Red Tape Rules

Have you ever heard someone complain about the amount of "red tape" involved in getting something done through a government agency? The federal government is considered the ultimate source of red tape by many citizens. The layers and levels of government agencies are part of the federal bureaucracy, a system of offices and departments run by nonelected officials, or career employees. Without them, the federal government would not be able to meet the needs of its citizens.

Watch the following video to find out more about American bureaucracy, and how it works--or, as is often the case, doesn't work, at least not efficiently.

Bureaucracy usually isn’t a word people use very nicely. The word brings to mind long DMV lines, backlogged immigration requests, and the generally slow rate at which the U.S. government sometimes works. However, to manage a country as big as the U.S, there has to be a structured government.

There are three main features that distinguish a bureaucracy: hierarchy, specialization, and rules. Bureaucracies are based on a pyramid structure with a chain of command running from top to bottom. Much like a business, bureaucracies have a position of authority high on the pyramid, while low-skill jobs make up the bottom. Each person who works for the bureaucracy has certain defined duties and responsibilities. This is called job specialization. All employees of a bureaucracy follow a set of established regulations and procedures, adding an extra layer of order to the structure.

The federal bureaucracy is all of the agencies, people, and procedures through which the federal government operates. The president is the chief administrator of the federal government, placing him at the top of the pyramid. In order to enact and enforce policy, Congress and the president have created an administration, which is all the agencies the government controls. The federal bureaucracy organizes all of these agencies into one cohesive unit, greasing the wheels of action.

The term department is reserved for agencies of Cabinet rank, which are near the top of the bureaucratic structure. Besides department, there is little standardization of names throughout the agencies. Common titles for agencies include agency, administration, commission, corporation, and authority. Lower down the totem pole are staff agencies, which are aids to chief executives and other administrators that help with management and organization.

All of these agencies represent pieces to one big government pyramid. The federal government works as a well-oiled machine capable of solving big problems, dealing with everything from licensing to health insurance, and practically everything in between. Without a bureaucracy, every state would be left to fend for itself, and nobody wants that large of a task. It takes a lot of time and effort to build a strong pyramid.

Transcript

Do you get why the U.S. government is considered a bureaucracy? Use the questions below to check your understanding.

Federal Bureaucracy

Which shape best symbolizes the typical structure of a bureaucracy?

a pyramid with power flowing downward

a Venn diagram with interlocking and shared duties

an inverted pyramid with power flowing upward

In a hierarchy, power flows from the top downward, meaning that each level reports to the level above it and must carry out its orders.

Which statement best summarizes the concept of job specialization?

Workers and leaders share all duties, regardless of placement in the hierarchy of the organization.

Workers and leaders have no defined roles or duties, so there is often overlapping and disorder.

Workers and leaders at each level have specific responsibilities and roles that fit their positions.

The idea behind job specialization is that each person has a limited number of roles to fill, and therefore can be expected to know exactly what they are doing. Most corporations are run this way also.

What role do rules and regulations serve in guiding the operation of a bureaucracy?

Rules and regulations exist only to give a general blueprint or recommendation, and they are not hard and fast requirements.

Rules and regulations serve to direct and ensure order, stating who does what and what is to be done overall.

Rules and regulations exist for only one purpose, which is to convince citizens that there is a direction or order to government.

It might be easy to think that rules are made to be ignored in government, but rules and regulations help keep agencies and departments on task and directed.

According to the definitions provided in the video, which of these groups is most likely a cabinet-level organization?

Federal Housing Authority

Central Intelligence Agency

Department of Commerce

The key word in the correct answer is department. Departments serve the president directly; whereas, agencies and authorities are housed within departments.

What would be the outcome if the federal bureaucracy were dismantled or never existed at all?

Each state would have to coordinate all the various responsibilities that the federal government could not accomplish.

Each state would be required to take direct orders from the president to fulfill the enactment of federal law.

Each state would become its own nation, enacting whatever it chose to enact.

In theory, states would have to pick up the slack wherever the federal government failed to act, even if they were not state powers. The president would not have authority to command action, however, and reverting to a system like that of the Articles of Confederation could not happen.

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How big is the executive branch of the U.S. government? How do all its parts and pieces function together?