Unit 5: The President, the Bureaucracy and the Judiciary ppt. 6

How Bureaucracies are Organized In general, there are four types of bureaucracies Cabinet departments Regulatory agencies Government corporations Independent executive agencies

Cabinet Departments 15 cabinets; headed by a secretary except the Department of Justice, which is headed by the Attorney General. Each department manages specific policy areas, and each has its own budget and staff. Real work is done in the bureaus. 1970s-1995: Department of Health and Human Services was the largest federal department in dollars spent. Social Security Administration became independent in 1995, spending 1/3 of the federal budget.

Regulatory Agencies Each independent regulatory agency has responsibility for some sector of the economy, making and enforcing rules designed to protect the public interest. Alphabet Soup of American government: ICC FRB NLRB FCC FTC SEC

Continued… Each of the agencies is governed by a small commission, appointed by the president for fixed terms of office and confirmed by the Senate; regulatory commission members cannot be fired by the president.

The Government Corporations Provide a service that could be handled by the private sector. Typically charge for their services, though often cheaper than the consumer would pay a private sector producer. Examples include: Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) US Postal Service

Independent Executive Agencies Are not part of the cabinet departments and generally do not have regulatory functions; they usually perform specialized functions. Their administrators are typically appointed by the president and serve at his discretion. Examples: NASA NSF (National Science Foundation) GSA (General Services Administration)

Bureaucracies as Implementors Bureaucrats play three keys roles: Policy Implementors Administer public policy Regulators

Implementation Carries out decisions of Congress Rarely self-executing: bureaucrats translate legislative policy goals into programs Congress typically announces the goals in broad terms, sets up the administrative apparatus and leaves the bureaucracy the task of working out the details of the plan. Three elements of implementation: Creation of a new agency or assignment of responsibility to an old one. Translation of policy goals into operational rules of thumb and guidelines Coordination of resources and personnel to achieve the intended goals.

Reasons implementation breaks down Faulty program design – program defective in basic theoretical conception Lack of clarity – if laws are unclear, implementation becomes complex (Congress can create loopholes) Lack of resources – lacks staff (along with training, funding, supplies and equipment) Administrative routine – SOP (standard operating procedures) – this is where the “red tape” comes in Administrator’s dispositions – administrative discretion – authority of administrative actors to select among various responses to a given problem Street-level bureaucrats have the most discretion (police officers, social workers, etc)

Continued… Fragmentation – responsibility for a policy is sometimes dispersed among several units within a bureaucracy Diffusion of responsibility makes the coordination of policies time-consuming and difficult.

Voting Rights Act of 1965 Successfully implemented because the goal was clear: to register African-Americans to vote in the southern counties where their voting rights had been denied for years. The act singled out 6 states in the Deep South in which the number of African-American registered voters was minuscule. The Justice Department was ordered to send federal registrars to each county in those states to register qualified voters. Congress outlawed literacy tests and other tests previously used to discriminate against African-American registrants. Implementation of this act helped bring the vote to some 300,000 African-Americans in less than a year.