The Politics of Bureaucracy
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The Politics of Bureaucracy On the fourth edition: ‘‘This is a wonderful, encyclopaedic work of considerable merit and utility. As the mostly widely used book in this area, it remains peerless.’’ Nicholas Lovrich, Washington State University ‘‘Professor Peters’ The Politics of Bureaucracy is one of the major contributions to the study and understanding of public management.’’ Professor Akira Nakamura, Meiji University B. Guy Peters’ comprehensive exploration of the political and policy-making roles of public bureaucracies is newly available in a fully revised and updated fifth edition. Written by a leading authority in the field it offers an extensive, well- documented, comparative analysis stressing the effects of politics and organized interests on bureaucracy. It continues to provide students of public administration with an excellent insight into bureaucracies of nations around the world. New to the fifth edition: • a chapter on administrative reform • more material on administration in developing countries • more coverage of the European Union countries and more discussion of international bureaucracies • extensive revision and updating to take into account the wealth of new liter- ature that has emerged in recent years. B. Guy Peters is Maurice Falk Professor of American Government and chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Politics of Bureaucracy Fifth edition B. Guy Peters London and New York Fourth edition published 1995 by Longman British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available Fifth edition published 2001 from the British Library by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Simultaneously published in the USA and Peters, B. Guy. Canada by Routledge The politics of bureaucracy / B. Guy Peters. 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 – 5th ed. p. cm. Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Includes bibliographical references and Group index. 1. Public administration. 2. Bureaucracy. This edition published in the Taylor 3. Comparative government. I. Title. & Francis e-Library, 2002. © 1995, 2001 B. Guy Peters JF1501 .P43 2000 351–dc21 00-055335 The right of B. Guy Peters to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in ISBN 0–415–19476–8 (hbk) any information storage and retrieval system, ISBN 0–415–19477–6 (pbk) without permission in writing from the ISBN 0-203-45549-5 Master e-book ISBN publishers. ISBN 0-203-76373-4 (Glassbook Format) Contents LIST OF FIGURES x LIST OF TABLES xi 1 The persistence, growth and change of government and administration 1 The modern public sector 3 Public spending 5 The growth of government 8 Entitlements 8 Fiscal pressures 9 The political process 11 Decline of late capitalism 12 The public bureaucracy 13 Summary 14 The growth of administration 15 The quantitative growth of public concerns 16 The qualitative growth of public concerns 19 Institutional weaknesses 20 The nature of bureaucratic institutions 23 Countertrends in government growth 24 Summary 29 Notes 29 2 Political culture and public administration 33 Administrative culture 35 v CONTENTS General societal culture 36 Impersonal rules and organizations 38 Political culture and administration 43 Dimensions of political culture 50 Culture and the internal management of organizations 70 Culture and authority 71 Culture and motivation 73 Summary 77 Notes 77 3 The recruitment of public administrators 85 Merit versus patronage 86 Representative bureaucracy 89 Caveats 90 Public versus private employment 91 Methods of recruitment 92 Education and training 92 Job placement 96 Career distinctiveness 98 Incentives and motivation 101 Pay in the public sector 106 Methods of recruitment 110 Education 116 Ethnic representativeness 120 Sexual equality 123 Summary 124 Notes 127 4Problems of administrative structure 135 Germany 136 The United Kingdom 139 France 143 Sweden 146 The United States 148 The structure of administration 150 Organization by area served 151 Organization by process 154 Organization by clientele 160 Organization by purpose 162 Summary 165 Internal organization 166 vi CONTENTS Variations in internal organization 168 Reorganization 171 Summary 173 Notes 174 5 Politics and public administration 181 Bureaucracy and pressure groups 185 Legitimate interactions 187 Networks and communities 189 Other patterns of legitimate interaction 191 Clientela relationships 196 Parantela relationships 200 Illegitimate group processes 204 Social movements and the bureaucracy 208 Bureaucracy and political parties 209 Summary 210 Notes 