“Beginning with the traumatic experience of the Great Depression, we the people have turned more and more to government for answers that government has neither the right nor the capacity to provide. Unfortunately, government as an institution always tends to increase in size and power, and so government attempted to provide the answers.
The result is a fourth branch of government added to the traditional three of executive, legislative, and judicial: a vast federal bureaucracy that’s now being imitated in too many states and too many cities, a bureaucracy of enormous power which determines policy to a greater extent that any of us realize, very possibly to a greater extent than our own elected representatives. And it can’t be removed from office by our votes.
To give you an illustration of how bureaucracy works in another country, England in 1803 created a new civil service position. It called for a man to stand on the cliffs of Dover with a spy glass and ring a bell if he saw Napoleon coming. They didn’t eliminate the job until 1945. In our own county, there are only two government programs that have been abolished. The government stopped making rum on the Virgin Islands, and we’ve stopped breeding horses for the cavalry.” -Ronald Reagan
The definition of Bureaucracy is a large complex organization made up of appointed officials. How Large? Today the bureaucracy is made up of about 3 million civil servants and about 100 different agencies.
The constitutional basis for the bureaucracy is found in Article II, Section 2, which grants the president the power to appoint “ambassadors, other public ministers and counsels, judges of the supreme court, and all other officers of the United Sates. All such appointments must be approved by the Senate, and Congress has power over appropriations to finance these offices, power to hear and try impeachments of appoint officials, and power to shape the laws that these officials will enforce.
History of The Bureaucratic Steamroller:
In the beginning the bureaucracy was small and manageable. George Washington’s administration consisted of only four cabinet positions. Under Knox, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Randolph there were about 100 people. That means more people worked at Washington’s home at Mount Vernon than worked in the entire Executive Branch.
The growth of the federal bureaucracy can be attributed to several factors:
I. Increasing Population
II. Scientific and Technological Advances
III. Changing Economic Conditions
Furthermore the Bureaucracy can be classified into three areas:
I. Departments
-Closest to President
-Are most Subject to Presidential Control
II. Agencies
-Independent of Presidential Control
-Perform a single function or regulate an aspect of society
III. Government Corporations
-Businesses of the Government
-Monopolies of the Government