CH. 8 Notes - Chapter 8 Summary of Logic of American Politics PDF

Preview

Summary

Chapter 8 Summary of Logic of American Politics...

Description

CLASS NOTES 11/20/20 Overview - Why care about bureaucracy? - Main characteristics - Structure - Personnel - Process - Culture - Agencies as political actors - Political control Internal Agency Processes: Red Tape - Motivation is desire for due process, rationality, transparency, or other social goals - Malady: new procedures and rules created to provide those outcomes Standard Operating Procedures - Motivation is efficient - Malady: lose sight of big picture - Malady: unresponsive bureaucracy - Procedures respond to normal cases not different cases - Malady: red tape - New procedures and rules to deal w non-normal cases and ensure equity As number of non-normal cases increases so that new rules are drawn to deal with them, red tape proliferates → this happens in a cycle over time Lack of Coordination - Motivation: efficiency gain from division of labor - Malady: lose sign of big picture - Malady: unresponsive - Malady: coordination problems Lack of focus on efficiency - Malady: agencies not mindful of efficiency like private sector - Motivation: - Agencies do not keep surplus → little incentive to pursue efficiency bc they don’t keep the benefits - No control over factors of production → decisionmaking env’t not under their control; incentives that make private sector more efficient often absent in public sector - Other contextual goals: pressure to keep expenses/taxes/spending low → elected officials incentivized to lower overhead administrative expenses in order to keep program expenses that directly impact constituents at the same levels - Ex: hiring freezes, no political will to improve operating systems, etc. Agency Culture - Persistent, patterned way of thinking about central tasks and human relationships within agencies

- Differences across organizations that matter for the way they operate Determinants - Clarity of mission (RARE) → everyone adopts common perspective on what they’re doing - Ex: NASA’s mission early on was to win the Space Race - Political actors, interest groups, etc. all want agencies to do diff things, - Complexity about what orgs are doing → can lead to confusion - History of agencies → mistakes can have long-lasting impact on how agency sees itself - Demographics → agencies staffed with older ppl; less than 7% of agency staff is under 30; what types of people staff the agency (economists vs. engineers) - Consequences - Selected attention → some tasks more focused on if they correspond w mission/culture of agency vs others that don’t - Conflicting cultures w/in an agency make it difficult for that agency to work together - Agencies w particular cultures/identities will resist tasks that conflict w those cultures/identities Agencies Wield Political Power - Generic sources of power: agencies are not passive recipients of delegated authority; they can operate in the political sphere themselves - Information and expertise - Ex: Federal Reserve and NIH have lots of autonomy bc they have so much expertise - Budgets - Policy choices - Public support → when agencies have strong public support, makes it difficult for executives to cut their programs w/o facing backlash - Clientele → give administrative agencies additional political currency/leeway to do what they want to do bc they have key groups of supporters - Political patrons → agencies can work with Congress or other leadership figures to secure support for their programs/policies - Unions Congressional Control - Hearings and investigations - Agency reporting requirements - Legislative vetoes → instructions to agencies from Congress - Technically unconstitutional, but persist bc they have never been litigated (no one really cares enough) - Committee reports → Congress ends up controlling much more of what agencies do than the President does - Limitation riders → provisions written into appropriations bills that restrict what agencies can do -

- Ex: No money can be used to [do the following…] - Used to prevent money from being spent in particular kinds of ways - Inspectors general - Government Accountability Office → exists in legislative branch, oversees and evaluates whether agencies are effective or not; audits them Congressional Control: Two Models - Assumptions - Technological: police-patrols vs. fire-alarms → Is Congress doing police patrol, or waiting for fire alarms? - Police patrol is proactive, fire alarms are more reactive - Makes more sense for Congress to engage in fire alarm oversight - Congress has set up a system where interest groups are empowered to watch over agencies and pull a fire alarm if something goes wrong to involve Congress - Motivational: take as much credit for net benefits to constituents - Institutional: agencies are agents of Congress How control delegated authority? Oversight - Consequences - Prefer fire-alarm oversight - Congress will oversee bureaucracy - Congress will neglect police-patrols - Implications and issues - Bias - Perfect control Presidents and Political Control - Motivation: Chief Executive, blamed when things go wrong in bureaucracy - Strong incentives to control policymaking process, prevent mistakes that could be consequential - Levers of control - Personnel → most important - Regulatory review → Presidents have centralized control over all regulations in Executive Office of the President to make sure rules align w their ideology - Budgets and spending → President’s budget office reviews agency spending requests before submitting one presidential spending request to Congress - After budget is approved by Congress, President has control over how money is split between agencies in order to accomplish certain goals CLASS NOTES 11/18/20 Executive branch disagreements: Repubs vs. Dems - Relative roles and responsibilities of different branches in overseeing executive

