Bureaucracy

A bureaucracy is a complex administrative system to organize and manage a country or a company using a pyramid-like hierarchy. This means that in a bureaucracy each person reports to a person of higher position and that this form of organization always each person to focus on a specialized expertise. In regards to the American government, the federal government’s head of bureaucracy is the President and the executive branch is the bureaucracy. Within a bureaucracy each position has a function and the power to act is granted to a position rather than a person. A bureaucrat describes an individual that is an official member of a bureaucracy and works for a department within the bureaucracy. There are four major types of structures within the bureaucracy of the federal government: executive departments, independent agencies, independent regulatory agencies and government corporations. Every department within the executive departments were created by Congress and met a government need that arose and required a department to focus on a specific policy area. An example of one would be the Education department that focuses on federal programs and policies as well as policies to aid education and coordinate educational research. Agencies that are independent have a single function and are not a part of a department. An example of one would be the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). There are also independent regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA) that have a specific function to create, implement and regulate a specific public policy to protect the public’s interest. The U.S. Postal Service is an example of a government corporation and is the largest government corporation that exists. Government corporations do similar services handled by the private sector and do charge for services however taxpayers foot the bill if the government corporation loses money. In regards to elections, our country depends on bureaucrats to do their jobs in order to have a successful election process. For example, in the election, mail men/women had to effectively do their job in the U.S. Postal Service in order to allow mail-in votes to be voted accurately. An important ideal of bureaucracy in our government is neutral competence --- where federal bureaucrats use their skillset to fulfill their job without being influenced by political issues. This ideal is imperative to having a successful election. This past election was very heated for many political issues not only tied to traditional political ideologies but issues also directly linked to humanitarian issues. If federal bureaucrats let these issues sway them from doing their jobs, the election would have not successfully happened. An unsuccessful election would mean that democracy would have not been upheld if the majority’s will was not reflected in the outcome. Many americans were aprehensive this past election because the liberal and conservative parties seemed more poloarized than ever. Our federal bureaucrats that continued their vital day to day jobs, without being swayed politically especially the days after the election when our country was anxiously waiting the outcome of the election should be acknowledeged.