Bureaucracy Synthesis

The bureaucracy is a system of organization and control that is baaed on three principles: hierarchical authority, job specialization, and formalized rules. The hierarchical authority is the chain of command where officials at the top have authority over those in the middle, who in turn have more authority than those are at the bottom. This Speeds up action by reducing conflict over the power to make decisions since those high in the organization have authority over those below them. Job specialization explicitly defines the duties for each job position and the precise division of labor within the organization. This is efficient because each individual concentrates on a particular job and becomes proficient in it. The formalized rules are the established procedures and regulations by which a bureaucracy conducts its operations. Workers can make quick judgments because decisions are based on preset rules rather than on a case by case basis.

Within the bureaucracy are branches of agencies. Cabinet/Executive Departments are the leading administrative units that serve the president and excel in a general policy area such as law enforcement or defense, examples including the Department of Justice, Department of State, and Department of Defense. Independent agencies include CIA and NASA, and resemble cabinet departments but are different since they are typically narrower in area of responsibility and can possibly cause symbolic or practical problems when placed in a department. For example, NASA could be placed in the Department of Defense, but doing so would mean that NASA exists only for military purposes and not for civilian purposes such as space exploration and satellite communication. Regulatory agencies are created when Congress recognizes the need for ongoing regulation of a particular economic activity. Such examples include: SEC which oversees the stock and bond markets, CPFB which regulates banks, credit unions, and security firms ,and EPA which regulates industrial pollution. Regulatory agencies can develop law-like regulations and then judge whether individuals or organizations are following with them. For example, the EPA can impose fines and other penalties on business firms that violate environmental regulations. Government corporations are similar to private corporations in that charge clients for their services and are governed by a board of directors, but receive federal funding to help defray operating expenses. Such examples include the FDIC ensuring people's saving accounts from bank failures, Amtrak providing passenger rail service, and the U.S postal service delivering mail. Lastly, are presidential commissions, which provide advice to the presidents. They can be permanent bodies for multiple use such as the Commission on Civil Rights and the Commission on Fine Arts or temporary bodies used for a one time purpose, such as President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security.

There are two basic systems used when hiring administrative officials. The merit system sets the conditions of hiring people only if they score high on a competitive exam (postal service, civil service) or have specialized training (lawyers, engineers, scientists). Neutral competence is the the administrative objective of the merit system. Being “neutral” means that employees are not partisan appointees and are expected to serve everyone) and being “competent” means that employees are hired and retained on the basis of their skills. The patronage system utilizes the practice of filling administrative offices with people who had supported the winning party; however, when this system is used corruptly, a branch call the spoils system forms, where inexperienced, unfit friends/acquaintances of officers are given the job. This was a popular practice used during president Andrew Jackson's term.

The main job of administrative agencies is policy implementation, the process of executing the decisions made by Congress, the president, and the courts. Agencies are limited by the size of their federal budget, which charges for every little item, such as delivery services (delivering mail for example). The budgetary process requires several steps to finalize. Initially the Office of Management an Budget (OMB) establishes the general budget guidelines, one example being the budget ceiling each agency cannot pass. Agencies then create their detailed budget according to the guidelines and submit it back to the OMB for review. The OMB finalizes the budgets and combines them with the president's budget proposal and priorities. About two-thirds of the budget involves mandatory spending (ex: social-security) and the other one-third is used for discreptionary spending (defense, education, foreign aid, national parks, highways), meaning the president essentially has no right to reduce these payments, nonetheless make any big changes to the budget. He/she can only create the margins of the budget, choosing to increase or decrease spending according to the previous years.

Bureaucrats have a few different areas of unique powers, consisting of specialized knowledge, support of interests that benefit from their programs, and the backing of the president and Congress. In order to find a solution to a problem, the power of expertise, or a deep understanding of the issue, is necessary. Congress members only have a basic film of understanding of an issue, and require the specialized expertise of bureaucrats. For example, in order to have a policy change in order to resolve the issue of the US having a trade deficit with China, a deep understanding of basic steps such as the form of the new policy, its probably cost and effectiveness, and America's standing with Asia are also necessary. Most federal agencies were created for the purpose of promoting , protecting, or regulating a particular interest. Every federal agency has clintele groups which lobby Congress and the president on behalf of the federal agency when its programs are being reviewed. The president and Congress may conflict with the bureaucracy, but are also extremely dependent on them. The agency's resources, programs, expertise, and group support, can help elected officials achieve their goals. For example, back when Obama announced his goal of making the US less dependent on foreign oil, he needed the help of the Department of Energy's experts to make programs that would fulfill that goal. Agencies have many allies in Congress, and they are important for funding and programs, as shown with the Department of Agriculture and the congressional agriculture sector.

Bureaucratic accountability is the degree to which bureaucrats are held responsible for for their power. Bureaucracies are quite big, making it difficult for presidents to coordinate activities and make bureaucracies more responsive. Lack of communication between the FBI and CIA lead to terrorist attacks such as World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9/11. Presidents have tried to make bureaucracies more responsible by reorganizing them, but only small changes have been made. For example, Umar Farouk Abdulmatallab almost detonated plastic explosives on a plane to Amsterdam if it wasn't for the efforts of the other passengers on the plane. Later on,he still managed to escape detection when US intelligence officers failed to put his name on the “no-fly list”, a poor job done by the US's intelligence system.

Congress, as the source of programs and funding for agency's, plays the “power of the purse” role in monitoring bureaucracies. It decides how much money will be spent on agency programs. In addition, through the Congress oversight function, Congress can also monitor the bureaucracy's work to ensure agreement with the original legislative intent and even late legislative action to correct issues. However, Congress's main weakness is that due to having a very limited, short amount of time and expertise, it is unable to thoroughly detail the gears of the programs.

Like the respective legislative and executive branches, the judiciary also has its right to oversee the bureaucracy. If an agency fails to carry out a law properly, the injured party has every right to file a lawsuit against that agency. And through the consent of the court, the agency must therefore change its policy. For example, Of course, courts tend to support the agencies if their actions as least somewhat follow the law they were administering. The Supreme Court states that unless if Congress has specifically established something contrary about the law, the agencies are free to apply any reasonable interpretation of it and have flexibility in order to operate efficiently.

As an extra layer of ensuring the accountability of the bureaucracy, there are mechanisms within the bureaucracy itself that guarantee this, consisting of the Senior Executive Service (SES), administrative law judges, whistle-blowing, and demographic representatives. The SES is the compromise between a president led bureaucracy and an expert one. The SES is composed of seven thousand top level career civil servants who can be assigned by the president to any position within the bureaucracies. In order to decrease the bureaucracy's agency point of view (serves itself more than Congress or the president), these civil servants act as the intermediates between presidential appointees (has the power to limit what agencies do) and agent civil servants. When an individual feel that he or she has been unfairly disadvantaged by a bureaucrat's decision , the administrative law judge handles the dispute. Operating a much more informal means of conducting law hearings, administrative law judges, administrative law judges still devote themselves to protecting individuals from arbitrary, prejudicial, or incorrect agency decisions even they though they themselves are part of that agency. Bureaucratic corruption is battled through the act of whistle-blowing, reporting of instances of official mismanagement. In addition, the Whistle-blowing Protection Act protects whistleblowers from retaliation from their superiors and even gives them financial rewards if their information results in savings for the government. Demographic representatives helps represent the many minorities in society and increase the expressed opinions in the bureaucracy. This has been proven with the improvements in employment and treatment for women, civil servants, and other minorities.