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UNIT 2 TOPIC 12

The Federal Bureaucracy H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M

THEME : Competing Policy-Making Interests

LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how the bureaucracy carries out the responsibilities of the federal government.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY

The federal bureaucracy consists of the millions of people who are employed to carry out the Responsibilities
of the federal government, and which falls under the authority of the Executive branch. Remember,
the executive branch of the government is there to Enforce the laws passed by Congress, and in order
to enforce those laws, it requires a large force of People .

In terms of bureaucratic structure, first, are the Cabinet departments of which there are
15 . For example, you have the Department of Defense and the Department of
E=ducation. .

All the people that make up the president’s cabinet are the Heads of those departments.

Each of those departments are further subdivided into Agencies which all work together to accomplish
the Goals of the department. For example, the mission of the Department of the Treasury is to “maintain
a strong Economy ,” and in order to get that done, there are several agencies Within the
department that work to achieve that end. For example,there is the Internal Revenue Service which is
responsible for collecting Taxes and deciding when and how that occurs, and you have the United
States Mint which coins and prints all our money.

Then under the heading of bureaucracy we have independent Regulatory commissions . They’re
independent because they operate somewhat apart from the president’s Authority , but they’re still
Associsiated. with the executive branch.

These commissions do what their name suggests: they are created for the specific purpose of Regulating

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UNIT 2 TOPIC 12

The Federal Bureaucracy H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M

THEME : Competing Policy-Making Interests

LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how the bureaucracy carries out the responsibilities of the federal government.

THE STRUCTURE OF THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY cont’d.

some aspect of society. For example, there is the Federal Communications commission. (FCC)
which is responsible for making sure obscene language doesn’t end up on our television broadcasts.

The final kind of bureaucratic entity you should know about is the government Corporation . This
is kind of a Hybrid between a government agency and a private Business . When there
are services the government wants to offer to the public, but the Free market is the best way to do it,
then a government corporation is created. Then next time you go outside to check your mail, you can think about
government corporations because one of the biggest of these is the U.S. Postal service .

SUMMARIZE the notes above in your own words. (2-4 sentences)

HOW THE BUREAUCRACY GETS ITS WORK DONE

First, these organizations Write and Enforce regulations. For example, if you’ve ever seen
Closed cap[tions on a video or TV screen, that’s because in the mid 90s the FCC made it a rule that
closed captions be included for those with Disabilities .

Which brings us to the next thing these organizations do, namely issue Fines for non-compliance.

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UNIT 2 TOPIC 12

The Federal Bureaucracy H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M

THEME : Competing Policy-Making Interests

LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how the bureaucracy carries out the responsibilities of the federal government.

HOW THE BUREAUCRACY GETS ITS WORK DONE cont’d.

If businesses don’t abide by the provisions of the Clean Air Act and Pollute the environment,
then the Environmental Protection Agency will issue them with a fine. And that’s what’s known as
Compliance Monitoring .

The third thing these bureaucratic organizations do is to interact with Congress . The department heads
are often Experts in their field and so they’ll go to congressional committees to Testify
on behalf of the dealings of the agency or department.

These bureaucratic agencies often work very closely with congressional Parties and
Interest groups, and when they do so, this relationship is called an Iron triangle . These
three entities work together and rely on one another’s Strength in order to make Policies .

Bureaucrats offer Expertise to congressional committees with whom they are eager to cooperate
since it’s Congress who approves Funding for their departments. Committee members want
to pay attention to interest groups because they often have Policies experts who can inform
them of the Implications of certain policies, and interest groups can provide funding for
Congressional races. If interest groups help get these Congress people elected, then they will likely
provide funding for a bureaucratic agency that will address the Interests of the interest group and on
around the triangle we go.

These days, iron triangles aren’t as Strong as they have been in the past, and partly that’s because the
number of Competing interest groups have multiplied dramatically. Another reason is the prevalence of
Issue networks which have worked to weaken iron triangles.

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UNIT 2 TOPIC 12

The Federal Bureaucracy H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M

THEME : Competing Policy-Making Interests

LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how the bureaucracy carries out the responsibilities of the federal government.

HOW THE BUREAUCRACY GETS ITS WORK DONE cont’d.

For example, an iron triangle that formed around Tobacco interests could be severely
Disrupted by an issue network which is a conglomeration of many interests who sometimes will
disagree about a lot of things, but come together around one specific Issue , and seek to effect
Change . If one of these issue networks is alarmed that so many Americans are using tobacco, then
they have influence to Break the triangle.

SUMMARIZE the notes above in your own words. (2-4 sentences)

HOW THE EFFICIENCY OF THE BUREAUCRACY HAS CHANGED

Back in the days of Andrew Jackson, getting a job in the bureaucracy was the result of something called the
Spoils system.

In Jackson’s day when the president won an election, that meant that he had hundreds of bureaucratic
Spots to fill, and so he would give them to those who were not necessarily Qualified for the jobs
but rather to those who Supported his candidacy.

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UNIT 2 TOPIC 12

The Federal Bureaucracy H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M

THEME : Competing Policy-Making Interests

LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how the bureaucracy carries out the responsibilities of the federal government.

HOW THE EFFICIENCY OF THE BUREAUCRACY HAS CHANGED cont’d

Such a system can go sideways pretty quickly as it did in 1881 in the Assasination of president
James Garfield. Just like every president before him, Garfield began his term by hearing from thousands of
Applicants for bureaucratic jobs, people who had helped him get Elected . And there were
more people Applying than there were jobs to give out, so some people had to be told No .

He told one particular guy named Charles Guiteau “no job for you” and in response, Guiteau found Garfield
at a train station and Shot him. So that event created the occasion for Reform in the
way people got bureaucratic jobs, and the word for that is Civil service reform. The result was
the Pendelton civil service act of 1883 which created a Merit based system for
applicants seeking jobs in the bureaucracy. Now, jobs went to people who were actually Qualified for
them rather than people who just supported the candidate.

It helped increase the Effectiveness of the bureaucracy since Incompetent people were now
working in these jobs.

That reform continued into the 20th century in order to make the bureaucracy more Professional ,
Specialized , and Neutral . Under Jimmy Carter’s administration Congress passed the
Civil service reform act of 1978 which upheld the merit-based system in place but
also further expanded opportunities for Women to work in the bureaucracy and increased the
Efficiency of many departments.

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UNIT 2 TOPIC 12

The Federal Bureaucracy H E I M L E R S H I S T O R Y. C O M

THEME : Competing Policy-Making Interests

LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how the bureaucracy carries out the responsibilities of the federal government.

SUMMARIZE the notes from the previous page in your own words. (2-4 sentences)

RESPOND to the learning objective with an evidence-based, argumentative thesis.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE : Explain how the bureaucracy carries out the responsibilities of the federal government.

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