaint the reader with all of the complexities of how our government has come to function the way it does. Instead, I am simply attempting to present a basic framework for understanding what our federal bureaucracy is, and how it is theorized versus how it actually works. Ultimately, my hope is to bring all of this information together to paint a picture of our modern bureaucracy, in turn allowing us to examine the ways that our bureaucracy works for and against the interests American citizens.
So, what exactly is the federal bureaucracy? In the simplest, most practical terms, it is the millions of American citizens, being employed by the federal government, conducting the daily operations of our nation’s various administrations, bureaus, departments, commissions, agencies, boards and so on. The bureaucracy is: The Food and Drug Administration; the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Elections Commission, to name just a
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While our system of government is bureaucratized, by law, the collection of institutions that make up the bureaucracy, such as those stated above, are separate from the three governing entities legitimized in the United States Constitution: The executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.
In fact, in its early stages, research has shown that our federal government functioned without much of a bureaucratic element at all, with Harvard professor Amanda Claybaugh stating in her research that (1) “in the first half of the nineteenth century, the word "bureaucracy" appeared in political writings only rarely, and very often in italics that marked the concept as suspiciously French.”
My own research supports this claim, showing that prior to the Civil War the federal government was quite constrained, and in terms of bureaucratic power, was mostly limited to the federal executive departments of State, Interior, and the Treasury. Since the Civil War however, federal departments alone have grown to include Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, Energy, Homeland Security and seven others. Again, that only includes
O’Connor, K., Sabato, L. J., Yanus, A. B, Gibson, Jr., L. T., & Robinson, C. (2011). American Government: Roots and Reform 2011 Texas Edition. United States: Pearson Education, Inc.
The Constitution of the United States set up an intricate government with a very brief document. The Constitution is actually shorter than this essay, but was still able to set up all of the procedures that make our government act so slowly today. One process that takes an especially long time is passing a bill to make a law. Every governmental action has to be put into writing and then passed by the Congress and the Supreme Court. Too many government agencies have to examine every bill. The United States government only starts at the national level with the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative branches. Everything breaks down into more areas such as the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Federal government's semi-equal is the state government. State government breaks down into several subsidiaries as well. The court system is an excellent example of how a government system breaks down from a national to a community level. For instance, the high court in America is the U.S. Supreme Court. The step down from ther...
At the beginning of the 20th century, government budgeting was a decentralized process more conducive to the small government ideals at that time. The executive branch was less involved in the process and less influential in terms of funding decisions. There were no definitive procedures and no real central authority. The submission process was informal and chaotic. Each agency subm...
Hall, Daniel E. Administrative Law: Bureaucracy in a Democracy. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2012. Print.
Following the failure of the Articles of Confederation, a debate arose discussing how a centralized government ought to be organized. The prevailing opinion ultimately belonged to the Federalists, whose philosophy was famously outlined in The Federalist Papers. Recognizing that in a free nation, man would naturally divide himself into factions, they chose not to remedy this problem by stopping it at its source; instead, they would limit its effects by placing strict structural safeguards within the government's framework. The Federalists defined a facti...
Modern Bureaucracy in the United States serves to administer, gather information, conduct investigations, regulate, and license. Once set up, a bureaucracy is inherently conservative. The reason the bureaucracy was initiated may not continue to exist as a need in the future. The need or reason may change with a change in the times and the culture needs. A bureaucracy tends to make decisions that protect it and further it’s own existence, possibly apart from the wishes of the populace. It may not consistently reflect what might be optimal in terms of the needs and wants of the people. Local governments employ most of the United States civil servants. The 14 cabinet departments in the U.S. are run day-to-day by career civil servants, which have a great deal of discretionary authority.
Whereas the six functions of government, as articulated in the Preamble remain the same, the functions have extended to govern issues not a factor during the 18th century. However, the primary function of the government to maintain order has remained unchanged. Demonstrated through various avenues, these functions are open to interpretation. Throughout time, the government continuously adapted itself to provide various services and regulations to the public that it views as beneficial for the public good. Such services have grown to include food standards, consumer protection, health, and education among others. Examples of governmental function expansion since ratification of the constitution can be seen in the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, FEMA, and much more. Through FEMA, the federal government provides disaster relief funding to help communities struck by floods and tornadoes and other natural disasters. The Department of Agriculture put out the food pyramid, which helped people develop a healthy diet. The Department of Energy provides funding for research on wind energy. Clearly, food pyramids and wind energies were ...
The United States of America is one of the most powerful nation-states in the world today. The framers of the American Constitution spent a great deal of time and effort into making sure this power wasn’t too centralized in one aspect of the government. They created three branches of government to help maintain a checks and balance system. In this paper I will discuss these three branches, the legislative, the executive, and the judicial, for both the state and federal level.
