final Flashcards
know final
Accountability
A relationship between people and actions
Whistleblowers
individuals who take it upon themselves to disclose activities they believe were wrong
rule of law
search for legal boundaries to constrain and channel administrative action
Politics administration dichotomy
separating politics from administration
Progress accountability
concerned with how agencies perform their tasks
program accountability
is a public program achieving its purpose as defined by law
ethical behavior
pursuit of this in government raises a tradeoff, we dont want to drive away good people but we want them to be chosen carefully to follow our standards
administrative state
public administrations role in society has become pervasive (widespread)
administrative responsibility
insists that bureaucracy be held accountable to elected officials
Myths of big government
- Washington is the center of the big govt problem
- Let’s take govt back to Reagan era small govt
- Lets cut govt by cutting back number of fed employees
- Lets cut waste fraud and abuse
- abolishing agencies will shrink govt
special purpose governments
most local governments, school districts airport ops, a narrow focus
Direct tools
things done most likely by local govts that cause direct action. Direct administration. There are also indirect tools
Government Contracts
When the govt signs a formal agreement with private parties government agrees to pay a certain amount of money in exchange for good or service
Government by proxy
proxy
use of third party agents to deliver programs that the government funds
Characteristics of Public admin
- career service but headed by relative amateurs who serve for short period of time
- performance measure, govt cant test performance
- Competing standards, public admin expected to manage efficiency and equitably
- public scrutiny
- persuasion
- scope of authority, legally required to administer the law
- Oversight
- Policy execution
- Policy Formation
Antideficiency act
forbids officials from spending money on any purpose thats not explicitly authorized
Humanist approach
A challenge to hierarchy. Condemns the impersonality of bureaucratic hierarchies and demands for humanizing orgs
Fiscal accountability
ensures that agency officials spend money on the programs they are supposed to spend money on
voice
one way workers can deal with something bad happening, promotes accountability. they stand their ground and fight for what is right
exit
resigning from position sometimes with a public attack
Pluralist approach
emphasizes realities of political life focuses on fundamentally political model of organizational interactions
Principals and agents
principals are elected officials who make policy and delegate power to agents. subordinates have a contract to do their tasks not just doing them because a higher up told them too
Characteristics of authority in agencies
- Principals and agents
- Narrow and legally defined specialization
- Internally divided specialized structure
- Role of the game, agency identifies who does what
- Staff of experts
- An outside definition of roles and responsibilities
Classical Model of Power Structure
Clear jurisdictions of power
prime goal is efficiency
Bases of organizations, can be structured to four different strategies: (1)purpose, (2) process, (3)clientele, (4)place.
Focus purpose at the top
Span of control
single head of agencies
separate line and staff
Bureaucratic Model of Power Structure
focuses on the roots of authority within organizations
Systems theory
sees organizational work as set of related parts and seeks to generalize about all organizations,
Closed system = organization as a machine no outside influences
Open system= organization is like a biological organism
System boundaries
defines authority
System Purpose
every organization system has this motivator which translates into outputs
Interweaving
Increased reliance on third parties
Core functions of executive branch
- Managing Money
- Maintaining Internal Law and Order
- Keeping the Country Safe
- Managing Country’s foreign affairs
Cabinet
15 exec departments
some department and agencies perform more of their missions themselves while other agencies rely on third parties because they are interwoven with private and nonprofit sectors
Independent agencies
1/10th of fed govt employees. SSA s much of that spending and employees some are government corporations
Regulatory Commissions
rely on complex tools, licensing rate fixing etc to control parts of economy
bureaus
principal operating org in agencies
field offices
- most govt ops happens away from hq 2. common strategies for organizing field works is by ask and area, areal system each region has single national office to oversee all agents in the area regardless of dept affiliations
Problems of exec. management
- Top elected execs not good at managerial things and few have interest in administration and need to tend politics to survive
- Officials often develop independent power bases among legislators and interest groups and dont stay long
- Interdepartmental friction points have multiplied
Office of Management and Budget
Main function is budget but has others
Legislative clearance
review of congressional legislation
review of proposed agency legislation
management review
intelligence about exec branch ops
National Security council
focus of presidential foreign policy making
Organizational values
(1) Neutral Competence
(2) Executive Leadership
(3)Representatives
Horizontal and Vertical coordination
vertical : superior of two opposing agencies makes decision other agencies
Horizontal: agencies coordinate with each other to determine specific boundaries
neutral competence
calls for the creation of a highly skilled bureaucracy insulated from the political interference that can undermine efficiency
organization criteria
-Public acceptance
-Adaptability
