Bureaucracy and the Policy Process: Keeping the Promises

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Rowman & Littlefield, 2006 - 399 pages
The central role that bureaucracy plays in the policy process is played by individuals, namely, by subject matter experts and managers we call political executives. These executives do not play their role in a vacuum, of course, but in a context defined by three key forces--the organizational environment of bureaucracy itself; our governing philosophy stressing responsiveness, respect for individual rights, and accountability; and the demands of the people and the institutions those people have created to govern themselves. This book explores how these three forces collide and how the resulting collision shapes the way in which bureaucracy makes policy, as well as the final product of that policy making process. It provides an in-depth look at each of these forces, with chapters specifically devoted to how bureaucrats interpret their role in the policy process, how the organizational environment influences their ability to play that role, and, most of all, to the interactions between bureaucrats and the institutions of what we call the Constitutional government: the President, the Congress, and the courts. It does this, all the while reminding us that fitting bureaucracy into a society that views itself as self-governing is no easy task.

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Contents

Promises Promises The Why and How of Bureaucracy
1
THE HOW OF BUREAUCRACY
4
Hire It
5
Advice Rules and Enforcement
6
Writing Rules
9
In Summary
11
Responsiveness
12
Respect for the Rights of Individuals
13
In Summary
159
The Institutionalized Presidency
161
In Summary
168
A Matter of Structure
170
Agencies Need Money
176
Agencies Need Authority
184
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
190
Bureaucracy and the Congress The Committees You Shall Always Have With You Unless They End Up Being Against You
196

