After World War II ended in 1945, the total number of federal employees decreased significantly, but still has remained at levels between about 2.5 and 3 million. Contrary to popular opinion, the federal bureaucracy did not grow in numbers significantly during the last half of the 20th century.
Full Answer
Government bureaucracy has grown at a steady pace at the federal, state, and local levels. In the past 20 years private sector union membership has shrunk, while public sector unions have record membership. Most of this growth in public employment has been at the state and local levels.
An entrenched bureaucracy has little incentive to decrease its size despite the fact that the public may want reform, and politicians find reducing the size of the federal government an easy campaign issue. Whether the bureaucracy can be moved in the direction the people or president wants depends to a large degree on its willingness to be moved.
The public saw the bureaucracy as being too large and lacking in accountability. Indeed, the number of civilian employees of the federal government declined slightly over the last 25 years.
Contrary to popular opinion, the federal bureaucracy did not grow in numbers significantly during the last half of the 20th century. Federal bureaucrats did, however, greatly increase their influence. Mailmen (and mailwomen) deliver the mail through "snow, rain, heat, and gloom of night."
c. The bureaucracy has shrunk recent years because of the increasing in the use of outside contractors (private business, being paid to perform specific jobs). Today, some states and local government employees have jobs that are paid for largely through federal funds.
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal meant bigger government, since agencies were needed to administer his many programs. With the American entry into World War II in 1941, the needs of the war elevated the number of federal agencies and employees even more.
What are some of the reasons the federal bureaucracy has grown so rapidly since the United States was founded? the failures of state government bureaucracies. bureaucrats who wanted more power. increased demands on government.
The bureaucracy has also expanded in response to economic and political crises, such as the Great Depression and the Cold War. Another factor is the desire to presidents and members of Congress to provide more services to constituents.
I think that the federal bureaucracy is so large today because the American public has demanded it. The general public wants big new government programs to resolve the issues pressing the nation.
6 Important Causes for the Rise of Bureaucracy in Modern TimesCreation of Money Economy:Emergence of Capitalist Economy:Growth of Population:Emergence of Complex administrative problems:Growth of Democratic Institutions:
The bureaucracy carries out the responsibilities of the federal government. The merit system, in which bureaucrats are hired and promoted based on their skills rather than their political connections, has enhanced the effectiveness of the bureaucracy.
Reduction in bureaucracy can also be achieved through devolution—efforts to downsize the federal bureaucracy by delegating policy implementation to state and local governments.
At which point in time did the federal bureaucracy first significantly increase in size? The federal bureaucracy first significantly increased in size with the election of President Andrew Jackson.
The federal bureaucracy, encompassing millions of employees and hundreds of agencies, departments, and commissions, is the umbrella term used to describe government officials, housed within the executive branch, who are tasked with policy implementation, administration, and regulation.
roughly 2.6 million employeesThe federal bureaucracy is huge: roughly 2.6 million employees, plus many freelance contractors. Everybody in the bureaucracy works to administer the law. For the most part, the executive branch manages the federal bureaucracy.
There are five major problems with bureaucracies: red tape, conflict, duplication, imperialism, and waste. 1. Red tape is the existence of complex rules and procedures that must be followed to get something done.
In the 1980s and 1990s, calls for controlling the federal bureaucracy became commonplace. The public saw the bureaucracy as being too large and lacking in accountability. Indeed, the number of civilian employees of the federal government declined slightly over the last 25 years. Bureaucracy can be reduced in a number of ways, ...
Both Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton attempted to come to grips with the federal bureaucracy through close review of its operation. Under Bush, Vice President Dan Quayle headed the Council on Competitiveness to examine all federal regulations. Vice President Al Gore's report on the six-month national performance review requested by President Clinton (titled From Red Tape to Results: Creating a Government That Works Better and Costs Less) called for downsizing some agencies, reorganizing others, and simplifying procedures. Often such proposals run into opposition from the bureaucrats themselves and from the members of Congress who would have to accomplish the proposals' aims. An entrenched bureaucracy has little incentive to decrease its size despite the fact that the public may want reform, and politicians find reducing the size of the federal government an easy campaign issue. Whether the bureaucracy can be moved in the direction the people or president wants depends to a large degree on its willingness to be moved.
