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The Fight For Control

Page history last edited by mberry 14 years, 3 months ago

Previous Section: Agencies and Corporations

Next Section: Regulation

 

CONTROL OF THE BUREAUCRACY

As you know, the United States government is made up of three separate but equally powerful branches of the government that keep the other branches in check. Because the Bureaucracy is considered the fourth branch of the government, it is included in the checks and balances. However, because the bureaucracy is not regulated by the Constitution the location of these checks and balances are unclear and therefore everyone fights for control over it.

 

The Executive Branch.

One of the President’s main sources of power over the bureaucracy is given to him by the Constitution:

  • “He shall have Power to nominate, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint … all other Officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law: but the Congress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments.”

 

This one section of the Constitution gives the president power to appoint the secretaries and many of the people below those heads in the departments and agencies that Congress sets up. Right now, close your eyes are think about how huge the bureaucracy is. Got the mental picture? Now imagine trying to appoint the right people for all of the top and middle level jobs in the entire bureaucracy. Crazy right? Well, to help the President out a little the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the Committee on Government Reform of the House of Representatives publishes the United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, also known as the Plum Book, every four years as an election cycle ends.[1] This, which is now available online, is used to highlight the president-appointed offices of the Executive and Legislative Branches; a sort of guide book or check list for the President.  Take a look at the Plum Book. It will be a nice break from all this reading. The official website of the White House is also a good website to visit if you are curious about Presidential appointments.

 

     This is a huge amount of power that is given to the President. All of a sudden the President can give positions of importance, which make heavy decisions for American society through administrative discretion, to anyone he pleases. But if a President is responsible, which hopefully he is, he will not just hand over these positions to just anyone. With any luck the President will give careful consideration to these appointments and take note of four major factors: political ideology, personal character, competence, and party affiliation. Political ideology refers to how a person thinks of the government and its role, which in turn will affect how this person will use administrative discretion to interpret and implement the laws. One's personal character affects how the public interact and feel about an agency as well as how the nominee feels about the administration itself. Competence is not only a person’s intelligence; it refers to how a person can adjust to different situations. This normally comes into play for the appointment of Cabinet Secretaries. These people are normally strong party leaders but sadly they do not always have a strong background in the field of their new job. Last, but certainly not least, is party affiliation. It is obvious that the political party of a nomination candidate is taken under strong advisement. Cabinet seats are more often than not given to the candidates of the same party. As you can imagine, this power given to the President means a lot to pursuing his own personal agenda or accomplishing the goals that he finds to be the most important for the country. If the president wants a specific goal from an agency, all he has to do is appoint a secretary of that department that he knows shares his opinion and will get the job done. But this can also lead to a great amount of chaos. Can you imagine what could happen to us as a nation if the President appointed the wrong people?[2]

 

     Another power over the bureaucracy that the President has are Executive Orders. Executive orders are commands for regulation that come directly from the President without the consent of Congress.[3] These might seem like the perfect way for the President to grab control of whatever he wants but it comes at a price. If the President disregards Congress on too many issues then Congress will stop supporting any legislation that the President might want past. Seizing unchecked power like that will also scare all the anti-dictator sentiments that lie within the American people, drop the President's approval rating, and in the long run hurt the President's reelection campaign. This particular power is a very careful balancing act.  

 

 

DID YOU KNOW? There was a time where Congress had a power called the legislative veto. This gave Congress the ability to overrule an Executive Order from the president. However, this was found to be unconstitutional and was subsequently removed.

 

The previous chapter mentioned that the President is the figure head of the nation, the person that citizens look up to for guidance and support. The President can use this loyalty for his own benefit. The best example of the President using his sway to rally the nation around the bureaucracy is John F. Kennedy’s “We Choose to Go to the Moon ” speech. .

  YouTube plugin error President JFK used this speech to unify the nation behind a goal. Once this happened, the amount of support for NASA and the race to the moon was no longer able to be ignored by Congress. It would have been a bad political move for Congress and subsequently the Bureaucracy to ignore the public demand for space exploration.

 

     Speaking of budget, the President also has a limited amount of control over the budget of agencies. In the White House there is the Office of Management and Budget.  This group can make slight changes and/or cuts to an agency’s budget which gets the different agency’s attention real fast. However, it is widely known that the real money is appropriated by Congress not the President.

 

Phew. One Branch down and the other two aren't that bad; I promise.

Need a break? Go check your Facebook. BUT YOU HAVE TO BE BACK IN 5 MINUTES!!!!!

 

The Legislative Branch.

