A Good Word for Bureaucracy

...Entitled Organizing an Anarchy: Belief, Bureaucracy, and Politics in the National Institute of Education,* the book chronicles the rise and decline of an agency within an agency...

...We should be rather skeptical, then, of the complaints of Senator Percy, who recently said that "if executive branch employees did a better job, the Senate staff wouldn't have to be so big in order to clear up constituents' constant problems involving bureaucratic foulups...

...Of course, the new law will not solve the problem of bureaucracy...

...It's the mess in Albany, Trenton, or Richmond that should get the most attention...

...Another is that, whatever it is, we don't think it makes much difference...

...But some congressmen, intoxicated with their new sense of fiscal responsibility, may even take on a program or an entire agency...

...Last year only 226 federal civilian employees lost their jobs on account of incompetence or inefficiency...

...And, like air pollution, it is the necessary but unfortunate consequence of changes that have very much contributed to the improvement of many people's lives...

...A recent boc, however, does give us such a history-and does provide us, moreover, with evidence that suggests the ease with which poorly thought-out federal programs were set up during the sixties and early seventies...

...But in the giddy years of the sixties and early seventies, money was thrown at problems that were not well-defined...

...Although the Civil Service Reform Act, signed into law last October, is not exactly what the White House had intended, the law at least resembles what was originally proposed...

...It seems as if those responsible for drafting the legislation hadn't the foggiest idea what NIE was supposed to do...

...In any case, Washington is reputed to be a town of workaholics, where people brag about taking work home and coming into work on Saturday...

...Strangely enough, even the principal sponsor of the bill in the House, John Brademas, had little faith in the possibility of useful educational research...

...Moreover, is it really so bad in Washington...

...Peters' formulation misconceives the question in yet another way...

...In order to do so, a counter-constituency has to be organized, one that is strongly opposed to a particular program...

...A sign of the new mood in Washington is not, finally, the passage of the civil service reform bill but the following ' 'act'' of Congress...

...It would be a good idea if the diligent bureaucrats at HEW who dream up innumerable ways of ensuring equality of opportunity performed fewer tasks...

...Thus the fault lies in the Congress, not in the bureaucracy, although the bureaucracy is a willing accomplice in these matters, since its self-interest lies less in evaluating the programs it runs than in catering to the whims and demands of those congressmen responsible for its existence and its budget...

...The language does not inspire confidence...

...But it is hard to organize people to oppose something unless they have compelling reasons to do so...

...The reason for such a flurry of legislation is clear: Many people thought such needs would be met if people were put to work providing the proper services, and such problems would be solved if experts were put to work solving them...

...If Americans think federal bureaucrats are overpaid, they also think they are underworked...

...These witnesses had faith in the government's ability to shell out money in ways that would immensely improve the lives of many Americans...

...Perhaps a few more incompetent people will be fired, though even this is not a certainty, since the language of the new act suggests that it still will be a laborious undertaking to fire an employee...

...The enemy is not Communism or capitalism...

...Bureaucrats are responsible for federal administrative regulations, which have been increasing at a startling rate in recent years...

...The moral of the story, however, lies in NIE's founding rather than in its subsequent lackluster career...

...These 8,000 top managers and policymakers could also be transferred more easily within an agency or between agencies...

...Peters is not speaking, as he says, of "Communism or capitalism" but of bureaucracy-"the problem neither side has solved...

...What they have to say is instructive, but the most telling evidence is the actual legislation itself...

...But of course there are some symptoms exhibited by the disease of bureaucracy that can be treated...

...but neither is it bureaucracy...

...Agency heads will still try to spend all their appropriations for fear of having their budgets cut...

...B) advancing the practice of education, as an art, science, and profession...

...Will die law have any effect in containing what Charles Peters, the editor of the Washington Monthly, has called "the enemy...

...than its original appropriation of $110 million-a sign of how it is regarded by Congress and also a sign that it has not built an organized constituency to protect it and nurture it...

...It passed in part because it rode through Congress on the back of an omnibus education bill...

...No doubt some federal workers, like any workers in a large organization, do nothing more than shuffle papers and attend countless meetings...

...The Civil Service Reform Act is intended to attack this problem...

