Bureaucracy

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 Bureaucracy

    "Bureau" is the French word for "office."  Bureaucracy means rule by offices.  
Bureaucracies are hierarchically organized, formal organizations based on a functional 
division of labor.  Almost all very large organizations, both public and private, are bureaucratic.

    Your position within the organization is based on your title and rank.  Both together define your role within the organization.   There is a linkage between your job title and your pay scale.

    At the top of public bureaucracies are the political leaders, which, in democracies, are usually
elected.  Below the top leadership, may be a group of politically appointed officials.  But most
bureaucrats are selected on the basis of merit and are tenured in their jobs after a probationary 
period. 

    Max Weber, the German Sociologist, wrote extensively on bureaucracies.  He developed the concept of "ideal types" and fashioned an "ideal type of bureaucracies."  (http://www2.pfeiffer.edu/~lridener/DSS/Weber/BUREAU.HTML)

Bureaucracies are large, formal organizations.  They exist as both governmental and non-governmental (private) organizations. Private bureaucracies include both religious bodies like the Roman Catholic Church and business organizations like General Motors or IBM.  All modern business corporations are bureaucratically organized.

All modern states have a large bureaucratic components.  We usually refer to the governmental bureaucracies as the administration, which is usually under the direct supervision of the chief executive, the President in Presidential systems or the Prime Minister in Parliamentary systems.  In the United States, the bureaucracy refers to the Executive Branch of Government.  The U.S. President is the chief bureaucrat who rules both the civilian and the military agencies and departments of the executive branch of government.

Bureaucracies operate internally through written rules and procedures.  Positions within the bureaucracy are defined by law and attached to particular offices.  Individuals play the defined roles prescribed by their office.  There is a hierarchy of offices, which are usually functionally organized on the basis of some principle of specialization.  Office holders are ranked and their pay scale depends on their ranking.  They receive a regular salary and are generally prohibited from receiving favors (bribes) from their clients.  Positions are generally filled on the basis of merit and specialized training.  In public bureaucracies, a civil service system has been established.

Democratically elected leaders usually serve at the top of the bureaucratic hierarchy.  These elected leaders are usually assisted by a top group of politically appointed managers.  While the civil service bureaucrats are supposed to be politically neutral expert managers, the political managers pursue politically motivated goals.  There is often tension between the political top management and the career professionals:  between the democratic and the bureaucratic principles of management.

 

 

Selected Models of the Policy Making Process

    The Systems Model
        Input
        Conversion
        Output
        Feedback
        Environment

    Pluralist Model
        Social Groupings
        Organized Groups
        Iron Triangles
            Relevant Interest Groups
            Relevant Standing Committees of Congress
            Relevant Executive Agencies
        Policy Subsystems

    Elite-Mass Model
        Dominant Elites
        Counter Elites
        Mass Media
        Attentive Publics
        Masses

    Marxist Model
        Ruling Class
            Capitalists
        Oppressed Majority
            Proletariat
        Intelligentsia
        Dictatorship of Proletariat
        Classless Society

    Bureaucratic Politics Model

    Incrementalist Model

    Rationalist Model


Policy Making Process (Version 1)

    Agenda Building             Interest Articulation

    Agenda Formulation        Interest Aggregation

    Agenda Adoption                                                                    Congress    How a Bill Becomes a Law

    Agenda Implementation                                                        Executive Branch

    Agenda Evaluation                                                                  By Congress and Executive

based on:
Steffen W. Schmidt, Mack C. Shelley, and Barbara A. Bardes.  American Government and Politics Today:  2007 - 2008 Edition.
   
Belmont, CA:  Thomson Wadsworth, 2007.   pp.  483 - 486.

 

Policy Making Process (Version 2)

    Agenda Setting

    Policy Deliberation

    Policy Enactment

    Policy Implementation

    Policy Outputs

    Policy Outcomes

based on:
Morris P. Fiorina, et. al.  America's New Democracy, 3rd Edition.  New York:  Pearson Longman Penguin Academics, 2006.
    pp. 410 - 411.