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8. Brazilian Bureaucracy: Do I Even Need to Bother with the Jokes?

8. Brazilian Bureaucracy: Do I Even Need to Bother with the Jokes?. Bureaucracy, It Goes to Eleven. Many of us find interacting with bureaucracies to be frustrating. This has less to do with their flaws and more to do with their ideals of strict adherence to rule-based actions.

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8. Brazilian Bureaucracy: Do I Even Need to Bother with the Jokes?

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  1. 8. Brazilian Bureaucracy: Do I Even Need to Bother with the Jokes?

  2. Bureaucracy, It Goes to Eleven • Many of us find interacting with bureaucracies to be frustrating. • This has less to do with their flaws and more to do with their ideals of strict adherence to rule-based actions. • Bureaucracies are indispensable for performing many of the routine administrative functions we demand of government. • The vast majority of stuff that governments do is done by bureaucracies.

  3. The Ideals of Bureaucratic Governance • Max Weber (1864–1920) recognized that modern nation-states need bureaucracies. • He argued that an ideal bureaucracy should be rational and efficient. • A few critical elements: • Clear assignment of roles: Clear organization avoids both duplication of effort and gaps in the process.

  4. The Ideals of Bureaucratic Governance • Rules: Rules ensure that decisions are impersonal and consistent and avoid favoring or discriminating. • Hierarchy: A clear hierarchy allows for effective control of the bureaucracy and for handling challenges to the rule-based decision making. • Professionals: The recruitment and promotion of personnel on the basis of merit helps to make sure the right people are in the optimum positions.

  5. The Ideals of Bureaucratic Governance • The ideal of rule-based decision making is to protect the less powerful and influential from those with more power and influence. • Rule-based decision making is intended to make sure everyone is treated the same.

  6. Bureaucratic Roles • Bureaucracies are omnipresent. • They can be categorized by function: • Service: providing services such as education, health care, welfare programs, parks • Regulation: watching over particular segments of the economy (e.g., the Food and Drug Administration or the Securities and Exchange Commission)

  7. Bureaucratic Roles • Implementation: making sure that laws get put in place and determining all of the relevant details • Policymaking: handling the specifics of general laws passed by legislatures

  8. There Be Flaws in Yonder Bureaucracy, Obviously • Democracies are supposed to be responsive to the public. • Bureaucracies are designed to be consistent, not responsive. • This is a potential problem.

  9. Overhead Democracy • Overhead democracy occurs when elected officials, who are accountable to the public, are put at the top of the bureaucratic hierarchy.

  10. Authority Leakage • Authority leakage occurs when efforts to control a bureaucracy become distorted as each level interprets ambiguities and makes adjustments to fit its ability to implement. • It is almost impossible for the top of the hierarchy to direct the outputs at the bottom consistently and effectively.

  11. The Iron Triangle • Elected leaders typically have little interest in exerting the effort necessary to monitor and control bureaucracies. • In contrast, the interest groups directly affected by bureaucracies have a great deal of interest. • This can result in an “iron triangle” formed by bureaucracies, interest groups, and the relevant congressional committee(s).

  12. The Iron Triangle • Bureaucracies can be “captured” so that they focus on the needs of interest groups rather than the public interest. • These iron triangles can be very powerful and all but impenetrable by outside actors. • Are bureaucracies and democracy compatible? • The vast majority of bureaucratic agencies perform quite effectively in the democratic context.

  13. Agency Theory and the Responsive Bureaucracy • Agency theory, or the principal-agent model, asserts that bureaucracies work like contractors to the legislature. • Elected officials do not have to monitor bureaucracies closely, they just need to monitor the results and keep an eye out for problems. • This explains how bureaucracies do adjust to the will of elected officials and the public.

  14. The Cockroach Theory of Bureaucracy • Bureaucracies struggle against other demands for limited government funds. • Those that fail to meet their public service demands or draw critical attention could have their budgets cut. • The goal is to avoid negative attention (from the media or elsewhere). • Bureaucracies thus monitor their own behavior accordingly.

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