-Consistency of decisions
-Professional Competence
-Participation representation and diversity
-Effective database
- accountability to the president
cost and timeliness
- promotion of private efficiency
- accountability to congress
- compatibility with state regulation
Fire Alarm Oversight
- legislators focus their oversight on problems as they arise
Police Patrol Oversight
- Legislators conduct routine patrols explaining the implementation of programs
purpose of oversight
- assurance that administrators follow legislative intent
- investigation of instances of fraud waste and abuse
- collection of information
- evaluation of program effectiveness
- protection of legislative prerogatives
- personal advocacy
- reversal of unpopular actions
legislative review
- legislative oversight
-authorizing committees - appropriations committees
- committees on govt ops
- members serve on multiple committees
every dept. of govt has countless committees in charge of oversight
barriers to information flow
- secrecy
- executive privilege
- administrative confidentiality
Government Accountability Office (GAO)
- was used for accounting at inception, but now gives advice to govt officials on programs
-created in 1921
Characteristics of accountability
- Voluntary Compliance
- Standard Setting
- Monitor
- Sanctions
Principles to make accountability work
Independence to control and insulate from corrupting forces
redundancy multiplying control agencies with overlapping jurisdictions increase chance of causing problems this can also be bad
Big questions of accountability
- Decay
- Evidence
- Narrow Slices
- Interweaving
- Administrative Law
- Federalism
4 basic principles of civil servants
- hire by merit
- pay according to position
- protections from political interference
- obligation to accountability
Position Classification
Position id as special knowledge required + responsibilities grade level captures difficulty fifteen GS levels 1-8 clerical position
Grade Creep
system creates this tendency for agencies to multiply number of high admin positions roles or seek higher classification for existing positions higher pay = easier to get good employees
Hiring Process
- Moves to replace civil service exam + KSAs w detailed resumes
- rule of three top 3 candidates but move s slowly that another candidate may already been hired
- veterans get a five point bonus in hiring
- very diverse workforce
Promotion System
- Career service
- Face to face assessment
- Flexibility
- Chain reaction (promotion from within)
- very few govt workers are fired but sometimes tight budgets force reductions in force
unionization
some states have moved away from collective bargaining dont have same rights to strike
the hatch act
No employee in exec branch of fed govt shall take part in political campaigns
Revolving Door
Prevent from using govt contracts to pull business for new employer
Human Capital
quality of govt depends on quality of workers but how good is govt at matching people to jobs
4 issues with workers in fed govt
- leadership
- human capital planning
- retaining talent
- results oriented culture
senior executives/administrators
- ses (senior executive service) 7,700 employees 575 prez appointees
ECQ 1: leading change
2: leading people
3.Results Driven
4. Business Acumen
5. Building Coalition
Obama reform of Senior Executive Service
limit performance awards pay more than people they supervise streamline application process try out other jobs
regulation
- defines how administrators do what they are expected to do by the laws
- balance individual freedom
economic regulation
ensure competition by preventing monopolies regulates entry to a business, prices, safety, standards of service
spillover effects
- if paper mill discharges in river downstream communities have to pay cleanup better to send problems downstream
cost-benefit analysis
govt should not impose new regulations whose benefits exceeds cost of complying with them. Its difficult because cost is straightforward whereas benefits are often not monetary
risk assessment
govt analysts assess risk in deciding how to regulate industry some risks better for progress
administrative rulemaking
one basic regulatory approach by admin agencies agencies set broad standards that apply to all persons and orgs meeting guidelines
Adjudication
Other regulatory approach judges within agencies hear individual cases cases accumulate into body of rules
rational approach
maximizes efficiency
bargaining approach
maximizes political support
participative decision making
improve decisions by involving those affected
public choice
substitute market like alternatives for other incentives that distort decisions
Rational-decision making
- define goals/problems
- identify alternatives
- calculate the consequences for each option
- decide
- begin again
Information Asymmetry
subordinates(agents) know more than their superiors (principals)
Revenue Forecast
a plan for managing the differences between the spending and the revenue
Fiscal Policy
the government taxation and spending that affect the economy
Macroeconomics
Study of the broad interactions between governments economic activity and the behavior of that economy
Monetary policy
created by the federal reserve to manage interest rates and the money supply
The Budget Accounting Act (1921)
- created the modern presidency
-divided the budget functions into 3 sections
1. Budget preparation and execution in the executive branch
2. Budget appropriation and past audit in the legislative branch
3. Shared executive-legislative authority over budget control
Legitimacy
building public support for programs, not only among stakeholders but also in political commitment to pursuing public goals; can be achieved through the 10 core strategy
Incrementalism
- describes how budgeting works and prescribes how it should work
- central theory of bottom-up budgeting
- created by Aaron Wildavsky
