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The role of Congress in policy making
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1. By whom and what means can bureaucrats and bureaucracies be held accountable for in public policy? Congress keeps an eye on things. To minimize such risks, the government must somehow rein in the bureaucracy. Bureaucratic accountability which is the ability of the government, especially the president, Congress, and the courts to hold the bureaucracy responsible for it performance and its actions (study,com). 2. What is public policymaking? Policy refers to a broad statement that reflects future goals and aspirations and provides guidelines for carrying out those goals Hill (1993: p.47) defines as the product of political influence, determining and setting limits to what the state does. Public policy to be more precise, when a government …show more content…
How can empowerment in community help shape public policy? The first thing is what empowerment is. Empowerment is about increasing people’s capacity and willingness to influence decisions that affect the quality and delivery of services provided by government and others. For communities to have a real and lasting influence on decision-making, capacity-building within the communities (Gregson, Rachel with Court, Liz (2010). What is the difference between systemic and institutional agendas? The institutional agenda is basically an action agenda and thus will be more specific and concrete in content than a systemic agenda. An institutional agenda does not guarantee that a topic will be acted up. And systemic agenda is essentially a discussion agenda most of the items. Systemic agenda as they define it consists of all issues that are commonly perceived by members of the political community as meriting public attention and as involving matters within the legitimate jurisdiction of existing governmental authority. Give an example of each. Example for systemic agenda is drug abuse and environmental protection. And institutional agenda is policy decisions made at a variety of points in the political system (J., Anderson page,
According to Cornelius Kerwin, "Rulemaking is the single most important function performed by agencies of government Rulemaking refines, and in some instances defines, the mission of every government agency. In so doing it provides direction and content from budgeting, program implementation, procurement, personnel management, dispute resolution, and other important government activities" (Preface XI). This is the foundation for the book, Rulemaking. The whole text primarily revolves around this statement. Throughout the book Kerwin's central theme is that rulemaking is the single most important function that any government agency has within its possession. Much like other admin law books he discusses how those agencies with their rulemaking powers interpret legislation and proceed forward with making policy.
Ideas of community, social progress, and culture are an ever-evolving social work issue. How do we as social workers choose to approach needs of groups and communities at the macro level? In order to grasp an understanding of true helping systems it is important for one to have a range of knowledge to justly participate within the formal helping structures an models that comprise of the social work field. In attempt to create our identity as active justice based social workers it is essential for one to conceptualize the framework of intersectionality. According to Kirsten-Ashmen, “Intersectionality involves the idea that people are complex and can belong to multiple, overlapping diverse groups “The intersectional perspective acknowledge the breath of the human experience, instead of conceptualizing social relationships and identities separately in terms of either race or class or gender or age or sexual orientation”; rather an intersectional approach focuses on the “interactional affects” of belonging to multiple groups (p. 48).” In order to remain committed to intersectionality I will apply theories and models to a progressing community in the city of Boston. A critical analysis of the strengths and weakness within each theory related to the specific community will be discussed. I will expose the intersecting layers, allowing for identity development through the lens of the macro social worker. I will begin by discussing my experience through the research process with my team members. After giving a detailed description of the project we can further explore the empowerment theory and systems theory to better explain the development of Dudley Street. The two theories are able to give an understanding of Roxbury’s forward progre...
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.
The theory of empowerment is the way the status quo can successfully be transformed. According to this theory societies wanting to change the status quo will experience three different steps. The first step in the process is forming a normative goal; this is simply what you want to change to. The normative goal is what the goal of politics should be. Those who wish to change the status quo should have a normative goal know what they are seeking from the new system. The second step needed in the process is creating a method of action; this is the process which needs to take place in order to change status quo. This is necessary ensure people are able and willing to take action necessary; they must believe the goal and method is possible before
Policy in my perspective illustrates as a decision making, planning and or action taken to achieve a certain specific goal within our society. According to Longest B. (2010), his definition stated in his text book states that a policy is defined as ” authoritative decisions made in the legislative, executive, or judicial branches of government that are intended to direct or influence the actions, behaviors, or decisions of others.” In developing a policy, certain steps need to be taken in act to implement the policy. The crucial steps in implementing a policy are: recognizing the problem, agenda setting, formulating the policy, and finally implementing the policy (N.A., 2015).
