hehehehe

1. Public Bureaucracy

2. What is a bureaucracy?
A set of complex
hierarchical
departments,
agencies, commissions,
and their staffs that
exist to help the
president carry out the
mandated charge to
enforce the laws of the
nation.

3. “Bureaucracy”: the term was coined in 18th-
century France
Literally means: “power of the desk”
Power of the person behind the desk –
“bureaucrat”
An administrator

4. Roles of the
Bureaucracy
Rulemaking
The process of deciding what exactly the laws
passed by Congress mean.
Adjudication
A process designed to establish whether a rule
has been violated.
Bureaucratic Lobbying
bureaucrats identify the problems and
limitations of existing laws and programs and
recommend changes to the president and
congressional committees.

5. Functions of
Bureaucracy
Policy Implementation
Making Policy-delegated legislative authority because
what Congress passes is to vague to be effective
Regulation-establish standards and impose restrictions
on violations of those standards
They must publish their rule-making procedures, hold
open hearings on proposed rules and hear public input
Collecting Data and Doing Research
Provide Continuity-elected officials come and go,
bureaucrats never leave which provides for continuity
and professionalization and consistency; but also means

6. Five Functions of Bureaucrats
Implement the law
Provide expertise
Provide research and information to
the President
Provide research and information to
Congress
Quasi-judicial powers and
responsibilities

7. 3 meanings of the word Bureaucracy:
A form of social organization
A social class
Red tape, bad government
(bureaucratism)

8. Bureaucracy and government
Not all public employees are bureaucrats
Bureaucracies enjoy immense power in the
private sector

9.  Many human tasks require the use of
authority systems, which rely on the method
of command, rather than exchange
 Complex tasks requiring coordination
 Divide a complex task into simpler tasks
 Assign different tasks to different people
 Coordinate their interaction
 Efficiency is the watchword
 The pyramid of power
 The hierarchy

10. Bureaucracy as a form of social organization, main
features:
Specialization of tasks (division of labour)
Simplicity of individual responsibilities (a bureaucrat
must be easily replaceable)
All problems, solutions, procedures are categorized
Coordination from the top
Stability of assignments and authority
The organization as an end in itself
Resistance to change
There can be no ideal structure of administration;
bureaucracy always needs reform
Created as a solution, b. inevitably becomes a

11. King
Hammurabi,
ruler of the Old
Babylonian
Kingdom
1792-1750 BCE)
The earliest
model of
efficient
public
administratio
n

12. Hammurabi
receives the
Code of Laws
from Sun God
“To cause
justice to
prevail in the
country,
To destroy
the wicked
and the evil,
That the
strong may
not oppress
the weak”

13. 337 BCE: Chinese philosopher Shen Buhai
wrote a treatise on the same topic. Main
points:
Seniority
Merit rating
Official statistics
Written reports about government
activities
From 165 BCE, Chinese officials were
selected by examination

14. Max Weber on efficient bureaucracy:
Division of tasks must be carefully defined
The tasks must be simple
Decisions must be made on the basis of rules, not personal
motives (routine, impersonal, mechanistic administration)
Personnel must be selected on the basis of merit and
competence, not patronage
Incentives: job and income security for those competently
performing their tasks
A disciplined hierarchy of authority
How to make administration efficient is a perennial and

15. Bureaucracy as a social class
A group with distinct interests – in both private and
public sectors
Public bureaucracy: government officials, public
servants, civil servants
USA: Growth of number of government officials
1900 – 1 for every 300 citizens
2000 – 1 for every 15 citizens

16. Bureaucracy’s behaviour is constantly
shaped by at least 4 different types of
forces:
Ruling elites (the party in power, head of
state, etc.)
Powerful private interests
Self-interests of bureaucracy
Interests of society as a whole (public
interests)

17. For the sake of efficiency, bureaucracy needs to
have autonomy to perform its tasks in a neutral,
rule-based fashion
And yet, bureaucracy needs to be under public
control (thus, less autonomous) in order to make
sure that bureaucrats serve society, rather than
themselves
Ideally, bureaucracy’s autonomy should be only
of such character as to protect its neutrality and
concentration of its tasks

