POLI 172 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Reasonable Accommodation, Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, Karl Rove
26 Apr 2016
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Document Summary
Bureaucrat = often negative connotations associated with the word. All bureaucracies, public and private, share some common features: hierarchical structure, advancement on the basis of performance or seniority, those with authority tend to have more expertise and experience. Hierarchies produce behavior that is not always consistent with democratic principles. Our constitutional system provides checks on federal bureaucrats and ways for the public to participate in decision-making. (not commonly known about or utilized. ) Goals: promote the public interest; government is not a business, goals are defined by elected officials, who collectively determine what is in the public interest, difficult to judge performance, high expectations from the public. Performance standards: private companies: easier to assess success or failure, different standards in judging government. But difficult to place dollar value on public goals such as education or consumer safety. But they do assign values and calculate estimated costs of a policy as well as monitoring and enforcement costs.