A president can use the OMB to shape agencies and their programs by reducing or enlarging their proposed appropriations. Under Ronald Reagan, major federal regulations were sent to the OMB for review. Congress's "power of the purse" gives it important oversight authority over the federal bureaucracy.
The president appoints the key members of the federal bureaucracy. If committed to controlling the size of government, the president will select people who are determined to streamline and increase the efficiency of the departments or agencies they lead. A president can give ongoing direction by conferring frequently with cabinet secretaries on ...
Privatization has been most successful when undertaken by local government . Deregulation means that the federal government reduces its role and allows an industry greater freedom in how it operates. A reduction in the federal government's responsibility certainly affects the size of the bureaucracy.
The Powers of Congress. The Organization of Congress. How a Bill Becomes a Law. The Two Houses of Congress. The Functions of the President. Organization of the Executive Branch. The Vice President and Presidential Succession. The Executive Branch. The Powers of the President.
President Ronald Reagan failed in his plans to eliminate, or at least downgrade, the departments of Energy and Education, and during his term, the Veterans Administration was added to the cabinet.
During the 1800s, while more and more federal employees were landing their jobs through patronage, the bureaucracy was growing rapidly as new demands were placed on government. As the country expanded westward new agencies were needed to manage the land and its settlement.
The executive branch employs today almost three million people. Not only have the numbers of bureaucrats grown, but also the methods and standards for hiring and promoting people have changed dramatically.
The spoils tradition was diluted in 1881 when Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker, killed President James Garfield because he was not granted a government job. After Garfield's assassination, Congress passed the Pendleton Act, which created a merit-based federal civil service. It was meant to replace patronage with the principle of federal employment on the basis of open, competitive exams. The Pendleton Act created a three-member Civil Service Commission to administer this new merit system. At first only about 10 percent of federal employees were members of the civil service. Today, about 85 to 90 percent take this exam.
The Development of the Bureaucracy. Andrew Jackson cemented the spoils system (also called rotation-in-office) during his presidency. He formed his own group of advisors from his friends and political allies, known as the "Kitchen Cabinet," to support his goals for the nation. The original bureaucracy of the federal government consisted only ...
He thought it was healthy to clear out the government workers who had worked for predecessors, lest they become corrupt.
After the war, the Industrial Revolution encouraged economic growth and more government agencies to regulate the expanding economy .
Aimed at employing men between the ages of 18 and 25, over 3,000,000 men joined the CCC and became members of the federal bureaucracy between 1933 and 1941. The largest growth of the bureaucracy in American history came between 1933 and 1945.
The federal bureaucracy is not meeting its own performance-based civil service ideals, and the problem is greater than bureaucratic administration. The federal bureaucracy’s inefficiency, expense, and irresponsiveness to political leadership are rooted in the Progressive belief that unelected experts should be trusted with promoting the general welfare in just about every area of social life. If political interests continue to force Congress and the President to act directly on all manner of societal problems, the federal bureaucracy will continue to be overwhelmed. Unlimited utopian Progressive aspirations cannot be squared with constitutional government. Reform must address both the merit system’s failures and the Progressive vision of government that has created an overweening bureaucracy unable to meet its own ideals.
President George W. Bush actually increased bureaucracy the most. Federal civilian employment rose from 1,738,000 million in 2001 under President Clinton to 1,978,000 in 2009 to a proposed 2,137,000 for 2017. Thus, employment grew 13.8 percent under Bush and 8.0 percent under Obama from the Clinton low point.
There were 2,790,000 federal workers in January 2009 when he took office and 2,804,000 workers when he left. There was no month during President Obama’s term when the federal workforce was smaller than it was in January 2009 when Obama took office. By the end of his two terms, employment had increased 3.2 percent.
Since the turn of the 20th century, Progressives have sought a system that could effectively select, train, reward, and guard from partisan influence the neutral scientific experts they believe are required to staff the national government and run the administrative state.
A federal employee with five years of experience receives 20 vacation days, 13 paid sick days, and all 10 federal holidays, compared to an employee at a large private company who receives 13 days of vacation and eight paid sick days. 29.
When word of the buyout program spilled out during the summer of 1993, the normal retirement levels plummeted from 42,000 per year to 28,000 that year as federal employees decided to stay in the civil service long enough to take advantage of the financial windfall to come.
