Title: A Brief History of Administrative Government | Center for Effective Government
Headings: 
A Brief History of Administrative Government
Elsewhere in the background section...

Content: A Brief History of Administrative Government | Center for Effective Government
A Brief History of Administrative Government
You are in the Advocacy Center of the Center for Effective Government's Regulatory Resource Center. ⇒ Return to Policy Library home. ⇒ Switch to the Advocacy Center. The Early Years
Bureaucratic Expansion
Influence of Congress and the White House
Other Sections in Background
Printable PDF
A. The Early Years
Federal administrative agencies have been a critical part of our political process for over 100 years, but their role in our government has changed considerably over that period of time. When the American republic was young, the executive branch of the government was small. The first agencies of the federal government were the Departments of War, State, Navy, and Treasury. There was also an Office of the Attorney General. The growth of the country and the expansion of governmental responsibilities led to the creation of the Department of the Interior in 1849, the Department of Justice in 1870, and the Post Office Department in 1872. Agencies began to adopt formal operating standards and publish rules in response to public criticism of abuses of power under the spoils system. In 1868, for instance, the Treasury Department began publishing its customs decisions, followed in 1869 by the Patent Office.