A: Munn v. Illinois upheld the right of the government to regulate the business operations of a firm. It was the court decision that opened the door for the first regulation agencies and ten years later allowed for the ICC which set the president for regulatory policy making.

A: This Act was sponsored by Senator George H. Pendleton and written by Dorman Eaton. And the so-called Prince of Patronage, Vice President Chester Arthur who became the President with the death of Garfield, encouraged the passage of this Act. This Act created the civil service so that hiring and promotion would be based on merit rather than patronage.

A.) yes, the “plums” in the plumbook are actual job positions. Though they aren’t always the most challenging jobs. An example of a “plum” would be an embassador, if this embassador made somebody really happy, they may get an embassadorship some place nice and tropical.

Why are the cabinet departments considered part of the bureaucracy?

Most notably, the civil service test that is administered to all persons who wish to be hired by the government. People are required to take this test, and they are assigned a GS rating from 1-18. Depending on where the individual places, determines what level of jobs they are qualified for and how much they may be paid. This helps eliminate patronage in the government work place.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was an act passed by Congress that singled out six states in the deep south. They sent federal regestrars to the states to register qualified voters. The act also outlawed literacy tests and other tests used to discriminate against potential african-american voters in the south.

The act is an example of successful implementation because the program had a clear goal, straightforward implementation, and those enforcing the implementation had clear authority because of the involvement of the Justice Department and the attorney general.

1. The Weberian Model is the first, it has the idea of a precise, impartial bureaucracy with a hierarchal authoritry structure, where responsibility flows down and power flows up. They operate on the merit principle, and are impartial to ensure equal service.

2. The Acquisitive Model is a model of a bureaucracy where budgets are busily maximized, and powers are pushed to be expanded. They can hold monopolies, and act much like corporations do in that regard, except profits are replaced with budget increases.

3. The third and possibly least favorable model is the garbage can model. Bureaucracies are simply a loose collection of ideas that only take root and grow in the right conditions. They are loosely run and operate on trial and error, and solutions are fitted to problems instead of the opposite.

When you ignore a subpeona, you can go to jail for contempt of court/Congress. A subpeona is a court order that orders a certain person or certain documents to be examined. The consequence is jail for ignoring a subpeona. You can answer the subpeona and then plead the 5th without getting in trouble, but ignoring subpeonas is not a good idea.

A:The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a law designed to help end formal and informalbarriers to african american suffrage (right to vote). This act is important to us because it is a case of successful implementation by the bureaucracy.

It was successful implementation because its goal was clear (to register African-Americans voters), its implementation was straight forward (sending out people to register them), and the authority of the implementors was clear (they had the support of the attorney general and the US Marshals) and concentrated in the justice department.

This as opposed to how many problems implementation can run into with poor program design, lack of clarity, lack of resources, administrators dispositions, and fragmentation.

A sunset law is a statute that includes provision for automatic termination of a government program, agency, etc., at the end of a specified time period unless it is reauthorized by the legislature.

A sunshine provision (1) require government bodies to conduct their business at meetings open to the public and/or (2) give the public the right to obtain access to government documents. However, Sunshine laws usually contain exceptions to both of these requirements. The exceptions allow government (1) to exclude the public from meetings at which certain types of items are discussed and/or decided and (2) to keep certain types of records or documents confidential. The provisions in the Sunshine Laws of each state differ.

What would need to take place to remove a bureaucrat from his/her secure position?

-Americans dislike Bureaucrats
This is a general thought of Americans but after actually working with a bureaucrat, Americans are generally pleased with their service.

-The bureaucracy grows bigger each year
This is both true and false. The amount of government employees is growing but not federal employees. Most growth has happened at the state and local levels.

-Most federal bureaucrats work in DC
Only about 16 percent of bureaucrats actually hold office in DC. Others work directly where their service is needed.

-Bureaucrats and Ineffective and Inefficient
Most people see the flaws of bureaucrats but never see how much they accomplish. Actually our government requires the work that bureaucrats do and although it may seem inefficient, it is the best way we have discovered properly run our government.

Sunset laws are provisions that Congress has passed that has a so called “expiration date” attached to it (i.e. the Patriot Act that expired in December of 2005). Sunshine provisions allow the public to look at data, such as the financial dealings of the bureaucracy, and receive full disclosure.

ANSWER:
1)Americans dislike bureaucrats: This is untrue because studies have shown that 2/3 of Americans who have had encounters with bureaucrats consider these encounters positive.

2)Bureaucracies are growing bigger each year: While the number of government employees has been increasing, the same cannot be said about federal employees. The state and local employees have been growing in number while federal employees, which account for 3% of civilian jobs, has been shrinking.

3)Most federal bureaucrats work in Washington, D.C.: Only about 16% of all federal employees work in D.C. California has the largest number of federal employees, followed by Texas and New York.

