Topic 8 - Executive and Bureaucracies

Question 1

Plural v Unitary Executives

Answer 1

• Unitary: one person controlling everything(president)
• Plural: power being divided among many officials

Question 2

Plural Executives

Answer 2

• powers intentionally dispersed
• purposefully designed to be weaker
• more points of access for interest groups
• not all states have the same state offices

Question 2

statewide elected leaders in TX

Answer 2

• lT governor
• comptoller
• land commissioner
• railroad commissioner (3 seats)
• agrixiultrual commissioner
• attornery general

Question 3

executive department in texas

Answer 3

• governor has no broad powers over state goverment buisness
• LT government is primarily a ‘super legislator’ - only when governor is out of state
• TX: plural executive: mani independents grants of power
  
  • most offices directly elected
  • dont need to share party or agenda

Question 4

comptroller of public accounts

Answer 4

• 4 year term
• powers: broad financial responsibilities
  
  • tax collection, accounting, check writing, audits
  • tresurer or state funds & investments
  • estimating revenue for state
• powers put office at the heart of the budgetary process
  - budget cant become law without comptrollers certification

Question 5

land commissioner

Answer 5

• 4 year term - heads to general land office
• powers: managering texas public lands & their reasources
  
  • mineral rights
  • grazing leases
  • oil and gas leases
• issues permits for exploration use
  
  • collects royalties on oil, gas extracted
  • valuable state revenues

Question 6

public lands in texas

Answer 6

• 12% of land is state public land
• ~1% is federal public land
• royalties are added to state permanant funds
  ex: permanant school fund, permanant university fund

Question 7

railroad commision (rrc)

Answer 7

• 3 commisioners, 6 yr staggered terms
• regulates oil, gas, pipelines
• not railroads since 1980s
• powers: writing, regulations, & adjudicating implementation of state energy laws
• bettername: energy commisssion
• oil/gas r 60% of induststuy in TX
• 1930s-1970s - effectively managed worlds oil supply

Question 8

texas rrc challenges

Answer 8

• oil and gas regulatory controversies
  
  • human induced earchquales (from wastewater disposal)
  • eminent domain & pipelines
  • groundwater trespass
• a ‘captive agency’ - members are routinely from oil/gass industry

Question 9

agricultral comissioner

Answer 9

• 4 year term, heads tx dept of agricultral
• powers: enforces state agricultral laws for antions 2nd leading agricultral producer
  
  • food inspection
  • promotion of exports
  • animal quarentine, diesease, pest control
• conflict in duties? carries out laws promoting and benefitting ag, also responsible for consumper protection & enviromental laws

Question 10

attorney general

Answer 10

• 4 yr term, chief legal officer of state
• mostly civil law (not criminal)
• powers:
  
  • issues legal opinions on legality/constitutionality of stautes
  • statements have effect of law, unless overturned by court or altered by legislative action
  • enforces enti-trust & child support laws
• multi-state federation litigation has seen increased prominence of AGs office

Question 11

secretary of state

Answer 11

• appointed by governor, confirmed by US senate
• powers
  
  • administers state election laws
  • maintains public records and filings(including voter registration rolls)
  • keeper of the state seal
• role as chief executive officer, state secretaries of state have been subject to intense political scrutiny

,

Question 12

plural executives and the dividion of power

Answer 12

• prevents one individual form holding too much power
• lack advantage of stronger unitary exdecutives
• fragmented executives enable flourishing bureacracies
• issues:
  
  • lack energy in adminstration
  • fragmented state-wide policy
  • executive lobbying & increased interest group power

Question 13

bureacracy

Answer 13

• involved the rational organization of tasks and activities
  
  • public policy turned into many rroutine tasks
  • similar cased that fallunder the same role treated similarly
• bureaucrats do have some discretion when…
  
  • a case isnt perfect fir or the rules
  • more than one rule can apply
• founding all large-scale organization (not just gov)

Question 14

charcteristics of bureacracy

Answer 14

1. hierachial structure
2. tsk specilization/division of labor
3. clear lines of responsibility
4. mission driven w specififc organizational goals
5. operate impersonally via many rules

Question 15

what do bureacraties do?

Answer 15

1. implementationof laws
   - creating concrete operational rules & procedues to carry out public policy
2. regulatory/rule making
   - creating rules that set parameters for firms and individuals
   - police powers makes states the primary regulators
3. adjudication
   - deciding whether individual or organization has complied w laws, rules, & regulations (can be strict or loose)

Question 16

unelected workhorses of the executive branch

Answer 16

• ‘bosses’ - appointed and elected officials/agency heads
• ‘bureacrats’ - agency staff that do the actual work of government
  
  • most street level bureacrats are not just ‘paper pushers’
• state (and local) bureacrats make up ~13% of a;; US employees
  
  • public school teachers, healthcare workers, police & fire, corrections

Question 17

us bureacracy gowth

Answer 17

• usually in state and local level
• largest driver is increased demand for gov services
  
  • schools
  • utilities
  • prisons

Question 18

what causes bureacracy growth

Answer 18

• policy imcrementalism(new laws, new rules, new regulations)(less review of existing policies)
• expansions slowsdown but never stops
• downsizing - reviews small parts of agencies

Question 19

bureacrats in the US

Answer 19

• most jobs are i state and local gov (13% in workforce)
• most are street level bureacrats

Question 20

staffing bureacracy

Answer 20

• patronage/spoils system - gov jobs filled based on party ot personal loyalty
• merit system - staffing based on competence & qualifications
• civil service in the US - pendleton act: applied merit system to federal jobs

Question 21

texas agencies & the merit system

Answer 21

• hallmarks of the merit system
  
  • testing or interviewing top canidiates
  • promotion & pay baed on preformance
  • encoragement & support for professional dev
• only 33% of tx state employed under merit sysytem
• other 2/3 open to patrionagw
  
  • but not necessarily filled that way

Question 22

bureacratic cultures

Answer 22

• burceacracies develop internal cultures determined by mission, org
• professional civil servants have long tenue
• inhouse experts who command large amounts of info
• want to continue important work of supporting agency clients
• culture contributes to diffficulty of ‘top down’ reform
• can cause conflits between elected or appointed officeias from outside

Question 23

privatization of public services

Answer 23

• involves moving away from directed gov provision of services
• methods of privatization
  
  • contracting & franchising (monoploy contract)
  • grants - governetn fundiong is geven directly to organization for it to provide a servive
  • vouchers - government gives citizens a coucher for a servode

Question 24

privatived sector

Answer 24

many gov services are frequentlu ‘contracted out’
state-level
- education
- corrections
- health
local-level
- waste disposal
- vehical towing
- steeetlkight & traffic signal