American Bureaucracy? & The Federal Bureaucracy
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Overview
In everyday language, we use the word bureaucracy as an insult. For most people, the term conjures long lines of angry people, piles of papers just about to tip over, and workers asleep at their desks. The truth is that every government needs a bureaucracy in order to function properly. In fact, the federal government of the United States employs roughly 1 percent of the American population, or approximately 2.6 million people, within its bureaucracy.
The Department of Motor Vehicles, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Peace Corps, the Office of Government Ethics, the U.S. Capitol Police, and the Small Business Administration are all part of the American bureaucracy, but so are religious groups, businesses, and educational institutions. For better or worse, a bureaucracy is the best way to organize large numbers of people working toward the same goal.
What Is a Bureaucracy?
A bureaucracy is a way of administratively organizing large numbers of people who need to work together. Organizations in the public and private sector, including universities and governments, rely on bureaucracies to function. The term bureaucracy literally means “rule by desks or offices,” a definition that highlights the often impersonal character of bureaucracies. Even though bureaucracies sometimes seem inefficient or wasteful, setting up a bureaucracy helps ensure that thousands of people work together in compatible ways by defining everyone’s roles within a hierarchy.
What Bureaucrats Do
Government bureaucrats perform a wide variety of tasks. We often think of bureaucrats as paper-pushing desk clerks, but bureaucrats fight fires, teach, and monitor how federal candidates raise money, among other activities.
The job of a bureaucrat is to implement government policy, to take the laws and decisions made by elected officials and put them into practice. Some bureaucrats implement policy by writing rules and regulations, whereas others administer policies directly to people (such as distributing small business loans or treating patients at a veterans’ hospital). The task of running the government, and providing services through policy implementation, is called public administration.
Bureaucratic Functions
One useful approach to understanding what bureaucrats do is to examine the actions of different governmental agencies. The following table summarizes the government’s major functions and provides examples of agencies that perform those tasks.
| Function | Bureaucratic Agencies |
| Promote the public good | National Institutes of Health, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation |
| Protect the nation | Armed forces, Coast Guard, Central Intelligence Agency |
| Sustain a strong economy | Federal Reserve Bank, Export-Import Bank, Securities and Exchange Commission |
Bureaucratic Models
Scholars have proposed three different models to explain how bureaucracies function, summarized in the following chart.
| Model | Important Trait | Problematic Behavior |
| Weberian Model | Hierarchy | Lethargy |
| Acquisitive Model | Expansionism | Competition |
| Monopolistic Model | Lack of competition | Inefficiency |
Weberian Model
According to the Weberian model, created by German sociologist Max Weber, a bureaucracy always displays the following characteristics:
- Hierarchy: A bureaucracy is set up with clear chains of command so that everyone has a boss. At the top of the organization is a chief who oversees the entire bureaucracy. Power flows downward.
- Specialization: Bureaucrats specialize in one area of the issue their agency covers. This allows efficiency because the specialist does what he or she knows best, then passes the matter along to another specialist.
- Division of labor: Each task is broken down into smaller tasks, and different people work on different parts of the task.
- Standard operating procedure (SOP): Also called formalized rules, SOP informs workers about how to handle tasks and situations. Everybody always follows the same procedures to increase efficiency and predictability so that the organization will produce similar results in similar circumstances. SOP can sometimes make bureaucracy move slowly because new procedures must be developed as circumstances change.
Acquisitive Model
The acquisitive model can be distinguished by the following characteristics:
The Federal Bureaucracy
The federal bureaucracy is huge: roughly 2.6 million employees, plus many freelance contractors. Everybody in the bureaucracy works to administer the law. For the most part, the executive branch manages the federal bureaucracy. Although the executive branch controls the majority of the federal bureaucracy, the legislative and judiciary branches also have some influence. Congress, for example, controls the Library of Congress, the Congressional Research Service, and the Government Accountability Office, among other bureaucracies. Through its power of oversight, Congress also monitors the federal bureaucracy to make sure that it acts properly. The courts sometimes get involved in the bureaucracy when issues of law and constitutionality arise, such as when a civil service regulation is violated or if an agency oversteps its jurisdiction.
There are five types of organizations in the federal bureaucracy:
- Cabinet departments
- Independent executive agencies
- Independent regulatory agencies
- Government corporations
- Presidential commissions
Bureaucratic Growth
The federal bureaucracy was small throughout much of American history. But the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, and President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs greatly expanded the role of the federal government. George W. Bush’s War on Terror has also expanded and redefined the role of the federal government and has necessitated the creation of new organizations, such as the Department of Homeland Security.
Cabinet Departments
The executive office consists of fifteen departments, as shown by the table on the next page. Each department is headed by a secretary.
| Department | Date Established |
| State | 1789 |
| Treasury | 1789 |
| Interior | 1849 |
| Justice | 1870 |
| Agriculture | 1889 |
| Commerce | 1913 |
| Labor | 1913 |
| Defense | 1947 |
| Housing and Urban Development | 1965 |
| Transportation | 1967 |
| Energy | 1977 |
| Health and Human Services | 1979 |
| Education | 1979 |
| Veterans’ Affairs | 1988 |
| Homeland Security | 2002 |
Line Organizations and Managerial Presidents
The president must oversee the executive bureaucracy, which includes what are known as line organizations, or the federal agencies that report directly to the president. The fifteen cabinet departments are line organizations. Political scientists sometimes refer to modern presidents as managerial presidents because they spend so much time overseeing and managing the bureaucracy.
Independent Executive Agencies
Independent executive agencies are line organizations that do not fall under the control of any one department. Presidents often like new agencies to be independent so that they have more direct control over them. Congress decides how to fit new independent executive agencies within the existing bureaucracy.
Very Important Agencies
The government needs money to function, so generating revenue is crucial. A number of different federal agencies are revenue agencies: They raise money by collecting taxes and fees. The most notorious revenue agency is the Internal Revenue Service, but it is not the only one. The Department of the Interior, for example, collects fees from people who use national parks.
Independent Regulatory Agencies
An independent regulatory agency is an agency outside of the cabinet departments that makes and enforces rules and regulations. The president nominates people to regulatory boards and agencies, and the Senate confirms them. Generally, these bureaucrats serve set terms in office and can only be removed for illegal behavior. Regulatory agencies tend to function independently from the elected parts of government, which gives them the freedom to make policy without any political interference.
Example: The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Election Commission, and the Federal Reserve Board are all powerful independent regulatory agencies.
Agency Capture
Scholars argue that some agencies have been taken over by the very industries they are supposed to regulate. The industries then dictate terms and policies to the agency rather than the other way around. Scholars use the term agency capture to describe this process. Agency capture causes decreased competition and higher prices.
Government Corporations
Some federal agencies resemble corporations in that they function in a businesslike manner and charge clients for their services. Government corporations differ in some important ways from private corporations. For example, government corporations do not have stockholders and do not pay dividends if they make a profit; instead, the government corporation retains all profits.
Examples: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which guarantees deposits up to $250,000, and the Post Office are government corporations.
Presidential Commissions
Presidents regularly appoint presidential commissions to investigate problems and make recommendations. Although most of these commissions are temporary—such as President George W. Bush’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security or the September 11th Commission—some are permanent, such as the Commission on Civil Rights. Presidents are not bound to follow the recommendations of commissions, even though they often do.