4)Bureaucracies are ineffective, inefficient, and always mired in red tape: Bureaucracies may seem inefficient at times, but without them, the country would truly be inefficient. They complete tasks that make “normal” everyday life possible. In addition to this, removing the “red tape” (or administrative routines) would actually create more “red tape”.

Well, sunset laws are laws that give agencies a limited life and require that they justify their existence. For example: the Bush Tax cut.

And sunshine provisions are able to access something with full disclosure.

A- Sunset laws are laws passed with a specified date on which it will expire. People like them because it allows for laws to be reconsidered and re-evaluated.

A: Yes, the bureacracy probably would be more efficient. Without Discretionary authority there wouldn’t be any poor policy implementation and laws/bills would be more subject to success with a specific plan. However, without discretionary authority, there would be more limitations posed upon the administrator who must make a decision. And as we know, limitations often lead to less successful results than that of those who have more free options to come up with the best solutions. Yes, the bureaucracy would be better off without slippage. This would lead to better, and easier policy decisions and better performance. It would also prevent fragmentation. However, the idea of having neither discretionary authority nor slippage is unrealistic. People are always going to have disagreements in the government and over proposed law, so slippage will inevitably occur, and becuase of these disagreements, administrators are going to act within their own discretion to do what they think is best or what will benefit their groups the most.

ANSWER: Sunset laws literally put a life span on agencies, while putting them on the line for periodic review. The agency must justify their existance in order to stay existant. Congress has the power to do this. This is a way for congress to try and gain control over the bureaucracy and it also helps to improve, or remove, wasteful agencie.

A. The Senior Executive Service is comprised of 9,000 “cream of the crop” federal government managers. They administer public programs and are pretty much just top notch supervisors, who can be moved from agency to agency depending on who needs help. Their salary is linked to individual performance. According to the site USAJOBS, these individuals must be able to do the following:
Lead change
Lead people
Be results driven
Build Coalitions
Make profitable business decisions

Those who implemented the act believed in the cause. There was no room for slippage in the act either. The language of the bill was very specific. Implementation was also very simple, the goal was simple, make it easier for minorities to vote. They abolished the literacy exams as well as the poll taxes, they also registered thousands of minority members to vote.

Who changes the SOPs to fit with changing times?

Answer:

Sunset Laws are pieces of regulation that have an automatic end date for either the whole piece of regulation or just sections. Once this date comes, these regulations are considered no good. Buf if congress wants to push back the date in which these regulations end, they can.

Sunshine Provisions are state and federal laws requiring most regulatory meeting and decisions to be made available to the public.

2. Bureaucracies are growing bigger- The Federal Bureaucracy has actually decreased in size with relevance to the population since the 50’s. However with that Federal decrease, State bureaucracies have skyrocketed, so on state level bureaucracies have increased.

3.Most Federal Bureaucrats work in DC- only about 16% work in DC the others work in different states, for instance, California has 265,000 federal employees all to itself.

4.Bureaucracies are inefficient and covered in red tape- even though bureaucracies may seem to not work well some of the time, no better substitute has ever been found. When they work well they get little credit, but when something goes wrong they get a tremendous amount of blame.

Basically, regulation is how the government regulates the American economy and society. All regulation contains the elements of 1. a grant of power and set of directions from Congress, 2. a set of rules and guidelines by the regulatory agency itself, 3. some means of enforcing compliance with Congressional goals and agency regulations. Some people want deregulation because they argue that it raises prices, distorts market forces, and in the end does not always work well.

How are independent regulatory agencies and interest groups dependent upon each other?

(as seen in the “Controlling the Bureaucracy” section of the lecture notes)

Yes, bureaucratic slippage can occur when a bureaucrat (usually at the state or local level) disagrees with the policy, but this is not always the case. I find it easy to remember the concept of bureaucratic slippage by thinking of the policeman analogy Mr. Kautzman explained in class:

You are driving 40 miles an hour in a 35 mile an hour speed zone. A policeman pulls you over, but decides to let you off with just a warning. The law says the speed limit is 35, so technically you broke the law and deserve a consequence. However, the policeman decides not to give you a ticket because you only “broke the law” by 5 miles an hour.

This doesn’t mean the policeman disagreed with the law, it just means that he may have his own way of going about carrying out the law, which is a good example, in my opinion, of bureaucratic slippage.

Published by the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the House Committee on Government Reform alternately after each Presidential election, the Plum Book lists over 7,000 Federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government.

So in other words, the Plum Book only contains postitions in the Federal Government, not actual people.

What are some of the factors that cause implementation to fail?

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a piece of legistlation outlawing discriminatory voting practices that had been used to disenfranchise African Americans, particularly literacy tests. The Act also enabled the federal government to have extensive oversight into elections administrations. States with discriminatory voting practice records had to get preclearance from the Department of Justice before they could alter voting practices in their states. This preclearance clause has been extended several times, most recently in 2006.