Bureaucracy

When the Constitution was created, it was not designed to govern a bureaucratic nation. The way that the constitution was written does not give bureaucratic control to any branch in particular. Often regarded as the fourth branch of the United States government, the bureaucracy has grown greatly in size and is only influenced by the other branches but no longer controlled by branches. Although it is debated which branch has more control over the bureaucracy, Legislative or Executive, it is possible that not one specific branch has control. Rather the Judicial, Executive, and Legislative branches all have authority in the makings of the bureaucracy and all the departments that allow the country to run smoothly.

The bureaucracy is commonly known as those who work for the government and implement all the policies that are made into laws. The bureaucracy is so much more though. It includes a large majority of the population and ranges drastically in terms of job requirements and duties. The main purpose of the bureaucracy is to implement the government policies and regulations, which are typically laws passed by Congress or mandates made by the president. There are four parts that make up the bureaucracy including, the cabinet, Independent Executive Agencies, Independent Regulatory Agencies, and Government Corporations. These are ways to classify different bureaucratic departments. The Cabinet is typically larger departments and organizations. The heads of the department are nominated by the President and then approved by the senate so that both the Legislative and the Executive branch have an effect on the bureaucracy. The Independent Executive Agencies are usually a president’s personal idea that they want to make into a department for the better good. For example, John F. Kennedy created the Peace Corps, which was an organization that started as his idea and was funded with money from the President’s personal budget. Independent Regulatory Agencies are not under the command of the President. They are independent from the workings of Congress as well. Government Corporations do not receive funding by the government. They are typically business that are run and regulated by the government but produce enough money to be self-sustainable, like the post office. All four types of bureaucratic departments fall under the same confusion that the Constitution set up.

In Peter Woll’s discussion of the bureaucracy and the role the constitution plays in it, he mentions quite often that the agencies are left up to make the final decisions of how a law should be executed. He begins his discussion by confronting the issue of who has the main control over the bureaucracy. As he develops his argument, it becomes clear that even though the constitution did not directly give power to any particular branch, every branch affects the bureaucracy. Woll explains that Congress has the primary control over the organization of the branches. Congress does not often give power to the president to organize the departments. Congress typically takes the administrative position and power when it comes to the organization. Congress occasionally does let the President take part in the Administrative position, “Only rarely will it grant the president any kind of final authority to structure the bureaucracy,”(Bureaucratic Power, Peter Woll, 310). The president will be granted power to structure the bureaucracy in times of war or disasters.

The Constitution barely touches on what type of role the president should take in the bureaucracy. Woll discusses how the president’s main power is to be able to appoint the heads of the departments but even then the Senate still has to make the final approval of every appointee. The president used to have more power in the bureaucracy when it was a patronage based system. Now that the system is merit based, the president has less influence and therefore less power in bureaucracy.
However, Peter Woll points out that the president does have influence, but the influence the president has is not legal authority. The Constitution states that the president will be Commander and Chief of the Armed forces and Navy, therefore the president has a major impact on the Department of Defense. Slowly overtime the president has acquired more power, “the fact remains that we seek in vain for explicit constitutional authorization for the president to be ‘Chief Administrator’,”(Bureaucratic Power, Peter Woll, 310). The president is not technically the Chief Administrator because the Constitution did not make him that. However, because of the president’s increasing amount of power, citizens view the president as the Chief Administrator and therefore in some respect giving them the power to create there own departments and such, like the Independent Executive Agencies. However, the lack of Constitutional mandate to be the Chief Administrator, Woll proves how it can be disastrous. In certain situations, the President can’t do anything because he may have the influence to do something but the President does not have the legal authority granted by the Constitution.

Judicial Review is another aspect of how all three branches influence the makings of the bureaucracy. Judicial Review checks all the decisions made by Congress and the President and decides whether or not they are Constitutional or if they were made into law properly. Woll talks of the “rule of law”. This idea of branches being separate in order to properly check the other branches is what Woll says the bureaucracy is all about. For example, all three branches have influence but they are all capable of checking each other so that one branch does not gain too much influence in the bureaucracy. Judicial Review limits the power the Legislative and Executive branches have on the bureaucracy and in turn promoting the democratic idea the United States was founded on.

Woll’s discussion of bureaucracy directly relates to the discussion James Q. Wilson provides. Wilson begins discussing the same concepts that plague many minds, which controls the bureaucracy. As Woll emphasized, no one branch has control. Wilson expressed concern that with the bureaucratic state growing at the rate it is, the issue of leadership will be more of a dilemma. There need to be ways to control the bureaucracy efficiently without letting one branch of government have to much influence.

When comparing both documents with each other, it becomes evident that a main concern for people is control. The way Woll puts the bureaucratic system makes sense. Every single branch has an influence on the bureaucracy just like they do in every other way. The bureaucracy can easily be seen as a fourth branch because the way that the system currently works, all the branches are allowed to have influence in the bureaucracy but are also checked to make sure the balance of power stays equal. The idea that Woll puts forward about how all branches, the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial are in control of the bureaucracy makes perfect sense considering how the rest of the United States government works.

Each branch of the government has its own particular responsibility to make the bureaucracy function. The lack of direction the Constitution provides, allows the American system of democracy to flourish even more with the addition of the bureaucracy. With all three branches being able to hold some sort of authority in the bureaucracy, the system of checks and balances and the democratic ideas are revived in the bureaucracy and therefore the question of “control” is not a concern.

-Ellie