Reforming Federal Retirement Benefits. Federal pay and benefits are not the only elements of the total federal employee compensation package that are out of line with the private sector. Career civil servants enjoy retirement benefits that are nearly unheard of in the private sector.
One reason that it is so hard to reform the bureaucracy is that it has two masters — the President and Congress. Especially during periods of divided government, one branch can be suspicious that the other is trying to gain control. As a result, one branch or the other resists reform.
Americans who believed the bureaucracy had become too large, too expensive, and too powerful were becoming more numerous, and as a result many politicians began to demand reform. Bureaucracies move slowly. One hand doesn't always know what the other is doing.
In the early 1970s some bureaucrats complained that their First Amendment rights were being violated. The issue made its way to the Supreme Court, where the justices ruled that the Hatch Act did not put unreasonable restrictions on employees' rights.
Reformers believe that this practice would bring "new blood" to agencies and encourage workers to get a broader view of government service. One of the public's greatest complaints about the bureaucracy is red tape. Many feel that the government's methods of solving problems is to drown them in a sea of paperwork.
One common complaint about bureaucracy is that "red tape" — the maze of government rules, regulations, and paperwork — makes government so overwhelming to citizens that many people try to avoid any contact. Filling out forms, standing in line, and being put on hold on the telephone all have resulted in many people being discouraged from ever applying for benefits they rightfully deserve.
Finding the practical solutions that have bipartisan support is a difficult process, largely because the system of checks and balances is not particularly efficient. Nevertheless, bureaucratic reform is often attempted by the President and Congress. Meanwhile, the red tape remains rather sticky.
Some suggestions for making civil servants more accountable for their work include the following: Limiting appointments to 6-12 years. After the appointment expires, the bureaucrat would then have to go through reexamination and their performance would be reviewed for possible rehire.
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were a time of great bureaucratic growth in the United States: The Interstate Commerce Commission was established in 1887, the Federal Reserve Board in 1913, the Federal Trade Commission in 1914, and the Federal Power Commission in 1920.
(credit: modification of work by the Library of Congress) The first development was the rise of centralized party politics in the 1820s.
In the early U.S. republic, the bureaucracy was quite small. This is understandable since the American Revolution was largely a revolt against executive power and the British imperial administrative order. Nevertheless, while neither the word “bureaucracy” nor its synonyms appear in the text of the Constitution, the document does establish a few broad channels through which the emerging government could develop the necessary bureaucratic administration.
Average state and local government employee compensation increased by an inflation- adjusted 14.6 percent, or $4,031, in 1989 compared to 1980. For every new dollar of average compensation increase for private sector employees, state and local government employees received more than $4.20.
That is, some New York city employees work the equivalent of 4 days a week. As the ALEC study concludes, America’s government workers have become “a protected class.”. Unfortunately, for the taxpayers who pay their inflated salaries, these workers are a rapidly growing protected class.
Another consequence of this borrowing binge to finance a massive expansion of government programs has been that Americans are paying more and more taxes just to pay interest on the debt. Figure 10 shows that interest is one of the fastest growing areas of the federal budget:
Government revenues predominantly came from two sources: revenue tariffs and land sales. The limited sources of revenues for the federal government were a natural restraint on its expenditures. Three events changed that. The first was the imposition of the income tax in 1913.
The most dreaded tax for the vast majority of Americans is the income tax. Until the ratification of the Sixteenth Amendment, there was no federal income tax—the Supreme Court had consistently ruled the income tax unconstitutional. No law has contributed to the growth of government and the surrender of personal liberties and privacy rights more fully than the creation of the federal income tax. Today, more so than any other federal agency, the Internal Revenue Service has broad and sweeping powers to investigate the personal activities and finances of Americans. Without a search warrant, the IRS has rights to search the property and financial documents of American citizens. Without a trial, the IRS has the right to seize property from Americans.
This moral restraint lasted until the 1930s. During the Great Depression the most prominent economist of the first half of the twentieth century, John Maynard Keynes, introduced his economic theory, which in effect legitimized deficit finance as an appropriate tool of government.
In short, farmers now produce for the government, not for U.S. consumers. • In three states today—California, Maine, and New York—almost half of all middle-income family wages are captured by government through income, payroll, property, and sales taxes, and other levies.