Title: Notes - The Bureaucracy
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The Bureaucracy
Objectives
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Content: 4. Constraints much greater on government  agencies than on private bureaucracies
a . Hiring, firing, pay,  procedures, etc., established by law, not by market
b. General constraints
(1) Administrative Procedure  Act (1946)
(2) Freedom of Information Act  (1966)
(3) National Environmental Policy  Act (1969)
(4) Privacy Act (1974)
(5) Open Meeting Law  (1976)
(6) Several agencies often assigned  to a single policy
c. Effects of constraints
(1) Government moves  slowly
(2) Government sometimes acts  inconsistently
(3) Easier to block action than  take action
(4) Reluctant decision making by  lower-ranking employees
(5) Red tape
5. Why so many constraints? a. Constraints come from  citizens: agencies' responses to demands for openness,  honesty, fairness, etc. 6. Agency allies
a. Agencies often seek alliances  with congressional committees or interest groups
Harold Seidman estimates that cabinet  secretaries spend about 10 percent of their time attending to  departmental business and 40 percent of their time testifying  before congressional committees. (1) Iron  triangle-client politics
b. Far less common today~politics has   become too complicated
(1) More interest groups,  more congressional subcommittees
(2) Far more competing forces than  ever given access by courts
c. Issue networks: