HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN BUREAUCRACY| 331critics of the FDA’s procedures have asserted that a drawn-out approval process
favors large companies that already have drugs on the market over smaller com-
panies trying to get approval for drugs that would compete with existing products.
The principal–agent game can also be framed in terms of citizens. Figure 11.1
shows that a majority of survey respondents agreed that the federal government
is typically ineffi cient and wasteful—although the percentage agreeing with
this assessment declined from its peak in 1992 until recent years, where it again
i ncrea sed. These opi n ions g ive citi zens a strong motivation to dema nd t hat elected
offi cials control the bureaucracy—to reduce the waste and ineffi ciency that many
see as commonplace.
The problem of control has existed throughout the history of the federal gov-
ernment. It aff ects both the kinds of policies that bureaucrats implement and the
structure of the federal bureaucracy, including the number of agencies and their
missions, staff , and tasks. Moreover, elected offi cials use a variety of methods to
solve the problem of control, including making it easier for people outside govern-
ment to learn about agency actions before they take eff ect. However, all these tac-
tics are at best partial solutions to the problem of control. The trade-off between
expertise and control remains.
History of the American Bureaucracy
The evolution of America’s federal bureaucracy was not steady or smooth. Most of
its important developments occurred during three short periods: the late 1890s and
early 1900s, the 1930s, and the 1960s.^13 In all three periods, the driving force was a
combination of demands from citizens for enhanced government services and the
desire of people in government to either respond to these demands or increase the
size and scope of the federal government in line with their own policy goals.
The Beginning of America’s Bureaucracy
From the beginning of the United States until the election of Andrew Jackson in
1828, the staff of the entire federal bureaucracy numbered at most in the low thou-
sands. There were only three executive departments (State, Treasury, and War),
along with a Postmaster General.^14 The early federal government also performed a
narrow range of tasks. It collected taxes on imports and exports and delivered the
mail. The national army consisted of a small Corps of Engineers and a few frontier
patrols. The attorney general was a private attorney who had the federal govern-
ment as one of his clients. Members of Congress outnumbered civil servants in
Washington; the president had very little staff at all.^15 The small size of the federal
government during those years refl ected Americans’ deep suspicion of govern-
ment, especially unelected offi cials.^16
The election of Andrew Jackson brought the fi rst large-scale use of the spoils
system, in which people who had worked in Jackson’s campaign were rewarded
with new positions in the federal government (usually as local postmasters).^17
The spoils system was extremely useful to party organizations, as it gave them a
TRACE THE EXPANSION
OF THE FEDERAL
BUREAUCRACY OVER TIME