The Bureaucracy
Terms
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- acquisitive model
- A model of bureaucracy in which top-level bureaucrats seek to expand their budgets and staff to gain greater power and influence in the public sector.
- administrative agency
- An agency that is part of the executive branch, an independent agency, or and independent regulatory agency. State and local governments also have administrative agencies.
- agency imperialism
- A common problem with governmental bureaucracies, in which the agencies grown with no limit and without an eye to the benefits they're intended to provide.
- appropriation
- Congressional passage of a spending bill, specifying the amount of funds previously authorized that will actuallly be allocated for an agency's use.
- authorization
- A legislative action establishing or continuing a certain amount of funding for an agency. Some authorizations terminate in one year; others are automatically renewed without futher action.
- bureaucracy
- An administrative system that executes policies and carries out specific functions by using standardized procedures in a hierarchical structure.
- bureaucracy problem
- A collection fo incentives and constraints facing those working to make government more efficient. They include accountability, equity, responsiveness, efficiency, and fiscal integrity.
- beaucratic pathologies
- Problems shared by all or most federal bureaus or agencies. They include bureaucratic red tape, mission conflict, mission duplication, agency imperialism, and bureacratic waste.
- bureaucratic red tape
- Probably the most common complaint about bureaucracies, red tape refers collectively to hte complex rules and procedures that cause delays and sometimes make it difficult to get something done.
- bureaucratic reform
- The effort to make bureaucracies operate more efficiently.
- bureaucratic waste
- Unnecessary bureaucratic spending of money without providing real benefits.
- Cabinet
- The president's core adivsory group. The Cabinet presently numbers 14 department secretaries. Depending on the president, the Cabinet may be highly influential or relatively insignificant in its advisory capacity.
- capture
- The act of gaining direct or indirect control of a regulatory agency's personnel and decision-makers by the industry that is being regulated.
- Civil Service Commission
- The central personnel agency of the national government, created in 1883. The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 abolished the CSC. The Office of Personnel Management assumed most of its functions at that time, except for its quasijudicial functions, which the Merit System Protection Board assumed.
- Civil Service Reform Act (1978)
- An act that reformed the federal bureaucracy. It established the Office of Personnel Management and the Merit Systems Protection Board.
- contractin out
- Replacing services provided by the government with services provided by private firms, through contractual agreements with the government.
- deregulation
- The elimination of governmental controls, especially over private companies.
- division of labor
- Method of splitting the responsibilities associated with a job amongst different workers.
- entreprenurial government
- New model of government advocated as a replacement for our current bureaucratic government system. Promotes competition among service providers, empowerment of citizens, focusing on outcomes, reaching goals and missions, redefining clients as customers, preventing problems before they surface, earning money, decentralizing authority, use of market mechanisms, and serving as a catalyst to promote action in the public, private, and volunteer sectors of communities.
- Executive Order 12291
- Order made by President Ronald Reagan requiring that the Office of Management and Budget review all proposals for new executive branch regulations.
- fourth branch of government
- A term refering to the federal bureaucracy.
- garbage can model
- Bureaucratic model that views bureaucracies as directionless, with little formal organization. According to this model, bureaucracies make decisions without the benefit of forethought and rational policy planning, relying instead on trial and error.
- General Service (GS) system
- Basic pay system for the federal government's white collar employees.
- government corporation
- A government agency that runs a business enterprise. Its activities are mainly commercial and produce revenue for continued existence. Government corporations have more freedom of action than do regular departments of government.
- Government Accounting Office (GAO)
- A governmental agency created by Congress in 1921 to review government agency performance, and the receipt and distribution of public funds.
- Government in the Sunshine Act
- Law passed in 1977 requiring all multiheaded federal agencies to perform their duties in open sessions. Closed meetings are permitted for only specific subjects, such as national defense, but participants must keep minutes of those meetings.
- Hatch Act (Political Activities Act)
- A law passed in 1939 that limited contributions to political parties and spending by political parties. Most importantly, the Act made it illegal for individuals and companies under contract with the federal government to contribute to political candidates and their parties.
- hierarchy
- A principle of organizationn in which each person or office is under control of and responsible to the next highest level.
- incrementalism
- A doctrine that holds that change in a political system occurs only by small steps, each of which should be carefully considered before proceeding to the next one.
