The Bureaucracy

The Federal Bureaucracy is a system, which received criticism from every end, is greatly misunderstood, and more than not is greatly undermined. The best way to think about the Bureaucracy is to think about everything you do on a daily basis and how each product you use or transportation you take or even warehouse where you work has all undergone approval by the various departments in the Bureaucracy and has been regulated to ensure safety, health, stability, and well being of the people and our world. The Bureaucracy is responsible for three major roles. They implement policies, administer public policy, and regulate. The Bureaucracy can be broken up in to four divisions: the Cabinet, Independent Executive Agencies, Independent Regulatory agencies, and Government Corporations. The Bureaucracy is mandated by, laws or ideas suggested by Congress or the President, and is given the responsibility to pursue these ideas through either implementation or regulation.



The Cabinet department is responsible for larger, broader issues. And so, it is made up of Departments such as the Department of State or Department of Health and Human Services. The Independent Executive Agencies are established by congress to run outside the departments of the executive branch such as the Peace Corps, NASA, CIA, and Small Business and Administration Department. The Independent Regulatory Agencies comes from presidential power and work of congress and regulates some aspect of the economy, for example the Environmental Protection Agency and National Labor Relations Board. Lastly, Government Corporations are those which are not paid by tax dollars and thus charge some price from the people but their profit is only to run it is not a corporation that changes process to increase profit and no one can become wealthy off of it. An example of this would be the Post Office.



The Bureaucracy is often judged as too fragmented and continuously growing. In power, it is true that the Bureaucracy is growing but in size it is in fact smaller than one would expect. In relation to the population growth in America the Bureaucracy has in fact shrunk. Some declare that the Bureaucracy is given too much power and is not capable of being regulated. Such is the case in James Q. Wilson’s article, Woll 52, as he argues Bureaucracy was intended to be as it began, small and with few responsibilities. He also agrues that, “The great political and constitutional struggles were not over the power of the administrative apparatus, but over the power of the President, of the Congress and of the states.”(The Rise of the Bureaucratic State, James Q. Wilson, Woll p. 313) As the years progressed, and as society demanded, so did Bureaucracy. Gradually it gained more departments and more power. As Woll himself argues in Doc. 52, and which is more the case, The Bureaucracy continued to grow not only because society demanded it but because our Congress and Executive Branch demanded it.



The Bureaucracy is given power when Congress or the Executive Branch requires it to implement or regulate something which they wish not do, or do not have power to do. The greatest debate about the Bureaucracy is how democratic it truly is and whether its power is not capable of being controlled. The issue with trying to control the Bureaucracy too much is that it defeats the purpose of its creation. Congress began creating its departments and handed over that responsibility from the start. If now, our government begins to try and take away the power from the Bureaucracy it will not be capable to perform efficiently and execute its orders for without the power it has now it can not accomplish what it does now. Both Woll and Wilson agree that there is no real way of controlling the Bureaucracy. The executive Branch is capable of regulating through appointing the head of each department, being Commander in chief, which allows him to control the Defense Department, and being Chief Diplomat, an authority in International Relations. Having the power to appoint the head of each department makes a huge difference in how the department operates and can affect the policies that they follow. The President also has the power to issue executive orders, to alter an agency’s budget, and to reorganize an agency. But even these abilities are cancelled out. The congress has influence over the appointees of the President as the Senate has to approve of his appointments. The congress as well can alter an agency’s budget, however, this would not accomplish much for if the budget is altered the Bureaucracy may not be able to accomplish their orders effectively. The congress can also hold hearings which ensure that the Bureaucracy is doing their job; and they congress can rewrite the legislation. This has the potential to be a very important control as the Congress can decide what rules the Bureaucracy must follow, however, the Bureaucracy is still able to perform in the same manner they did before the instructions were changed. Woll brings up the point that because the Bureaucracy is like a fourth branch there is nothing in the Constitution that declares how it should be run. This is what ultimately causes the tension between the other branches in trying to control the Bureaucracy. There is no Constitutional right or law to regulate the Bureaucracy or mandate it. Congress in effect hold the most control over Bureaucracy as it can change to some extent the orders of the President and can also create agencies which are independent and beyond presidential control. With the president, he is given technical authority over the Bureaucracy but as Woll states, “He may have the authority to control the bureaucracy in many areas, but not enough power….he does not have the legal authority to take any action.”(The Bureaucracy, Peter Woll, p. 311) This means he does not have the power to execute the decisions he thinks should be made and even if he does not agree with something because there is no law in the constitutional he can not legally order change. Woll does state that the president could make a change if he could gather enough political support but because the Bureaucracy represents its constituents and the people any support the President gained would most likely be conquered by the support of the constituents who are happy about what the Bureaucracy does. Woll also presents the idea that the three branches: Congress, Executive, and the courts do not utilize all the authority they do have for the Bureaucracy serves as their fragmented system in which they can each independently try to control and affect. If this were not the case there would have to be more agreement among the branches and they would not be able to use the Bureaucracy to sort out the places of disagreement. Wilson discusses these points to some extent as well. However he views it more negatively. He does admit however that if equal control was given to all three branches specific interests would not be met.



The issue of democracy is presented in that because the members are not elected they could potentially not be a fair representation of the people. In order to become part of the Bureaucracy one must pass a test and qualify based on merit. This system again, takes power away from the president as it eliminates the patronage system. In truth, the members of the Bureaucracy are a more fair representation of the people than in the other branches and they work in departments and with issues that directly affect the daily lives of every American and thus are more able to understand the people and represent them.



The Bureaucracy can be viewed many ways by many people but what is still a gray area and what most people do agree on is the fragmented aspect of the Bureaucracy. Because one issue or area can be placed in to multiple departments the Bureaucracy is a very complicated and not unified system. The power is dived among multiple people but the organization is fairly messy and not always comprehendible. What we must ask ourselves is if by deregulated this system would the fragmentation be fixed, and would that better our society or just cause more confusion. We have to understand that because of the Bureaucracy and the guidelines they instate we can function in a more stable system and can be sure that the food we eat, water we drink, cars we drive, letter we send are all organized in an efficient way and although we may not comprehend exactly how and where everything gets done, we can be sure that the actions we take in our day-to-day lives have been pre-assessed with our well-being in mind.



-Isabella