Bureaucracy

• civil servants - (Permanent) employees of bureaucratic agencies within the government. After three years of good performance, a civil servant cannot be fired without cause, helps remove politics and corruption from the bureaucracy. 
• Political appointees - Political in nature and can be used as a form of patronage by the president, meaning they often come and go with the different presidents. They are not regulated by civil service merit laws, short tenure based on how long the president or party is in the White House. The ability to make political appointments helps the president exercise some control over the bureaucracy. 
• Spoils system - It was first widely used by Andrew Jackson and follows the idea of acquiring jobs based on who you know or patronage. This resulted in many unqualified people in important positions. 

  Merit system - It came about as a result of the Pendleton Act of 1883 to resolve issues with the spoils system. It follows the idea of acquiring jobs based on what you know or experience. It includes competitive civil service exams and education.
• Pendleton Act - ends the spoils system and implements the merit system

  Hatch Act - Prohibited civil servants from taking activist roles in partisan campaigns and protects them from being forced to campaign by bosses. For example, no poltical contributions, no helping on campaign, and can only participate through voting. 
• Rule-Making process (Policy Implementation)

  1. Law gets passed
  2. Assigned to agency by President
  3. Rulemaking/Regulations is open to public comment and includes administrative discretion 
  4. Published in federal register
  5. Congressional oversight
• Police patrol oversight - A method of oversight in which members of Congress constantly monitor the bureaucracy to make sure that laws are implemented correctly.

  Fire alarm oversight - A method of oversight in which members of Congress respond to complaints about the bureaucracy or problems of implementation only as they arise rather than exercising constant vigilance.
• Turkey farms “to throw away an agency because you deem it irrelevant.” Agences to which campaign workers and donors can be appointed in reward for their service because it is unlikely that their lack of qualifications will lead to bad policy. Administrative discretion commonly laws provide only general guidelines so this gives the bureaucracy decision making power
• Notice and comment procedure - A step in the rule-making process in which proposed rules are published in the Federal Register and made available for debate by the general public. 

  Red tape - maze of government rules/paperwork which can be very overwhelming to citizens 
• Bureaucratic drift - Bureaucrats’ tendency to implement policies in a way that favors their own political objectives rather than following the original intentions of the legislation.

  Administrative adjudication - agencies decide the best way to implement laws often leading to bureaucratic drift
• Criticisms of the Bureucracy

  • Red Tape
  • Agencies sometimes do duplicate work
  • Too many agencies
  • Too much government spending
  • Lack of accountability (hard to get fired like teachers)
• Congress can check the bureaucracy:

  • Alter an agency’s budget (determine appropriations - power of the purse)
  • Rewrite legislation to correct a problem 
  • Oversight with either constant communication (police patrol) or reactive (fire alarm)
  • Approve or reject appointment agency heads (Senate)
  • Create abolish, reorganzie, agencies
  • Amend the Constitution
• Checks by the President on the executive branch

  • Issue executive orders (forces the government agency to act)
  • Appoint or remove agency heads
  • Propose and put pressure on Congress to (Rewrite legislation, Alter the budget, and Create, abolish, or reorganzie agencies)
• Checks by the Judicary on the executive branch

  • Rule on constitutionally of bureaucratic actions
  • Issue injunctions (temporary legal actions to challenge)
• Other checks on executive Branch

  • Hiring, firing, and pay determned by law
  • Freedom of Information Act - everything is open to the public (more information upon ask)
  • Agencies have overlapping responsibilities - checks and balances on themselves in a way