Bureaucracies

Input: Articulation of demands, and aggregation of demands.

Output: Rule making and rule implementation.

What is a bureaucracy? What is it based on?
Some current debates about the bureaucracies. The difference between rule making and rule implementation.
Issues about bureaucratic control and responsiveness.
Administrative and Technocratic state.

I. Max Weber developed an ideal-type bureaucracy:

Hierarchy

Impersonality

Written rules of conduct

Appointment and promotion based on achievement

Specialized division of labor

Goal: Efficiency.

II. Current debates about the role of bureaucracies

The development of bureaucracies is linked to debates about the nature of government and the state. Should the role of the government be merely to maintain law and order, or should it be larger, more caring towards the people.

Minimalist view

Enlightened Despotism

III. Bureaucracies are concerned with implementation.

In practice the distinction between rule making and rule implementation is not clear-cut.

This is part because the roles of politicians and bureaucrats may overlap.

What constitutes implementation is obscure.

Bureaucrats are not only involved in implementation, but also prepare decisions and advice before decisions are taken

There exist several large scale organizations; their running efficiently is more about effective management rather than rule implementation.

Thus, the distinction between rule making and implementation is blurred. Politicians do not always subordinate bureaucrats. Specialization and pervasiveness of bureaucracies in modern societies, and issues of democratic accountability have raised issues about bureaucratic control and responsiveness.

IV. Some manifestations of lack of control and responsiveness

"The INS, as well as other federal agencies that administer our immigration laws, suffer from crippling fragmentation, abysmal service, chaotic enforcement, negligent financial management, counterproductive duplication at the border, and costly duplication in admitting immigrants. Cumulatively, these problems have created a devastating culture of failure." (Doe, John A common statement about the INS.)

For example, the extent of decisions taken at the top is affected by the size of the bureaucratic organization. The greater the distance between the top and bottom of the pyramid, the greater the likelihood that the intentions of the rule-makers will be distorted. There is loss of efficiency.

V. Internal and external mechanisms of bureaucratic control and responsiveness.

Internal controls

Professional standards.

Whistle-blowing

Opening up the administrative proceedings for the public.

External controls:

Legislative oversight

Review of decisions and administrative law by the courts

Citizen participation

VI. Differences in bureaucratic control and responsiveness in different political systems:

Parliamentary systems

In developing countries where the values of ruling political system are less widely shared there can be several problems.

Politicians are only interested in retaining power and not interested in development issues.
Politicians are over zealous in getting things done, but public servants are unwilling or unable to follow.

Level of implementation can be low due to lack of sufficient trained personnel. But this argument is not convincing.

VII. Max Weber developed an ideal-type bureaucracy:

Hierarchy

Impersonality

Written rules of conduct

Appointment and promotion based on achievement

Specialized division of labor

Goal: Efficiency.

Patron-client relations or patronage relations.

This is a system, for example, in which politicians personally select senior government appointees, who in turn select their appointees, and so on.

Grafting a modern administrative system onto a traditional political culture has produced bureaucracies that depart sharply from Weber’s ideas.

VIII. Administrative or technocratic state