In “Constitutional Democracy and Bureaucratic Power,” Peter Woll states that our system of government, “. . in many ways supported bureaucratic organization and functions independent of the president,” (311). According to Woll, the Framers intended to establish an independent bureaucracy, as they gave Congress substantial power over the administrative “branch.” However, because of the bureaucracy’s independence, Woll asserts that, though he possesses the authority, the president often lacks the power to control the bureaucracy. Naturally, this can lead to the corruption and inefficiency of the administrative process. Also contributing to this inefficiency and corruption, is the very nature of the bureaucracy itself. By definition, a bureaucracy is a “large, complex organization of appointed officials,” (“American Government: Institutions and Politics”); this inherent complexity causes many of the issues of bureaucracy. In discussing bureaucratic agencies’ budgets, James Wilson claims that “. . since measuring the output of a bureau is often difficult. . .the bureau has a great deal of freedom within which to seek the largest possible budget,” (“The Rise of the Bureaucratic State”, Wilson). Essentially, the vastness of each bureaucratic agency makes close scrutiny a time consuming and futile effort. Additionally, Woll contends that “. . the three branches do not always use to the fullest extent their authority to regulate the bureaucracy,” (“Constitutional Democracy and Bureaucratic Power”, 314). This assertion suggests that perhaps the source of the bureaucracy’s problems lie, not within the institution itself, but within the reluctance of the other branches of government to regulate it. Wilson proffers another explanation for the bureaucracy’s inefficiency in his scrutiny of the USPS, arguing that
Those who feared that the federal government would become too strong were assured by Madison in Federalist No. 14 that “in the first place it is to be remembered that the general government is not to be charged with the whole power of making and administrating laws…The subordinate governments, which can extend their care to all those other objects which can be separately provided for, will retain their due authority and activity”
The first theory we are going to analyze is the theories of Political Control of Bureaucracy. This theory focuses on the question of bureaucracy compliance with the law and the preferences of the lawmakers. There is much distrust of American philosophy in the power of government in public administration. Theories of political control of bureaucracy have a basic objective to explain and ensure how administration can be accountable and subordinate to the formally designated institutions of democratic decision-making. The key challenge of this is the separation administration from politics. The explanatory orientation and the underlying logic in theories of political control require a conceptual distinction between politics and administration. It is this distinction that provides these frameworks with their strengths and weaknesses. A pro of this theory is the imposition of the dichotomy that provides considerable parsimony and elegance. This is done through the conceptualization administration in technical terms and not worrying about political implications. If the dichotomy remains, the theories have high explanatory capacity, providing a comprehensive, well-ordered explanation of administration that serves as a solid guide for action. Due to the lack of support of assumption of the dichotomy, this theory lacks support. Frederickson states, “The inaccurate portrayal of the real world represented by the dichotomy lessens the replicative, descri...
The concepts of ecology and power continue to go hand in hand in the field of public administration. The organizational environment across the political structure contributes to the ever flowing tide of life that makes up the administrative system of government. This system is continually breathing life into new entities while seeking to tend to the wounded agencies that it encompasses. The founding fathers may have best summarized the mandate for administrative power in the opening line of the preamble of the Consitution, "We the people..."
Wilson makes a comparison between the government systems of America and Europe and his intentions were not necessarily for America to do the same as Europe, but for us to explore and research other governments and public administrations, so that we can analyze and master our own. It is questionable why other governments have been more successful with certain matters than our own here in America. Wilson expresses relevant concerns and arguments that government systems should be further studied and improved as, it is crucial and ultimately beneficial to the nation and it’s
Bureaucracy is an organizational design based on the concept of standardization. “It is characterized by highly routine operating tasks achieved through specialization, very formalized rules and regulations, tasks that are grouped into functional departments, centralized authority, narrow spans of control, and decision making that follows the chain of command” (Judge & Robbins, 2007, p.
According to Sapru R.K. (2008) p370-371 the traditional ideal of public administration which inclined to be firm and bureaucratic was based on processes instead of outcomes and on setting procedures to follow instead of focusing on results. This paradigm can be regarded as an administration under formal control of the political control, constructed on a firmly ranked model of bureaucracy, run by permanent and neutral public servants, driven only by public concern. In emerging nations the administration was true bureaucracy meaning government by officers. In this perspective Smith (1996) p235-6 perceived that“the bureaucracy controls and manages the means of production through the government. It increases chances for bureaucratic careers by the creation of public figures,demanding public managers, marketing boards.