18. For instance:
A government minister must not be able to force a
public servant to act against the law, provide false
information, etc.
A private corporation must not be able to influence
decisions of a public servant in its favour
A citizen must not be able to buy the services of a
public servant
To withstand such pressures, public bureaucracy must
be autonomous
But this autonomy must not make it possible for
bureaucrats to “privatize” their offices
Bureaucracy must be fully accountable to the public

19. A functioning, developed democracy is a key
variable
It makes societal control of bureaucracy possible
The more democracy, the more likely it is that
bureaucracy will serve the public interest
Absence of democracy produces a state
dominated by the bureaucrats colluding with
private interests for mutual benefit at the
expense of society
Extreme examples from the 20th century:
Left-wing (communist) and right-wing (fascist)

20. Bureaucratic self-interests (in a non-corrupt
state):
Preservation of position
Promotion
Preservation of government program
Influence in the policy-making process
None of these necessarily contradict the public
interest: a well-trained, dedicated, honest,
efficient public servant may have all those
interests – they are legitimate
And yet, they may serve as sources for the

21. Sources of bureaucratic power:
Capacity for self-preservation
Possession of specialized knowledge
Role in policy-making
Interaction with elected officials and
interest groups
bureaucratic pluralism
representative bureaucracy
Corruption (use of public office for private
gain)

22. In a corrupt state,
Neither the ruler nor the public are able to
restrain bureaucratic self-interests
As a result, public offices become bureaucratic
private enterprises
History is replete with such practices of public
officials – sometimes officially sanctioned

23. Bureaucracy as a problem
“Bureaucracy, a gigantic power set in motion by
dwarfs…
Bureaucracy, made up entirely of petty minds,
stands as an obstacle to the prosperity of the
nation; delays for seven years, by its machinery, the
project of a canal which would have stimulated the
production of a province; is afraid of everything,
prolongs procrastination, and perpetuates the
abuses which in turn perpetuate and consolidate
itself. Bureaucracy holds all things and the
administration itself in leading strings; it stifles men

24. “There is a dark side to living in Newfoundland which the average
employed person knows nothing about. The welfare recipient, or
the applicant is the one who knows about it: he knows less than
civil treatment from civil servants, gets the feeling that he is a
criminal-minded scrounger and is not sure whether he should walk
in like a man and demand his rights or should crawl in on his hands
and knees and beg for mercy.
Most welfare recipients live in fear and dread of the welfare
officer. They look on him as the all-powerful lord who can give
and take away. A frown from the welfare officer is almost the
same as the death sentence and few people are brave enough to
risk the wrath of these lords of welfare.
At most welfare offices the recipient is treated with less respect
than the mat on the floor… In most areas the welfare officer is the
lord and master of all he surveys and those who seek his time and
attention must put up with his whims, his quirks of personality

25. Even in a non-corrupt state (or a well-organized, efficient
private corporation), bureaucracy tends to develop these
characteristics:
Rigidity -needed to enable a bureaucracy to process large
numbers of cases under standardized procedures
Goal displacement - preservation of the organization
itself trumps the goal for which it exists
Impersonality
Empire-building and self-perpetuation. Parkinson’s Law:
(1) 'An official wants to multiply subordinates, not
rivals'
(2) 'Officials make work for each other.'
Resistance to change - undermines efficiency

26. Robert Michels, 1912, based on a study of the
politics of the German Social Democratic Party:
'He who says organization, says oligarchy.'
As soon as people form organizations, power in
those organizations gravitates upwards towards
the permanent officials or officers. A second,
subordinate law suggests that whatever purpose
an organization was originally established to
serve, the preservation of the organization itself,
and of its oligarchy, will come to take

27. Controls for bureaucratic efficiency (Gabriel
Almond):
1. FORMAL
Elected Chief Executive
Elected Assembly, with:
committees with investigative power
access to information
political opposition
Independent courts
Ombudsmen (pioneered in Sweden), Auditor
General
Decentralization of government functions

