PSC 101 Federal Bureaucracy 2 Models/Theories of Bureaucracy

Summary

In this video, Michael Hart delves into different models and theories of bureaucracy, offering an insightful analysis of each. He explores the Rational Choice Model, the Acquisitive Model, the Monopolistic Model, and the Garbage Can Model, highlighting their unique features and limitations. Furthermore, the video covers significant concepts such as the Merit System, agency capture, deregulation, and sunset laws, detailing the dynamics of each within bureaucratic contexts. Through this discussion, Hart provides a comprehensive overview of bureaucracy's functions and challenges, emphasizing how various theoretical models attempt to make sense of this complex system.

Highlights

• The Rational Choice Model, rooted in rules and hierarchy, reflects much of 20th-century bureaucracy. 📅
• Acquisitive Model portrays bureaucracies as constantly seeking more resources and influence. 💰
• Monopolistic Model suggests inefficiency due to lack of competition. 📉
• The Garbage Can Model depicts a chaotic problem-solving approach within bureaucracies. 🗑️
• Spoil System and Merit System reflect evolving job allocation methods in bureaucracy. 🎖️
• Agencies rarely disappear due to sunset laws; Congress often renews them. 🌞
• Contracting out shifts government services to the private sector, notably in defense. 🛡️
• Despite protections, 40% of whistleblowers face job loss within a year. 🚨

Key Takeaways

• Rational Choice Model emphasizes rules and hierarchy but may lead to herd mentality. 📏
• Acquisitive Model views bureaucracies as self-serving, always seeking to expand. 💼
• Monopolistic Model highlights inefficiencies due to lack of competition. 🏢
• Garbage Can Model suggests bureaucracies often muddle through with trial and error. 🔄
• Merit System replaces cronyism with qualifications-based government positions. 🎓
• Whistleblowers face significant risks despite supposed legal protections. 🚨

Overview

Bureaucracy, a cornerstone of administrative functions, can be understood through several theoretical models. The Rational Choice Model, prominent in the 20th century, emphasizes a structured, rule-based approach but inadvertently fosters a robotic, unreflective workforce. Bureaucrats in this model follow hierarchical directives, often disregarding the broader implications of their actions, which leads to a 'cog in the machine' mentality.

Contrary to the Rational Choice Model, the Acquisitive and Monopolistic Models highlight the self-serving nature of bureaucracies. The Acquisitive Model sees these entities as ever-expanding, constantly vying for more resources and influence, while the Monopolistic Model suggests inefficiencies arise due to a lack of competition. Bureaucracies, without the threat of closure, may become cumbersome and disconnected from efficiency.