Have you ever been on a drive and became enthralled by the reminiscent stories of an elderly lady? We were driving around Salt Lake City with family looking at homes where my grandmother, Betty, lived as a child and early in her married life. She was engaged in reminiscing and shared many stories of her childhood and early married life. The interview was finished at her home. The information was written in note form. My grandmother is an 82-year-old Caucasian. Her third husband passed away a little more than a year ago. She was married to him for about fifteen years. She lives in her own home, built by her second husband, in Bountiful, Utah. Her youngest daughter, who is 42-years-old still lives at home with her. She is physically
extremes of a manager having no desire to give up his control over his employees and
One of the principles of empowerment theory is that an increase in personal self-efficacy creates a higher potential for social action (Langer & Lietz, 2015, p. 173). Thus, when empowering individuals, they become stones that create ripples in their own lives. One illustration of this idea occurs when a whole system changes as the result of one person’s modification (Langer & Lietz, 2015, p. 38). Various other social work theories, such as empowerment or narrative, also emphasize a dual perspective. This perspective entails viewing consumers’ circumstances and the societal forces or ripples that influence their position in society concurrently (Langer & Lietz, 2015, pp. 173, 188 ). In fact, the ecosystems theory adheres to this logic, and social workers apply to a wide range of professional activities (Langer & Lietz, 2015, pp. 42, 164). Through helping consumers understand how institutions and socialization affect them, social workers open a door to possible social action. Some practitioners spearhead social action themselves rather than through a consumer. An example of this is leading the creation or change of policy on a macro-level, even if the intention is to benefit consumers. Although Mother Teresa was not a social worker, she worked at both the micro and macro-levels to create ripples of
As nurses, it is important that we “be both empowered and competent enablers of patient empowerment.” (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014, p. 493) We took an oath to follow an ethical code which requires us to act as our patient’s advocate while providing safe nursing care. Nevertheless, we cannot make every medical choice or decision on their behalf. We also cannot empower them, “because to do so removes the element of choice.” (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014, p. 501) We can, however, “facilitate empowerment by working directly with patients and through addressing social, political, and environmental factors affecting empowerment of individuals and communities.” (Burkhardt & Nathaniel, 2014, p. 493) In this paper, I will discuss how nurses can provide empowerment, some of the issues and constraints affecting empowerment, and how I feel regarding empowerment in my workplace.
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
One of the aspects of bureaucracy is that it creates fixed division of labor. The benefit of fixed division of labor is that it allows humans to become specialized at what they do as they can learn from their experiences and gain more in depth knowledge on the topic. When individuals work with similar environmental uncertainties on a constant basis they obtain a better understanding of how to deal with those uncertainties. They often use their experiences to deal with the situation in ways that worked for them previously. In addition when there are assigned jobs, it is easier to hold specific individuals accountable for their tasks. This allows the organization to quickly find who caused a certain problem and fix it. Accountability leads to people being more likely to work in the best interest of the organization, as they know that there could be repercussions for not doing so. People will use the techniques that they have previous experience with and that they know work in order to not make a mistake and be held accountable. And so they will work in a stable and predictable manner. When the people in the organization work in a stable and predictable manner the organization is likely to work in the same way. Accountability also helps in solving problems and quickly getting the ...
When advocating on behalf of a population experiencing a social problem, empowerment seems to be more prevalent than one may think, although this remains a difficult skill to master. Empowerment is the process of enabling an oppressed or marginalized population to think, behave, and take action in autonomous ways. The purpose of empowerment is to assist an oppressed and/or marginalized group in overcoming feelings of powerlessness and negative valuations so they can resolve their problems and influence political change (Hardina, 2003). In social work, the goal of empowerment is to increase the power of the oppressed population or community (Hardina, 2003).
Dubois states, “a conceptualization of empowerment social work as a social justice contract requires a core of ethical preferences that gives due consideration to both the clinical and critical dimensions of empowerment social work” (Dubois, 2007). To approach their clinical work from an empowerment perspective,
Public Managers have to participate in the policy making process. Previously, according to scholars, “policy process” was considered “decision making” (Wu, Ramesh, Howlett, & Fritzen, 2010). Under such pretense, public managers considered their role merely with policy implementation. However the recent theories that define public policy, have demarcated public policy as an activity that involves a broad range of activities ranging from defining problems, ensuring the defined problems to make it to agenda, developing alternative solutions of addressing these issues, implementing the results and evaluating the outcomes.
Empowerment can vary from person to person. A broad perspective of empowerment that the majority of people can relate too is based on setting goals and achieving them. A person needs to take control of their own goals they have set and do everything possible to achieve them. This also means that you need to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses so that your goals will be more attainable. While most of these goals can be personal, they can also be applied to a career setting.