...Or, as Morris Fiorina puts it in a perceptive book, Congress: Keystone of the Washington Establishment: "Congressmen appropriate all the public credit generated in the system, while the bureaucracy absorbs all the costs...

...Therefore it is in the interest of Congress to attack the bureaucracy in general while leaving intact the programs it has created...

...Some people in the congressman's district are getting money or a particular service from the program, so they are happy...

...Besides, whether a particular program works or not is a minor consideration...

...It is doubtful that the 96th Congress will create more than a handful of new programs-if any at all...

...Thus the new law creates an elite corps of bureaucrats whose positions are more akin to those in the private sector...

...The bureaucrats may not enjoy their status as objects of public opprobrium, but so long as they accommodate congressmen larger budgets and grants of authority will be forthcoming...

...The mess in Washington-and the term mess is probably excessive-is less a managerial problem than a political one, a problem of substance, not process/For the bureaucracy-or, more accurately, the numerous federal programs-did not engender itself...

...and (D) building an effective educational research and development system...

...A healthy sign, that laughter-a sign that the congressmen themselves regarded the madcap legislative pace of the final hours of the session as something less than courageous and productive...

...And if others complain about their dealings with the agency that runs the program, then it is the congressman's job to intervene in their behalf...

...According to Pub...

...The bill passed so easily because it meant very little...

...And the Congress, responsible for overseeing the myriad programs of the federal bureaucracy, will still have a difficult time evaluating what exactly has been done with federal monies...

...He speaks of bureaucracy in the abstract, divorced from a particular political context...

...Despite these obscurities, the Civil Service Reform Act is not a bad piece of legislation...

...it is both intellectually skeptical and fiscally conservative...

...Cynics say that it won't change things a bit...

...Only a small group, dominated by HEW officials, was interested in the bill...

...But it makes no sense to call these modest changes in the way the federal bureaucracy manages its personnel "sweepingreforms...

...One can understand why the White House felt the need to indulge in such hyperbole, but most congressmen greeted the bill's passage with yawns, not hurrahs...

...Since 1950, the federal bureaucracy has increased only from 2.1 million civilian employees to 2.8 million, whereas state and local bureaucracies have tripled in size...

...Pointing out that the grounds for dismissal under the new act are not very clear, a columnist for the Washington Post said that "unless both labor and management can agree on definitions-an unlikely prospect-or at least use the same dictionaries, it may take a new act of Congress to explain this recent act of Congress...

...This means that they have long, nearly lifetime careers...

...The more foulups, the more chances Senator Percy's staff has to do favors for the senator's constituency...

...As a result, the federal bureaucracy attracts many highly-qualified people, who intensely compete for the few jobs that are available...

...True, some programs are of no benefit to, say, congressman A's constituency, but he knows that if he supports congressman B's pet program, then congressman B will return the favor when the program that means so much to him is up for reauthori-zation or new appropriations...

...The most obvious one is the difficulty federal officials have had in firing incompetent employees-a difficulty that is best illustrated by the 85 boxes of information amassed in the course of firing one government clerk for being late or absent all the time...

...Bureaucrats, like most employees in large organizations, will still be very cautious-intent on protecting their turf by refraining from criticizing the work of their agencies or questioning the necessity of their own jobs...

...The Civil Service Commission will be split into two bodies: the Office of Personnel Management, which will aid the president in the management of the bureaucracy, and the Merit System Protection Board, which will protect employees' rights and adjudicate their grievances against management...

...Copying machines have probably increased the amount of meaningless work done in all large organizations, whether public or private...

...Doing away with programs altogether is a more difficult enterprise-as difficult, perhaps, as firing a federal employee...

...It also means...

...The easiest thing, of course, was to come up with the necessary witnesses to intone fervently how such and such a bill was the last best hope for America...

...Or, the task performer continues to perform a task even though there is no particular need for the task to be performed...

...But unless an agency possesses glamor or notoriety because of the very work it is doing, journalists have little incentive to do the hard work of investigating it...

...In the sixties and early seventies, Congress passed all manner of laws that purported to address certain needs and social problems...

...And such poor service comes from bureaucracies that have grown enormously during the past fifteen years...

...disease of modern civilization, one that can be treated but not cured...

...Many federal employees are overpaid, but it is what they do and how they do it that should be of most concern to Americans, not the salaries they make...

...Nevertheless, he supported the creation of the agency-supported it even though there was no strong swell of interest in the bill from educational associations, scholarly associations, or the general public...

...The agency is still in existence, but it creeps along at a budget somewhat less *University of Chicago Press, $18.00...

...Of course, government should provide certain kinds of services, and government should throw money at problems, provided there is a reasonably clear understanding of what the problem is as well as a strong sense that the private sector cannot deal with it...

...The times have changed...

...The 95th Congress, which completed its business last October, defeated a bill to authorize the creation of a consumer protection agency, although the bill had far more constituent support than NIE ever had...

...If the congressman attacks the program in general, then he is in trouble with the pressure group that believes in the program and pushed for it in the first place...

...There was little strong support for it, and some congressmen strenuously objected to it...

...The hardest thing was to muster enough support against a bill...

...As a witness before a congressional committee said: "If a man will focus his skills, reason, and humaneness upon his problems, he can markedly improve his condition...

...After all, as one Capitol Hill aide said: "Everybody is basically for civil service reforms the way they're for the flag, motherhood, and apple pie...

...Even if a constituent doesn't get what he wants, at least he remembers that the congressman tried to help him...

...Like air pollution, one can't do away with it altogether...

...They're willing-so they say at least to the pollsters-to cough up money for taxes provided they get better service from bureaucrats...

...Most congressmen know that the main problem in Washington is not the people who run the federal programs but many of the programs themselves...

...If a program is not working well, it is more prudent to blame the bureaucracy than to blame themselves for having set it up in the first place...

...The enemy is a society without liberty, for only in such societies is it possible for bureaucracies to be truly insidious and Orwellian...

...rarely are they against a particular federal program...

...Moreover, salary increases for mid-level employees will be keyed more than they have been in the past to detailed evaluations of performance...

...and services were thrown at needs without any careful consideration of the long-range implications of those services...

...There is all the difference in the world between Soviet bureaucracies, which must answer only to the Party, and American bureaucracies, which respond-however unwillingly and slowly-to the force of public opinion and also to the inquiries of a democratically elected legislature...

...One hopes that during the 96th session they will laugh a lot at many of the legislative proposals they undoubtedly will see...

...It was created by acts of Congress...

...It is wrong to say, as Peters does, that bureaucracy is "as bad in Peking as it is in Washington...

...C) the strengthening of the scientific and technological foundations of education...

...that while a particular task assignment may be abolished, the task performer remains, to perform tasks...

...As Paul Seabury has pointed out: "Civil servants (also known as bureaucrats) have tenure...

...Once a program-or a set of programs organized under the rubric of an agency-is put into motion, it tends not only to stay in motion but also to stay on the same course, not changing its way of doing things unless scandal throws it off course...

...It is also much easier to dwell on the general problem of bureaucracy than it is to examine the histories of particular federal agencies and the programs they run...

...The supervisor spent so much time--eighteen months-getting the employee fired that he received a poor performance rating on his own job...

...Reporting on the closing session of the 95th Congress, Newsweek offered this choice morsel of a story: "As the long chaotic session drew to a close, Representative John Brademas rose to read a message of appreciation from Jimmy Carter, calling the 95th Congress 'one of the most courageous and productive ever.' The assembled congressmen burst out laughing...

...Act II of NIE was predictable...

...People are against inflation, bureaucracy, unemployment, or abortion...

...Such laughter may be the best medicine for the disease of bureaucracy...

...and the more favors done in his name, the better chance he has of being re-elected...

...As he said: "My own perception is that educational research does not stand very well on Capitol Hill for several reasons, one of which is, we don't know what it is...

...But it's not clear in some cases whether working hard is a good thing...

...And, unfortunately, if there are investigations, they usually center on waste and corruption, which should of course be exposed but which are less important than the substantive nature of the program itself...

...Law 92-318, "The Institute shall...seek to improve education, including career education, in the United States through-(A) helping to solve or to alleviate the problems of, and achieve the objectives of American education...

