Chapter 15 The Federal Bureucracy

-According to Max Weber, a hierarchical authority structure that uses task specialization, operates on the merit principle, and behaves with impersonality. It governs modern states.
-A hierarchical authority structure that use task specialization, operates on the merit principle, and behaves w/ impersonality.

Hierarchical: An organized body of officials in successive ranks &/ or order.
Merit: Rewarded for achievements.
Spoils: To reward people w/ positions of public office based on what they did for you.

-Americans dislike bureaucrats. Many Americans may not like bureaucracies, but they like individual bureaucrats. Since many encounters w/ them have been positive and they have been described as helpful, efficient, fair, courteous, and working to serve their clients interest.
-Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year. This is half true and half false since the # of govt. employees has been expanding but not the # of federal employees. The growth in # is of public employees in state & local govts. While federal govt. is decreasing. Sometimes state & local employees work on programs that are federally funded, and the fed. govt. hires many private contractors.
Private contractors generally lack the discretionary authority of fed. employees, and high-level officials have less authority over state & local officials & private companies than they do over federal employees.
-Most federal bureaucrats work in Washington D.C.: Only 12% of federal civilian employees work in DC. California has the most w/ 245,000. Texas has 166,000 & New York 133,000. About 93,000 work in foreign countries & American territories. People can check where bureaucrats work by looking un their phone books under "U.S. Govt."
-Bureaucracies are ineffective, inefficient, and always mired red tape.: Bureaucracies are a little like referees: When they work well they don't get much credit, but when they don't everyone calls them unfair, incompetent, or inefficient. Bureaucracies may be inefficient at times but no one has found a better substitute for them or proved that that they are less ineficient, ineffective, or involved in red tape like private bureaucracies.

-They deliever mail, test milk, issue SS and student loan checks, run national parks, and perform other routine governmental tasks in an acceptable manner.

-The Department of Defense (DOD) employs about 1/4 of federal civilian workers in addition to the more than 1.4 million men & women in uniform. - The Postal Service accounts for the 30% of fed. civilian employees.- The Dept. of Veteran Affairs which is related to the national defense, has about 223,000 employees. The remaining quarter of federal employees makes up the remaining functions including homeland security.

-They are males and females, of all races & religions, who are well paid and not so well paid. -Congress has ordered that federal agency to recruit and promote previously disadvantage groups like minorities and women. -As a whole however the federal bureaucracy is more broadly representative of the American people than are legislators, judges, or presidential appointees in the executive branch.-The diversity of bureaucratic jobs mirrors the diversity of private-sector jobs, which include different jobs from A to Z. (ex. kitchen workers, lawyers, truck drivers, and missile technologists who all work for the govt.

One of the key inducements used by political machines. A patronage job, promotion, or contract is one that is given for political reasons rather than for merit or competence alone.

A system of hiring and promotion based on the merit principle and the desire to create a nonpartisan government service.
-Creating a nonpartisan civil service means protecting govt. workers from the risk of being fired when a new party comes to power.

The idea that hiring should be based on entrance exams and promotion ratings to produce administration by people with talent and skill.

-Originally passed in 1939 and amended most recently in 1933. A federal law prohibiting government employees from active participation in partisan politics. While off duty they can engage in political activities , but cannot run for partisan (one party interest) elective offices or plead for contributions from the public. -Employees w/ sensitive positions, such as those in the national security area, may not engage in political activities even while off duty.

The office in charge of hiring for most agencies of the federal government, using elaborate rules in the process.
-The president appoints the director who is then appointed by the Senate.
-OPM has elaborate rules about hiring, promotion, working conditions, and firing.

-They must first take a test and if they pass the test their names are sent to agencies when jobs requiring their particular skills become available.

It's a process that happens for each position open. The OPM sends three names to the agency. Expect in some unusual circumstances, the agency must hire one of these three individuals. Then each job is assigned as a GS rating.

A schedule for federal employees, ranging from 1 to 18, by which salaries can be keyed to rating and experience.

An elite cadre or "cream of the crop" of about 9,000 federal government managers, established by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, who are mostly career officials but include some political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation.
-They earn high salaries, and the president may move them from one agency to another as leadership needs change.