Accountability
14
Juggling Responsiveness Rights and Effectiveness
15
In Summary
17
The Individual Bureaucrat Somebody Has to Do All That Work
20
The City of the Political Executives
21
THE MANDATE REVISITED
22
EFFECTIVENESS RESPONSIVENESS RESPECT FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE CITY OF POLICY SPECIALISTS
23
Faith in What They Know
24
The Job Reinforces Their Faith
26
In Summary
27
It Is the Peoples Government After All
28
So Who You Gonna Listen To Anyway?
30
Responsiveness to the President
31
Responsiveness to the Courts
32
In Summary
33
The Courts Administrative Law and a Little Sensitivity
34
Living With an 800Pound Gorilla
35
In Summary
36
EFFECTIVENESS RESPONSIVENESS RESPECT FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN THE CITY OF POLITICAL EXECU...
37
We Represent the Peoples Representatives
38
Responsiveness to the Congress
39
Responsiveness to the Courts
41
In Summary
42
We Train Them That Way
44
In Summary
46
The Courts Administrative Law and a Little Sensitivity Redux
47
Same Gorilla but Closer to Home
48
In Summary
49
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
50
Structure Weve Got to Get Organized
53
THE PRINCIPLE OF HIERARCHY
56
Why Hierarchy?
58
But What About Specialization?
59
THE IMPACT OF HIERARCHY
60
Separating Authority from Knowledge
66
Absolute Power May Not Corrupt Absolutely but
68
Hierarchy Political Executives and the Bureaucratic Mandate
69
THE IMPACT OF SPECIALIZATION
71
The Bureau of Reclamation and Western Agriculture
72
Tunnel Vision and the Law of Unintended Consequences
73
The FHA and Suburbanization
74
The Desert Bloomed but at What Cost?
76
In Summary
79
THE PAPER STRUCTURE
80
Its a Matter of Attitude
81
Professionals Believe
82
Politics Counts
84
They Are People Too
86
Who Has Final Authority?
89
In Summary
92
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
93
Some Agencies Are More Powerful Than Others Expertise Politics and Agency Power
97
SOURCES OF AGENCY POWER
98
Cohesion
99
Leadership
100
The Advantage of Always Being on Duty
102
Power From the People
103
Power From the Chief and HisSomeday HerTeams
104
CONSTRAINTS ON AGENCY POWER
105
Competition
106
Politics and the Law
107
Administrative Law and the Courts
108
In Summary
109
A Question of Boundaries
110
Questions of Politics and Power
113
In Summary
114
COMPLEXITY CONTROVERSY AND THE POLITICS OF PUBLIC POLICY
115
Controversy and the Politics of Public Policy Making
117
Complexity and the Politics of Public Policy Making
121
Controversy and Complexity Interact
123
Controversy and Complexity in Concert
124
Controversy and Complexity at Odds
125
Some Complications
130
POLICY AREAS AND AGENCY POWER
131
Controversy and Complexity at Odds
133
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
134
Bureaucracy and the Presidency Hail to the Chief Sort Of
139
MOTIVATION RESOURCES AND A LACK OF PRESIDENTIAL ATTENTION TO BUREAUCRACY
140
How Can a President Keep Track?
141
In Summary
142
SUSPICION SUSPICION SUSPICION
143
Its All a Matter of Timing
145
And He Doesnt Know the Territory
146
HOW DOES THE PRESIDENT INFLUENCE BUREAUCRACY?
147
A Matter of Management
148
The Political Executives
149
THESE FOLKS COME TO PLAY
202
An Abiding Interest and Time to Follow It
205
Informed Amateurs and the Process Called Oversight
206
Whats Going on at the Agencies? Oversight or at Least Half of It
209
In Summary
221
A RECIPE FOR COOPERATION
222
Power and Legitimacy
225
In Summary
227
HOW DOES THE CONGRESS INFLUENCE THE BUREAUCRACY?
228
Subcommittees and Bureaucratic Structure
231
Authorizing Appropriating and Instructing
232
Remember They Do Call Them Lawmakers
235
Statutory Interpretation
239
Courts and Their Decisions
240
In Summary
242
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
243
Bureaucracy and the Public Supporters Critics and Hey Wheres the Rest of Us?
248
AGENCIES AND THEIR SUPPORTERS
249
Normally We Is Us
250
It Does Matter What You Know
251
It Also Matters Whom You Know
253
Sometimes It Even Matters How You Feel
254
In Summary
255
Sometimes We Is Us and Them
256
From Capture to Conflict
257
Agencies and Professional Associations
261
It Matters Some Whom You Know
264
It Matters How You Feel
266
In Summary
267
Agencies and Individual Policy Experts IPEs
268
It Matters a Great Deal Who Knows You
269
It Matters How You Feel
270
AGENCIES AND THEIR CRITICS
271
AGENCIES AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC
274
HOW DOES THE PUBLIC INFLUENCE BUREAUCRACY?
277
Indirect Public Influence
278
The Informal Side
279
The Rare Case of Direct Program Responsibility
280
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
281
Bureaucracy and the Law Sworn to Uphold
286
Agency Information Gathering and the Fourth Amendment
287
Why Do We Lengthen That Fourth Amendment Leash for Administrators
288
How Do We Lengthen the Fourth Amendment Leash for Administrators
291
Administrative Information Gathering and the Fifth Amendment
292
A Note on the Exclusionary Rule
294
Protection From Arbitrary Government
295
What Process Is Due? A Fair Chance to Be Heard
298
In Summary
300
EVERYONE SWEARS TO UPHOLD THE LAW
301
Administrative Law
302
Defining Responsiveness Respect for Individual Rights and Accountability in the World of Administrative Decision Making
304
What Kind of Procedures
306
Who Decides Which Procedures?
309
In Summary
311
The Administrative Procedure Act
312
In Summary
317
The Summary
318
The Law of Government Liability
319
Sovereign Immunity
320
When Is Government Liable?
321
Exceptions to the Tort Claims Act
322
The Liability of Individual Government Officials
326
In Summary
328
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
329
WHEN CAN A CITIZEN SUE HIS OR HER GOVERNMENT?
334
Congress and Access to Judicial Review of Administrative Action
336
Agency Action Committed to Agency Discretion by Law
337
In Summary
338
A Question of Standing
339
Youre Too Late Or Was That Too Early
341
In Summary
345
The Summary
346
What to Review?
347
When Should a Judge Say No?
348
Judging in the Real Administrative World
350
In Summary
355
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
356
The Environmental Protection Agency Our Better Angels or Promise Breakers?
360
THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL CONTEXT
361
THE AGENCY
363
EXTERNAL PRESSURE
369
THE BUREAUCRATS VERSUS THE POLITICIANS
381
Index
389
About the Authors
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