U.S. GOVERNMENT & POLITICS, SPRING 2011

BUREAUCRATIC AGENCIES: MORE THAN YOU EVER WISHED TO KNOW

OSY chapter 8; Woll 54 (Woll), 55 (Wilson)

Monday, March 14

OSY 8 terms to know: bureaucracy, spoils system and patronage, civil service system and merit system, independent regulatory commission, appointive policy-making positions (also called “Schedule C” political appointees), Cabinet departments, independent executive agencies, government corporations, Hatch Act, implementation, “iron triangle” concept and issue networks (which we discussed before with Congress), interagency councils, administrative discretion, rule making, regulations, administrating adjudication, executive orders

CABINET DEPARTMENTS (list is in the chart on top of pp. 230-231)

• Broad responsibilities in a particular area
• More public visibility (relatively), more political than the other types
• Cabinet secretaries can have divided focus & loyalty – to the president, to their departments

INDEPENDENT REGULATORY COMMISSIONS

• To regulate a specific economic activity
• Develop expertise, given broad powers in their area
• Usually run by a board/group of people appointed by President, confirmed by Senate; commissioners are not easily removed from their positions
• These commissions are NOT nonpolitical or always nonpartisan, but they are relatively free to regulate in their area without significant interference

INDEPENDENT EXECUTIVE AGENCIES

• Less ‘independent’ than IRCs
• More narrow responsibilities than in Cabinet departments
• Usually created for an important function – intelligence, environment – that does not quite merit Cabinet level status
• Single leaders, appointed by President and confirmed by Senate; serve at President’s pleasure, can be removed if President wishes

GOVERNMENT CORPORATIONS

• Businesses created by Congress – they try to make money and support themselves
• Most face some private sector competition (US Postal Service) but some have almost no competition (Amtrak)
• Congress can choose to cover their operating costs if they don’t make money

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TODAY’S MAJOR POINT: Agencies and commissions have some functions that involve rule making (legislative), many functions in carrying out rules and laws (executive), and often some role in punishing wrongdoers such as administrative adjudication (judicial). They are something of an exception to the separation of powers concept – this is a constitutionally valid structure, but also not quite what Framers had in mind. Woll 54 elaborates on this point (see below).

ISSUE NETWORKS, again (first covered on March 2) – ALL agencies/departments operate in concert with (and sometimes in opposition to) other players – Congress/committees, OMB, other agencies, interest groups, the media, the public. The agencies can gain support from anywhere to protect/enhance their power and reputation, or they can be controlled by the other players. The issue network concept (sometimes termed subgovernments) has superseded the “iron triangle” concept among political scientists who study bureaucracy.

TODAY’S WOLL READINGS

54 Woll notes the important shared powers of Congress and the President with respect to the bureaucracy. Congress creates agencies and determines their authority and budget; the President has influence over this process, too. A key recurring question is, to whom is the federal bureaucracy accountable? Woll concludes the president is the focus of accountability, as the only nationally elected official and the person to whom most bureaucratic agencies and departments reports. But the Constitution does not spell out much about how this is to work in practice.

55 James Q. Wilson, considered the leading political scientist who has studied bureaucratic agencies: he traces the history of the growth of the executive branch and focused in on bureaucratic clientalism – specific agencies and departments are created to serve particular clients, justified usually as serving the public interest; BUT over time, the interests of the clients lead to perpetuation and expansion of the department/agency, no longer necessarily for the public good. Wilson also reminds us that state and local governments are key issue network players, because they receive most of the funding that agencies and departments control.

Questions:

1. You run an independent executive agency – let’s say NASA, responsible for the U.S. space program. What players in the issue network would you try to develop good relations with, and what tactics could you use to do so? NASA’s issue network list here

2. The U.S. public generally has a low approval rating for “the bureaucracy” – why?

3. Whose responsibility is it to improve the work of federal agencies and departments?