- independent executive agency
- A federal agency that reports to the president but isn't part of a Cabinet-level department. including Small Business Administration and the Office of Personnel Management. These agencie' officials often have been terms that overlap those of presidents to avoid undue control by the president.
- independent regulatory agency
- A multiheaded agency outside the major executive departments and responsible for making and implementing rules and regulations to protect the public interest. They include the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commision, and the Federal Reserve Board. These agencies can establish rules for industries they regulate and prosecute those who break the rules. Members are appointed by the president, subject to the Senate's consent.
- inner Cabinet
- Refers to the oldest most important Cabinet departments, which play roles in day-to-day governemtn decision making. They include the Department of State, Treasury, Justice, and Defense.
- iron triangle
- A three-way alliance between political organizations or agents, It is generally thought that iron triangles hinder the polictical process by puttting their own interests ahead of national interests.
- issue network
- A loose collection of parties interested in a policy area and affected by government policy. These interests include policy experts, industry players, interest groups, congressional committees and government agencies.
- line organization
- A government or corporate unit responsible for providing services or products to the public, in contrast to a staff agency, which serves other agencies.
- merit principle
- The principle that in employment individuals shoudl be selected, retained, and promoted based solely on their ability, knowledge, and skills.
- merit system
- A system for selecting employees through competitive testing, and retaining and promoting them based on their abilities, knowledge, and skills.
- mission conflict
- A bureaucratic pathology in which the roles of different agencies within the bureaucracy.
- mission duplication
- A bureaucratic pathology in which the roles of different agencies within the bureaucracy are the same or overlap.
- monopolistic model
- A bureaucratic model that compares bureaucracies to monopolistic businesses. Without competition, the bureaucracy results in inefficiency and higher costs. And since there's no penalty for its inefficiency, the bureaucracy has no incentive to reduce its costs or use its resources more efficiently.
- National Partnership for Reinventing Government
- A plan for bureaucratic reform launched under former President Clinton and headed by Vice President Al Gore. It's commonly known as the "the plan to reinvent government".
- Office of Personnel Management
- The federal agency that administers civil service employment.
- outer cabinet
- The out Cabinet refers to Cabinet departments that are less important to the day-to-day functioning of the governement and were created to look after needs of various constituencies.
- patronage system
- A system in which elected officials make appointments to office or to confer contracts or other special favors based on party affiliation.
- Pendleton Act (Civil Service Reform Act) (1883)
- A law that made national governemnt employment dependent on open, competitive exams. The Pendleton Act brought patronage, or spoils, system developed by Andrew Jackson to an end. The Act was passed as a direct result of the assassination of President Garfield at the hands of someone who had wanted, but had not recieved a government job.
- political appointments
- Presidential granting of federal jobs to reqard friends and supporters.
- reinventing government
- A bureaucratic reform effort instituted by President Clinton and headed by VP Al Gore. It is driven by four guiding principles: 1) increase customer satisfaction, 2) institute less centralized management, 3) empower front-line employees, and 4) cut government services back to basics.
- Senior Executive Service
- An elite group of governmental managers outside the regular merit system, established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978.
- specialization
- Area of responsibility and expertise associated with a job.
- spoils system
- A system of awarding government jobs to political supporters and friends. Also known as patronage, the spoils system is generally associated with President Andrew Jackson, who felt that government work was so simple anyone could do it and that bringing in new people into the government employ kept the government vital.
- standard operating procedures
- Established methods routinely followed for the perfromance of specific operations or in specific situations.
- sunset legislation
- A law with provisions that call for the law's expiration after a certain period of time. After that time, the law can be renewed after consideration by a legislative body. If the law isn't renewed, the law is no longer valid, or provisions set forth under the law for what to do if it's not renewed go into effect.
- symbolic politics
- A cause of incrementalism, whereby politicians give the appearance of taking decisive action, in order to please the voting public, while they're actually avoiding making substansive policy changes in order to please specific interest groups.
- Weberian model
- German sociologist Max Weber developed the Weberian model of bureaucracy, which holds that bureaucracies are hierarchial organizations that direct power from top to bottom and make decisions by analyzing date and reasoning logically.
- whistleblower
- An employee who publicizes illegeal, inefficient, or unethical actions in a government department or contractor working for the government.
- Munn v. Illinois (1877)
- A case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the government can regulate business operations.