28. 2. INFORMAL:
Public opinion
Independent media
Public interest
groups
Constituencies
Professional
standards

29. Bureaucracy in the post-industrial age
Expansion of the practices of networking and
mutual adjustment, as opposed to hierarchy and
command
The dominance of markets over states
New Public Management:
Attempts to develop new forms of controlling
bureaucracy
Mechanisms for greater flexibility
Introduction of business methods to cut costs
Formal privatization of state functions

30. Bureaucracy according to Weber
(1864-1920)

31. Bureaucracy
Hierarchy
Division of Labor/Specialization
Consistency
Qualification
Formal, written communication
Professional–Private
Separation/Impersonality
Devotion to Purpose/Goal
Orientation

32. Hierarc
hy
Authority and its
flow
subordination
“Such a system
offers the governed
the possibility of
appealing the
decision of a lower
office to its higher
authority”
Highest Office
High Office
High Office
Low Office Low Office Low Office
Lowest Office
Lowest Office
Lowest Office
Lowest Office

33. Division of
Labor
Specialization
Separation of roles
and duties
“’higher’ authority [is
not] authorized to
take over the
business of the
‘lower’”
Executive
Operations
Policy
and
Plannin
g
Strateg
ic
Plannin
g
Policy
Developm
ent
Regional
Management
Special
Project
s
Legislat
ive
Relatio
ns
Office Staffing
Maintenance

34. Consistenc
y
Rules regulate
all matters
“abstractly.”
i.e. no one is
special
Management
Duties
The “Governed”
Not Special
Not Special
Not
Special
Not
Special
Not
Special
Not Special
Not
Special
Not
Special
Not Special
Not Special

35. Qualification Training and
qualification is
the number one
requisite.
How to manage
How to carry out
duties
Knowledge of the
rules
PhD
Master’s
Master’
s
Bachelor
’s
Bachelo
r’s
Bachelor’s
Associat
e’s
Associat
e’s Associate’s
Associate’s

36. Separation of Professional and
Private
The bureau is
separate from
the “private
domicile of the
official”
resources
time
Orders
filtering of
web surfing
Loves work as a
break from the
family
Always makes
personal calls on
personal cell phone
I certainly DID NOT
use my office’s
copier to print
these notes for you
Loves being
able to leave
work at home
Wouldn’t even
THINK of stealing
pens
Never uses
photocopier for
own tax forms
Glad s/he
doesn’t have
to live in this
cubicle
Treats
company car
much better
than personal
Wouldn’t even THINK
of stealing rubber
cleaning gloves

37. Devotion to
Purpose/Duty
Devotion is to your
work and role, not to
person above you.
“[official] is not
considered the personal
servant of a ruler”
Devoted to
Bureau
Management
Devoted to
Division
Management
Devoted to
Division
Management
Devoted
to
Planning
Devoted
to Policy
Devoted
to Region
Devoted
to
Project
Devoted
to
Schmoozi
ng
Devoted
to Office
Devoted
to Toilets

38. Advancement and
Seniority The unspoken
agreement...
1. you hang around
2. you climb the
ladder
3. you get taken
care of
Salary and Pension
Promoted here 6 months ago
(and don’t know what the Hell
I’m doing)
Promoted
here 7 years
ago
Promoted here
17 years ago
Started here
25 years ago

39. The Contribution of
Max Weber
Championed the study of public administration.
Laid the descriptive groundwork for bureaucracy
and the position/role of the state in government,
politics and people’s lives
Ever since then, public administration has studied
what actually happens when you stick human
beings into a bureaucracy.

40. So what’s wrong with this
picture?
Political
Appointee
YOU’RE
FIRING ME?!
I’m WAY too
qualified for
this
I’m in love
with my
manager
I’m Being
Micro-
Managed
I REALLY
like this pen
I work at
home
I’m having a bad
day. The next
client who calls
me is dead
meat.
Who do you
think REALLY
runs this
office?
I REALLY like
these rubber
cleaning gloves