211 6 The politics of bureaucracy 219 Bureaucratic government 221 Policy intentions: the agency ideology 221 The availability of “not unworkable” means 224 Competition among agencies 226 The incumbency of positions 227 The possession of managerial skills 229 A high priority given to implementation of policy 231 Summary 233 Strategies in bureaucratic politics 234 The resources of bureaucracy 234 The resources of political institutions 237 Bureaucratic ploys 238 Politicians’ ploys 244 Summary 251 Notes 253 7 Paying for government: the budgetary process 261 Basic questions 262 Macro-allocation 262 Micro-allocation 265 Competing bureaucracies 266 The importance of resources 268 vii CONTENTS Incrementalism in the budgetary process 269 The nature of incrementalism 269 Critiques of incrementalism 270 Pressures toward incrementalism 270 Politics and incrementalism 272 Alternatives to incrementalism 272 Program budgeting 273 Zero-Base Budgeting 275 Management by Objectives 275 The Public Expenditure Survey 277 Bulk budgeting 278 Reactions to stress 279 Cash limits 279 Envelope budgeting 280 Structural budget margin 281 Efficiency 283 Outside evaluations 284 The return to rationality? 285 General problems of budgeting 286 Intergovernmental budget control 286 Annual budgets 287 Capital budgeting 288 Coordination of taxation and expenditures 290 Off-budget operations 291 Summary 292 Notes 293 8 The politics of administrative accountability 299 Basic concepts 300 Accountability 300 Ethics and control301 Dimensions of responsibility 302 Instruments of accountability 306 Organizational methods 307 The market and other external controls 312 Group and public pressures 313 Political methods of control 315 Normative restraints 330 The limits of control 332 The professions 332 Autonomous and semi-autonomous agencies 333 viii CONTENTS Contracts and third-party government 334 Unions 335 Political structure 335 Culture 336 Non-administration 337 Summary 337 Notes 339 9 Administrative reform 347 Ideas for reform 348 The market 349 Participation 352 Deregulation 354 Flexible government 355 Summary 356 Specific reforms 356 Agencies and deconcentration 356 Personnel management 357 Consumerizing government 358 Accountability 360 The politics of administrative reform 362 Why reform? 362 Conclusion 366 Notes 366 10 Public administration in the twenty-first century 371 Scarcity and public administration 373 Increasing challenges to government and administration 375 Complexity in administration 377 Managing in the new millennium 378 Summary 380 Notes 380 INDEX 382 ix Figures 2.1 Culture and public administration 36 2.2 Relationship of dimensions of social trust to administrative power 66 4.1 Typology of policy problems for administration 170 5.1 Types of bureaucratic politics 184 8.1 Typology of perceived difficulties with bureaucracy 303 x Tables 1.1 Public expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product 4 1.2 Proportion of Gross Domestic Product derived from primary sector of economy (agriculture, forestry and fishing) 5 1.3 Public expenditure as a percentage of readily extractable Gross Domestic Product (secondary and tertiary sectors) 6 1.4 Projected growth of population over 65 years of age 7 1.5 Growth of government: number of ministries 9 1.6 Examples of privatization 10 1.7 Citizens’ evaluation of government 17 1.8 Attitudes toward the public sector in Sweden, 1982–96 26 1.9 Citizens’ evaluation of public spending 27 1.10 Percentage of respondents wanting ‘‘much more’’ or ‘‘more’’ public spending for services, 1987 28 2.1 Popular evaluations of public bureaucracy 44 2.2 Perceptions of management of institutions in the United Kingdom 45 2.3 Satisfaction with public services 46 2.4 Value for money in public services 47 2.5 Perceived effects of privatization in France 48 2.6 Expectations about behavior in the public sector 49 2.7 Perceptions of public services and public servants in Zambia 50 2.8 Membership in social organizations 61 2.9 Trade union membership as a percentage of labor force 62 2.10 Trust of politicians in France 63 2.11 Trust in major institutions 65 2.12 Types of social and political cultures 70 3.1 University concentrations of recruits to the higher civil service in the United Kingdom 93 3.2 Incentives in recruitment and retention of civil servants 102 xi TABLES 3.3 Most important characteristics of jobs for employees in the United Kingdom 105 3.4 Pay of top civil servants as a percentage of average pay in the economy 108 3.5 Ratio of central government wages to per capita income 108 3.6 Social class backgrounds of senior civil servants 112 3.7 Educational level