Title: Chapter 13 - The Bureaucracy | CourseNotes
Headings: Chapter 13 - The Bureaucracy
Chapter 13 - The Bureaucracy
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Content: Though the number of direct workers has stayed about the same, there may be as many as four people working indirectly for the government for every one person who works directly. The power of the bureaucracy can be determined by the amount of discretionary authority (the ability to act and make policies not spelled out by the law) given to appointed officials. By this measure, the federal bureaucracy has grown enormously. Congress has delegated authority to administrative agencies in three main areas: paying subsidies to particular groups (farmers, schools, hospitals, etc.). transferring money from the federal to the state and local governments (e.g. grant-in-aid programs). devising and enforcing regulations for various sectors of society and the economy. Administrative functions operate at all levels of independence, some closely scrutinized, others barely monitored. Today, many agencies have a heck of a lot of power they didn’t before. They could probably decide how much sugar is put into peppermints (an exaggeration, but not by much.).