Consider: Why do some call the Bucy the “4th branch of

government?

The Last Word: #14 for tomorrow

THE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY

Unit 4b

AP Government and Politics

What is a “bureaucracy”?

• We know the second half of the word, “cracy” means “to rule”.• And “bureau” is a French word

for “desk”…• So together, the word bureau-

cracy literally means “to rule from a desk”.

• The idea is that government workers, who often work at desks, are essentially “ruling us”…–Why might this be controversial?

What is a “bureaucracy”?

A large, complex group organized according to a certain structure

The Federal “B’ucy”

Anecdotally…the “government”.

Divided into 3 basic parts Executive

(Cabinet) departments

Independent Executive Agencies

The Executive Office of the President

Executive Office of

the President

Executive Deapartments "The Cabinet"

The Executive Branch

("The President")

- The "Right Arm" of the President

- Several agencies staffed by the

President's closest advisors

Independent Agencies - Number in the 100's

- Deal with specific areas/activities outside the scope

of the Cabinet depts.- Report directly to the

President

White House Office

Council of Economic Advisors Other Key

Executive Agencies

Justice HS

- 15 Departments headed by a Secretary

- Do most of the work of the Executive

branch- Broken down into

subunits

National Security Council

NASA

CIA

EPAFEC

SSA

State Defense

Peace Corps

Some Bureaucratic Myths and realities Americans dislike

bureaucrats. Americans are generally

satisfied with bureaucrats, though they may dislike agencies or the “bucy” as a whole (see: Congress)

Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year. Not the federal bureaucracy.

Most federal bureaucrats work in Washington, D.C. Only about 12 percent do.

Bureaucracies are ineffective, inefficient, and always mired in red tape. Research suggests not much

more so than private businesses.

How do we feel about government/bureaucracy?

Q: How many government bureaucrats does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Two. One to assure

everyone that everything possible is being done while the other screws the bulb into the water faucet.

Q: How many government workers does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Two. One to screw it in

and one to screw it up.

Quotes on Bureaucracy There’s a new game that's sweeping the country.

It's called "Bureaucracy" Everybody stands in a circle. The first person to do anything loses.

“The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency.”

“In any bureaucracy, paper work increases as you spend more and more time reporting on the less and less you are doing”

“Bureaucracy is the art of making the possible impossible”

The “Rules” of Bureaucracy Preserve thyself. It is easier to fix the blame than to fix the problem. A penny saved is an oversight. Information deteriorates upward. The first 90% of the task takes 90% of the time; the last

10% takes the other 90%. Experience is what you get just after you need it. For any given large, complex, hard-to-understand,

expensive problem, there exists at least one short, simple, easy, cheap wrong answer.

Anything that can be changed will be, until time runs out. To err is human; to shrug is civil service. There’s never enough time to do it right, but there’s

always enough time to do it over. Murphy’s Law: If anything can go wrong, it will.

O’Toole’s Corollary – Murphy was an optimist.

Are these characterizations fair? http://www.learner.org/courses/demo

cracyinamerica/dia_8/dia_8_video.html

FIGURE 8.1: How many employees work in the federal executive branch? 8.1

Bureaucratic Growth

Trimming the fat?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhSX_GwGP4s