Presidential Control over the Bureaucracy

Throughout the rigmarole of political history of the United States of America, the growth of the “fourth branch of government”, the Bureaucracy, has been a prominent, controversial topic. Peter Woll, in his article “Constitutional Democracy and Bureaucratic Power”, and James Q. Wilson, in his article “The Rise of the Bureaucratic State”, discuss this developing administrative branch. The Constitution has no written mention of an “administrative branch”, and today’s Bureaucracy is often tedious, corrupt, and even undemocratic. But such a branch’s development and expansion is necessary in order to keep par with an evolving and changing society.

s the head of the federal executive, the President is in charge of the vast federal bureaucracy. With the power to appoint department and agency leadership, dismiss Cabinet officials, issue executive orders, and control the budgeting process, the President can exercise considerable control over the federal bureaucracy. At the same time, the sheer size of the bureaucracy itself often undermines the ability of the President to influence and control it. By exercising bureaucratic discretion, agencies may mitigate the problems caused by the size of the bureaucracy.

To sum things up – when it comes to the bureaucracy, some of the controls that the president has the authority to use are: appoint and remove agency heads, reorganize the bureaucracy, make changes in budget proposals, reduce an agency's budget, ignore initiatives from the bureaucracy, and issue executive orders. Nonetheless, even with all of the powers and controls that the president possesses, taking into account the sheer magnitude and breadth of the bureaucracy, having complete control over it is not even feasible. In addition, even though the president is delegated the responsibility of managing the bureaucracy, when throwing the influences of Congress,

Including members of the armed forces, the Executive Branch employs more than 4 million Americans. The president is responsible for the execution and enforcement of the laws created by Congress. The Executive Branch is important today because it is their responsibility to enforce the country's laws. The Cabinet includes 15 departments, each overseeing a particular issue for the nation, and the Executive Office of the President is composed of the president's senior staff. The president, as the head of state, is responsible for appointing the heads of each of the 15 executive departments, signing bills or vetoing them after they have been through Congress, appointing members of the judicial branch, and commanding the armed forces. The Legislative Branch consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which together form the United States Congress. The Constitution grants Congress the sole authority to enact legislation and declare war, the right to confirm or reject many Presidential appointments, and substantial investigative

Many people believe that the president of the United States has more power than any other government branch. However, this very far from the truth. In reality, all three branches of government have an equal amount of power. This is made so by checks and balances, the Constitution, and Judicial review.

The legislative branch has to approve these appointments and has the power to impeach federal officials. These means that the two branches regulate the judicial branch, which in turn has power, through a process known as the judicial review, to regulate both the legislative and executive branches. The Executive Branch is made up of the president, the vice president and fifteen departments of the same level as the cabinet. These

Over time, despite the fact that the Constitution provides the president with only a few specific and enumerated powers, presidential authority has greatly expanded. Previous government administrations have seized opportunities arising during crises such as the Civil War, World War I and II, and the contemporary War on Terror to further expand the scope of executive power. While this expansion of presidential power has been facilitated by Congressional action in certain instances, the executive’s authority expansion is to a greater extent the product of presidential unilateral action based on broad interpretations of enumerated

It is fair to say that the Constitution makes the legislative branch of government, also interchangeably referred to as Congress, the source or author of federal administration (Willoughby 1927; 1934). Establishing, empowering, structuring, staffing, and funding federal agencies all rest on the legislative branch. Article I, section 9, clause 7 is clear in that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” Article II, section 2, clause 2 demands that all federal positions not distinctively established by the Constitution “shall be established by the Law.” The objective of these provisions were composed to restrain presidential power. The president cannot constitutionally take any money from the Treasury in the absence of an appropriations statue; the president cannot create or legally empower a single administrative office without delegated legislative authority. The legislative branch of government has substantially enhanced it role in federal administration, relying solely on its constitutional powers. In theory, it’s the responsibility of Congress to oversee and maintain adequate control to assure that agency regulations and standards are consistent with legislative content.

Like many words in the English language, bureaucracy has been twisted over the years to mean something different; much like how awful went from meaning “full of awe” to “very bad or unpleasant”. In And the Band Played On, we see organizational practices that obstruct progress referred to as “bureaucratic”, when the official definition refers to a system of governance where state officials make important decisions instead of representatives. A complete switch in how we see our administration and governmental organizations occurs because people do not trust their leaders. This fear of the unknown is the central theme of the movie and relates back to the United States governance: of the people, by the people, for the people. When the public deems that they are not making the important decisions, then bureaucracy has turned on its head and the ironic use becomes the true pronouncement.

The bureaucracy is a large administrative organization that handles day to day business of the government. The federal bureaucracy began in 1789 with three departments, State, War, and Treasury and a handful of employees. Today, the fifteen executive departments of government and other agencies employ approximately 2.7 million employees. It operates on national, state, and local levels. The bureaucracy implements the laws and policies made by elected officials.

Federal bureaucrats can slow down or stall a president’s agenda by claiming lack of knowledge or by using interests groups. Bureau chiefs can claim they do not have enough information to make a decision, especially a decision involving other bureaus. By doing this, they are claiming then need more time to investigate, which slows the president’s policies. By using interest groups, bureaucrats can go through Congress. This interest groups plead to their Senators and House reps, which takes longer to have the president’s policies in place by law. They can also sabotage a president’s agenda by leaking unauthorized information. This reduces the president’s credibility and forces people to think about the effect of the new information on the policies. Bureaucrats would do these things, because they support their burea more than the president. These bureaucrats “sincerely believe in their bureau’s purpose and feel they must protect its jurisdiction, programs, and budget at all costs”(Heclo 275). Presidents and administrations chance, but the bureaus stay and bureaucrats try to stand in its best standings.

The American bureaucracy fulfills all the functions of the three branches of American government. It effectively makes law by writing rules that appear in the Code of Federal Regulations; it executes laws by implementing them; and it exercises judicial authority by holding administrative legal proceedings when its rules are violated.

The United States has undergone significant changes since the Founders signed the Constitution in 1787 and created the largest federal republic at that time. When drafting the Constitution the Founders created checks and balances to limit the power of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Since 1787, however, the executive branch has accumulated a massive amount of power and authority over the other two branches. More acutely, the President has gained the authority to control the financial sector as well as the military industrial complex, and thus dictate how many Americans live their lives. This accumulation of power and authority has been systematic and cannot be considered an accident. The President of the United States

Removal Powers – a form of power that gives the governor the authority to remove staff members, certain agency heads, and his/her appointees (with the consent of the Senate) that deliberately neglect their official duties, but powerless in removing members for the simple reason of opposing an action that is favorable to the governor.

When it comes to Bureaucracies we may think of something that deals with business. The meaning to this term is, a formal organization with a hierarchy of authority and a clear division of labor. Bureaucracies shows that the relationships are not what is important, rather than just wanting to get to the bottom line. Different characteristics makes bureaucracy how it is today. These characteristics includes separate levels, with assignments flowing downward and accountability flowing upward, a division of labor, written rules, written communication of records, and impersonality or replaceability. The separate levels are responsible for the level beneath it. Each level is accountable to the level above it for fulfilling those specific assignments. For example, the board of the America oversees the president. The president oversees the vice president of administration which includes vice president for academic affairs, personnel, development, and public affairs. The vice president for administration oversees the next level, known as the college of social sciences and so