Political Influence Bureaucratic Decisions

The last argument of the smoking age in New York City can be seen by those who are questioning those that say eighteen through twenty years olds are incapable of making decision. (CBS New York and Associated Press). "The laws seem so inconsistent. At the age of 18, a person can move out of their parents' home, vote, get tattoos and piercings and die for their country," says Ashley Anderson, a senior at Baruch College in New York City. "If New York City feels that 18-year-olds aren't mature enough to make smart decisions concerning their health, then why are they mature enough to make those other decisions?"

The 2016 presidential election was one of the most controversial moments in history; what many people thought would be impossible, Donald Trump won the presidential election. He did this by blatantly exaggerating and butchering the truth. This possessed the fragile minds of ill fated conservatives, and therefore won him the election. This is an external influence. Something that is put forth whether it is by the media, a politician, or a book that gives either a negative or positive impact on you. Although most of which Trump said were either complete lies or grossly exaggerated truths, it was still firmly believed by a high percentage of conservatives in America. We are so vulnerable to external influences, and our actions and thoughts can

What I read about reducing the cost of the national bureaucracy was Under the Hood: The Cost of Bureaucracy by Allison Gofman. The major points of her article are that there are many different agencies, departments, and groups of people who deal with the same things throughout the government. With having many different groups of people dealing with the same issues, there isn't one federal bureaucracy. Instead, its a bunch of different groups with their own interests and own opinions on one topic. The article also states that "public bureaucracies are not designed for efficiency" and I can see why. The bureaucracies just want to have power and influence over decisions that their agency gets to make at later dates.

One of the many great rights of being an American citizen has been the ability and power to have a voice and for that voice to be heard by those place in a position of trust to make change happen. American’s have always had a reputation to be stubborn, loud and to stick up for what they believe in. This still continues today as each and every citizen of this great nation is entitled to a voice and that one voice is capable of making an impact all the way up to federal policies. The average American truly can impact the federal policymaking process, but it has to start at the lowest level first.

After reading American Government on page 397 it says, “revolving door laws, laws that require a cooling-off period before government officials can register to lobby after leaving office” which means leaving a government job for a cooperation job. The problem of the Lobbying Revolving Door is that gives corporation unfair advantage like cheating the system like if someone changes from a corporation to government and that person could create a law to help that company for example reading the CNN video “Jo Ann Emerson took his seat in Congress. During her nine terms in office after her husband died.” The lobbying revolving door laws been ineffective because anyone that can change jobs they can change the laws. A solution is to create to institute

Bureaucracy: Bureaucracy was the curse that plagued all the men not only in the 256th squadron, but in the entire war effort. It was the factor that propelled the illogic behind Catch-22, which is enough to constitute its ridiculous nature. In the end, catch-22 only benefitted the bureaucrats themselves. The soldiers’ lives were not in their own hands, but rather in those of the bureaucrats that they received their orders from. Officials blindly made decisions to throw their men into combat without any say from the actual men who had to face danger themselves. The bureaucrats made decisions based on factors that did not relate to their goal, which was to win the war. They raised the number of missions in a tour to potentially move up in rank

Bill de Blasio is the current Mayor and Mayor incumbent of New York City running under the Democratic Party with alliance to third party Working Families Party gaining de Blasio cross endorsement of both parties. Responsibilities of the Mayor in NYC are wider than other cities. Major cities use a strong mayor form of mayor-council government, which makes the appropriate ‘check’ or restriction that City Councils often have on their Mayor very weak as opposed to a weak mayor form which restricts the mayor’s autonomy and power delegating more to the city council. This allows the Mayor almost complete administrative autonomy such as proposing legislation and executive orders and other managerial tasks to ensure an effective city government

There are many reasons why over the past few years many citizens have grown dissatisfied with the federal bureaucracy. Many believe that the system has become bogged down the numerous layers of red tape, its personnel systems are out of date, the presidential appointments process is too complex and slow, and pay and promotions are based on favoritism. These thoughts only became more prevalent in 2014 as the Obama administration had yet to do as it promised and overhaul the bureaucracy. Once that became apparent citizens satisfaction officially dropped far below its high point set right after 9/11 (Magleby, Light, Nemacheck, 2015).

Throughout the years 1877-1981, minority groups employed activism in a variety of guises in the struggle to achieve civil rights. While leading activists could draw on international events to strengthen their cause and enjoyed greater success as the campaign persisted, it ultimately fell to the government to make advances: activists needed a sympathetic president and government to legally push through change, thus the progression of civil rights was arguably dictated more by the current political situation than by the work of activists. The influence of the federal government is further seen by the fact that it both hindered and accomplished change throughout this period.

Former Mayor Bloomberg was one of the best things to happen to public health. I agree with his approaches in his efforts to make New York City a healthier place. His efforts made some improvements to the public health and he has the numbers to back him up. New York City had one of its fastest declines in the smoking rate while Bloomberg was in office. Since he took office, the city's smoking rate has dropped from 22% to just above 14%. The city has also become one of the safest, with the lowest murder rate of any big city in America. Deaths from traffic and fire are the lowest since the city started keeping records in 1916. In the Article, it highlights the topic of risks and rewards. This is exactly what Bloomberg takes with some of his approaches,

You work as an external consultant specializing in understanding how internal politics impact organizational effectiveness. Recently, you 've been contracted to diagnose the political culture of a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) operating medical clinics and hospitals throughout Minnesota. Using Bolman & Deal 's political frame describe (in paragraph form) what you will seek to learn regarding the organization 's political culture.

It has come to our attention that our internal lobbying system does not allow (potential) BIO lobbyists, who engaged in lobbying support activities, and had no lobbying contacts with covered officials to “Submit” an electronic report.

required to debate and talk about tobacco in front of the public eye. And, his job is relied

Historically, incrementalism has characterized public budgeting because at its core, budgeting has evolved: increased and decreased through gradual stages within the realm of the political arena. The need for this one step at a time type of response, found within incremental budgeting, would have likely been caused by the known fact that prior to the 1900’s public welfare programs, federal, states, and even city spending did not exist in the way in which is more than obviously observable in today’s society simply because America did not employ an actual budgetary system. Therefore, as with any unchartered territory, it was approached in stages, with caution, a little at a time in response to the growing needs of the public. Aaron Wildavsky made this case in his book “The politics of the budgetary process,” when he pointed out “budgeting is incremental, not comprehensive. The beginning of wisdom about an agency budget is that it is almost never actively reviewed as a whole every year in the sense of reconsidering the value of all existing programs as compared to all alternatives. Instead, it is based on last year’s budget with special attention given to a narrow range of increases or decreases.” (Wildavsky 1964, p. 15)

Fortunately, the tobacco industry's behavior is likely to change due to the increasing legal and societal pressures. Much legislation has been imposed to tobacco firms based on codes of behavior, different government strategies and litigations, especially after 1980 where anti-smoking groups reactions, led to higher restrictions throughout