     Congress is the “problem-finding” part of the government. It recognizes a snag in the system and then leaves the Bureaucracy to find the solution to the problem and fix it. However much responsibility they might hand over to the bureaucracy itself, they still want power over what it does.The main power that Congress has over the bureaucracy is the ability to create an agency. This power is sanctioned by the Constitution. All Congress has to say is “There shall be a National Park Service” and poof there is one. Sometimes to the dismay of the agency that it creates, most of the legislation that creates agencies is just as simple and vague as the example above. Congress doesn't put in a guidebook or detailed instruction of how to do the task at hand, just that it must be done.  This is a way that the men and women of Congress can add personal agenda into their judgment because they get to deem what issues are important enough to make an agency for. But perhaps even more powerful is the ability that Congress has to revise the legislation. After a grace period if you will, once the agency fails or struggles or doesn't preform the task correctly, Congress can just change it. Hopefully making it more specific so that it is a task that can accutaually be accomplished.[4]

 

     A power given to the Senate by the Constitution is the right to advise and consent the nominee for any appointment that the President makes. The Senate is allowed to basically put the President's nominee before a trial. Senators ask questions, dig up personal information, and confer with one another about the competency and the eligibility for one particular person.  Once the nominee has survived the Senate Confirmation Hearings, s/he is approved or denied appointment by a full Senate vote.

 

    As is the case with just about every other part of the American government, the bureaucracy needs money in order to properly function and provide all of its service. For this, they look to the House of Representatives' Appropriations Committees.[5] This too is a balancing act. If they cut budgets too much the bureaucracy will no longer be able to provide the necessary services for the citizens which will hurt the Congressional representatives during election time, but cutting budgets is a very effective way to get the bureaucracy's attention.

 

     One of the minor powers that Congress has over the bureaucracy is the ability to call hearings to assess the progress or the lack thereof in a particular agency. This is risky though because if an agency is hung out to dry by the media coverage that goes along with the hearing, then Congress stands a chance to take part of the fall for not being specific enough etc. In conjunction with the power, Congress is able to launch an investigation into an agency as long as the reason for the investigation is not personal in nature. The balance of power is a very difficult one to maintain but the checks and balances that are given to the different branches of the government keep it in relativity.

 

Take a quick and adorable break:

 

 

The Judicial Branch.

 

     The Judicial Branch has very little direct control over the bureaucracy but it does keep a close eye on the actions of the bureaucracy to determine the Constitutionality of everything it is doing. If something unconsitutional is happening within the bureaucracy  and it is brought to the federal courts' attention, then the Judiciary Branch has a chance to fix it.

 

The People:

 

In the democratic system that we live in today, the participation of the people is very important. It is one of the founding principles of our nation. The people connect to their government through the linkage institutions. Linkage institutions connect the people of the nation with the government through entities like special interest groups, elections, and political parties. The linkage institutions connect to the government through the iron triangle. An iron triangle describes the relationship between Congress, the Bureaucracy and Special Interest Groups (SIGs).[6] http://www.laits.utexas.edu/txp_media/html/bur/features/0403_01/iron.gif (http://www.laits.utexas.edu/txp_media/html/bur/features/0403_01/iron.gif)This is a mutual relationship between the three groups in which each gives each other something that they want and need. Berelson argues that this is one of the best ways for citizens to become involved in their government

 

 

 

Previous Section: Agencies and Corporations

Next Section: Regulation

 

 

 

Footnotes

  1. U.S. Government Printing Office. "The Plum Book (United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions): 2008 Edition." (13 Dec. 2009)
  2. Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry. "Government in America: People, Politics, Policy" (Pearson Education, Inc, 2006), 496.
  3. Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry. "Government in America: People, Politics, Policy" (Pearson Education, Inc, 2006), 496.
  4. Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry. "Government in America: People, Politics, Policy" (Pearson Education, Inc, 2006), 497.
  5. Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry. "Government in America: People, Politics, Policy" (Pearson Education, Inc, 2006), 497.
  6. Edwards, Wattenberg, Lineberry. "Government in America: People, Politics, Policy" (Pearson Education, Inc, 2006), 498.

Comments (1)

mberry said

at 12:26 pm on Nov 12, 2009

Hey gang -- I had to nix the YouTube video...find a new one! :~/ As we've discussed, we need to avoid cursing and thoroughly non-professional content. We can have "entertaining" study breaks without being crass (think Turtles...lol)! Also, think through the diagram on the iron triangle above...it makes it seem as though the bureaucracy and Congress just give into SIGs "Low regulation/special favors" for example. We know that many times an SIG is unhappy with the decisions of both Congress and the bureaucracy! And if this isn't YOUR diagram, it needs cited! Keep proofreading...still some typos/grammar issues.

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