The Garbage Can Model offers a chaotic lens, where solutions are as variable as the problems themselves. Bureaucrats rely on trial and error in problem-solving, resulting in a disorganized approach to policy-making. This model, coupled with the evolution from the Spoil System to the Merit System, and the strategic use of sunset laws and contracting, illustrates the diverse and dynamic landscape of federal bureaucracy.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Bureaucracy The chapter introduces the concept of bureaucracy, focusing on how it can be understood or viewed.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Rational Choice Model The chapter titled 'Rational Choice Model' explores the concept of hierarchical and rule-based organizational structures. While these models seem rational, analytical, and structured on the surface, they often lead to irrational outcomes, namely herd mentality. Individuals within these organizations tend to see themselves merely as cogs in the machine, illustrating a disconnect between the intended rationality and actual behavior within such systems.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Acquisitive Model The chapter discusses the 'Acquisitive Model' of bureaucracy, dominant in the 20th century. It highlights how this model operates with a focus on function execution without moral reflection. The chapter underscores the textbook nature of this model, which is characterized by clear and noble rules that define bureaucratic operation, reflecting reality to a significant extent.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Monopolistic Model Organizations in modern states aim to follow clear and noble rules, which are predictable and not subject to the random whims of leaders. These rules are designed to be clear and understandable, either directly by individuals or through legal counsel, ensuring that they can be known and followed.
• 04:30 - 05:30: Garbage Can Model This chapter discusses the appeal of the bureaucratic model that focuses on cost-benefit analysis and hierarchical structures. However, it suggests that upon closer inspection and with a more skeptical view, the acquisitive model might offer a different perspective on how bureaucracies operate.
• 05:30 - 07:00: Spoil System & Merit System The chapter discusses the spoil system versus the merit system in organizational contexts. It reveals how organizations often operate with selfish motives, such as seeking more money, expanding staff, and broadening their jurisdictions. The text suggests that organizations perpetuate their significance by lobbying Congress and the media, aiming to avoid reducing their current scope or going out of business.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Agency Capture The chapter 'Agency Capture' discusses the selfish and self-aggrandizing nature of bureaucracies, highlighting how they often claim to need more money and personnel to supposedly better serve the public. It also touches on the monopolistic model of bureaucracies, suggesting that like any organization with a monopoly, they do not prioritize efficiency, as there is no immediate consequence for inefficiency.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Deregulation and Re-regulation The chapter discusses the inefficiencies and high costs associated with monopolistic organizations that don't face competition. It argues that such entities do not worry about going out of business due to their monopoly status, leading to poor service and high taxpayer costs. The chapter also mentions the suggestion of privatization as a potential solution to improve services by introducing competition, requiring organizations to focus on pleasing customers.
• 09:00 - 10:00: Sunshine and Sunset Laws The chapter discusses the garbage can model as an alternative to the rational choice model in addressing bureaucratic monopolies. It emphasizes problem-solving where bureaucrats tackle issues on a case-by-case basis, rejecting grand organizational plans.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Contracting Out In "Contracting Out," the author explores how organizations often struggle in decision-making by frequently resorting to trial and error. The chapter introduces the concept of the 'garbage can model,' where solutions to problems are randomly tried, discarded, and adopted. However, these solutions often fail in the long-term as they stop working when circumstances change, emphasizing the need for adaptability and continuous reassessment of strategies.
• 11:00 - 12:00: Whistleblowers The chapter titled "Whistleblowers" opens with a discussion on the historical use of the 'spoil system' for bureaucratic appointments, which operated under the phrase 'to the victory belongs the spoils.' This system was prevalent before reforms were introduced in the late 19th century. The focus then shifts to the Pendleton Act of 1883, a significant legislative change by Congress that marked a shift away from this system by placing 10 percent of the federal bureaucracy under a new, merit-based framework.
• 12:00 - 13:30: Enabling Legislation and GS Pay Scale The chapter discusses the merit system in federal civilian bureaucracy, highlighting the shift from cronyism to a merit-based hiring process. It explains that after numerous amendments over a hundred years since the enabling legislation was passed, about 90% of the bureaucracy now operates under this system. This transition emphasizes hiring individuals based on their qualifications and not political connections.
• 14:30 - 15:00: Senior Executive Service The chapter discusses the process of being appointed to a government position in a civilian capacity. This entails taking relevant exams such as the civil service exam for domestic positions or the foreign service exam for the state department. Appointments are made based on a combination of the candidate's exam scores, work experience, and education. The chapter explains how these factors are evaluated and used to assign candidates to suitable government positions.