Conservatives believe responsibility for managing exec resides in exec branch → President; believe in more powerful President insulated from courts/legislators - Liberals believe more in separation of powers → shared power means management of executive by courts and legislators - Kinds of judges that Presidents nominate revolve around the appointees’ views about executive power → presidents want to appoint judges that agree with their views - Growth and reach of exec establishment into diff areas of American life - Conservatives concerned about reach of gov’t → especially reach of gov’t as it relates to administrative apparatus; reluctance to allow delegation of policymaking authority to exec branch officials - Conservatives prefer courts to take more aggressive stance on policing exec branch activities as it reaches into aspects of American life Executive establishment: parts of US gov’t bleed over from exec branch into other sectors of society; “exec branch” is not all-encompassing bc there are some instances where gov’t agency is co-partner w private sector, foreign country, nonprofit, etc. - 15 executive departments → each includes major subcomponents, agencies powerful and autonomous in their own right - 180 political appointees Structure of the Bureaucracy: - 55-60 independent agencies, not part of an executive department → theoretically have direct line to President in terms of supervision, but not part of normal hierarchical structure - Ex: EPA, NASA, Social Security Administration - Commissions → Equal Employment and Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) - Usually odd number of commissioners, bipartisan, serve fixed and staggered terms → presidents cannot fire commissioners before their term is over unless they neglect their duty - Ex: Federal Reserve board is appointed like this → officers serve staggered 14 year terms - Hybrid agencies → intended by Congress to operate like private sector business, but in practice still work a lot like gov’t agencies bc Congress can’t resist temptation to manage activities and direct them how to do their job - Gov’t corporations: US Postal Service, Amtrak, Tennessee Valley Authority - International organizations - Advisory commissions What makes an agency independent? - Fixed and staggered terms - Party balancing → forces bipartisanship - Ex: Federal Election Commission, which polices campaign finance and violations of campaign law, specifies that 6 member board must have 3 -

Dems and 3 Repubs, and no decision can be made unless 4 people agree → nothing can happen unless there is bipartisan agreement - Bc of current polarization, this is unlikely to happen and so campaign laws are not necessarily enforced very well - Control over funding: can produce their own budgets and send them directly to Congress to secure appropriations rather than going through the President - No review of budgets, regulations, or communication by OMB Why is this important? - Presidents held accountable for performance of the entire executive, but they don’t have direct control over significant parts of it - Independent actors can make huge decisions insulated from direct involvement by elected officials → can be good and bad, especially if ppl don’t know what they are doing or are irresponsible - Ex: Federal Trade Commission and Dept of Justice both responsible for anti-trust → two agencies operating in same sphere, not always in agreement Personnel System - Two classes of federal employees: civil servants and political appointments - Civil servants hired, promoted, demoted on basis of merit → people start at entry level and work their way up - Political appointments chosen to run and direct agencies, but not subject to merit requirements of civil servants Personnel: History - Jeffersonian period (before Andrew Jackson): federal jobs shared among elite class → stability, jobs passed down from father to son - Andrew Jackson: jobs must be open to broader class of society → spoils system and rotation in office - Pendleton Act of 1883: Civil Service Reform → Merit in hiring - Created class of federal employment to be selected on basis of merit, covered only 10% of federal jobs - End of Truman Administration 1953: civil service system expands, greater benefits offered - Changes over time: expanded coverage and increasing scope Background: Personnel - Political appointees: federal employees appointed by president of his subordinates, often with explicit task of carrying out president’s political and partisan agenda - Career civil servants: nonpolitical personnel who are hired, fired, promoted and demoted on basis of merit - Federal spending has quadrupled since 1960, but it is not correlated w federal civilian employment - Means that cutting federal workforce will not necessarily reduce federal spending - Federal gov’t providing money to state and local gov’ts to enforce policy/programs → way the fed gov’t spends money and enforces policy is changing

