The Bureaucracies Process

When the framers of the Constitution developed our government, they gave Congress the authority to create the departments necessary to carry out the day-to-day responsibilities of governing - the federal bureaucracy. The vast majority of the departments, agencies, and commissions that make up the federal bureaucracy today were created by Congress through legislative acts. Congress is unable to act in a bubble though, due to the nature of the system’s built-in checks and balances, Congress must first get the president’s “buy off” which is represented by his signature. Although Congress has the authority to create these agencies (with the president’s agreement

Throughout the rigmarole of political history of the United States of America, the growth of the “fourth branch of government”, the Bureaucracy, has been a prominent, controversial topic. Peter Woll, in his article “Constitutional Democracy and Bureaucratic Power”, and James Q. Wilson, in his article “The Rise of the Bureaucratic State”, discuss this developing administrative branch. The Constitution has no written mention of an “administrative branch”, and today’s Bureaucracy is often tedious, corrupt, and even undemocratic. But such a branch’s development and expansion is necessary in order to keep par with an evolving and changing society.

Bureaucracy involves non-elected agents that are often seen as the “worker bees” of government such as those in civil service. They execute the law through an organized structure that maintains specific functions, rules, and procedures. They must not be taken for granted. One example of the use of regulations would be the FDA’s role to ensure American health through appropriate regulation of new medication. Through the effective hierarchal organization, duties are completed faster and more efficiently. Some also argue that bureaucracy decreases room for favoritism and all have equal opportunity. For example, all students applying for loans will have their application reviewed, thus creating an equal opportunity for all. Similarly, bureaucracy allows for the hiring of expert officials who show merit and gives the opportunity to be promoted. While they are not involved the process of policy

The institutions and traditions of American life have contributed to the growth of adversary culture, which protects the personal rights of people and the expansion of those rights.

These elected officials include congress and the president. However, they only have control law making and budget. A much larger portion of government is the bureaucracies, which are indirectly influenced by the people. These groups and institutions have very little oversight by elected officials, with exception to budget. The function of bureaucracies are three-fold. The first duty is to implement the laws that are passed by congress. Second, to collect fees and administer the law. Finally, to regulate by keeping the law and institution adaptable to needs. These three duties give an enormous amount of power to an unelected group of

The bureaucracy provides necessary administrative functions, like conducting examinations, issuing permits and licenses, and collecting fees. The bureaucracy regulates various government activities. The four levels of the bureaucracy are the Executive/Cabinet departments (treasury, defense,

The Bureaucracy was created by the framers to guarantee limited and responsible government. The constitutional framework was designed to do this, but a lot of the framework isn’t even apart of our federal Bureaucracy today. This is because of the separation of powers that the Congress, The President, and the Judiciary branch has or is fighting for the total power of the administrative branch.

Federal bureaucrats can slow down or stall a president’s agenda by claiming lack of knowledge or by using interests groups. Bureau chiefs can claim they do not have enough information to make a decision, especially a decision involving other bureaus. By doing this, they are claiming then need more time to investigate, which slows the president’s policies. By using interest groups, bureaucrats can go through Congress. This interest groups plead to their Senators and House reps, which takes longer to have the president’s policies in place by law. They can also sabotage a president’s agenda by leaking unauthorized information. This reduces the president’s credibility and forces people to think about the effect of the new information on the policies. Bureaucrats would do these things, because they support their burea more than the president. These bureaucrats “sincerely believe in their bureau’s purpose and feel they must protect its jurisdiction, programs, and budget at all costs”(Heclo 275). Presidents and administrations chance, but the bureaus stay and bureaucrats try to stand in its best standings.

Instead of having Congress, and the president accomplish all the tasks within the national government, some task are often delegated to various corporations and agencies. Whenever a policy or a program is created by the federal government, they depend upon the different bureaucracies to monitor it (Thisnation.com). The bureaucrats are often prescribed strict guidelines, by congress regarding the implementation of the new laws, and programs (Thisnation.com). There are four main bureaucracies within the United States, which includes: independent agencies, government corporations, departments, and independent regulatory commissions (Thisnation.com).

Chapter eight of “Essentials of American Government Roots and Reform” describes the federal bureaucracy and its function within the federal government. The book defines the federal bureaucracy as “the thousands of federal government agencies and institutions that implement and administer federal laws and programs.” I argue that while the federal bureaucracy is necessary for some functions, in other ways it has grown too large and burdensome, and the individual agencies’ function and power should be narrowed and reduced.

The Constitution is a plan to help the government help the people. There are many events that helped form the Constitution, but here are a few; Shay’s Rebellion, The Stamp, Sugar, and Quartering Acts, The Revolutionary War, and the First Constitutional Convention. The Constitution once worked for the United States, but we have since expanded. We have advanced technologically, we have a risk of an aristocracy, and the Constitution doesn’t give everyone representation.

In the United States, the national government utilizes a framework called governing rules to guarantee that the three extensions of government are working similarly and that no other branch gets to be above the other two. The three brunches that are focused around the standard of differentiated organizations offering force are the legislative, executive and judicial. Each one extension has controls that it can use to check and

A bureaucracy is not only needed in American democracy, furthermore, it plays an essential role to keep it running smoothly. Some American citizens disagree that bureaucracies are beneficial for our democracy because they do not get to vote in the officials or bureaucrats. However, if they would be elected officials then the nominees running would campaign for fame or to be the next bureaucrat. This would create disloyalty among the nominees. One of the responsibilities of government bureaucrats is to implement the law given by Congress. If bureaucracy did not exist this responsibility would be delegated to congress, and the checks and balance system would not be as influential pertaining to laws. The Federal Bureaucracy provides the American people with the fifteen executive departments. These departments are incredibly important and they address and regulate the protection, health, education, transportation, etc, of the citizens of America. American democracy depends on and benefits greatly on the organized bureaucracies in government.

In evaluating bureaucratic performance, efficiency seems like the best or only criterion to use. After all, it makes sense to relate their performances to how well the agencies are doing their jobs or how much public good they are providing for the citizens. However, in my opinion, there is a more important standard on how we should evaluate their performance, and that is by how democracy is affected. In a country like the United States, where we are very passionate about freedom and democracy, we should be wary whether the actions of the federal bureaucracy is promoting or hampering our democracy. The federal bureaucracy is more democratic by how President nominates political appointees and how Congress either support or deny their nomination.

Abstract: The theory of bureaucracy was proposed and published by Marx Weber (1947). Although there are some studies on this perspective were discussed before him, those theories did not form as systematic theory. After Weber, the issue of bureaucracy becomes a hot topic in the field of social organization. Almost all well-known scholars such as Martin and Henri have published their views on it. Bureaucracy adapted as the traditional organizational model during industrial society, essentially, bureaucracy could exist rational. This essay firstly will review the principle of bureaucracy in organization based on organizational design perspective. Secondly, it will analyze the strengths and weakness of