PSC 101 Federal Bureaucracy 2 Models/Theories of Bureaucracy Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 to continue our theme of bureaucracy we next turn to the various ways in which bureaucracy can be understood or seen the first one is the rational choice model according to this model bureaucrats operate based on clear and noble rules they also take cost and benefits into consideration before they decide on a given course of action there is also a fairly strict hierarchy in a bureaucratic organization
• 00:30 - 01:00 with people at the top giving orders and those below them following it and finally there's a corollary of sorts that this particular organization that or this particular model of an organization that seems to be so rational so rule based so analytical and hierarchical in fact leads to an irrational outcome that being heard mentality and most people see themselves as cogs in the machine
• 01:00 - 01:30 ready to execute their specific function without reflecting about moral consequences of their decisions so does this model reflect reality in the 20th century this has been the dominant model the textbook model of bureaucracy and to a great extent we should say that uh it reflects reality uh certainly clear and noble rules uh something that bureaucratic
• 01:30 - 02:00 organizations in the modern state have tried to strive for clear noble rules is opposite of a random whim of of a ruler so organizations want to operate based on rules that are clear that can be known they might not be known to all of us but they could be known if we wanted to we could read them and understand them and if we couldn't do that then at least our lawyers presumably could read it and understand
• 02:00 - 02:30 it for us and cost benefit analysis and hierarchy seem to be present so if you look at the surface of bureaucratic organizations this model seems to be very appealing it seems to be almost like an end-all and de-all of understanding what bureaucracies are all about but if we dig a little bit deeper and become a little bit more skeptical we go to the acquisitive model and this particular model sees uh bureaucracies
• 02:30 - 03:00 as essentially selfish and self-aggrandizing what they want according to the acquisitive model is more money they also want more staff they also want to increase their sphere of influence their jurisdiction then they promote their importance relentlessly to congress and the media so presumably no organization wants to go out of business or even to reduce its current scope so it will always say
• 03:00 - 03:30 give us more money we need more money to serve the public or or end or we need to hire more people so bureaucracies are selfish and self-aggrandizing the monopolistic model argues that bureaucracies operate as any organization that has a monopoly would operate that is to say they don't have to care about being efficient because if they're not efficient what's
• 03:30 - 04:00 going to happen to them they're not going to go out of business because they're the only game in town so this means that operations are inefficient this means that the cost to taxpayer is excessive this means that the service is probably subpar because they don't have to please bureaucratic organizations do not have to please their customers and some have suggested that privatization
• 04:00 - 04:30 partial or complete is a solution to bureaucratic monopolies the garbage can model is the one that is radically opposed to the rational choice model this is the model of modeling through this is where bureaucrats try to come up with specific solutions to specific problems one problem one circumstance at a time this model says that there's no grand plan for an organization
• 04:30 - 05:00 organizations kind of bumble aimlessly seeking narrow solutions to specific problems solutions tend to be adopted as a result of trial trial and error that's why it's a garbage can model you try something it doesn't work you throw it away finally you find a solution that works you adopt that solution but lo and behold soon thereafter the solution stops working why does it stop working because circumstances change and once circumstances change what used to work no longer works so you
• 05:00 - 05:30 discard that solution and the whole process starts again some key terms spoil system comes from the phrase to the victory belong the spoils this used to be the dominant system of making appointments to bureaucratic organizations before the reform in the late 19th century pendleton act was passed in 1883 by congress and it put 10 percent of the federal bureaucracy under the so-called
• 05:30 - 06:00 marriage system a hundred years uh after the act was passed it would be amended multiple times and by now about 90 percent of the federal civilian bureaucracy is under the merit system so the merit system is when you get a job based on your merit and not because you're connected to someone who won an election and you help them win an election so instead of using cronyism and uh friends and and having supporters
• 06:00 - 06:30 being appointed by president uh now you are appointed based on your education work experience and test scores so typically if you want to go into government service in civilian capacity you would take a civil service exam if you wanted to work domestically if you wanted to work for the state department now you might take a foreign service exam and then they put together your exam scores with your work experience grades and education and they assign you to a particular
• 06:30 - 07:00 position in federal bureaucracy agency capture is when an agency that's supposed to regulate an industry gets captured by that industry meaning influenced excessively by that industry so instead of regulating it it goes very easy on that industry and it basically winks at what that industry is doing why this might happen is because regulators are either bamboozled by indus industries because industries
• 07:00 - 07:30 know more about themselves the regulators can't know about them or because regulators are dreaming themselves of positions in the private sector or positions for their nephews and nieces in the private sector and they tend to go too easy on agencies on industries they're supposed to regulate deregulation and re-regulation deregulation is when you reduce regulations has happened for example in case of an airline industry in the 1970s and also in case of the banking industry in the 1990s
• 07:30 - 08:00 you eliminate some regulations for the sake of business efficiency and then you re-regulate if you think you have gone too far as in fact had happened with both the airline and banking industries in the 21st century they had to be re-regulated a bit in order to improve actual outcomes sunshine laws passed after government in the sunshine act of 1976
• 08:00 - 08:30 basically it says that federal agencies of certain size have to hold have to maintain a public record of all of the meetings they hold sunset laws and those laws that stipulate that an agency or a program will disappear after a certain period of time sunset laws were passed as a result of congress's general reluctance to eliminate agencies and programs after creating them so that instead of existing in perpetuity these would
• 08:30 - 09:00 expire automatically unless congress renewed them but guess what agencies and programs continue to grow and they are rarely eliminated because what happens is congress simply renews their mandate renews their existence instead of allowing sunset laws to simply phase them out automatically contracting out is when you contract previously held government services to the private
• 09:00 - 09:30 sector so instead of making it yourself you ask the private sector to do it instead of providing services yourself you ask the private sector to do it in terms of department of defense you see a lot of contracting out department of defense operates its major pro projects technological projects primarily on the basis of contracting out to major private agencies uh or corporations so corporations like trw raytheon
• 09:30 - 10:00 mcdonnell douglas boeing lockheed martin are the ones that are filling the orders by the department of defense whistleblowers are people who report illegal or unethical activities within their organizations in 1978 there was a civil service reform act passed to protect whistleblowers in 1989 it was strengthened was the whistleblower protection act but what actually happens is despite uh legal protections that exist on paper 40
• 10:00 - 10:30 of whistleblowers lose the position that they held with their agency within one year of blowing the whistle so you take a significant risk when you become a whistleblower even though federal uh employees are rarely fired if you're a whistleblower you not you increase drastically your chance of being fired enabling legislation is simply a law
• 10:30 - 11:00 that congress passes that authorizes the creation of administrative agency specifies its name purpose composition function and its powers government services gs is the government pay scale it has 15 categories and and each category has steps typically four steps so after you take your civil service exam and they take your scores and put it together with your work experience in education in order to try to place you on a pay scale the pay scale
• 11:00 - 11:30 they place you on is this gs pay scale and you're placed in a category 1 to 15 and the step 1 through 4 within a category and then based on seniority and performance you advance higher and higher on this gs scale senior executive service was created in the late 1970s and this is kind of the cream of the crop the upper crust of bureaucratic organizations people who work for senior executive service get paid a little bit more
• 11:30 - 12:00 uh but they have a little bit less uh protection uh in in terms of uh tenure they have less marriage system protection and that's it for uh bureaucracy