US Federal Civilian Personnel System - Top: 1,338 positions, all appointees → 620 key positions - Other appointees (no senate confirmation) → 472 positions - Mid-level managers: 7,000 positions (~700 appointees) - Ex: Anthony Fauci - Schedule C (~1,500 appointees) - Schedules A, B - Civil Service Selection (Title 5 or other) Transition Management Challenges - Bureaucratic ideology → do some gov’t agencies tend to consistently slant more liberal/conservative? - Ex: EPA has a ‘liberal mission’ to protect the environment; Defense Dept. may be more conservative than other depts - More conservative departments: Dept of Defense, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Treasury - More liberal depts: DHHS, Dept of Education, Labor, Housing & Urban Development - Why does this happen? → people that work in certain departments or subsets are attracted to what those depts do → more liberal attracted to more liberal depts and vice versa - Does not mean there is a deep state, bc the liberal/conservative slant has only marginal impacts on how these agencies do their jobs in enforcing the law/President’s wishes Red Tape - Government is not always the most efficient → there can be solutions in the private sector that are faster, cheaper, more efficient - Requirements on public sector vs. private sector very different - Public sector constantly has to be worried about corruption, has to get lots more approvals - Red tape exists because of our own good intentions → we have to build in procedures so things are done according to due process: adequate documentation, notification, time for process of appeal, representation - We want rationality → people must have right to participate, because it is government, governing must be done in public and in the interests of the public - Means there can’t be bribery, extortion, corruption, etc. → public must have access to reports, meetings, plans, etc. - Public nature of government service is slow as a result CLASS NOTES 11/16/20 Why care about bureaucracy? They make public policy Main characteristics: - Structure

- Personnel - Process - Culture Experiences with bureaucracy: Process, Delay, Lack of efficiency, Power, Unresponsive, Hard to navigate, Division of labor Bureaucracy: executive branch departments, agencies, boards, and commissions, that carry out the responsibilities of the government - Agencies make public policy → have certain advantages: time, connections to stakeholders, can take on hard problems and avoid blame (legislatures won’t get blamed) - Politicians like agencies to make public policy decisions - Can be made Directly or Indirectly - In the news every day - Increasingly important - Who to audit? → poor people, bc wealthy ppl are more expensive for IRS to audit - Where to place troops abroad? - How to carry out post-war construction abroad? - Decisions can be consequential for long-term stability of regions abroad - What will schools look like? → curriculum, teachers, etc. - Misunderstood part of the policy process Goals of bureaucracy: some examples - Promote long range security and wellbeing of US - Facilitate full development of human and natural resource potential of Indian and Alaska Native ppl - Organize, train, and equip active duty and reserve forces for the preservation of peace, security, and defense of our nation - Develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and suitable living environment What do bureaucracies do? - Implement, interpret, and prescribe law - All that governments do - Regulate → markets, businesses, etc - Redistribute - Distribute → social security - Public goods Agencies as political actors: accountable to the public, possess expertise Structure of Bureaucracy: - Historical development → nothing in the Constitution really outlining the bureaucracy or what it looks like - Implicit that there will be a bureaucracy given Congressional powers to check it - Bureaucracy created by politicians w political implications in mind → not designed to be effective - Development over time