...The way in which the agency backed into existence implies that the climate of the times was such that practically any reasonably talented congressman could get a bill through Congress...

...Such groups are not only vocal, they are also composed of people who are more likely than most to vote...

...The agency never attracted the "great minds" it was supposed to attract-perhaps because there are no great minds in this field...

...and in part because President Nixon had wanted to do something-preferably cheap- for the education lobby, and Daniel Moynihan, his special advisor on these matters, had come up with NIE (though Moynihan himself was neither visible nor voluble in public support of the proposal...

...Anyone who has worked for a federal agency knows that when a congressional office calls, work on other matters stops...

...Most Americans, I think, do not object to federal support of research in a wide variety of areas, including basic science, health care, weaponry, energy-perhaps even law enforcement...

...If they worked less, perhaps there would be fewer trivial regulations: less paperwork for them and for us as well...

...Given the dynamics of the Washington establishment, it is extremely difficult to eliminate ongoing programs...

...More and more congressmen are deciding that it is in their best interest to be inflation fighters, which means for the most part that they will be more willing than they have been to cut an agency's budget...

...NIE, which has semi-autonomous status within HEW, was proposed by President Nixon in 1970 and created in 1972...

...Nothing really will...

...The bill did not pass by a wide margin, but why did it pass at all...

...But was it a significant one...

...Bureaucracy is less a problem than a Stephen Miller is a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute...

...By creating a streamlined appeals process, the act also makes it slightly easier to fire employees at all levels...

...In fact, the quality of the federal bureaucracy is, I suspect, quite good, for a reason that most Americans complain about: Federal bureaucrats are well-paid...

...The average white-collar salary for federal bureaucrats in the Washington area is $21,000...

...The first major change in the civil service system since 1883 and the first successful effort to reform the civil service after twenty attempts since 1937 had failed, the Civil Service Reform Act was a surprisingly easy victory...

...in part because of widespread dissatisfaction with the quality of educational research done by the Office of Education...

...In any case, it is hard to review such programs: Congressmen are busy working on new legislation, and they have little time and less inclination to look over information about current programs-information they do not altogether trust, since it is supplied to them by the bureaucrats who run the programs...

...It passed, in short, because a few people were intensely for it, many people were lukewarmly for it (some for a variety of reasons that had little to do with education), and not enough people were strongly against it...

...The witness was giving his enthusiastic support to the creation of a national institute of education, but his intellectual confidence and moral fervor were probably characteristic of many other witnesses who appeared before the congressional committees responsible for drafting legislation during those years...

...The book is not the easiest thing to wade through, but the authors-three in all-have done their homework and have managed to ask the right questions...

...Finally- and perhaps most significantly-a ceiling on the total number of federal employees was established for fiscal 1979-1981...

...Running for president, Jimmy Carter promised the electorate that he would do something about the "mess" in Washington, and do something he did...

...The effort was not-to change the metaphor-a Pyrrhic victory, one gained at great cost to the victors...

...Congress is in a different mood...

...According to a recent poll, most Americans are less exercised by the amount of taxes they pay than about the quality of the services they get from the public sector...

...Will this attempt to make the federal bureaucracy less sluggish work...

...Many congressmen may have had second thoughts about some of the programs they created, but it is not in their interest to voice their reservations...

...But by bad service they surely mean bad local services, not federal services: bad schools, poor police protection, and in some places poor garbage collection...

...The agency floundered, suffering from what NIE staff called "analysis paralysis:" Indeed, reading about the plight of the agency, whose appropriations were cut in the years that followed, one almost feels sorry for the bureaucrats who worked there...

...They were forced to wrestle with a legislative mandate that made little sense...

...The act also establishes a new organizational structure to deal with these changes...

...It probably never will build such a constituency...

...It authorizes the creation of a Senior Executive Service, in which top managers will be asked to forego their civil service tenure for greater rewards (they would be eligible for substantial cash bonuses) and greater risks (they could be fired more easily if their performance were bad...

...If, like a football coach rallying a team that played poorly during the first half, President Carter wants to cheer on what may be a dispirited White House corps, he can point to one legislative drive that clearly led to success: civil service reform...