- Cabinet agencies - Independent agencies - Today: cabinet, independent agencies (administrations, commissions), other - Macro features - Politics of bureaucratic structure - Elected officials think about solving problems immediately as they arise, rather than restructuring to be more efficient Bureaucracy and Employment - Dramatic increase after New Deal - Significant decline after WWII, but still much higher federal civilian employment than before New Deal - Dramatic differences in sizes of agencies → departments/employment are political decisions - Dept of defense has ~720,000 employees - Dept of education has ~4,300 employees Difference between executive departments and non-executive departments: employees are paid more in executive departments Cabinet Dept Example: Dept of Health and Human Services - Once departments are created, they are divided based on labor to create bureaus - Ex: Dept of Health and Human Services has several bureaus, including: - CDC: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - FDA: Food and Drug Administration - NIH: National Institutes of Health - Bureaus function as their own agencies within superstructure of DHS; have high degree of autonomy - Leadership positions within these bureaus are political appointees → change over from one administration to the next - Ex: positions within CDC will turnover between Trump and Biden admins, unless Biden chooses to keep individuals - Presidents want control over processes that happen within the bureaucracy, because they will be held accountable if mistakes are made - Incentives for agency employees? → individuals take these jobs to have influence over public policy

TENPAS READING Reasons for Trump’s turnover: - Trump values loyalty over qualifications - Trump White House suffered from chaotic manner of functioning Why is turnover bad? - Not always bad → can get rid of ineffective ppl, but too much vacancy is harmful - Can contribute to public perception that President is trying to improve operations by finding better people for the jobs

-

Vacancy contributes to inefficiency as other staff have to shoulder the work until position is filled and then devote time to training new employees - Deprives White House of previous incumbent’s personal relationships → fundamental to presidential success - High-level departure can have domino effect Trump’s turnover: 1st Year - Record-setting → more than double Reagan and triple Obama’s - Most turnover in 4 offices: Office of Chief of Staff, Office of Communications, Press Office, and National Security Council - Trump’s predecessors experienced large uptick in second-year staff turnover → overworked, stressed out WH workers can sometimes burn out after 1 year and seek alternative options in private sector THROWER READING Incoming presidents from opposing party of previous administration often try to clear out old policies → create a fresh slate to make their own policies - Presidents can work with Congress to pass legislation → new laws have to be made to nullify old ones - Increasingly difficult because of divided gov’t, legislative gridlock, and party polarization - Ex: Republicans controlled House, Senate, and WH in 2017 and still failed to repeal Affordable Care Act (ACA) - 1996 Congressional Review Act (CRA): allows Congress to rescind regulations within 60 legislative days of its passage through joint resolution, but it must be signed by the President - Presidents can issue unilateral directives to reverse policy → do not require Congressional approval; executive orders - Comes w substantial transaction costs → threats of legislative/judicial retaliation, public backlash, less durable than other means of policymaking - Regulatory process → Presidents can reverse policies, but not necessarily easier than promoting new rules → action must observe normal process of notice & comment under Administrative Procedures Act, still subject to judicial review - Presidents need reasonable justification besides political purpose to repeal regulations Midnight regulations: Presidents fast-track regulations in their final months of office, usually rules that are more unpopular/controversial bc presidents can avoid political fallout Incentives: presidents have incentives to obstruct rules that might lead to policies conflicting w their policy preferences/ideologies Conclusions: - Cabinet agencies more susceptible to presidential control → Presidents can appoint and remove officials from these offices - Independent agencies less politicized and less hierarchical → ex:

-

-

-

Regulatory commissions, usually led by executive, bipartisan board and activities are not subject to WH clearance New presidents incentivized to delay the implementation of midnight regulations put forth by their predecessors in an effort to buy time to strategize how to reverse policy - Presidents succeeding members of their own party less likely to postpone implementation of their predecessors’ rules Administrations do not obstruct regulations only for political reasons - Leadership vacancies, poor resources (staff quantity, expertise, money, workload), all influence delays in administrative processes Policy delay arising from institutional limitations (not political motivations) can be solved by investing more resources into agencies

CHAPTER 8 NOTES Bureaucracy: p 348; a complex structure of offices, tasks, and rules in which employees have specific respo...